Nintendo Game Boy (Play It Loud! series)

The pinnacle of handheld video gaming entertainment. Its 'brick' body has sold millions upon millions of units all around the world, with an impressive library of games, despite the dot matrix graphical presentation.

Parents thought it was the best idea to keep their kid(s) from trouble; Some kids thought it was the "in-thing" and realize that if they don't own one, they'll never be able to be friends with any of their peers (the kinds of people I grew up with). When this historic piece of entertainment hit the markets, a whole new avenue of gaming opening the way, mainstream-wise. It's impossible not to even talk with someone who hasn't heard of the Game Boy, even if they've never owned/played one. It's about time this amazing console gets the SHOWSOTROS! treatment.

The pictures you see was my very first Game Boy—a yellow version—purchased at a Las Vegas Toys R Us store (if you're wondering, "JC" is my sister, with whom I shared the handheld with). The very first game I had along with this was, believe it or not, Kirby's Block Ball. I was in love with this thing. Today, kids are tied to their smartphones, but during my time, I was tied to the Game Boy playing nice games of Kirby. It was this device where I learned about battery life, different battery brands, the AC adapter (sold separately), accessories to add light on the screen and much more. That time, my Game Boy library wasn't as great compared to today, however, I did get titles such as Super Mario Land, Donkey Kong Land, Disney's Aladdin, Zelda: Link's Awakening Pokémon and a few others. A slew of technological advancements led me to outgrow the Game Boy, but I can't ever forget the goodness, the challenges, the struggles and the fun it brought me. And if you grew up with the same people with the same mindset as I did, that is owning one to make someone a friend of yours, yes the Game Boy helped me connect with people.

The Play It Loud! series made the Game Boy look edgy but trendy, and something you feel like you ought to have when you look at it. Big high-fives to Nintendo's marketing team for that. Although it is dot matrix, or we could say "black and white," it has a Contrast knob for adjustment. The volume is quite loud and is crisp, even hearing it from the headphone jack located at the bottom of the handheld. You may have noticed the ridges behind the console where the buttons and Directional pad are. If I'm not mistaken, it's a grip to keep hold of the handheld, in case your hands begin to sweat during the heat of the game. The top left is the ON-OFF switch—a hard-sounding click that anyone sitting around can immediately know that you, or someone else in the room, is about to play a nice game on the Game Boy. That sound never gets old. Anyway, back in that ridged area is the battery compartment requiring 4 AA batteries. Once again, kids today will never understand the hardship of having to invest in purchasing batteries. Even companies released button-activated batteries that tell you if the battery life is still "GOOD"—remember those? The top battery brands became too expensive for me at the time that I took hold and notice of batteries from dollar stores. Upon my investigation and testing, I found no real difference (if knowing how to preserve your play time and/or properly "scheduling" a point in a game where you think on how to pass/defeat, then battery life wasn't too much an issue—or was I the only one who thought this way?). Whatever it was, and being that today's batteries are mostly rechargeable, these were things I learned simply by playing on the Game Boy. Oh, and yes, my parents that time warned me about playing too long but that's expected.

Often dubbed the "brick" Game Boy, this console has brought eternal joy to both casual and hardcore gamers alike....and a ticket to friendship (yeah, I know). Also reminiscing the days where bringing and playing this at school would end up getting confiscated by teachers also became a slight opportunity to expose a kid's rebellious antics, depending how far s/he would go. Knowing that Nintendo piled in millions with hits such as Tetris only proved what a hot commodity the Game Boy was. The answer is simple: you can't play Pokémon unless you own a Game Boy. In addition, game companies and programmers composed games which used the entire machine power this unit offered, having released amazing RPGs for this console such as Zelda and Final Fantasy, with beautiful sounding music your ears has ever heard. It wasn't all those repetitive "bleep bloop" music either as soundtracks for those games were released on CD. The Nintendo Store in New York even showed an authentic Game Boy played during war and was destroyed....until the gamer found that even though the body was in bad shape, it still worked like a charm. Lastly, since the handheld's name is "Game Boy," feminists thought it was an inappropriate product name in response to the handheld's popularity. Gosh man....

One of the weirdest debates about the Game Boy was about the actual screen's color. Purists say it's actually true Black & White, while first-glancers either say it's a neon-ish evergreen; Some say it's near brown. Fellow "Ben Heck junkies" go as far as to modify the Game Boy with a built-in backlight, different color buttons, installation of rechargeable batteries, a chiptune music composer, a color screen, a system testing of overclocking and much more.

Anyway, the Game Boy is a console that will forever be immortalized in video game history.

Kris Caballero

Founder and operator of KCU Network, Kris has been writing since he managed a personal blog created back in late 2005. Despite publishing articles and reviews from time to time for the network's website, Kris enjoys studying the sciences, namely Math, playing old video/DOS games, reading non-fiction books and listening to sports radio.

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