I’m doing an assignment on the evolution of nintendo hand-held games, and i would like to know a timeline and brief history of each game boy and DS.
sources of information would be very nice 
The year is 1989. Nintendo had a near-monopoly on the video game market with the NES, and they are looking to expand with a handheld system. Enter the Game Boy. It’s a huge, 1.3 inch thick brick with an ugly grey casing and a spinach-colored monochrome screen, and required 4 AA batteries. The hardware was nowhere near cutting-edge, even for 1989. But it was successful for the same reason the NES was; it had amazing games. Tetris was the gaming craze at the time, being played on computers everywhere. Nintendo had managed to wrangle out the rights, and Tetris came packaged with the Game Boy. It was a huge smash hit; Game Boys were being bought not only by kids, but by adults who frequently traveled by train or plane. Sega and Atari quickly made their own, technologically advanced handhelds. Even though these systems had backlit screens, and played games in color, they were not as successful, mainly because they used a ridiculous amount of batteries, and they cost almost twice as much as a Game Boy. For the next 6 years, Nintendo had cornered the market.
If you owned a SNES, you could also purchase an a neat little gadget called the Super Game Boy. It wasn’t a handheld at all, it was actually an adapter that fit into the cartridge slot of the SNES. Not only could you play your favorite Game Boy games on your TV, you could also set it to convert the different shades of grey into; (gasp!) color! Goodbye, dull black bricks; now you could play Tetris in any of 32 different color pall ates!
But by 1995, technology began to leave the original Game Boy behind. Playing games on a huge brick with a pea-green screen might have been cool in 1989, but it just wouldn’t cut it in 1995. Nintendo finally ended up releasing a redesign, called the Game Boy Pocket. This new version still played the same games as the original Game Boy, but came in different colors, was much slimmer and shorter, used only two AAAs, and had a larger, (regular grey, not green) screen. It was mildly successful in Japan, but really took off in the US.
Most people neglect to mention the Game Boy Light, since it was only released in Japan in 1998, but I’ll describe it anyways. It was basically the same as the Pocket, except it used AAs instead of AAAs, and, of course, had a backlight. It’s fairly rare; they sell on eBay for around $125.
Also in 1998 came the Game Boy Color. You guessed it, it had color graphics! Like the Super Game Boy, any of your favorite Game Boy games could have the four different shades of grey expanded into 12 different color palettes. As if that weren’t enough, games were being made specially for the Color that came with full color graphics. Most of these games could still be played in monochrome on an older Game Boy. Since the graphics were (still) 8-bit, it could be compared to a handheld NES system, in fact, there were quite a few NES ports made into Color games.
For those gamers who also owned a N64, you could purchase Transfer Pak, which plugged into the back of the N64 controller. Really, this was only a good idea to buy if you owned any Pokemon games, because you could transfer Pokemon from the Game Boy Color into the N64 game Pokemon Stadium and battle with them in 64-bit graphics. It also had a Super Game Boy like mode where you could play a Color game on a TV set, but it only was supported for the Pokemon games.
3 years later, the Game Boy was revolutionized again with the Game Boy Advance. It had everything; widescreen, 32-bit graphics, two new L and R buttons, a "landscape" form factor. But the major change was the games. Half the size, yet four times the graphics capabilities. There were quite a few SNES ports, but the best games were the originals, such as Sonic Advance 2 or Zelda: The Minish Cap. (My personal favorite was WarioWare: Twisted; the rumble/motion pack feels on par with the Wii-mote.) Of course, it featured complete backwards compatibility with Game Boy and Color games.
The Advance was redesigned two years later: the new version was dubbed the Game Boy Advance SP. While it had the same hardware as the original Advance, the design was changed to a folding clamshell. It also included a Rechargable battery (A first for the Game Boy) and a frontlit screen. Later models, dubbed the SP+, included a better backlit screen.
With the success of the Advance, Nintendo also created a successor to the Super Game Boy. This new device, dubbed the Game Boy Player, plugged into the bottom of a Gamecube. It was more or less an Advance for the big screen.
In 2004, Nintendo decided to introduce a second, seperate line of handhelds. The nintendo ds. Two backlit, 16:9 screens instead of one, including a touchscreen. Stereo music. Two new X and Y buttons. Wireless connectivity. A built-in microphone. Free downloadable game demoes from your favorite store. Internet access Compatibility with Advance games. All in a… er…bulky design, but come on, we’ll forgive them
Back in the Game Boy line, the
The History of Nintendo Game Boy:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Boy_line
The History of Nintendo DS:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_DS
References :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Boy_line
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_DS
The year is 1989. Nintendo had a near-monopoly on the video game market with the NES, and they are looking to expand with a handheld system. Enter the Game Boy. It’s a huge, 1.3 inch thick brick with an ugly grey casing and a spinach-colored monochrome screen, and required 4 AA batteries. The hardware was nowhere near cutting-edge, even for 1989. But it was successful for the same reason the NES was; it had amazing games. Tetris was the gaming craze at the time, being played on computers everywhere. Nintendo had managed to wrangle out the rights, and Tetris came packaged with the Game Boy. It was a huge smash hit; Game Boys were being bought not only by kids, but by adults who frequently traveled by train or plane. Sega and Atari quickly made their own, technologically advanced handhelds. Even though these systems had backlit screens, and played games in color, they were not as successful, mainly because they used a ridiculous amount of batteries, and they cost almost twice as much as a Game Boy. For the next 6 years, Nintendo had cornered the market.
If you owned a SNES, you could also purchase an a neat little gadget called the Super Game Boy. It wasn’t a handheld at all, it was actually an adapter that fit into the cartridge slot of the SNES. Not only could you play your favorite Game Boy games on your TV, you could also set it to convert the different shades of grey into; (gasp!) color! Goodbye, dull black bricks; now you could play Tetris in any of 32 different color pall ates!
But by 1995, technology began to leave the original Game Boy behind. Playing games on a huge brick with a pea-green screen might have been cool in 1989, but it just wouldn’t cut it in 1995. Nintendo finally ended up releasing a redesign, called the Game Boy Pocket. This new version still played the same games as the original Game Boy, but came in different colors, was much slimmer and shorter, used only two AAAs, and had a larger, (regular grey, not green) screen. It was mildly successful in Japan, but really took off in the US.
Most people neglect to mention the Game Boy Light, since it was only released in Japan in 1998, but I’ll describe it anyways. It was basically the same as the Pocket, except it used AAs instead of AAAs, and, of course, had a backlight. It’s fairly rare; they sell on eBay for around $125.
Also in 1998 came the Game Boy Color. You guessed it, it had color graphics! Like the Super Game Boy, any of your favorite Game Boy games could have the four different shades of grey expanded into 12 different color palettes. As if that weren’t enough, games were being made specially for the Color that came with full color graphics. Most of these games could still be played in monochrome on an older Game Boy. Since the graphics were (still) 8-bit, it could be compared to a handheld NES system, in fact, there were quite a few NES ports made into Color games.
For those gamers who also owned a N64, you could purchase Transfer Pak, which plugged into the back of the N64 controller. Really, this was only a good idea to buy if you owned any Pokemon games, because you could transfer Pokemon from the Game Boy Color into the N64 game Pokemon Stadium and battle with them in 64-bit graphics. It also had a Super Game Boy like mode where you could play a Color game on a TV set, but it only was supported for the Pokemon games.
3 years later, the Game Boy was revolutionized again with the Game Boy Advance. It had everything; widescreen, 32-bit graphics, two new L and R buttons, a "landscape" form factor. But the major change was the games. Half the size, yet four times the graphics capabilities. There were quite a few SNES ports, but the best games were the originals, such as Sonic Advance 2 or Zelda: The Minish Cap. (My personal favorite was WarioWare: Twisted; the rumble/motion pack feels on par with the Wii-mote.) Of course, it featured complete backwards compatibility with Game Boy and Color games.
The Advance was redesigned two years later: the new version was dubbed the Game Boy Advance SP. While it had the same hardware as the original Advance, the design was changed to a folding clamshell. It also included a Rechargable battery (A first for the Game Boy) and a frontlit screen. Later models, dubbed the SP+, included a better backlit screen.
With the success of the Advance, Nintendo also created a successor to the Super Game Boy. This new device, dubbed the Game Boy Player, plugged into the bottom of a Gamecube. It was more or less an Advance for the big screen.
In 2004, Nintendo decided to introduce a second, seperate line of handhelds. The Nintendo DS. Two backlit, 16:9 screens instead of one, including a touchscreen. Stereo music. Two new X and Y buttons. Wireless connectivity. A built-in microphone. Free downloadable game demoes from your favorite store. Internet access Compatibility with Advance games. All in a… er…bulky design, but come on, we’ll forgive them
Back in the Game Boy line, the
References :