Few gaming devices can be said to have created an entire separate sector of the industry. Nintendo's Game Boy is one of those few. It and its descendant devices reigned on the throne of handheld gaming basically until the rise of mobile games. But even with that competition, the Game Boy still holds a special place in the world of gaming and in the memories of many gamers. That grey brick, along with its pocket-sized and color capable variations, filled more long car rides and boring afternoons out than we could count. Even if we only used it to play Pokémon Red & Blue.
Like many of Nintendo's products, the Game Boy's simple exterior and interface belied a great versatility.🔯 The little device was capable of doing far more than just play games. Part of this was due to Game Boy designer Gunpei Yokoi's philosophy of "Lateral Thinking with Withered Technology", or using old technology in new ways. Because the Game Boy was built off of somewhat outdated tech, it was adaptable in ways more advanced devices couldn't be. This led to a proliferation of oddball accessories, modifications, and attempts to turn the humble Game Boy into something resembling a modern smartphone.
Things got weird at times. But such is life for Nintendo's most famous handheld. The G♈ame Boy went through many changes and experiences during its production life. Th♊ese are just a few of the more interesting examples. Here are 27 Things Only Superfans Knew The Original Game Boy Could Do.
26 🌠 Survive An Explosion
90s kids will attest to the Game Boy's ability to relieve the boredom of long waits. But it wasn't just kids at the dentist who appreciated the han⛎dheld for that, soldiers did too. Many brought Game Boy෴s with them during the Gulf War. One soldier left his behind when his barracks got bombed.
Everything was destroyed except his Game Boy.
The plastic ♈front was melted, but the hardware itself was undamaged. In fact, it still works to this day. Nintendo has the Gulf War Game Boy on display at their store in New 💜York City, playing a Tetris demo.
25 (Almost) Be A PDA 𒊎
Today's productivity app𝓡s are ubiquitous in the office, but back in the 90s, you needed a PDA (personal digital assistant) for that stuff. Some darn fool thought the Game Boy was perfect for such a device.
Enter the Work Boy.
Produced by a company called Fabtek, the Work Boy was a weird peripheral aimed at turning the handheld into an office tool. It came with a keyboard, along with software for a clock, day planner, and currency converter. The Work Bo🏅y was never released and that's for the best. At $80, it would have cost as much as a Game Boy.
24 It Could Take Pictures ♚
The Game Boy Camera is one of the handheld's more notorious accessories, but it was actually ahead of its time. Back in 1999, it held the world record for the world's smallest digital camera. You could also claim that it invented the selfie, allowing users to snap pics of themselves and then customize them with silly hats and glasses. So it also invented the Snapchat filter. While the picture quality left something to be desired, some artists liked its abstract grainy quality. Musician Neil Young even used a Game Boy Camera photo for the cover of his album Silver & Gold.
23 It (Somehow) Worked With A Sewing Machine ༒
Why so many people tried to make the Game Boy do things other than play games, we can't say. But everyone seems to have tried. Even the Singer sewing machine company got in on the action. They released the Izek in 2000 as a kid's first sewing machine. The Izek came with a Game Boy and cable that let you control it through the handheld. There were up to 80 patterns you could make and the machine could embroider letters and messages too. While the Izek didn't make much impact stateside, a Japanese version did better 💧and even had a Mario embroidery pack.
22 You Could 🌃Play It On Super Nintendo
Despite being the premier handheld, many people wanted to play their Game Boy games on thไeir TVs. Nintendo was happy to oblige. They released the Super Game Boy peripheral in 1994 to let🌌 people play Game Boy games on their Super Nintendos.
The Super Game Boy was no ordinary adapter though.
The SNES couldn't emulate the Game Boy's hardware properly, so the Super Game Boy had most of the same components as an actual Game Boy. The SNES ಞmostly just added s♏ome extra color, better sound, and easier multiplayer. Nintendo would do something similar on the GameCube.
21 Multiplayer Wa🍌s Real (Also A Bit Complicated)
Though it was mostly used by solo gamers, the Game Boy was built with multiplayer in mind. Indeed, when the handheld was first released a Link Cable was made available for people to play 2-player Tetris. Nintendo would later take it even further. An adaptor was released that let players hook up four Game Boys at once to play each other at games like F-1 Race and Yoshi's Cookie. But the craziest Game Boy multiplayer experience was the FPS Faceball 2000. With the right number of cables and adaptors, it could run games with up to 16 play𓄧ers. For the 90s, that's crazy.
20 🍌 It Had The Only Two Mario Games Without Bowser
All of Nintendo's classic franchises would make their way onto the Game Boy, but Mario's portables were different. While still platformers, the Super Mario Land ꦜgames diverged from the usual Mario story formula.
Neither of the games has Bowser as the main villain.
He doesn't even appear. In the first Super Mario Land, Mario is rescuing Princess Daisy, not Peach, from the villainous alien Tatanga. And Super Mario Land 2 doesn't have a stolen princess at all. That game is about Mario getting so🔴me magic coins back from Wario in▨ his first appearance. He and Daisy both debuted on the Game Boy.
19 ♑ ꦇ Play FM Radio
It's understandable to want to jam out to some tunes while gaming, but your options were limited back in the day. The Boom Box Boy accessory for Game Boy looked to change that. After plugging it into your handheld, it would tune into a local radio station and you could listen through the speaker or the attached headphones. The Boom Box Boy left a lot to be desired though. There was no way to tune to a specific station and it was always too loud. Worse, it covered the volume control when plugged in. Nea𒁃t idea, but pretty awful execution.
18 ꦉ Be Played On Playstation (S🎃ort Of)
We don't have to tell you that Nin🐼tendo and Sony are big rivals in the gaming world. They'd never m✱ake their systems cross-compatible. Luckily, third-party developers don't have to worry about that and can let us play Pokémon on PS1. Back in the late 90s, something called the "Gold Finger" was released. Though meant to play import titles, some versions had cartridge slots for Game Boy games. The device also had codes and cheats on it for less noble gamers. Info on the Gold Finger is scarce, but it must have been cool for those who had one.
17 Have A💮n Amazing Battery Life
Battery life is extremely important for a portable device. Anybody who runs around with a charger everywhere they go will tell you that. When it came to the original Game Boy, that wouldn't be an issue. Four AA batteries wo꧃uld get you up to thirty hours of playtime. That's pretty good even compared to some of today's devices. The Game Boy was able to pull off that amazing battery life because the hardware itself didn't require much power. Without a backlight and with a 🌺screen only able to display four shades of gray, the system had pretty minimal needs.