Gameboy: The little engine that killed

Last week as I was vacationing at a small campground in Allegan Mi, I stumbled across something as I was cleaning and fixing water damage that had occurred after the winter months and ravaged my mothers cottage. This place was used only 2 weeks a year by me, and whenever I'm there- a new project is waiting. To my chagrin, I helped my mother move her antique (and by antique I mean extremely heavy) 4 post bed into another room and then... I saw it.

My sister Judy's lost Gameboy Advance SP- it had been sitting on a wet carpet since early spring and was under that bed for nearly 2 years. She'd lost it and was never able to find it, and had NO idea that it was there this whole damn time. For the most part she had forgotten about it and was content with her Gameboy DS Lite that was still able to play old GB games.

I flicked the power switch and wouldn't you just know it- IT WORKS. The battery lasted another 3-4 days as well which was amazing as well. I still need to get a charger but after giving my sis 30 dollars I found myself owning my first handheld system since my original Gameboy. I know that I could have gone on Ebay and gotten a GBA SP for like 10 bucks but for an 8 year old, my sister Judy drives a hard bargain.

Do you remember the first Gameboys, folks? The black and green display? The only 6 hour battery life? The bulkyness of the OG model before Nintendo shrunk it into the Gameboy Pocket. I sure do. I also remember rabid dog Sega Game gear fans picking on me because they all had that flashy and expensive color screen system that could gobble six AA's in just a few hours. The Gameboy was my first foray into console gaming and it was a great start. It was just a matter of time before I'd spend all the rest of my Christmas break without sunlight or friends.

The Gameboy is the highest selling console of all time. Its sold over 100 million units as of 2006 (thanks wikipedia). The Gameboy became also the reason for a 30 something yuppie to like video games with the GB's killer app Tetris. Super Mario Land showed us that the Gameboy could give us an NES in a small portable package- all that was wrong with it was its GREEN SCREEN.

A 2.6 inch (diagnally) screen using LCD technology-primitive even for 1989- displayed cartridge-stored games. Even in those days that sort of tech wasn't new nor exciting at all. Other companies invested in this idea and flopped, this due partially to the 83 video game crash. The Epoch Game Pocket Computer tried this idea, being a game console to use a monochromatic display to play games from ROM formats. Does anyone own one of these systems?... I thought so.

The Gameboy might not have been considered a big deal to the average consumer when it first came out, and it might not have been a big deal at Nintendo either. Still Nintendo was looking to expand upon its Game and Watch system- which had been a huge hit at that time. Nintendo was able to see that there still could be a market for portable gaming. All you had to do was make it interchangeable, easy to use, and give it a price that will work.

At $89.99 the Gameboy was released in 1989, and sold like hotcakes that Xmas. I remember seeing many adults owning them and playing them. I'd never seen a grown man playing a video game unless he was smoking pot a the same time. Nintendo had something to hold gamers attention while they were working on the next gen system of that time: the Super Nintendo (or SNES).

Sega even though they were getting some much needed attention for its Genesis console was ready to really compete. In 1990 they rolled out the Game Gear system- a portable version of their Master System console. I myself loved the idea of a color screen, but its asking price was kinda steep. Plus the Gamegear was also horrible with batteries. But even with its cons an 8 bit monster with a color display should have been enough to stop all over the Nintendo's Gameboy sales. It didn't.

Atari's Lynx also tried to one up the jolly green screen giant. The Lynx was pure 16 bits, color screen and built with a legendary company name. I never saw the Lynx as anything more than a unnecessary "rich boy's" toy. I never saw it again, except for in magazines. No one I knew owned one.

But by 1998 after Sega had trashed the Gamegear and Atari was a fart in the wind- the Gameboy finally was resurrected with a Color screen and more RAM. After almost a decade Nintendo dominated in a market filled with more powerful products and came out on top.

The Nintendo DS lite is a 64 bit portable able to display full 3d graphics and is armed with 2 damn screens. Leave it too the big N to never shy from innovation weather we asked for it or not (the Wii remote is a fine example). Thanks Judy