Nintendo’s handheld Game Boy console is to date the world’s biggest selling video game system. Nintendo claims that they have sold over 100 million of them since its initial release in 1989. Since its release, there have been various follow ups to the original, both by Nintendo and by its competitors trying to share in the market for portable gaming consoles.

The Game Boy console was marketed as a portable version of the enormously popular Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), and many of its games were sequels or modified versions of NES games. Though there had been some attempts at portable video games prior to its release, the Game Boy console was the first to achieve worldwide success on a large scale.

The Game Boy console relies on a Z80 processor and simple LCD display. Much like its non-portable predecessor, the NES, it operates using ROM cartridges containing the game information. It has 8 kilobytes of internal S-RAM, and 8 kilobytes of video RAM. The ROMs themselves vary between 256 kilobits and 8 Megabits. There have been many different versions of the original Game Boy, coming in various shapes and sizes and sporting different names, but they all used the same basic specifications internally.

It is perhaps its simple and uncomplicated presentation that made the Game Boy as popular as it was. Indeed, even thought the technology is vastly out dated today, the Game Boy system remains popular today. Recently, in 2004, the Game Boy console celebrated its 15th birthday. Some of the more popular NES games were remade for the Game Boy, sparking a revival of interest in the now classic gaming system.