Comments on: [ Retro Scan of the Week ] Game Boy is Twenty

Comment on [ Retro Scan of the Week ] Game Boy is Twenty by: johney

Wed, 20 May 2009 20:30:56 +0000

i allway’s wanted a gameboy to play on the group, so i din not need to wait till i was athome to play futher on the nes.but no way.
despites the limmitations of the gameboy, against it,s rivals like atari lynx and turbo fx 16,it had good conversion games from home consoles,by using manny tricks like paralax scrolling etc,,,also the mbc bankswitching chip helped increasing the gameboy perfomance.
rare had even shrunked the ACM graphics with their donkeykongland series into this handheld.
some games even contained some voice samples like castlevania 2.
the 3 big mistakes were, the hard to open case,the spinasy greenish lcd screen, wish was not that sharp, and the in b&w programmed games,
as they do not look much presentible once colorized on the supergameboy.

Comment on [ Retro Scan of the Week ] Game Boy is Twenty by: pinball22

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 15:19:23 +0000

Yep, it’s all about the Tetris. I knew people who never played any other video games who had a GB just to play it.

Comment on [ Retro Scan of the Week ] Game Boy is Twenty by: k.

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 23:43:59 +0000

The Gameboy was successful because even my mother enjoyed playing countless hours of tetris with it

Comment on [ Retro Scan of the Week ] Game Boy is Twenty by: JackSoar

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 22:11:21 +0000

I pretty much concur with the previous two posters. The battery life was a huge factor. Then, as now, it’s no use having a nifty portable gadget if it doesn’t allow you to operate it for more than a couple hours without needing either a recharge, or worse, new batteries altogether. Think of how many games people could have bought for the Game Gear or Atari Lynx for the price they spent on replacing the batteries.

The greyscale (well, greenscale) graphics may not have been impressive, but the Game Boy had enough great games so that it didn’t matter.

Comment on [ Retro Scan of the Week ] Game Boy is Twenty by: Sirpaul484

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 21:34:57 +0000

Yeah, I think the killer app was the thing that made the Game Boy kill off all the other portable systems. Plus, there were many more gems in the Game Boy’s lineup than the Game Gear’s. The price was also quite helpful, seeing as you could get a Game Boy, accessories, and an extra game or two for the price of a Game gear.

As for mistakes.. I’d say waiting so long for a backlight and color capabilities. Sometimes, I felt like I spent more time fiddling with the contrast than I spent actually playing the game. Also, making the original game cases so hard to open didn’t help much.

Comment on [ Retro Scan of the Week ] Game Boy is Twenty by: Jim Ulrich

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 16:39:46 +0000

It was initially successful because of three reasons:
1. It was cheap. The TurboExpress was $250 and the Game Gear was $150.
2. Good battery life 4 AA’s would give 35 hours of playing time. The TurboExpress would go through 6 AA’s in three hours and Game Gear 6 AA’s in five hours.
3. Tetris. It was a killer app for a portable gaming console. It was easy to learn, difficult to master. It was fun to play for five minutes or several hours. And it featured head-to-head gaming.

It’s continued success was due to one thing: Pokemon.