
Description
The original Game Boy was released on April 21, 1989 in Japan and in August, 1989 in the United States. Based around a Z80 processor, it had a tiny black and green reflective LCD screen, an eight-way directional pad, and two action buttons. It played games from ROM-based media contained in small plastic detachable units called cartridges (sometimes abbreviated as carts). The game that really pushed it into the upper reaches of success was Tetris. Originally only available in neutral grey color, Nintendo released several colored Game Boy models in 1995, advertising them in the Play it Loud! campaign.
Technical specifications
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CPU
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Custom 8-bit Sharp Z80 at 4.194304 MHz (has a slightly different instruction set than a standard Z80, and integrated sound generation)
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RAM
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8 kByte internal S-RAM
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Video RAM
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8 kByte internal
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ROM
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256 kbit, 512 kbit, 1 Mbit, 2 Mbit and 4 Mbit and 8 Mbit cartridges
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Sound
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4 channel stereo sound. The unit only has one speaker, but headphones provide stereo sound
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Display
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Reflective LCD 160 x 144 pixels
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Screen Size
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66 mm (2.6 in) diagonal
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Color Palette
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4 shades of "gray" (green to black)
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Communication
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Up to 4 Game Boys can be linked together via serial ports
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Power
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6 V, 0.7 W (4 AA batteries provide ~35 hours)
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Dimensions
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90mm(W) x 148mm(H) x 32mm(D)/3.5 x 5.8 x 1.3 (inch)
Name |
Version |
OS |
Size |
Date |
|
1.12 |
Windows |
263 Kb |
01/05/2006 |
|
2.02 |
Windows |
421 Kb |
12/12/2005 |
|
1.03b |
Windows |
223 Kb |
08/15/2003 |
|
2.03 |
Windows |
141 Kb |
07/07/2004 |
|
7.7 |
Windows |
263 Kb |
08/06/2003 |
|
1.0.3 |
Windows |
73 Kb |
08/15/2003 |
|
0.85 |
Windows |
306 Kb |
04/08/2005 |
|
Beta 5 |
Windows |
118 Kb |
08/15/2003 |
|