Nintendo Game Boy at the age of 25 years

Nintendo Game Boy celebrates 25th birthday which falls on Monday (21/4).

The Japanese company was first released the Game Boy 8-bit on 21 April 1989, the same day that the Soviet troops pulled out of Afghanistan, the Chinese army to crush the demonstrators in Tiananmen Square, and the time when the Berlin Wall collapsed.

Referred to as "practical gaming machine", not many people thought it was going to be a console-based industries frontman and started a revolution in portable gaming like the Sony Walkman did for music mobile.

Game Boy also help change the Super Mario and Donkey Kong into a global franchise, so that users can replace their favorite game anywhere simply by inserting the cartridge into the device.

Kyoto-based Nintendo, the game started out as a card maker and then turned into a giant global game, not creating a portable game.

However, the price discount popular software Gameboy and then undermine competition and pushing mobile gaming into the mainstream.

"At one point, a portable game synonymous with Game Boy," said Serkan Toto, the gaming industry consultant, as quoted by AFP.

"That's the basis of what we call today's portable game, regardless of the game or game console smartphone, because the concept is basically the same ... that's a legacy Game Boy."

Mobility is very important, he added, if he wants to run away from nagging parents.

"With regular console I have to play in the family room where my parents were watching television - they will be angry because I play all the time," said a man who did not want to be named told AFP at the Super Potato retro game store in Tokyo.

The device also allows users to connect with other players via link cable, started the online gaming network which now number millions of users.

"In addition to making the game portable, great things he did was to establish the concept of networking, allowing users to connect and compete with each other," said Hirokazu Hamamura, managing director at research firm and publisher Kadokawa games in Tokyo.

A quarter century later, the company's financial condition lackluster.

Nintendo does not have a memorial event for the Game Boy which ironically became the initial formation portable gaming smartphones and tablets are creating a fierce competition between consoles such as the Nintendo Wii, Sony PlayStation and Microsoft Xbox.

Game Boy has stopped production since many years ago. However, when his prime, Nintendo sold nearly 119 million original Game Boy consoles and 81.5 million units of Game Boy Advance series of new generation was released in 2001.

A device with a red button and the cross-shaped pad may not look cool at the moment, but still pose a Game Boy nostalgia for many fans, including Jesus Mera of Spain who started playing the Game Boy Color at the age of 12 years.

"It is a revolution - You can play video games on the go," said the 26-year-old man while visiting Tokyo.

Mera was thrilled to find exactly the type Game Boy that he played with for hours while exploring the first game store in Akihabara.

He acknowledged the small screen size and available games are old fashioned, but "once that as this is enough for us."

"Right now we've got a lot of opportunity," said Mera.

But it is not a good thing for people like Yuki Lin, 21-year-old student, who sometimes difficult to adapt to the world of advanced 3D games where the movement seemed limitless and difficult to master.

"The games today are very complicated so that you can be confused what to do," he said, acknowledging that he sometimes felt "homesick" simple games with black dots and horizontal scroll.

 

Source : Antara