Nintendo's grey 1989 brick with the green-grey screen that put Tetris in millions of pockets on a few AA batteries, selling over 118 million with Game Boy Color.
Born
1989 CE
Died
2003 CE
Lived
14 years
Dead for
23 yrs
At its peak
Over 118 million Game Boy and Game Boy Color units sold
Cause of death
Replaced
Replaced by
Nintendo DS and smartphone gaming
The Obituary
Nintendo’s Game Boy, released in 1989, won the handheld market not on power but on battery life and games. Its dot-matrix screen showed four shades of green-grey, it ran for hours on four AA batteries, and it shrugged off the colour screens of the Atari Lynx and Sega Game Gear that drained their cells. Bundling Tetris made it a phenomenon across ages, and the line with Game Boy Color sold over 118 million units. The Game Boy Advance and then the dual-screen Nintendo DS succeeded it, and Nintendo discontinued the original line in 2003.
Worth remembering
Bundling Tetris with the launch turned the handheld into an all-ages phenomenon.
Its monochrome screen and four AA batteries let it run for many hours, beating flashier rivals.
Gallery
Nintendo Game Boy handheld console with a Tetris cartridgeCC0The Game Boy Color, the 1998 color-screen successor to the original Game BoyPublic domain
Sources
Nintendo released the Game Boy in 1989; the line sold over 118 million units with Game Boy Color Wikipedia
The original Game Boy line was succeeded by the Game Boy Advance and discontinued in 2003 Wikipedia
The Game Boy launched in Japan in April 1989; bundling Tetris made it a mass-market hit, and the line sold nearly 120 million units across its variants. Engadget
A graveyard tradition: leave a stone to show you came, and remembered.
Buried nearby — by shared fate or a neighbouring lifespan.
