======================================================================
=                           Game_Boy_Color                           =
======================================================================

                            Introduction
======================================================================
The  (GBC or CGB) is an 8-bit handheld game console developed by
Nintendo. It was released in Japan on October 21, 1998, and to
international markets that November. Compared to the original Game
Boy, the Game Boy Color features a color TFT screen rather than
monochrome, a CPU that can operate twice as fast, and four times as
much memory. It retains backward compatibility with games developed
for its predecessor. The Game Boy Color is part of the fifth
generation of video game consoles and primarily competed with the
WonderSwan, Neo Geo Pocket, and Genesis Nomad.

The handheld is slightly thicker, taller and has a smaller screen than
its immediate predecessor, the Game Boy Pocket, but is significantly
smaller than the original Game Boy. As with its predecessors, the Game
Boy Color has a custom 8-bit processor made by Sharp. The American
English spelling of the system's name, 'Game Boy Color', remains
consistent throughout the world.

The Game Boy Color received positive reviews upon release, and was
praised for its backwards compatibility with games from its
predecessor. It had a relatively brief lifespan, being succeeded by
the Game Boy Advance after less than three years on the market. The
Game Boy and the Game Boy Color combined have sold 118.69 million
units worldwide, making them the fourth best-selling system of all
time. Its best-selling games are 'Pokémon Gold' and 'Silver' (1999),
which shipped 23 million units worldwide.


                              History
======================================================================
The original Game Boy was first introduced in 1989. The device was a
monochrome handheld, and one of its competitors, the Atari Lynx,
featured a color screen. While the Lynx's color display was visually
impressive, it was criticized for its bulky size and poor battery
life. The Game Boy, in contrast, offered superior portability and
longevity, propelling it to immense popularity. Publicly, Nintendo
pledged to develop a color Game Boy, but only when technology
limitations could be addressed.

Internally, a team led by Satoru Okada, who played a key role in the
original Game Boy's design, was experimenting with color displays.
Their early-1990s prototype, codenamed "Project Atlantis," featured a
color screen and a powerful 32-bit processor from Sharp. However, the
team was not satisfied with the outcome and shelved further
development.

Despite the lack of color, consumer interest in the Game Boy remained
strong. In 1996, Nintendo released the slimmer Game Boy Pocket, and
the launch of the 'Pokémon' series that same year further boosted
sales. However, developers were losing interest in creating new games
for the aging platform.

Additional market pressure for Nintendo came in October 1997 when news
broke about Bandai's new handheld, the WonderSwan. The project was led
by Gunpei Yokoi, the engineer who led the development of the Game
& Watch series and the original Game Boy. Yokoi had left Nintendo
in 1996 following the commercial failure of his final project at the
company, the Virtual Boy. His departure caused a stir, with investors
dumping Nintendo stock, forcing a temporary halt on trading at the
Tokyo Stock Exchange. Yokoi was killed in a roadside accident in 1997
before the WonderSwan's release.

Faced with mounting pressure, Okada revisited Project Atlantis.
Prioritizing quickly bringing a device to market over processing
power, he dropped the 32-bit chip in favor of a faster version of the
existing Game Boy's 8-bit processor that would allow for a sooner
launch and maintain compatibility with the existing library of Game
Boy games.

The Game Boy Color was announced in March 1998 and released in Japan
that October. It received an international rollout throughout November
(amid the busy Christmas holiday shopping season), reaching North
America on the 18th, Europe on the 23rd, and Australasia on the 27th.
Launching at a price of , the Game Boy Color ultimately outsold the
WonderSwan, which went on sale in March 1999.

The Game Boy Color had a relatively short lifespan, being on the
market for only two and a half years before being succeeded by the
Game Boy Advance in 2001. The successor finally brought the 32-bit
processing power envisioned in Project Atlantis. Despite the new
system, the Game Boy Color remained in production, serving as a
budget-friendly alternative. The last units were reportedly sold by
March 2003.


                              Hardware
======================================================================
The Game Boy Color uses a custom system on a chip (SoC), integrating
the CPU and other major components into a single package, named the
CPU CGB by Nintendo and manufactured by the Sharp Corporation. While
the CPU CGB was a new design for the Game Boy Color, the technology
inside was largely an evolution of the then ten-year-old DMG-CPU SoC
used inside the original Game Boy.

Within the CPU CGB, the main processor is the same 'Sharp SM83' which
powered the original Game Boy. A hybrid between two other 8-bit
processors: the Intel 8080 and the Zilog Z80, the SM83 has the seven
8-bit registers of the 8080 (lacking the alternate registers of the
Z80) but uses the Z80's programming syntax and extra bit manipulation
instructions, along with adding new instructions to optimize the
processor for certain operations related to the way the hardware was
arranged. While in the original Game Boy the SM83 operated at a clock
rate of 4.194304 megahertz (MHz), games on Game Boy Color exclusive
cartridges can command the processor to operate in "dual-speed mode,"
doubling its frequency to run twice as fast at 8.388608 MHz. This
allowed developers to get double the processing power out of the
device when creating games exclusively for the Game Boy Color while
allowing the hardware to retain backward compatibility with existing
games.

The CPU CGB incorporates the 'Picture Processing Unit', a basic GPU
that renders visuals using 16 kilobytes (KB) of Video RAM, twice as
much as the original Game Boy. Games developed specifically for the
Game Boy Color could fully utilize this additional memory, enabling
enhanced effects and displaying up to 56 colors simultaneously out of
a selection of 32,768 colors. Programmers later developed the "high
color mode" technique, which involved rapidly switching color palettes
to display over 2,000 colors at once. This feature was utilized in
games such as 'The Fish Files', 'The New Addams Family' and 'Alone in
the Dark: The New Nightmare'. When a Game Pak compatible with the
original Game Boy is inserted, the additional Video RAM is disabled.

The display itself is a 2.3-inch (diagonal) thin-film transistor (TFT)
color liquid-crystal display (LCD), measuring  wide by  high. The
screen aspect ratio and resolution remain identical to the original
Game Boy at 160 pixels wide by 144 pixels high in a 10:9 format. Like
the original Game Boy and Game Boy Pocket before it and the Game Boy
Advance after it, the screen is passively reflective, with a surface
behind the screen that sends light back through the liquid crystal
pixel elements to the viewer. Because there is no backlight, the
device can be hard to use in dark environments.

Additionally, the SoC contains a 2 KB "bootstrap" ROM which is used to
start up the device, 127 B of High RAM that can be accessed faster
(similar to a CPU cache), and the 'Audio Processing Unit', a
programmable sound generator with four channels: a pulse wave
generation channel with frequency and volume variation, a second pulse
wave generation channel with only volume variation, a wave channel
than can reproduce any waveform recorded in RAM, and a white noise
channel with volume variation. The motherboard of the Game Boy Color
contains a 32 KB "work" RAM chip, four times more than the original
Game Boy.

The Game Boy Color features a D-pad (directional pad), four action
buttons ('A,' 'B,' 'START,' and 'SELECT'), and a sliding on-off switch
on the right side of the device. The volume is adjusted by a
potentiometer dial on the left side of the device. The left side also
has a Game Link Cable port for connecting to up to four Game Boy
devices for multiplayer games or data transfer. The port used on the
Game Boy Color is of a smaller design first introduced on the Game Boy
Pocket, and requires an adapter to link with the original Game Boy.
The Game Boy Color also offered a "high-speed" mode that would allow
data to be transmitted up 64 times faster over the Game Link Cable
than on the original Game Boy. The Game Boy Color added an infrared
communications port for wireless data transfer, but it was only
supported by a small number of games and consequently was not included
on the later Game Boy Advance line.


Technical specifications
==========================
Height
Width
Depth
Weight
Display 2.3-inch (diagonal) reflective thin-film transistor (TFT)
color liquid-crystal display (LCD)
Screen size (playable)
Resolution      160 (w) × 144 (h) pixels (10:9 aspect ratio)
Graphics
Frame rate      59.727500569606 Hz
Color support   32,768 colors, up to 56 simultaneously
System on a chip (SoC)  Nintendo CPU CGB
CPU     Sharp SM83 (custom Intel 8080/Zilog Z80 hybrid, 8-bit) @ 4.194304
or 8.388608 MHz
| **On SoC:** 2 KB ROM, 127 B High RAM, 16 KB Video RAM, 128 B
Audio RAM, 1.12KB object attribute RAM
| **Internal:** 32 KB RAM
| **External:** (in the game cartridge) up to 8 MB ROM, up to 128
KB RAM
Memory
|**Consumption:** 70-80 mAh
| **Internal:** 2 × AA batteries
| **External:** 0.6 W at 3 V DC from 2.35 mm × 0.75 mm coaxial
connector
Power
Battery life    Up to 10 hours
| **Channels:** 2 pulse wave, 1 wave, 1 noise
| **Outputs:** Built-in mono speaker, stereo 3.5mm headphone jack
Sound
I/O
Controls
|colspan=2|


Model colors
==============
Nintendo had seen success selling colored variations of the Play It
Loud! Game Boy and the Game Boy Pocket, so the company released the
Color in several case variations.

The logo for Game Boy Color spells out the word "COLOR" in the five
original colors in which the unit was manufactured: Berry (C), Grape
(O), Kiwi (L), Dandelion (O), and Teal (R). Another color released at
the same time was "Atomic Purple", made of a translucent purple
plastic. Other colors were sold as limited editions or in specific
countries.


                               Games
======================================================================
The Game Boy Color launched with an extensive game library, thanks to
its ability to play original Game Boy titles. At launch, it featured
three exclusive games: 'Pocket Bomberman', 'Tetris DX' and 'Wario Land
II'. Over time, the system amassed more than 900 titles, in addition
to the original Game Boy's catalog of over 1,000 games. While most
Game Boy Color titles were exclusive to the platform, about 30%
remained compatible with the original system. However, after 1999, the
majority of new Game Boy Color releases no longer supported the
original Game Boy.

Nintendo prohibited simple "colorized" re-releases of monochrome Game
Boy titles, requiring developers to implement meaningful gameplay
enhancements. These additions included new levels, characters, items,
or mechanics that leveraged the system's color capabilities. To ensure
these enhancements were significant, Nintendo mandated that they be
easily recognizable to players familiar with the monochrome version.
Many of these enhanced versions, often called "Deluxe" or "DX", became
some of the Game Boy Color's most popular titles, including 'Tetris
DX' and 'The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX'.

The Game Boy Color's improved display and enhanced processing power
also enabled more faithful ports of NES games, in contrast to the
heavily modified versions created for the original Game Boy due to its
monochrome display limitations. One of the most notable examples is
'Super Mario Bros. Deluxe', which showcased the Game Boy Color's
ability to deliver an authentic port of the NES classic.

'Tetris' for the original Game Boy is the best-selling game compatible
with Game Boy Color, 'Pokémon Gold' and 'Silver' are the best-selling
games developed primarily for it, and  'Pokémon Crystal' was the
best-selling Game Boy Color exclusive title.

The last Game Boy Color game ever released is the Japanese exclusive
'Doraemon no Study Boy: Kanji Yomikaki Master', on July 18, 2003. The
last game released in North America is 'Harry Potter and the Chamber
of Secrets' on November 15, 2002, while Europe's was 'Hamtaro:
Ham-Hams Unite!' released on January 10, 2003.

Beyond the platform's official titles, , an active online community
continues to create new titles for the Game Boy and Game Boy Color
through tools like GB Studio, a free and user-friendly game-building
engine that simplifies the process compared to manual coding. GB
Studio has been used by professional game studios like Krool Toys, who
created the promotional title Grimace's Birthday for McDonald's in
2023.


Cartridges
============
Samples of the color palettes and the key combinations to select them
on an original Game Pak

Games are stored on cartridges called Game Boy Game Paks, using
read-only memory (ROM) chips. Due to the limitations of the 8-bit
architecture of the device, the maximum ROM size the processor could
access at any time was 32 KB. Nintendo overcame this limitation with a
'Memory Bank Controller' (MBC) in the cartridge. This chip sits
between the processor and the ROM and can switch between banks of 32
KB ROM. Using this technology, Nintendo created Game Boy Color games
up to 8 megabytes in size. Game Paks can also provide additional
functionality to the Game Boy system. Some cartridges include up to
128 KB of RAM to increase performance, which can be battery-backed to
save progress when the handheld is off, real-time clock chips can keep
track of time even when the device is off, and Rumble Pak cartridges
added vibration feedback to enhance gameplay.

The Game Boy Color has backward compatibility with all original Game
Boy games. Three main Game Pak cartridge types for the handheld were
released:

* Original Game Boy Game Pak (gray case): The classic Game Boy
cartridges. The Game Boy Color applies a limited color palette (often
dark green) using four to ten colors to enhance games originally
intended to be presented in four shades of gray. The Game Boy Color's
"bootstrap" ROM was programmed with default color palettes for more
than 90 titles, mainly first-party releases and popular games from
other publishers. For games without a default, users can choose from
12 different palettes, including one which replicates the original
Game Boy's grayscale experience, by pressing down a combination of
buttons at startup.
* Color enhanced Game Boy Game Pak (black case): These cartridges can
use the full-color capabilities of the console (56 colors
simultaneously out of a palette of 32,768) while remaining compatible
with the original Game Boy where they are presented in four shades of
gray. This compatibility comes at the expense of not being able to
utilize the Game Boy Color's increased processing speed and memory.
* Game Boy Color Game Pak (clear case): Designed specifically for the
Game Boy Color, these cartridges feature the full-color range (56
colors simultaneously out of a palette of 32,768) and benefit from the
increased processing speed and memory of the Game Boy Color. Because
of this reliance on newer hardware, these games are incompatible with
the older monochrome Game Boy models.


                            Accessories
======================================================================
Nintendo released several add-ons for the Game Boy Color, including:

* Game Boy Camera: A cartridge-based digital camera that captures
low-resolution black-and-white images and includes built-in minigames
where players use their faces as avatars.
* Game Boy Printer: A thermal printer that produces hard copies of
Game Boy Camera images and supports printing content from games such
as 'Super Mario Bros. Deluxe', 'Donkey Kong Country', and 'Pokémon'
'versions Yellow, Gold, Silver, and Crystal'. Connects via a Game Link
Cable.
* Game Link Cable: Enables multiplayer gaming and data transfers
between Game Boy systems, notably used in the 'Pokémon' series
* Mobile Adapter GB: Connects the console to a mobile phone, utilizing
its cellular network for online interactions via the Mobile System GB
service, most notably for 'Pokémon Crystal'. Limited game support and
high costs led to low adoption. The service ended on December 18,
2002, and it was never released outside Japan due to wireless
incompatibilities.


Sales
=======
The Game Boy and Game Boy Color were both commercially successful,
selling 118.69 million units worldwide: 32.47 million in Japan, 44.06
million in the Americas, and 42.16 million in all other regions. At
the time of its discontinuation in 2003, the combined sales of all
Game Boy variants made it the best-selling game console of all time.
In later years, its sales were surpassed by the Nintendo DS,
PlayStation 2 and Nintendo Switch, making it the fourth-best-selling
console the second-best-selling handheld of all time, . Sales of the
device were in part driven by the success of 'Pokémon Gold and Silver'
and 'Pokémon Crystal', with combined sales of 29.5 million units,
making them one of the best selling-video games of all time.

Sales of the Game Boy Color were strong at launch. Nintendo of America
reported a sale of one million units from launch to December 1998, and
two million by July 1999. Retail chains in the United States reported
unexpectedly high demand for the console, with executives of FuncoLand
reporting "very pleasant and unpredicted" sales and Electronics
Boutique stating "the entire Game Boy Color line just exploded,
including accessories" upon release. Faced with high worldwide demand
and competitive retail pricing, retailers such as CompUSA sold out of
Game Boy Color stock in the weeks before the 1998 Christmas season.


Critical reception
====================
Reception of the Game Boy Color was positive, with critics praising
the addition of color and improved clarity of the display.

Affiliated publications such as 'Total Games' praised the handheld for
its "bright, colorful picture that can be viewed in direct light",
backward compatibility features preserving the "vast catalogue of
original Game Boy games", and improved technical performance.
'Computer and Video Games' praised the Game Boy Color for making the
Game Boy library of games "look better than ever - everything is
crystal clear, bright and in [color]". Writing for 'GameSpot', Chris
Johnston stated that the display was "crystal clear" and free of
motion blur, stating that 'Tetris DX' was the "killer app" of the
launch titles on the platform.

Milder reviews included those by 'Arcade', who said that while that
the colors were "very impressive" they were "not as eyeball-popping as
you might have hoped for [...] it's mostly seaweed greens, rusty
browns, timid yellows and the like". They concluded that "nothing
about [the Game Boy Color] is very radical" but said the device was
"Game Boy as it always should have been". Reviewers pointed out other
drawbacks including that the system was still using an 8-bit
architecture when competitors had moved onto 16-bit handheld systems
and that the non-backlit screen required that the user be in a well
lit area.


Legacy
========
Commentary on the legacy of the Game Boy Color has been shaped by the
perception that the handheld was as an incremental and transitional
upgrade of the Game Boy rather than a completely new device. Author
Jeff Ryan noted the Game Boy Color had a reputation as a "legacy
machine" that found success mostly due to its backward compatibility,
as "few wanted to lose all the 'Dr. Mario' and 'Pokémon' cartridges
they had amassed over the years." Quoted in 'Retro Gamer', Blitz Games
Studios developer Bob Pape acknowledged that although "backwards
compatibility more or less defined (the) Game Boy Color", the handheld
"ticked all the right boxes with regards to size, battery life,
reliability and most importantly backwards compatibility".

Positive assessments of the legacy of the Game Boy Color have focused
on the merits of its game library, particularly for its third-party
and import titles. Travis Fahs of 'IGN' noted while "the Game Boy
Color's life was relatively brief", it "built up a small library of
excellent games", including 'Wario Land 3' and 'Pokémon Gold and
Silver', and a "unique" and "previously unheard of" line of successful
third-party games, including 'Dragon Warrior Monsters', 'Metal Gear
Solid' and 'Yu-Gi-Oh! Dark Duel Stories'. Ashley Day of 'Retro Gamer'
noted that the handheld had an "overlooked" status, stating "the Game
Boy Color (has) an unfair reputation as the one Nintendo handheld with
few worthwhile titles, but this simply isn't the case...returning to
the Game Boy Color now reveals a wealth of great games that you never
knew existed, especially those available on import."


                              See also
======================================================================
* List of Game Boy accessories


License
=========
All content on Gopherpedia comes from Wikipedia, and is licensed under CC-BY-SA
License URL: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
Original Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Boy_Color

You are viewing proxied material from gopherpedia.com. The copyright of proxied material belongs to its original authors. Any comments or complaints in relation to proxied material should be directed to the original authors of the content concerned. Please see the disclaimer for more details.