Console 'Game Boy' turns 25, inspires today's portable gaming

You’ve almost certainly played some game on your phone today. Some beautiful, high-resolution game with a rainbow of colours and fluid animation. You’ve got a lot of power in your pocket these days, but portable gaming owes a lot to the chunky old Game Boy, which just turned 25 years.

Released in Japan on April 21, 1989, it made its way to the United States that August. The original Game Boy was the first in a long line of smaller, slimmer models one of which you’ve almost certainly owned. Still, that original was well worth its bulk and appetite for AA batteries for the magical ability to play Tetris on the school bus.

In light of today’s cellular pocket monsters, the original Game Boy’s specs are adorably meager.

> An 8-bit, 4.19 MHz CPU

> 8 kB of video RAM

> 2-bit color pallette with four (magnificent) shades of gray

> A wonderful 160 × 144 pixel LCD display

All that said, you’re bound to have fonder memories of your very first Game Boy than any of the touchscreen beasts that followed in its wake. There’s just something about a gray monolith with purple buttons that can really work its way into your heart.

Happy birthday, little dude.