the original game boy came out in japan on july 31, 1989.
when did the original game boy come out in japan?
july 31, 1989
though it was less technically advanced than the lynx and other competitors, the game boy's excellent battery life and rugged hardware and the popularity of the bundled "tetris" and other games made it much more successful. in its first two weeks in japan, from its release on april 21, 1989, the entire stock consisting of 300,000 units was sold; a few months later, the game boy's release in the united states on july 31, 1989, saw 40,000 units sold on its first day. the game boy and game boy color combined have sold 118.69 million units worldwide, with 32.47 million units in japan, 44.06 million in the americas, and 42.16 million in other regions. by japanese fiscal year 1997, before game boy color's release in late-1998, the game boy alone had sold 64.42 million units worldwide. at a march 14, 1994 press conference in san francisco, nintendo vice president of marketing peter main answered queries about when nintendo was coming out with a color handheld system by stating that sales of the game boy were strong enough that it had decided to hold off on developing a successor handheld for the near future.
game boy
game boy color exclusive games are housed in clear-colored cartridges, referred to as "game pak" cartridges. they are shaped differently from original game boy games. when inserted into an original game boy, these translucent cartridges prevent the system from turning on due to a missing notch present in original game boy cartridges that prevent the cartridge from being removed once powered on (barring the rumble pack games or "kirby tilt 'n tumble"). while the game boy pocket, super game boy, super game boy 2 and the japanese-exclusive game boy light do power on with a game boy color exclusive cartridge inserted, these games display a warning message stating that a game boy color system is required and refuse to play. in the cases of "chee-chai alien" and "pocket music", it however did power on with game boy advance and game boy advance sp, these games also display a warning message stating that a game boy color system is also required and also refuse to play. games that are designed for the game boy color, but which also include backward compatibility with the game boy, game boy pocket, super game boy, super game boy 2 and the japanese-exclusive game boy light, use the same cartridge shape as original game boy games, but are typically black and never gray.
game boy color