I never had an original GAMEBOY back in the day.

[OldSchoolGamer]

Amazingly, I never had an original GAMEBOY back in the day. Honestly, one time I came REALLY close, like I went into this small shop near me and even asked to look at one, I knew the popularity of them and of course I had loved my NES. Maybe I was still too impressionable back then but the sales clerk, a young fella but older than me was so anti-GAMEBOY lol, and was like naw man, don't waste your money, it's for little kid this system. Not that I was considering or could afford any alternative at the time but I never reconsidered. Who knows, maybe it was a mistake. No doubt I'd of had plenty of fun with one. Of course years later, getting into retro gaming, revisiting my childhood I see it differently. Never DID get an OG Gameboy, my first was actually a Gameboy Advance SP and over the years from collecting I did happen to obtain THIS little beauty, a GAMEBOY POCKET given to me actually, only have a couple of carts for it though......

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[celerystalker]

I never had one as a kid, either. I had friends who did, and played the demo units at stores, but didn't own one until probably 1997 or so when I got one at a garage sale, and even then I didn't play it a ton. I eventually gave it to my mom, as she loves playing puzzle games on handhelds, and grabbed a GBA and later Game Boy player for Gamecube. I've found a handful of games to enjoy over the years, but it's never one I've felt compelled to really dive into. When the Color model came out, I went Neo Geo Pocket Color instead, and I'm glad I did. It was the first handheld I really played a ton, and even just today my oldest boy was playing Bio Motor Unitron on it!

There were a couple of Game Boy games that really made me happy, though. The port of Milon's Secret Castle adding in a password function was huge, and let me play it over multipe sessions back before save states, which I was then able to take and beat the NES original. Gargoyle's Quest also is a jam for me. I dig that series a lot, and the first is a GB exclusive!

[YoshiM]

I remember owning a Game Boy.....but the funny thing is my memories of said ownership are really fuzzy. I believe I had a Pocket but what my memory shows me along with the reality of release time makes it impossible. I remember having Mega Man II and at one point Mortal Kombat but my memory has me playing it at a job that I was no longer at when the device came out. So either it was a pretty potent dream or I've totally forgotten WHEN and WHERE I played the dang thing! I just remember sitting at work playing Mortal Kombat and hating it. I traded it in at a local game store for....something.

The next Game Boy device I did get was the arctic Advance, which I still own. Which I don't play GB games on or actually ANY GB games on any GB compatible device.

Memory is a funny thing.....

[Aussie2B]

Pretty crummy sales clerk to talk someone out of a sale.

I got an original Game Boy new, but I missed out on the first few years. I'm guessing it was probably 1994. I played the pack-in Tetris awhile, but I'm pretty certain the first separate game I got was Wario Blast, which was a late '94 release. I played the system a ton, but once I got a Game Boy Color, I never looked back, hardware-wise. Well, I did eventually end up with with a couple Pockets that I liked using too in the early '00s. I never cared for playing GB/GBC games on my original GBA, but I did play through a bunch of games while borrowing my brother-in-law's front-lit SP. When the backlit SP came out, I knew that was the model for me, and to this day, I use my backlit SP for virtually all GB/GBC/GBA games. All my older Game Boys are basically just collectibles to me now, though my husband likes using a GBC and original GBA that he modded to have backlit screens.

As for the original Game Boy library, still love it and still play more and more. Ever since I got my original Game Boy, I've always loved handheld gaming just as much as home console gaming, and the percentage of my gaming that's on handhelds has only been going up and up as I find it a lot easier to squeeze it into my busy life than carving out time to sit in front of a TV.

[SparTonberry]

The problem I have with playing GB/GBC games on the backlit SP is that the GBC palettes (including the presets for monochrome games and especially the default for third-party games) is almost uncomfortably bright when viewed at full brightness. They were designed for the dingy LCDs of the earlier color screens.) So even when my backlit SP (that I bought used from GameStop in the mid 2000s) and frontlit SP (my original that I received as a birthday gift) still had proper battery functionality, I preferred to still play with both for that reason. The newer one for GBA games and the older one for GB/GBC.

[Gameguy]

Never DID get an OG Gameboy, my first was actually a Gameboy Advance SP and over the years from collecting I did happen to obtain THIS little beauty, a GAMEBOY POCKET given to me actually, only have a couple of carts for it though......

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That's actually a first version Gameboy Pocket, there's no power light. I have one as well but in red, I've owned this one since new as a kid. Without a power light it does get irritating as the system just ends up dying without any notice. Originally I wanted a Game Gear as I tried one out from another kid, but we found out that the Game Gear was just being discontinued so we ended up buying a Gameboy Pocket instead at the recommendation of the game store employee. We really didn't buy anything used at that point so anything not available new at retail wasn't considered. I never had an original Gameboy until I started collecting games many years later.

I will say that the Gameboy has a better library than the N64 and Dreamcast combined. When I first got the Gameboy Pocket I played a lot of Bugs Bunny's Crazy Castle 2, Duck Tales, Tiny Toon Adventures: Wacky Sports, and several others. There's just so many great games available for this system.

I tried to post this yesterday but I got errors for whatever reason.

[Aussie2B]

I actually never play my backlit SP at full brightness, not for GB, GBC, or GBA. Just seems brighter than necessary, and I assume it drains the battery faster. It does seem like the battery is giving out on mine. It can still hold a charge for a ridiculously long time when unused, but I seem to recall being able to play a lot longer in the past before needing a recharge. Not that it particularly matters for me now. None of my gaming sessions are long, so even if I had to charge every day, it wouldn't be a big deal.

The frontlit SP was a huge upgrade over previous models, compared to no light with the original GBA, the super dark screen of the GBC that almost makes GBC games look too saturated, the blurry sludge of the original GB, and the less sludgy but still quite fuzzy picture of the Pocket. But I never did care for how washed out colors looked from its lighting. Not a big deal for black and white games, but I much preferred my backlit model for GBC and GBA.

[jb143]

I remember getting mine for Christmas of 94. I only had Tetris for the longest time but it got us through a couple cross country road trips. I think I got Mario Land 2 for my following birthday, which apparently my parents were going to get me Mario Land 1 instead but a salesman talked them out of it. I only ever had a small handful of games for it until college when I started hunting for games at thrift stores.


I actually never play my backlit SP at full brightness, not for GB, GBC, or GBA. Just seems brighter than necessary,


It makes it much easier to see in bright light, such as playing outside(or in a car) on a sunny day.

[Niku-Sama]

i remember getting my gameboy not too long after getting me NES, i've pinned down getting the NES in '89 so gameboy in '91 or '92.
when the game boy fist came out was any one else initially confused by it, like this has nintendo on it but like whats it for?
i remember feeling that way because i had just gotten the NES and like heres this new thing already but its totally different looking and small

man that makes me feel old, gaming since 1989 and its 2023 now...

[Az]

The original GB is the only system I owned as a kid that I ever actually sold or got rid of, everything else I still own to this day. I sold the system along with all the games, manuals, Game Genie and a carrying case when I first started selling on eBay in '97. I probably had a dozen or so games for it with Kirby's Dream Land being the newest release I had bought. After I bought a Game Gear I barely touched the GB.

I remember in '92 or '93 my brothers and I were going on a 12+ hour road trip to Florida. As we were leaving town we made a final stop in Walmart. I was absolutely eat up with fighting game fever and there on the shelf was Fighting Simulator 2-in-1: Flying Warriors, which was pretty much the only thing resembling a versus fighter on the GB. I forced myself to play it on the ride down, trying to convince myself it was just as good as MK or SFII. Spoiler alert: it was dog shit.

There's a handful of GB games I owned that I might could genuinely enjoy today had I not sold my system. However, I can play all those on a PSP with a vastly better screen and controls than a GB, so I don't feel like I'm missing anything. I still own my GBA stuff but rarely touch it for the same reason; it's just better on PSP.

[OldSchoolGamer]

Wow, thanks for all the replies guys! I had posted elsewhere but really having fun with the response here. On that note, I will just add one final detail.

THESE are my original carts, not much but a couple of nice titles, I cannot play Japanese Mahjong even if it had an option for English I don't know the game and a couple are GBC but I have the GBA SP to play those.

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[Niku-Sama]

you should just hang out here with us