Gameboy 20th Anniversary Thread

[leicamaster]

Well for the 20th Anniversary of the Game Boy I thought to do this lil thread as a tribute and to bring back all the great memories of playing Mario Land and Pokemon Red. So post a response bellow, Where did you first see a GameBoy? What is your most vivid memory of the GameBoy?, and what game pops up into your mind when you think of the GameBoy.

Thanks and long live Game Boy! (Even if it doesnt exist no more)

Happy 20th Birthday :hail:

[JohnnyBlaze]

I forgot about this.

Anyways, I first played the Game Boy at my aunt's house. I used to spend hours on WWF Superstars and Bill and Ted. Then, I got a Game Boy for my birthday in 1994. I got Super Mario Land to go along with it.

There are so many memories with that thing and its successors that I can't begin to name them all. From playing Donkey Kong, to getting games in three packs from a mail order catalog(The best one was Jeopardy, Castlevania II, and Quarth), to my Pokemon addiction.

I'm just hoping that Joe reopens the LORE thread, because I have a few Game Boy stories that are touching, wonderful, and heartbreaking at the same time. You know, I should start writing it just in case.

Needless to say, this thing has changed my life forever. Viva La Game Boy!

[Pezcore343]

I never had an original B&W GameBoy, I started on the GameBoy color. I think the games I remember playing the most as a kid were Pokemon (both red and blue, the good thing about having siblings =)) and Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins. Definitely still 2 of my favorite games for the system, although now I have to add the Wario Land games as well, as now they are definitely my most frequently played games for GB.

Let's see, I think it was 13 years ago now that I first played a GameBoy.

[Compute]

I remember when it came out, one of my cousins got one pretty much right away. In the summer of 1990 my mother had back surgery and we stayed at my grandma's house for a week. At the same time that cousin was staying there as well, and I remember playing a LOT of Super Mario Land and Tetris that week, although at the time I did not understand it. That is probably also my most vivid memory, aside from playing Link's Awakening at Toys R Us on the display unit which had the CRT hooked to it, that thing was pretty neat.

[swlovinist]

It was on radio that I first heard about it. It was being advertised as a Portable Nintendo and I rushed to Toys R US to look at it. I did not have alot of money and spent my money on a Genesis, but I eventually got one within a couple of years of that. Tetris was all I played, but then branched out to others, such as Batman, Castlevania, and my favorite, Metroid II.

[phreakindee]

Please click one of the Quick Reply icons in the posts above to activate Quick Reply.

[phreakindee]

First memory is of a friend of mine who got one around 1990. The game I think of us the one he had other than Tetris. It was the first Mario game for it.

I also remember the Toys R Us kiosks with it hooked up to a bigger screen, awesome

[Zing]

My memories of the Game Boy involve me sitting in the sun or under a lamp so I can see the screen. I also remember how blurry the screen was. Playing linkable games, any linkable games, was exciting. Many hours spent playing the various Nemesis, Castlevania, Final Fantasy series games.

I bought a Game Boy at release. I think it was $110, but I am hazy. I ended up selling it via the local newspaper classifieds. I sold the system and one game for $90. I remember the buyer pressuring me to give him more games for the same price.

I recently acquired a bunch of the classic Game Boy games to try again. Games like Super Mario Land and Metriod II are actually pretty bad. The newer stuff such as Donkey Kong and Super Mario Bros Deluxe is excellent, though.

[gokugohandave]

My first experience with a gameboy was when a kid had one on the school bus one day. He would play it all the time so one day I asked him if i could play and he said yes. I had so much fun playing jurassic park on the rides to and from school. Later the same kid got into pokemon, so I knew i had to find one. It wasnt until about 2 or so years later that I got my snes, and remembered the gameboy. (though I did collect pokemon cards) So a few years later I finally picked up two originals and a red gameboy pocket along with pokemone blue! Thats when my collecting began for more systems and games. Im almost twenty now and still have my first gameboy and pokemon blue, ill have to break it out again :D

[jb143]

I can't remember when I first heard about a Game Boy, but I'm pretty sure I saw it on Captain N before I saw one in person. Around '93 or so I got one for Christmas and basically used it as a Tetris system for the next few years, other than borrowing a few games from friends here and there. I still remember the smell from opening up the brand new packaging...probally toxic fumes from sealed plastic and electronics. Oh how I love(and miss) that smell:-D

[alxbly]

My first Gameboy was back in 1992. It was all about Tetris at the time... I didn't own any other Gameboy games until Super Mario Land 2, and i really enjoyed that as well. Sadly, my Game Boy was stolen not long after, and the guy who stole it was a "friend" who had slowly been stealing other stuff from my parents home.

I didn't get another Game Boy until the Game Boy Color came out, and I bought a purple one solely to play Pokemon. That would be about 1998. I eventually traded that in in 2001. I got a GBA shortly after but there weren't any games that really hooked me, so it eventually ended up being sold. A few years ago I got a Game Boy Micro, which I used to play Pokemon Fire Red. I like that fact that it fits in your pocket easily and has a nice bright screen. Recently I've been rebuying some of the Game Boy's I used to own:

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y70/alxbly/Game%20Boy/NintendoHandheldssm.jpg

And if I get a GBA SP then I'll have pretty much all the models I'm interested in. :)

[77punk]

Tetris baby! nice collection alxbly

[guitargary75]

Tetris. That was my first exposure to Tetris.

[NayusDante]

I remember the Toys R Us displays well, and I didn't like them. I always thought it was hard enough to see the GameBoy screen, and the display at my local store just looked bad.

I actually got a Super GameBoy before I got a handheld, mainly to play Tamagotchi... That soon expanded to Mega Man, Pokemon, Metroid, etc, and I got a yellow Pocket. I wanted a smoke gray one, but store inventory kinda ruined that. My friends had gray ones, blue ones, and I had the funky yellow one.

GameBoy made gamers out of all the nongamers in my class. All those 5th grade field trips were Pokemon-trading days, I forget the places we actually went.

However, I never really USED a GameBoy until high school. Yeah, I had played a lot of GameBoy games, but Super GameBoy was a better experience for me. Sophomore year was Year of the GBA-SP, and we all had square lumps in our pockets. It was rather humerous how many people crowded around after school to trade Pokemon wirelessly. It was even more amazing that nobody cared that we played between classes, or even during class periods when the lessons were over. Geez, FF1-2, Pokemon, Metroid, those were some fun times. I miss playing with the guys at lunch every day, I really do.

[kupomogli]

I had two brick Gameboys, never got any other GB until the GBA then picked up all the GBC games that I wanted that they were still selling(Dragon Warrior 3 ftw.) Never picked the GBA SP as I hate how uncomfortable it felt and loved my original GBA. I don't consider the DS to be a GB successor as the cartridges are completely different, but it's a good system nonetheless. Nintendo even said the DS is not the successor to the GBA, and then atleast a year later said that they're no longer going to release another GBA because of how good the DS was doing(so the GB line has died with the GBA.)

The thing about both brick GB systems I owned that didn't hurt the system itself as they both worked, was the plastic covering on both of those just came off by themselves. I never glued them back on, though. With the plastic covering off the screen does look so much more clearer, so I didn't mind that they fell off. These coverings fall off on anyone elses GB systems or is it just coincidence that it fell off both my systems?

Also a couple days ago IGN was doing a 20th anniversary for the GB.

[Sonicwolf]

I got my GameBoy for my fifth birthday back in 1995 so I got into it well after the systems launch but I still had a lot of fun with Tetris and Super Mario Land.

[NayusDante]

Never picked the GBA SP as I hate how uncomfortable it felt and loved my original GBA...

...These coverings fall off on anyone elses GB systems or is it just coincidence that it fell off both my systems?

I had an original GBA and it was a total pain to use. I didn't hesitate much when I saw the guys at school with their SPs, and I'm sure that I played my SP on a 10:1 ratio to my original GBA. Sure, the original felt better, but it's useless without a proper light. It didn't have a headphone jack, that was my only regret. The headphone extension I got worked for a while, then gave out around the time I got my DS.

I actually only knew one person with a brick GB, and it had lost its screen cover long before I ever saw it.


While it's probably considered blasphemy, let me state that I have NEVER played GB Tetris or Super Mario Land.

[Leo_A]

I never owned a handheld Game Boy or Game Boy Color. The screens sucked too much on both lines of handhelds and the first two revisions of the Game Boy Advance.

I first played Game Boy games with the Super Game Boy adapter on my SuperNes, then the Game Boy Player for GB/GBC/GBA games on my GameCube.

It wasn't until the DS came out that I thought a Nintendo handheld had a worthwhile screen. I purchased one 7 or 8 months after it launched.

I didn't own a portable Game Boy until the fall of 2005 a few months after the improved SP2 model was released with the same backlight screen technology the Micro and DS Lite used, that I bought a portable Game Boy.

Never played Tetris, however I've experienced most of the Game Boy's gems like the Super Mario Land titles (Just the first two, didn't like seeing the series leave Mario behind so I never bought Wario Land (SML3) or the subsequent Wario Land titles), Metroid II, Link's Awakening, Solar Striker, and many others. Just not a big fan of Tetris or puzzle games in general.

[sebastiankirchoff]

I started out really late playing Game Boys, starting out with the GBC in late 2006 along with Bomberman Pocket. I heard commercials about it in the late 90's, but never tried it out. It was a fun system, but I was craving more (wanted a bright screen mostly). Then, in March 2007 I got a GBM for 50 bucks brand new, and I loved how convient it was and all the great games that were available for the GBA. Then I got an original Brick for free with Pokemon Red in April that same year, and I played Pokemon a lot, though have yet to beat it.

Since then, I haven't purchased a GBA at all, though I am planning on getting one soon along with a DS.

[The 1 2 P]

For some reason I've never had my own original Gameboy. I borrowed a friends back in the day to play Spiderman, TMNT, Tetris and Super Mario Land. It was fun times. Today I own my very own Gameboy Advance but I still haven't opened it yet.

[tom]

Being an Atari man, I had a Lynx, of course. My local computer shop had Lynx and Game Boy running side by side. I looked at Game Boy and thought 'Japan the forerunner of technology? This looks like microvision...Tetris? Finished it on C-64 years ago. Lynx wins big time'.

After a few years though the GBpocket was released, and things started to improve, so I purchased a Game Boy pocket, and the Game Boy camera and printer. Now, that was actually fun. And the GBp featured a visible screen, and gameplay proved to be great fun too. So I was sold.
http://www.videogamecollectors.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=203472&g2_serialNumber=1 http://www.videogamecollectors.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=203468&g2_serialNumber=1 http://www.videogamecollectors.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=203470&g2_serialNumber=1 http://www.videogamecollectors.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=203463&g2_serialNumber=1

http://www.videogamecollectors.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=203466&g2_serialNumber=1 http://www.videogamecollectors.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=201338&g2_serialNumber=1 http://www.videogamecollectors.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=249937&g2_serialNumber=1

Oh and Super Game Boy and Donkey Kong, the perfect combination.

So Happy B'day Game Boy and well done for being the 'Best selling Nintendo product in Europe'.


.

[heybtbm]

I had an original Gameboy a few months after it came out. For the life of me, I can't remember the circumstances of how I got it. It might have even been my brother's Christmas present, I'm not sure. Strange considering I was a Senior in high school. You would think I would remember.


What I do remember though is taking it with me to the Army. Tetris, Final Fantasy Adventure, R.C. Pro-Am...so many good games. Also, those 4 AA batteries seemed to last forever.

[JSoup]

I remember getting an original Gameboy from my birthday when I was 4. The only games I had were Tetris and Dr. Mario. Being 4, I didn't understand the games as well as one might expect. I can distinctly remember being excited when I found out, by accident, what making a complete line of block in Tetris did. I was always amazed at the near indestructibility the brick had, as I ran that bastard through the mill.

Probably one of my favorite memories was marveling at the Gameboy Pocket's sexy clear screen. Every game I had played the last few years, every game that I had come to love, that seductive screen brought a new dimension to each of them.

Then I got me a Super Gameboy. I got it around the time that Nintendo was releasing new Gameboy games at $25 a piece, when such gems as Game & Watch Gallery and Wario Land 2 were the best of the best. I tell you, playing Link's Awakening with an inverted color pallet is a trip.

A Christmas or two later, the Gameboy Color was released. I remember it being slightly less durable than the brick, but that drop in durability came with an increase in awesome, so, it was all good. So many good games during this time, Game & Watch Gallery 2/3, Pokemon Gold/Silver, Mickey Mouse: Magic Wands!, etc. I remember intending to get all the release games (the only two of which I recall off the top of my head being Super Mario Brothers Deluxe and Bomberman Adventures), but dropping the idea when 2nd Gen Pokemon was released.

Speaking of Pokemon, I got mine a week early. The manager of our local Software Etc. (which is now a Gamestop.....) knew the manager of the shipping warehouse. He was able to get all the Gold/Silver shipments along with all the brand new PS2s much sooner than he was supposed to. That was a crazy night. The manager called the two salesmen saying that he was just pulling into the mall parking lot withe the games + systems.

Salesman 1: Say....are those boxes marked?
Salesman 2: What do you mean?
Salesman 1: I mean, do the PS2 shipping boxes say PS2 on them? Cause it's near 9pm during the Christmas shopping season, so.....
*both salesmen drop what they were doing and rush out to meet the manager....leaving the shop unattended*

Got a little off topic there. I got a GBA not long after it's initial release, with Super Mario Brothers Advance being my first game, Advance Wars being my second. I have to admit, I wasn't very impressing by the GBA. It just didn't seem to shine like it's predecessors. While I did get a GBASP (due to a well meaning Grandmother), I switched to downloading ROMs, as the games just didn't seem worth the money to me. Not to say that there weren't a few decent games worth buying, Pokemon R/S/E and Drill Dozer among them. It just felt like I was paying a lot for very little outside of pretty graphics.

Thank you, Gameboy. I loved you as a child and I still love you now.

[savageone]

Has it really been 20 years? Damn I am getting old. LOL I recall getting one for Christmas, I believe it was the same year they came out and I felt pretty lucky to have gotten one. It would be the only handheld I owned until the Neo Geo Pocket Color came out a ~decade later when I was able to afford my own.

My first games were Super Mario Land, Castlevania, Home Alone, and, of course, the ubiquitous Tetris. After that initial surge almost all the games I got were bargain bin 'classics'. Don't we all recall a fateful birthday when we received Dr. Franken? Ah, memories..

[Sonicwolf]

Happy Birthday to the GameBoy. It and it's olive screen introduced the world to the wonder of affordable and portable gaming on the go.

[calthaer]

A while back, I got the hardback edition of Gamespite's Game Boy retrospective book for the GB's 20th anniversary:

http://www.gamespite.net/toastywiki/index.php/Site/Issue14TableOfContents

They review loads of classic Game Boy games in it, going through each one and explaining why it was a classic and how it contributed to making the system itself classic. It also covers some of the competing handhelds (e.g., Atari Lynx) and points out why they never really reached the heights that Nintendo's ultimate handheld did.

It's totally worth the read - and even the re-read; I picked it up again recently and have been thoroughly enjoying the title.