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Nintendo Game Boy Facts

Nintendo Game Boy Facts
Nintendo Game Boy is a handheld video game system that was released in 1989 and was discontinued in 2003, after the sale of 118.69 million units. The system, designed to use cartridges to allow switching between games, was first released in Japan on April 21, 1989, and months later in July in North America and September in Europe. The 300,000 units in stock in Japan sold out within the first two weeks, despite the expectation for popularity to not be that high. When Game Boy Color was released in 1998 the Game Boy had already sold 64.42 million units around the world.
Interesting Nintendo Game Boy Facts:
Nintendo Game Boy was not the first hand held gaming device that utilized cartridges for changing games. Microvision released a version in 1979 that played a clone of Atari's Breakout.
Nintendo released Alleyway for Game Boy in 1989, which was a clone of Breakout as well.
The team that developed Nintendo's Game Boy was led by Gunpei Yokoi, an engineer.
The Game Boy was designed with four buttons and an eight-way D-pad controller. The four buttons included Start, Select, and A, and B.
The controller for the Game Boy was set up the same as Nintendo's Entertainment System which made it popular with gamers.
When Nintendo Game Boy was released its most popular game was Super Mario Land.
Tetris, the puzzle game of falling pieces, was bundled with Game Boy and became hugely successful, after having only moderate success on the PC.
Pokemon became a main game on Game Boy that ultimately went on to be so widely popular it took on a life of its own.
Game Boy became a popular option for playing fantasy role-playing games such as Legend of Zelda.
The Game Boy became so extensive that it included approximately 700 different titles.
Game Boy was originally designed to be of major interest to female video game players. By 1995 it had a female audience of 46%.
Game Boy went to space with Aleksandr A. Serebrov in 1993 aboard the Soyuz TM-17 mission to Mir. It later sold at auction for $1220, after having orbited the earth 3,000 times.
The Game Genie cheat cartridge allowed players of the Game Boy to have infinite lives.
The selfie was basically invented through the Game Boy. A Game Boy digital camera with a thermal printer was released in 1998, making it possible for players to take pictures of themselves and print them.
Game Boy was released over the years with multiple colors and a variety of custom designs. These included the world famous yellow Pokemon Game Boy, and the Official Manchester United version.
There is a Game Boy in display in New York Nintendo World Store that survived a Gulf War bombing. It still has a perfect picture despite being mangled in the bombing.
The Game Boy was not the first hand held system that Nintendo released. The company also released Game and Watch in 1980.
Later systems released by Nintendo included Game Boy Pocket and Game Boy Advance.


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