Game Boy Color

Last updated

Game Boy Color
Game Boy Color logo.svg
Nintendo-Game-Boy-Color-FL.jpg
Game Boy Color with Atomic Purple case
Also known asCGB-001
Developer Nintendo Research & Engineering
Manufacturer Nintendo
Product family Game Boy
Type Handheld game console
Generation Fifth
Release date
  • JP: October 21, 1998
  • NA: November 18, 1998
  • EU: November 23, 1998
  • AU: November 27, 1998
Lifespan4+1⁄2 years
Introductory priceUS$79.95(equivalent to $150 in 2023)
DiscontinuedMarch 31, 2003
Units sold118.69 million (including all Game Boy variants)
Media Game Boy Game Pak
Game Boy Color Game Pak
System on a chip Nintendo CPU CGB
CPU Sharp SM83 @ 4 / 8 MHz
Memory32 KB  RAM, 16 KB  VRAM
Display TFT LCD 160 × 144  px, 44 mm × 40 mm (1.7 in × 1.6 in)
Online services
Best-selling game Pokémon Gold and Silver (23 million units)
Backward
compatibility 		Game Boy
PredecessorGame Boy
Successor Game Boy Advance [1]

The Game Boy Color (GBC or CGB) is an 8-bit handheld game console, manufactured by Nintendo, which was released in Japan on October 21, 1998, and to international markets that November. It is the successor to the Game Boy and is part of its product line. Compared to the original, the Game Boy Color features a color TFT screen rather than monochrome, a processor that operates twice as fast, and has four times as much memory. It retains backward compatibility with games initially developed for its predecessor. However, despite these improvements, reviewers consider the Game Boy Color an evolution rather than a revolutionary leap in handheld gaming technology.

Contents

The handheld is slightly thicker and taller and has a slightly smaller screen than the Game Boy Pocket, its immediate predecessor, although significantly smaller than the original Game Boy. As with its predecessors, the Game Boy Color has a custom 8-bit processor made by Sharp. The American English spelling of the system's name, Game Boy Color, remains consistent throughout the world.

The Game Boy Color is part of the fifth generation of video game consoles. The Game Boy and the Game Boy Color combined have sold 118.69 million units worldwide making them the fourth best-selling system of all time. Its best-selling games are Pokémon Gold and Silver, which shipped 23 million units worldwide.

History

The development of the Game Boy Color was spurred by news in October 1997 that Bandai, with the help of former Nintendo engineers including the late Gunpei Yokoi, was planning a new handheld console called the WonderSwan. Leveraging an earlier color prototype from 1992, Nintendo was able to accelerate development of Game Boy Color. Critically, the Game Boy Color maintained backward compatibility with all existing Game Boy games. [2] [3]

Nintendo formally announced the Game Boy Color on March 10, 1998. [4] Sales started in the Japanese home market on October 21, 1998 [5] and rolled out across international markets over the next month, starting with North America on November 18, Europe on the 23rd and Australasia on the 27th. The introductory price of the device was US$79.95(equivalent to $150 in 2023). [6] The Game Boy Color ultimately would go on sale five months before the monochrome WonderSwan, which would ultimately suffer from low sales.

The Game Boy Color would remain on sale for several years, until all remaining new units were reportedly sold by March 31, 2003. [7] The handheld was superseded in Nintendo's line up by the Game Boy Advance, a sixth generation device.

Hardware

The Game Boy Color motherboard (Annotated version) Nintendo-Game-Boy-Color-Motherboard-Bottom.jpg
The Game Boy Color motherboard
(Annotated version)

The Game Boy Color uses a custom system on a chip (SoC), integrating the CPU and other major components into a single package, named the CPU CGB by Nintendo and manufactured by the Sharp Corporation. While the CPU CGB was a new design for the Game Boy Color, the technology inside was largely an evolution of the then ten-year-old DMG-CPU SoC used inside the original Game Boy, making the CPU CGB outdated when it was introduced in the late-90s. [8]

Within the CPU CGB, the main processor is a Sharp SM83, [9] a hybrid between two other 8-bit processors: the Intel 8080 and the Zilog Z80. The SM83 has the seven 8-bit registers of the 8080 (compared to 14 on the Z80), but uses the Z80's programming syntax and extra bit manipulation instructions, and it also adds a few new instructions to optimize the processor for certain operations related to the way the hardware was arranged. [10] [11] The Sharp SM83 also powered the original Game Boy, where it operated at a clock rate of 4.194304 megahertz  (MHz). However games on Game Boy Color exclusive cartridges could command the processor to operate in "dual-speed mode," overclocking it to run twice as fast at 8.388608 MHz. This gave developers the option to get more processing power out of the device, while retaining backward compatibility for existing games. [8]

The CPU CGB also incorporates the Picture Processing Unit, essentially a basic GPU, that renders visuals using two separate 8  kilobyte  (KB) banks of Video RAM, twice as much as the original Game Boy and relocated inside the SoC for faster access. [8] Games developed exclusively for the Game Boy Color could take full advantage of the additional memory to add more effects and display up to 56 colors simultaneously out of a selection of 32,768 colors. When an Original Game Boy Game Pak is inserted into the device, the additional memory is disabled, however, these monochrome games still benefit from enhanced color palettes. [8] [12]

The display itself is a 2.3-inch (diagonal) thin-film transistor (TFT) color liquid-crystal display (LCD), measuring 44 millimeters (1.7 in) wide by 40 millimeters (1.6 in) high. The screen aspect ratio and resolution remain identical to the original Game Boy at 160 pixels wide by 144 pixels high in a 10:9 format. Like the original Game Boy and Game Boy Pocket before it and the Game Boy Advance after it, the screen is reflective and not backlit, making the device hard to use in dark environments.

Like the earlier Game Boy, the SoC also contains the Audio Processing Unit, a programmable sound generator with two pulse wave channels, a wave channel with user-definable waveform and a pseudo-random white noise channel, [13] along with 127  bytes  (B) of High RAM (similar to a CPU cache) that can be accessed faster, and a 2 KB "bootstrap" ROM (nearly ten times larger than the original’s 256 B) which is used to start up the device. [14] [15] The motherboard of the Game Boy Color also contains a 32 KB "working" RAM chip, four times more than the 8 KB on the original Game Boy. [8]

The Game Boy features a D-pad (directional pad), four action buttons labeled 'A,' 'B,' 'SELECT,' and 'START,' and a sliding on-off switch on the right side of the device. The volume is adjusted by a potentiometer dial on the left side of the device.

The left side also offers a Game Link Cable port for connecting to up to four Game Boy devices for multiplayer games or, notably in Pokémon series games, sharing files. [16] This port can also be used with a Game Boy Printer. The port used on the Game Boy Color is of a smaller design first introduced on the Game Boy Pocket, and requires an adapter to link with the original Game Boy. [17] While the original Game Boy could transfer data at 8 kilobits per second (kbit/s), the Game Boy color offered a "high-speed" mode that could reach up to 512 kbit/s, 64 times faster. [8] The Game Boy Color also added an infrared communications port for wireless data transfer, however the feature is only supported by a small number of games and the infrared port was not included on the Game Boy Advance line.

Technical specifications

Game Boy Color [18] [19]
Height133.5 mm (5.26 in)
Width78 mm (3.1 in)
Depth27.4 mm (1.08 in)
Weight138 g (4.9 oz)
Display2.3-inch (diagonal) reflective thin-film transistor (TFT) color liquid-crystal display (LCD)
Screen size (playable) [20] 43 mm × 39 mm (1.7 in × 1.5 in)
Resolution 160 (w) × 144 (h) pixels (10:9 aspect ratio) [lower-alpha 1]
Graphics
  • Maximum sprites: 40 total, 10 per line, 4 colors each (one transparent)
  • Sprite size: 8 × 8 or 8 × 16
  • Tiles drawn: 512 (360~399 visible, others off-screen as a scrolling buffer)
Frame rate 59.727500569606 Hz [21]
Color support32,768 colors, up to 56 simultaneously
System on a chip (SoC)Nintendo CPU CGB
Processor4.194304 MHz / 8.388608 MHz Sharp SM83 (custom Intel 8080/Zilog Z80 hybrid, 8-bit) [lower-alpha 2]
Memory
  • On SoC: 2 KB "bootstrap" ROM, 127 B High RAM, 16 KB  Video RAM
  • Internal: 32 KB  RAM
  • External: (in the game cartridge) up to 8 MB ROM, up to 128 KB RAM
Power
Battery lifeUp to 10 hours
Sound
I/O
Controls

Cartridges

Nintendo-Game-Boy-Color-Cartridge.jpg
Game Boy Color Game Pak
Nintendo-Game-Boy-Cartridge-Black.jpg
Color enhanced Game Boy Game Pak
Nintendo-Game-Boy-Cartridge.jpg
Original Game Boy Game Pak

Games are stored on cartridges called Game Boy Game Paks, using read-only memory (ROM) chips. Initially, due to the limitations of the 8-bit architecture of the device, ROM size was limited to 32 KB. However, Nintendo overcame this limitation with a Memory Bank Controller (MBC) inside the cartridge. This chip sits between the processor and the ROM chips. The CPU can only access 32 KB at a time, but the MBC can switch between several banks of 32 KB ROM. Using this technology, Nintendo created Game Boy Color games that used up to 8  megabytes of ROM. Game Paks could also provide additional functionality to the Game Boy system. Some cartridges included up to 128 KB of RAM to increase performance, which could also be battery-backed to save progress when the handheld was off, real-time clock chips could keep track of time even when the device was off and Rumble Pak cartridges added vibration feedback to enhance gameplay. [8] [23] [24]

The Game Boy Color has backward compatibility with all original Game Boy games, and there were three main Game Pak cartridge types for the handheld:

Game Boy Color Game Pak (Clear Case): Designed specifically for the Game Boy Color, these cartridges exploit the system's full potential. They boast a wider color range (up to 56 colors) and benefit from the handheld's increased processing speed and memory compared to the original. These cartridges are incompatible with monochrome Game Boy models. [25]

Illustrated color-samples of the color palettes and the key combinations to select them on an original Game Pak. GBC keypad palettes.png
Illustrated color-samples of the color palettes and the key combinations to select them on an original Game Pak.

Color enhanced Game Boy Game Pak (Black Case): These cartridges leverage the Game Boy Color's hardware, offering a richer color palette (up to 16 colors) utilizing the original Game Boy's four layers. [26] These cartridges remain compatible with the original Game Boy. Developers pre-programmed which color palette would be used. A few games, primarily by licensed developers, used a technique called "Hi-Color mode" to achieve a wider color range (over 2,000 colors). This technique involved rapidly switching scan lines to create the illusion of more colors, but it was not widely used.  Examples of games using Hi-Color mode include The Fish Files, The New Addams Family Series, and Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare. [12] Cannon Fodder uses this technique to render full motion video segments. [27]

Original Game Boy Game Pak (Gray Case): The classic Game Boy cartridges. The Game Boy Color applies a limited color palette (often dark green) using up to ten colors to enhance the game, originally intended to be presented in monochrome. [28] On startup, users could choose from 12 different palettes using button combinations. A dedicated palette option replicates the original Game Boy's grayscale experience.

Model colors

Game Boy Color.png
Berry
Game Boy Color Purple.jpg
Grape
Game Boy Color (green).png
Kiwi
Game-Boy-Color-Yellow.jpg
Dandelion
Gameboy color.jpg
Teal
Game-Boy-Color-Purple.jpg
Atomic Purple

The logo for Game Boy Color spells out the word "COLOR" in the five original colors in which the unit was manufactured: Berry (C), Grape (O), Kiwi (L), Dandelion (O), and Teal (R). Another color released at the same time was "Atomic Purple", made of a translucent purple plastic. Other colors were sold as limited editions or in specific countries. [29]

Games

Due to its backward compatibility with Game Boy games, the Game Boy Color's launched with a large playable library. The system amassed a library of 576 Game Boy Color games over a four-year period. While the majority of the games are Game Boy Color exclusive, approximately 30% of the games released are compatible with the original Game Boy. Most Game Boy Color games released after 1999 are not compatible with the original Game Boy.

Tetris for the original Game Boy is the best-selling game compatible with Game Boy Color, and Pokémon Gold and Silver are the best-selling games developed primarily for it. The best-selling Game Boy Color exclusive game is Pokémon Crystal .

The last Game Boy Color game ever released is the Japanese exclusive Doraemon no Study Boy: Kanji Yomikaki Master, on July 18, 2003. The last game released in North America is Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets , released on November 15, 2002. In Europe the last game released for the system is Hamtaro: Ham-Hams Unite! , on January 10, 2003.

Beyond officially released games for the platform, there is an active online community creating new games for the Game Boy and Game Boy Color through the use of tools like GB Studio. [30] One such example is Dragonhym (originally Dragonborne) which was available for release on a physical cartridge which will be playable on the Game Boy Color. [31]

Reception

Sales

The Game Boy and Game Boy Color were both commercially successful, selling 118.69 million units worldwide: 32.47 million in Japan, 44.06 million in the Americas, and 42.16 million in all other regions. [7] [32] At the time of its discontinuation in 2003, the combined sales of all Game Boy variants made it the best-selling game console of all time. In later years, its sales were surpassed by the Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2 and Nintendo Switch, making it the fourth-best-selling console the second-best-selling handheld of all time, as of 2024. Sales of the device were in part driven by the success of Pokémon Gold and Silver and Pokémon Crystal , with combined sales of 29.5 million units, making them one of the best selling-video games of all time. [33] [34]

Sales of the Game Boy Color were strong at launch. Nintendo of America reported a sale of one million units from launch to December 1998, [35] and two million by July 1999. [36] Retail chains in the United States reported unexpectedly high demand for the console, with executives of FuncoLand reporting "very pleasant and unpredicted" sales and Electronics Boutique stating "the entire Game Boy Color line just exploded, including accessories" upon release. [37] Faced with high worldwide demand and competitive retail pricing, retailers such as CompUSA sold out of Game Boy Color stock in the weeks before the 1998 Christmas season. [35]

Critical reception

Reception of the Game Boy Color was positive, with critics praising the addition of color and improved clarity of the display. Affiliated publications such as Total Game Boy praised the handheld for its "bright, colorful picture that can be viewed in direct light", backward compatibility features preserving the "vast catalogue of original Game Boy games", and improved technical performance. [38] Computer and Video Games praised the Game Boy Color for making the Game Boy library of games "look better than ever – everything is crystal clear, bright and in colour". [39] Writing for GameSpot , Chris Johnston stated that the display was "crystal clear" and free of motion blur, stating that Tetris DX was the "killer app" of the launch titles on the platform. [40] Milder reviews included those by Arcade, who conceded that the colors were "very impressive" but "not as eyeball-popping as you might have hoped for [...] it's mostly seaweed greens, rusty browns, timid yellows and the like". They concluded that "nothing about [the Game Boy Color] is very radical" but said the device was "Game Boy as it always should have been". [41]

Legacy

Commentary on the legacy of the Game Boy Color has been shaped by the perception that the handheld was as an incremental and transitional upgrade of the Game Boy rather than a completely new device, [42] [43] and had a relatively brief lifespan, being supplanted by the Game Boy Advance after two years, five months on the market.

In a history of Nintendo, author Jeff Ryan noted the Game Boy Color had a reputation as a "legacy machine" that found success mostly due to its backward compatibility, as "few wanted to lose all the Dr. Mario and Pokémon cartridges they had amassed over the years." [44] Quoted in Retro Gamer , Blitz Games Studios developer Bob Pape acknowledged that although "backwards compatibility more or less defined (the) Game Boy Color", the handheld "ticked all the right boxes with regards to size, battery life, reliability and most importantly backwards compatibility". [43]

Positive assessments of the legacy of the Game Boy Color has also focused on the merits of its game library, particularly for its third-party and import titles. Travis Fahs for IGN noted whilst "the Game Boy Color's life was relatively brief", it "built up a small library of excellent games", including Wario Land 3 and Pokémon Gold and Silver , and a "unique" and "previously unheard of" line of successful third-party games, including Dragon Warrior Monsters , Metal Gear Solid and Yu-Gi-Oh! Dark Duel Stories . [42] Ashley Day of Retro Gamer noted that the handheld had an "overlooked" status, stating "the Game Boy Color (has) an unfair reputation as the one Nintendo handheld with few worthwhile titles, but this simply isn't the case...returning to the Game Boy Color now reveals a wealth of great games that you never knew existed, especially those available on import." [45]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Same aspect ratio and resolution as the original Game Boy
  2. ↑ 4.194304 MHz for Game Boy backward compatibility, 8.388608 MHz for native Game Boy Color games.

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  37. ↑ Trainman, Steve (May 12, 1999). "Retailers Coming to E3 with High Expectations". Game Week. Vol. 5, no. 17.
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