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[BocoDragon]

Game Boys owned the "tarmac" which my elementary school wrapped around, circa 1992. Every kid had one, trading games, many spectators watching someone play. This was 6 years before the Pokemon generation would do the same.

I remember putting the speaker up to my ear and enjoying the crunchy tunes even back then. Proto-chip tune appreciation. One fellow student even coveted the "Handy Boy" in my copy of EGM and he eventually got one (poor, silly bastard).

Does anyone remember the "Game Boy" comics from Valliant where Tatanga from Super Mario Land invades the real world and even takes over the restaurant on top of the World Trade Center? ulp.

 

[Mooreberg]

That Donkey Kong game from 1994 might still be my most played handheld game of all time.

 

[injurai]

I don't want to tell you that it's all downhill from here, but LA is still my favorite Zelda game. Most credible people rank it among the top games in the series.

I only ever owned Ninty handhelds, so I've missed the nostagia boat for most of Zelda. Games look good, I like their aesthetics. But I've never felt like playing any of them really. Except LTTP and LA. Something about them just appealed to me. So that's what I'm finally doing. LA is a great game so far, though it can be a bit ambiguous as what you need to be doing.

 

[Portugeezer]

Long live the king.

 

[Shadownet]

Its a Game Man now :') our boy grew up so fast.

 

[Out of Working Order]

Legendary system. Remember getting mine with Tetris, but I can't remember the year. Think it may have been 94 or 95.

Never played Link's Awakening - sounds like I missed out. Still have the system though, and I looked after it, so it still looks new.

 

[nintendork666]

I still have an old grey brick, and a clear GBC tucked away somewhere. If I ever feel nostalgic for the original GB catalog, I bust out my back-lit GBA SP. That thing is seriously one of the greatest devices ever invented.

 

[SPACECADET]

today is april 21st? happy birthday game man

 

[meanspartan]

I remember when this launched and the Game Boy went into beast mode.

RIGHT?! I was just the right age too around then, as I was born in 1989. Crazy how these games revitalized a platform that had been out for several years and should have been at the end of it's life.

 

[Tenki]

Pissing fact: I was so hooked with the Game Boy that I used to bring it everywhere, even to the bathroom. I was pissing and the console fell down to the toilet :lol Goodbye Game Boy.

Thank god my birthday was a couple of weeks later and I got a Game Boy Pocket. A transparent Game Boy Pocket, no less

 

[Hyperactivity]

RIGHT?! I was just the right age too around then, as I was born in 1989. Crazy how these games revitalized a platform that had been out for several years and should have been at the end of it's life.

Has any other crazy boom at the end of a console's life ever happened?

 

[Worthintendo]

Easily one of my all time fav systems and the one I hold the most nostalgia for. It was the first system I got, and just thinking of playing Mario Land 2 or Links Awakening for the first time still makes me feel all tingly and happy

 

[RedSwirl]

I'm just now realizing how shitty my early experience with the Game Boy was.

I wasn't even able to get one until around 1993 or 1994, and until around the time Pokemon came out my entire library of Game Boy games consisted of the following:

-The GB port of Killer Instinct
-Pac-Man
-Yoshi
-TMNT II Back From The Sewers

Later on I got the Game Boy 007 game (which I still think is underrated). I didn't even get a copy of Super Mario Land until at least around 1997. I didn't get a copy of Land 2 until much later, probably after the Game Boy Color came out. I didn't even get Tetris until it came out on 3DS Virtual Console.

I spent four years playing those early games because there was nothing else TO play when I was on the go. For a long time the Game Boy was pretty much just a shitty port machine for me, but I didn't know any better at the time.

 

[bobawesome]

Gone but not forgotten. I really hope Nintendo abandons the second screen/clamshell design for their next handheld.

 

[UncleSporky]

Trip World is like the pinnacle of what this system could do, graphically and musically, prior to GBC. Good old Sunsoft.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agOSYHgglLg

A game I recently discovered is the port of Mr. Nutz which also looks and sounds quite good for a GB game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWws9YxepHU

 

[Kazuma Kiryu]

ITT: The joy of being young and the sadness of feeling old

Man, all the memories coming back. I remember my first two GB games, Tetris and Super Mario Land. I couldn't even say how many hours I spent on those two games alone.
And that thing is reliable as fuck.

 

[Mlatador]

When I saw this for the first time...

I knew I HAD TO HAVE IT!

 

[meanspartan]

Has any other crazy boom at the end of a console's life ever happened?

Lots of consoles get great games at the end of their lifespan (while others, like I'd argue with the 360, sort of fizzle out)

Ps3 had Last of Us, Ps2 had God of War 2, etc.

But you're word choice is correct- this was a straight up boom. I had heard about and played Game Boys before, but when Pokemon happened all of a sudden you HAD to have a Game Boy. That is when I wanted one anyway. I didn't know then that the system had been out for 9 years, if anything, it felt "new" again. By then of course you wouldn't get the brick, you'd get the slimmer "Pocket" line. (Or the new Game Boy Color, which if I remember right came out soon after Pokemon).

Still, for people the right age at the time including myself, this old machine from 1989 once again became a must-have. Insane.

 

[mr stroke]

Greatest game on the system.

nope

 

[phanphare]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycxmRZ66-kI

 

[Pagusas]

nope

Nope

 

[Cody_D165]

I remember when this launched and the Game Boy went into beast mode.

This is the reason I owned a Game Boy as a child.

What a legacy this system has though. The unrivaled king of handhelds for years.

I've been meaning to order one of those backlight kits and put that sucker in one of my spare DMGs. Gonna have to do that soon in honor of the 25th anniversary.

 

[entremet]

I got one for Christmas as well. Fun times. Loved that little thing.

 

[mr stroke]

Also this thing was awesome and pretty much necessary under certain lighting conditions-

and if you were really rich like my friend you got the e-penis edition-

 

[Tenki]

Also this thing was awesome and pretty much necessary under certain lighting conditions-

and if you were really rich like my friend you got the e-penis edition-

That wasn't even its final form:

 

[Interceptor]

My first mana game! And I didn't even know it!

Let´s celebrate!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5xZ8t9JPQc

 

[MetroidPrimeRib]

That wasn't even its final form:

SHIN GAME BOY

 

[Lettuce]

Super Hunchback was one of my favs!

 

[Rnr1224]

got this and pokemon when i was about 7. eventually completed the pokedex and had fun cheating with missingno. Also wario land 2 was amazing!

 

[BocoDragon]

It was really weird to have one of these in my early childhood... and then later when I was a pot-smoking, PS1-playing, extreme teenage gamer..... the elementary kids flocked to the exact same machine again for Pokemon!

This would be like PS3 getting a world-shattering killer app in 2015.

 

[Mdot]

I wanted a Game Boy so bad for my birthday and my parents tricked me by putting it in a clothing box. Pissed me the f off until I opened it. What a little brat I was.

Pretty sure it still works too but the plastic covering the screen came off years ago. Need to rummage around and find it.

 

[RedSwirl]

Oh, and that fucking Tom & Jerry game was another one I was stuck with for like four years.

Basically my first four years with the Game Boy was like staring at a brick wall because there was nothing else to stare at. It's like I missed all the shit that was worth playing on the Game Boy pre-Pokemon.

 

[meanspartan]

If you judge it against modernity, then much of the library just doesn't hold up so well.

However, if you judge it like platforms should be judged, how good they were for their time, the Game Boy certainly belongs in any "greatest platform of all time" discussion.

And some titles have stood the test of time, if you are willing to allow yourself to overlook how archaic the graphics are.

 

[UncleSporky]

Mega Man 5 was also something really special. Unlike all the other GB Mega Mans, a totally unique set of bosses, great mechanics, great weapon set...this was also probably the best you could squeeze out of that little system.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwtAEweHofg

 

[BocoDragon]

Mega Man 5 was also something really special. Unlike all the other GB Mega Mans, a totally unique set of bosses, great mechanics, great weapon set...this was also probably the best you could squeeze out of that little system.

Never got to play it... should be coming to 3DS soon, though.

 

[SolVanderlyn]

Has any other crazy boom at the end of a console's life ever happened?

I'm not sure about how well these games did commercially, so this isn't quite the same thing, but as far as bombastic titles coming out... near (almost past) the end of the Super Famicom's life in Japan, a couple of games came out that pushed the system to its limit:

Rockman and Forte/Mega Man and Bass - This came out after its PSX predecessor and looked almost exactly the same.

Fire Emblem 5 - This game came out in 1999, so late that it was only released through the Nintendo Power service.

Neither game made it to America, though.

 

[Dice]

aww yeah

Damn, how did I forget the Warioland games? So creative and fun. Classics.

 

[HardRojo]

Wasn't aware the GameBoy was older than me, I remember when my cousin brought the B/W one from Japan, fun times playing Mario

 

[Astro Monster]

I could never finish Solar Striker

 

[anotherVegan]

Mega Man 5 was also something really special. Unlike all the other GB Mega Mans, a totally unique set of bosses, great mechanics, great weapon set...this was also probably the best you could squeeze out of that little system.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwtAEweHofg

Mega Man V was amazing. I haven't played it in a while, and a cart is pretty rare last time I checked. As soon add that hits the VC I am totally there.

 

[Liha]

25 years? damn I'm getting old. The GameBoy was an important part of my childhood.
R.I.P. Gunpei Yokoi

 

[Mlatador]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQoNZtwfqf8

(Chikyuu Kaihou Gun ZAS)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsnNqqiMHEo

 

[RoninChaos]

This is one of those systems I loved as a kid but have trouble going back to. I remembered in the late 90's being shocked it was still popular. Then Nintendo put out the GBA and it was like "well, this is cool, but no backlight." Then the SP came out. Then the one with the LCD screen. Best version of the gameboy ever.

 

[PumpkinSpice]

Fire Emblem 5 - This game came out in 1999, so late that it was only released through the Nintendo Power service.

They also released a cartridge version in 2000.

 

[phanphare]

This is one of those systems I loved as a kid but have trouble going back to. I remembered in the late 90's being shocked it was still popular. Then Nintendo put out the GBA and it was like "well, this is cool, but no backlight." Then the SP came out. Then the one with the LCD screen. Best version of the gameboy ever.

yeah if I'm going back to play old Game Boy games I always us the GBA SP model.

 

[Vashetti]

Goddamn, I came.

 

[RedSwirl]

Man. I missed a lot of shit on the Game Boy back in the day.

3DS Virtual Console was pretty much made for people like me. Are the Mega Man games on it worth looking at today?

 

[FreedomFighter]

I remember having The Sword of Hope and not knowing how it came to my house :lol Probably because of my elder brother.

I played a lot yet I didn't know what I was doing (I was just a child). I... I may buy it again on the 3DS VC.

I'm going to start Sword of Hope II on 3DS VC once I finish Shining Force: Sword of Hajya.

Trip World is like the pinnacle of what this system could do, graphically and musically, prior to GBC. Good old Sunsoft.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agOSYHgglLg

Goddamn, Sunsoft were fuckin' wizards.

 

[PodcastFips]

Tetris and this:

THE shit. I still remember everything about these 2 games, played the hell out of them. And my original Game Boy still works fine

 

[koutoru]

My first handheld game. *nostalgia sets in*