5 Facts About the First Game Boy, The Grandparent of Smartphone Gaming

Last Updated on 2022-05-24 , 2:42 pm

When it comes to portable handheld gaming, no other portable handheld gaming device can top the Nintendo’s Game boy in terms of popularity and success.

From the moment it was debuted, the Game Boy was destined for success. It destroyed other competitors and took the world by storm. It was the rage at that time. Everyone was talking about it; everyone was playing it and generally, even till today, it measured the awesomeness of our childhoods, though kids nowadays couldn’t understand how we could spend hours on a green screen.

How much do you know about this ancient bundle of fun other than the fact you can play awesome games with it?

With this, I give you five things you did not know about the first Game Boy.

By the way, the Game Boy I am referring to here is not the GBA or Colour etc. I am referring to the first ever Game Boy, the bulky one in gray.

1) Inventor Origins

The man who invented the legendary Game Boy was known as Gunpei Yokoi but before he invented the legendary handheld gaming device that we all know and love, he was hired to Nintendo to just do some maintenance work.

So, in his free time, Gunpei made the Game Boy, but he only meant it as a toy till the president of Nintendo, Hiroshi Yamauchi saw it. And that, people is how the Game Boy was coined.

Imagine what will happen if Gunpei did not exist. I couldn’t even begin to imagine a world or childhood without Game Boy.

2) Most Expensive Game Boy

In 2006, Aspreys of London offered a limited edition 18k gold plated Game Boy with diamonds surrounding the screen. It was priced at $25,000 and weighed six times more than the original Game Boy. Holy Shit!

Wonder who bought it?

3) First system and console in Space

Yep, you can bring that Game Boy in space. That was what an astronaut did. Back in 1993, Mr Aleksandr A. Serebrov visited the MIR space station and to pass the time, he brought the Game Boy and played Tetris on it in space. All together, the system and console was in orbit for 196 days, and when he returned, he auctioned it off.

Yep, nothing better than the Game Boy to keep you company while out in the depths of space!

4) Creepy Camera

Game Boy fans will know that you can buy a Game Boy camera which could be combined with the Game Boy Printer to become a walking photo studio but there are two things you might not know about this camera. One, it is the smallest digital camera in the World and was featured In the Guinness Book of World Records.

Secondly, it has a creepy part. The Game Boy camera came preloaded with little mini games, but if you press run, a scary looking face will show up asking “What are you running from?” Developers have never been able to come up with an answer for this, so people assumed that it is haunted!

Dayummmm, that’s creepy!

But then again, some people have said that this camera could well be the very first digital camera. Well.

5) Game Boy….More like Game Girl

Despite its name, it is actually one of the first gaming held held consoles to target females and guess, they were very successful. Half of Game Boy’s audience were actually the ladies and in 1995, it was reported that females account for 46% of Game Boy’s consumers.

Interesting, no?