Page 49 - OSG Presents Classic Gamer Magazine #3

ith Nintendo's announce-
ment of their upcoming
Game Boy Advanced,
W The Game Boy finally be-
gins her journey into the sunset. Be-
fore historians and game players start
writing their differing opinions about
the Game Boy's place in our storied
industry's history, a strong case can be
made for the Game Boy being the
greatest system in videogaming his-
tory.
Journey back to the video game
world of 1989; the forefront of the 16-bit
frontier. The time-tested Nintendo En-
tertainment System ruled the scene graphics that were blurry when viewed
over both the Sega Master System and on its tiny 2.6 inch screen. In fact,
the Atari 7800 ProSystem. The legen- the Game Boy would have the
dary Atari 2600 was taking her final smallest screen of all handheld
bow after a long life battling numerous systems.
competitors from Intellivision, Colecovi- What about the Game Boy's audio? gesting that the system should never
sion, and even Atari's own 5200. The It resembled more of a transistor radio have been made at all.
2600, whose origins began at the birth than the Dolby surround or Hi-Fi stereo Like the lesson learned from the
of the video game era, was attempting sounds our ears were growing accus- timeless children's fable, "The Tortoise
a comeback, complete with a facelift tomed to. It was hard to and the Hare," it's not always about
and new games. believe that with technol- starting out fast and building a big lead.
The Sega Genesis ogy's advances, we were Sometimes it's about going at your own
had just arrived on going to own a system pace. Technology moves at lights-
our shores, and that produced beeps in- peed, therefore a system's potential
Nintendo's Super stead of music. Clearly, can't be measured by how many bits it
Nintendo, NEC's the Game Boy's technical has, if the games are 3-D, or even if it
Turbographx 16, powers were a regres- offers network gameplay and access to
and Atari's Lynx sive move in the progres- the worldwide web. A system's suc-
were on the hori- sive world of videogames cess is definitely a result of its games
zon. The Atari and technology. and how much fun they offer the
Lynx and NEC Tur- Some players, upon gamer.
bographx 16 noticing the gray shades Since its introduction over a decade
(handheld model) and annoying beeps, as- ago, the Game Boy has offered more
are very important Asteroids - Game Boy Color sumed the Game Boy games (and more fun) than anyone
factors in this tale was a 4-bit system. Who could've anticipated. The Game Boy's
because not only were consoles going could blame them? After all, in the late library features almost two thousand
16-bit, Atari and NEC were hoping that 80’s and early 90’s, color and sound games and rivals the library of any
handhelds would also be going 16-bit. were very mainstream in game sys- other game system, from the Atari
Enter the Game Boy. tems. 2600 to the Sony PlayStation. How
The Game Boy was Nintendo's fol- As inferior as her insides were, her many game systems can boast that
low up to their semi-popular "Game & outside wasn't. The Game Boy was a their library covers the great classic
Watch" toys of the 80’s. The Game sturdy system with a rough exterior; games from the 70’s, 80’s, and today's
Boy was born with near crippling abili- built like a brick. She didn't require big arcade, N64, and PlayStation hits?
ties. At her heart was an 8-bit proces- much maintenance or space, never From the old Atari classics like Aster-
sor, the Z80, which also happened to required anyone to share their TV, oids, Centipede, Galaxian, Millipede
be the same processor utilized in IBM placed very little demand on electricity, (all released from Nintendo), Missile
PCs during the 70’s. and came with a renowned name: Nin- Command (separate versions from Nin-
How about the graphics? The tendo. Also, for the tendo and Ma-
graphics were a surprise to everyone most part, she was jesco), and Yars’
because they lacked something very portable. Revenge
basic to all videogames: color. It fea- Being portable (Telegames); to
tured only four shades of gray. In the was her strongest today's next gen-
80’s, main- point because critics eration blockbust-
stream video- and gamers were ers like Acclaim's
game players wondering how this Mortal Kombat 1-
rarely had to seemingly back- 4 and Turok 2:
encounter wards system could Seeds of Evil; to
black & white possibly compete Activision's Pit-
videogames. against the superior fall: Beyond the
The Game game machines. Jungle; to Elec-
Boy’s video With her specs, this tronic Arts' Xena:
display was system would al- Warrior Princess;
composed of most certainly fail. to Midway's NFL
dot matrix Some were sug- Blitz, Ready 2
Frogger - Game Boy Color
Classic Gamer Magazine Spring 2000 49