30 Years Ago, Nintendo's First Official Game Boy Released

GridGames.ID – Right on this day, April 21, 30 years ago, Nintendo officially released Game Boy or more often called Gamebot or Gimbot in Indonesia.

This 8-bit game console was first released in Japan on April 21, 1989.

When it was first released, the Game Boy was priced at 8,000 yen or around 1.1 million rupiah. The emergence of Nintendo’s portable game console is also selling well in the market.

Reported by GridGames from TribunKaltim, Game Boy sales worldwide are estimated to have reached nearly 118.69 million units.

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You could say this Game Boy is a legendary game that was popular in the 90s era.

Of course, for those of you in the 90s, you are no stranger to this “Gimbot”.

Before the Game Boy was released, Nintendo first released the game “Game & Watch” which was introduced in 1980.

Game Boy itself was designed by Gunpei Yokoi, Satoru Okada and the Nintendo Research & Development 1 team.

List of games on Game Boy

game boy

The Onion

game boy


The Game Boy as a handheld game console offers several lists of games to play.

The most famous Game Boy game is the puzzle game Tetris. In addition, there are also several games on Game Boy that the players can choose from.

The games are Super Mario Land, Alleyway, Baseball, Yakuman and Tennis.

Game Boy Development

Since its first release on April 21, 1989, the Game Boy has produced several types of handheld consoles from generation to generation.

The following is a list of Game Boy developments from time to time.

  • The Game Boy Original was first released by Nintendo in 1989.
  • Game Boy Pocket after seven years, Game Boy Pocket was released in 1996.
  • The next Game Boy Light was Game Boy Light in 1998.
  • Game Boy Color was introduced and released in 1998.
  • Game Boy Advance then entered the year 2000 there was Game Boy Advance which was released in 2001.
  • Game Boy Advance SP was the last version released in 2003.
Game boy color

Elite Daily

Game boy color

Game Boy Specifications

Game Boy has a small screen size of 66 mm diagonally. The screen on the graphics is limited to shades of gray against a dull green background.

The Game Boy screen consists of a Reflective STN LCD with a size of 160 × 144 pixels.

Compared to now, although in terms of limited graphics Nintendo’s Game Boy is a game revolution that was launched in Japan 30 years ago right today.

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Nintendo Game Boy illustration

Nintendo Game Boy illustration


The following are the complete technical specifications of the Game Boy:

– CPU: Game Boy uses a custom 8-bit Sharp LR35902 at 4.19 MHz.

– RAM: 8 kiB internal S-RAM (expandable up to 32 kiB).

– Video RAM: 8 kiB internal.

– ROM: On-CPU-Die 256-byte bootstrap; 32 kiB, 256 kiB, 512 kiB, 1 MiB, 2 MiB, 4 MiB and 8 MiB cartridges.

– Audio: 2 sound wave generators, 1 PCM 4-bit sample waveform (64 4-bits played in 1×64 banks or 2×32 banks) channels, 1 noise generator, and one audio input from the cartridge. This unit has only one speaker, but there is a headphone jack for stereo sound.

– Display: Reflective STN LCD size 160 × 144 pixels.

– Frame rate: About 59.7 frames per second.

– Vertical blank duration: Approx. 1.1 ms.

– Screen size: 66 mm (2.6 inch) diagonal shape.

– Color palette: 2-bit (4 shades of gray, and very dark olive green).

– Communication: 2 Game Boys can be connected together via the built-in serial port, up to 4 with the DMG-07 4-player adapter. And a maximum of 16.

– Power: 6 V, 0.7 W (4 AA batteries for approx. 15 hours of use).

– Dimensions: 90 mm (Width) × 148 mm (Height) × 32 mm (Diameter) or 3.5 × 5.8 × 1.3 (inch).

– Weight: 220 grams.

Does anyone still have this Game Boy or Gimbot nowadays?

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