Talk:Game Boy line

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Contents

[edit] GBA SP

Shouldn't the Advance SP be on this pag too, like the upgrades of the first Game Boy? Vincit 18:14, 10 Aug 2004 (UTC)

I don't think so. The upgrades of the first Game Boy were internally very similar to the original. The GBA and GBA SP, on the other hand, are quite different (even though they have back compatibility). For the same reason, I don't think much more than a mention of the DS belongs on the GBA entry. - Plutor 12:01, 19 Aug 2004 (UTC)
I think that the GBA/GBA SP should be mentioned the same way as the Pocket, Color, etc, because they are part of the Game Boy line. The DS should stay in the see also, where it is now, because it's not part of the Game Boy product line. Andre 19:59, 19 Aug 2004 (UTC)

[edit] GB's Design Set the Standard?

Every other handheld system I can think of (other than one, as well as the rehashes of the game boy (,color)) had a landscape design: Lynx, Game Gear, GP32, Gameboy Advance, Nintendo DS, PSP, etc.

[edit] MSRP

anyone recall US/CAN/EU MSRPs? i just started wondering about this having seen the MSRP of the GameGear and having just purchased a Sony PSP myself (my first handheld ever) Plonk420 23:32, 27 Mar 2005 (UTC)


[edit] Game Cartridges section out of line

The entire section, except for the last two sentences, don't make sense as part of this article. It ought to be in the Game Cartridge article. Even if the text were in the right place, it shouldn't say what one should do with the cartridges, only describe what happens.

Agreed. It reads like some sort of manual about GB cartridges. Might as well have a section on batteries, what batteries are and that they should never be pulled out whilst the GB is turned on. On the 2 lines left, I think it would be nice to have pictures of the different cartridges as well. Opinions? Mrfixter 00:09, 14 Nov 2004 (UTC)


I think they should have a part about how much the Game Boy Cartridges can hold. (spareus151)

[edit] CPU

Hey Gameboy used 6502 a slightly modified Z80 processor I think it's better to write it down. Xhamlliku

  • yeah it uses a slightly modified Z80, but that doesn't make it a 6502 (clem 23:48, 21 Mar 2005 (UTC))
    • Considering from the documentation that I've read, the Game Boy processor seems to be more similar to 8080 rather than the 8080 derived z80. Despite that, most assemblers use the z80 syntax. It does not share many of the extra instructions. However, this may be different for the color. See Gameboy Hardware Reference for some information.

[edit] What does SP stand for?

Nintendo says in their FAQ that SP stands for "Special" [1]. I hope this will put the back-and-forth to rest. --Plutor 14:56, 31 Dec 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Play It Loud! Speaker

I was under the impression that "Play It Loud!" was merely a Nintendo marketing campaign for a while. One of the aspects of it was Game Boys in a multitude of different colors. Can anyone verify from a reputable source that the speaker was in fact more powerful than the original Game Boy's speaker? I didn't think that they literally meant "Play it Loud!" --GamblinMonkey 00:15, 22 Mar 2005 (UTC)

I just reverted the addition of this text by 62.178.64.227:
(To cite Nintendo: "Play it Loud was an advertising slogan, not part of the Game Boy name. The Play it Loud was part of the advertising, it doesn't relate to it being louder than the other Game Boy units. They all had the same features.")
This may be correct, but not only can't I find a definitive answer to this question anywhere, but a Google Search for part of that quote comes up totally empty. I would like to second GamblinMonkey's request for a reputable answer to this question. -- Plutor 14:35, 27 Apr 2005 (UTC)
I searched Usenet for some info and found this article with Nintendo press releases. No mention of any new features but the colors in the Play it Loud line. I will change the article accordingly. TerokNor

[edit] Missing Gameboy?

What about those pink game girls? They sell for quite a bit on ebay!

[edit] GameBoy game franchises

I suggest that we add a section for GameBoy games that mostly appear on it, like Wario and Pokémon. -- A Link to the Past 03:54, August 3, 2005 (UTC)

We have these articles that serv that purpose Havok 07:33, 3 August 2005 (UTC)
I didn't mean telling people they exist, I meant telling people ABOUT the games. -- A Link to the Past 06:24, August 4, 2005 (UTC)
Then feel free to create new articles based on those games from the list articles, there is no need to include them in the Game Boy article. Havok 09:31, 4 August 2005 (UTC)
Saving the GB is nothing new, I guess... I mean, why would Tetris be of any mention in this article? Or Pokemon? Because they caused the GB to beat the other handhelds? Pfft, who cares about that when you can talk about the Game Boy's changing cartridges and shapes for have the article? -- A Link to the Past 13:18, August 4, 2005 (UTC)

Mentioning Tetris is necessary because it was vital in the initial success of the Game Boy. But note that this article doesn't really say anything else about Tetris, i.e. gameplay, history, etc. Listing the games isn't completely necessary in this article, and describing the games at length would be inappropriate. On the other hand, I can understand an argument for listing some of the most prolific (or popular?) franchises, like Pokémon (video games) (11 in North America, I think), List of Mario games (Anywhere between 10 and 600, depending on how you count a "Mario game". Is it a SMB-like side-scroller or 3D game? Does Mario Kart count?), The Legend of Zelda series (5 or 7, depending on how you count the Zelda and Link NES ports), etc. If someone could somehow make a definitive list of the "most prolific" Game Boy franchises, I would stand behind its inclusion in this article. -- Plutor 14:59, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

What I'd consider Game Boy franchises are Pokemon and Wario, and of course, Tetris demands more than just a passing glance. -- A Link to the Past 15:07, August 4, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] game boy micro

at e3(i watched the gamespy covarage) im pretty sure i heard Reggie Fils-Aime mention that the game boy micro would not be able to play old game boy games, simply to cut costs, the just wouldnt include the chip, im pretty sure about this, although it would pay for someone else to verify it. just thought id do my bit for humanity.

[edit] Game Boy Evolution

Does anyone have any "facts" to back up this section. Has Nintendo even talked about the next Game Boy being called "Evolution" or is this speculation by the person who wrote it? Havok (T/C) 07:50, 20 August 2005 (UTC)

It's 100% speculation. Engadget mentioned it a while back, and a Google search reveals a non-trivial amount of similar information. If this was an entry of its own, I would WP:VFD it quickly. But a section about speculation and rumors about the next-gen GB might be appropriate here. Might. -- Plutor 13:10, 20 August 2005 (UTC)

I would rather it have it's own section called "Rumors" or something, having it in the section "Versions" feels wrong. Havok (T/C) 09:24, 21 August 2005 (UTC)

I believe it is still too early to post rumours. Once all speculative sites begin posting about the same information, a new rumour section could be added. For now, there are just too many specifications around. -- ReyBrujo 04:59, 31 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] The next gameboy

Since there was speculation saying that the next gameboy would use optical disks, won't it be a handheld replacement of the Gamecube or something? or maybe it might have some Gamecube titles released for it. How might it turn out? --SuperDude 21:53, 23 August 2005 (UTC)


What the heck Gameboy Cubed??? who has any prove about this..

No proof, no public announcements, nothing even approaching a reasonably-solid rumor. Total speculation. Wikipedia is not a crystal ball, so I've removed it. I expect it to come back, though. -- Plutor 14:33, 2 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Original Game Boy

The term Game Boy has grown ambiguous to video game culture. Similar ambiguity has occurred with the PlayStation line of products. I'm going to make an article about the original game boy. --SuperDude 22:32, 11 November 2005 (UTC)

Ugh, I did hate when someone changed PlayStation in a disambiguation link. It seems the destruction arrived to the Game Boy too. Please, at least change Original Game Boy into Game Boy (original). -- ReyBrujo 03:00, 12 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Line?

Shouldn't it be changed to Game Boy series? Hbdragon88 03:24, 8 December 2005 (UTC)

It should be moved to Game Boy back. Note how PlayStation was turned into a disambiguation page, and then moved back to PlayStation. -- ReyBrujo 21:17, 29 December 2005 (UTC)
Line or series is the same thing. Nintendo packs all Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, etc sales numbers together like if they were 1 system, so in my opinion it should either remain as "line" or changed to "series." Dionyseus 21:56, 29 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] in-car GBA system?

http://nintendoinsider.com/site/EEFyuFZAyyvXnroBRA.php

I wasn't sure if I should add something when we will know whether this is ture or not so soon... Zooba 09:34, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

Aparently it's official: http://www.visteon.com/products/automotive/fes_dock_gba.shtml Should it go under the Accesories section? Zooba 16:02, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] 8-way pad?

The article mentions "an eight-way directional pad" - shouldn't it be "four-way directional pad"? The possibility that games can or cannot detect two directions at once should be left out of that section, IMO. 141.35.9.132 14:51, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

Saying it's only 4-way when it can detect 8 would be a lie though. Deathawk 20:55, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

Indeed. A digital D-Pad can detect Up, Up-Left, Left, Down-Left, Down, Down-Right, Right and Up-Right. That's a total of eight directions, hence the common term of "eight way directional pad". Daniel Davis 17:34, 7 February 2006 (UTC) (Doom127)

[edit] Missing Accessories?

Should Datel's Advance Game Port or any of the Game "Hacking" Devices (Genie/Shark/Action Replay) have a mention in the accessories section?

Those are unofficial. This may be why they are not listed. —Wins oddf

[edit] LED-less Game Boy pocket systems

When exactly did they add LEDs to the Game Boy pocket system? I acquired an LED-less one tonight at Vintage Stock in exchange for a broken copy of Pokémon Silver. —Wins oddf

[edit] Original GameBoy's battery life

35 hours on 4 AA batteries? What batteries were you using? From what I remember the batteries lasted about 15 hours in my GameBoy. (Unsigned comment posted by Auspx

[edit] GBX

I removed the following section which was in the Accessories section, as it isn't an official accessory and seemed out of place. Pelago 13:21, 12 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Game Boy ExChanger (GBX)

The (unofficial) GBX, produced by Bung Enterprises Ltd, was the best-known backup unit for Game Boy and Game Boy Color games. The device plugged into the parallel port of the PC and allowed dumping ROM and SRAM sumee data to PC, as well as rewriting flash carts to play copies of Game Boy games.

[edit] What's the procedure for changing images?

I completely forgot about this page.

I was the one that took that image of all the game boys next to each other. I'd like to retake it, make it better (maybe on an area that's not so dirty) and, add the GB micro (one that's not photoshopped) and GA SP with backlight *you'd notice a difference as the screen when off is black)

Anyway, should I upload it as a new image and replace the one that's already there with the new one, or should I just go to the image's page and upload the new image as the old image's file name? PSXer 22:06, 16 May 2006 (UTC)

I uploaded a new image as my original image's file name, and changed the page so it links to the updated image instead of the image with photoshopped micro. Hope that'ss okay. PSXer 23:50, 16 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Article name

I know this was mentioned above, but shouldn't this page be named just Game Boy rather than Game Boy line? According to WP:NC articles should use the most common name that avoids ambiguity, and I think simply Game Boy is clearly more common. The article can still clarify that it is a line, series, or whatever the correct term is. I noticed this when correcting many pages that link to Gameboy or other variant spellings. Wmahan. 23:43, 16 June 2006 (UTC)

Game Boy (original) should be at Game Boy instead of the redirect to this article. Dread Lord CyberSkull ✎☠ 05:50, 18 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Atari

A very interesting point noted at Next Generation: [2]

When the product was ready, Nintendo made a trip across the Pacific, to offer Atari a distribution deal. Atari, for its part, was busy leaving the console business, thank you very much, putting much of its energy into the upcoming Atari ST computer. This was, after all, the computer age.

Basically, Nintendo wanted Atari as american partner, and they refused. I believe this needs to be mentioned in the article. -- ReyBrujo 03:02, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

That article is wrong. It wasn't the Game Boy that Atari was to market overseas (aka in the US), it was none other than Nintendo's Famicom. Atari's refusal to distribute the NES is already detailed at the History_of_the_Nintendo_Entertainment_System page in quite a bit of detail. If you want even more info, read [| this memo], an internal company document that talks about the difficulties the two had, such as trying to fit the Nintendo hardware into an "Atari 2100 shell". Ex-Nintendo Employee 05:20, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] No more Gameboys?

It seems the DS has become the successor of the Gameboy line. According to the most recent/recent issue of Game Informer, the one whose cover story is Need for Speed: Carbon, says in the, I think it was "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" section that there will be no more Gameboys made because of the success of the DS. --65.96.154.117 02:09, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

Pff Game Informer always says stupid crap like that... none of it ever comes true. I prefer EGM anyday =) SuperDT 04:46, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

There's no "pff" about it. It was at e3 this year that Iwata himself stated "I would have a second thought about using our resources on what would be the next generation of Game Boy Advance, considering the strong support DS is now enjoying.” [3] That statement caused a number of news outlets (even IGN) to believe that Nintendo was cancelling its plans for the Game Boy line. [4] It wasn't solved until a Nintendo spokesman stepped up and publically stated that they weren't killing the GB line off, after all. Ex-Nintendo Employee 05:57, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

Desite Nintendo's "third pillar" claims, they certainly seem to be phasing out the GBA without a new Game Boy to replace it. So yeah, it looks like the DS will become Nintendo's only active portable. 71.203.209.0 22:24, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Linkspam

83.171.147.125 has added a link to a list of emulators. I'd remove it myself, but I've already removed the one that they added to Amstrad CPC, and don't want to do anything that could be seen as harrassment. --StuartBrady (Talk) 11:42, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

I removed most of the links seeing as Wikipeida is not a link repository. Havok (T/C/c) 12:10, 6 July 2006 (UTC)


[edit] Is the Accesories section really neccesary?

I mean, should we just take out the accesories asection and make it its own article? After all, it has really nothing to do with the "Game Boy line," and that whole section (first and third party accesories) is actually longer than the all the other sections combined. Anybody agree with me? SuperDT 19:41, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

Agreed. Forked off into the Game Boy accessories article. I personally think that third-party stuff should go (there's an endless number of those things), but I'll leave that to someone else. Hbdragon88 03:14, 5 September 2006 (UTC)


[edit] Play It Loud does not deserve it's own section

As stated in the article, the only differences between them and the original Game Boy were the colored cases and a new advertising campaign. This does not seem to be enough difference to label it as a new type of Game Boy. I think a few sentenced under the Original Game Boy section should suffice. Senor k 19:08, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

On the contrary; the Play it Loud campaign was arguably the very first instance of multicolored game systems being tailored and created specifically for this purpose, and it gave birth to the practice most certainly with Nintendo's other handhelds. It was a significant step. Ex-Nintendo Employee 06:30, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit]  ??Flaming??

"Nintendo's Game Boy handheld was first released in 1989. The gaming device was the brainchild of long-time Nintendo employee Gunpei Yokoi, who was the person behind the thought that black people smell extremely bad...weirdo's"

Is the above exerpt, from the history section, flaming?? 67.172.125.13 02:59, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

It's already been caught and corrected. Sockatume 03:05, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] WTF!??!?!

How the heck did the Wikipedia logo appear on the Game Boy Screens?!?!?!?! —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 69.236.93.124 (talk) 04:35, 13 December 2006 (UTC).

i think it's not that hard to hack a ROM to display the wikipedia logo, then load it onto a flash cart and run it on any portable from the game boy line. capi 11:39, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] DS compared to N64

It has been technologically likened to the Nintendo 64 video game console.

sources, anyone? i can sure think of some likeness, but the statement says nothing to my mind. capi 11:39, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

Well, it's had several N64 games stuck on it (Mario 64 and Rayman being examples). Similar to how the GBA has several SNES ports... EllipsesBent 16:11, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

plus, on the back of the ds box, it says it has the capability of a N64 johnny's pizza 03:10, 17 February 2007 (UTC)

sorry, not on the back of the box, it was on a sign in walmart johnny's pizza 03:11, 17 February 2007 (UTC)