20 Years of GameBoy

The GameBoy was released in Japan on the 21. April 1989, so almost exactly twenty years ago. Who had thought, that this “minimal gaming console” would be such a success: limited in hardware, but unleashed in creativity and optimized on portability. And who had thought, that 18 years later they would repeat this success with the Nintendo DS and somehow similar with the Wii? And when we talk about games… Is Wii Sports is the new Tetris?

After the big GameBoy success there was an era, that did not felt really Nintendo. Namely GameCube and early N64. It seems that also lead developer, senior managing director and legend Shigera Miyamoto felt somehow unfamiliar during the “GameCube era”. He said:

“There was an era when Nintendo was going in the direction of doing the same things other companies did. The more we competed with new companies entering the market, the more we started acting similar to them. But is being number one in that competition the same as being number one with the general public? That’s the question we had.”

But let’s do a rewind and take a look at two of the awful advertisements, that Nintendo did at that time on TV to introduce and push the GameBoy.


1990


1991

Blog - Date published: April 4, 2009 | 5 Comments

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  1. 20 Years of GameBoy | Games Review said:

    […] Here is the original post: 20 Years of GameBoy […]

    Posted on April 4th, 2009 at 23:27
  2. Torley said:

    I remember first reading about the Game Boy in 1987 or so, and wondered why the screen was sort of green-tinted instead of pure monochrome. I remember the old Nintendo Power mags, where they’d assemble level maps and you could sometimes see your character in each one due to how they stitched/composited the art.

    It’s a general cliché by now, but Nintendo repeatedly won with the Game Boy because of all the great games, which the more colorful and powerful platforms lacked.

    Posted on April 5th, 2009 at 19:47
  3. digg.ee said:

    GameBoy sai 20ne aastaseks….

    Tuleb välja, et GameBoy sünnipäev on 21. aprill 1989. Ju on paljudel sellega oma mälestused. …

    Posted on April 21st, 2009 at 22:01
  4. Business quote of the week » 20 Years of GameBoy « Related Risks said:

    […] » 20 Years of GameBoy Digital Tools – Game Design, Computer Art, Homebrew and Colorful Entert…. Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Sunday Morning24-year old CEO: New Black history […]

    Posted on November 8th, 2009 at 06:46
  5. Hudgeon! » Blog Archive » Business quote of the week » 20 Years of GameBoy said:

    […] » 20 Years of GameBoy Digital Tools – Game Design, Computer Art, Homebrew and Colorful Entert…. Tags: marketing, Quotes Posted under: Vendor Management Comment (RSS) […]

    Posted on December 5th, 2009 at 19:47