Happy 25th Birthday, Nintendo Game Boy!

[MyNameIsVince]

I got a Game Boy back in 92....or 93? I forget which year. Anyway, so because I got it then, I didn't get Tetris with my system. I did have Super Mario Land (not sure if it was my first GB game I got though, it may have, but it could have been 6 Golden Coins), and a few others.

Probably the game that I remember the most during that era was Donkey Kong Land. Why? Because when it came out, my mom was pregnant with my brothers at the time and whenever my family had to go visit a doctor for something pregnancy related, I took my Game Boy and Donkey Kong Land with me. I remember specifically playing that game in the hospital when my mom was in the delivery room waiting to give birth. So for that reason, the memories of the Game Boy are very strong for me. Odd thing was, after about 1996, I didn't care much about portable gaming at all. I attribute it to me abusing my old walkman and CD walkman in 98/99 trying to get hip with all the nu-metal and such.

So funny thing was, while I was mostly out of portable gaming in the late 90s to the early/mid 2000s, my brothers were embracing it. Occasionally borrowing my brothers' GBA games would eventually get me back into portable gaming again. Funny thing is, now my brothers game almost exclusively on their smartphones/tablets. I don't even have a smartphone. It's like some weird ass reversal now.

Anyway, I guess I should rightfully give thanks to the Game Boy, because otherwise....who knows.

PS - favorite GB game? A tie between Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3, and Donkey Kong (aka Donkey Kong '94).

PSS - I did eventually get Tetris for the Game Boy many years later. While I appreciate its place in portable gaming history, It's probably my least favorite Tetris out of the ones I have. Don't get me wrong, it's good, but there are other versions of Tetris I'd rather play. Hell, my go to choice for portable Tetris goodness is this one:

[Konacha]

Wow, 25 years old. I remember when my parents got the me the original Game Boy. I was in 2nd grade at the time it came out, but a few years later I got rid of it when I got the Super Game Boy since I hadn't been playing the handheld itself for a long time. I kept a few of the games and had games like Kirby's Adventure 2, Super Mario Land, TMNT: Fall of the Foot Clan and of course Tetris. I was never good at Tetris but my mother loved the game which is why I kept it.

I didn't get the system again until the Game Boy Pocket came out so I could play Pokemon. Since earlier I read about Pokemon in Nintendo Power. Oh man, I remember that year very well. I worked all summer to get money to buy a Game Boy Pocket, Pokemon Red and Zelda: OoT.

In fact, I remember I brought my Game Boy Pocket in the local Toys R Us during the summer. It was kinda funny. I had the money for the system and when my mom, grandmother and my sister went into Toys R Us I went right to the games. I pulled the ticket out (which is what they used back then. If you wanted a game you would use a ticket and pay for the game then with the ticket and proof of payment they would get the system from the back). My mom and grandmother were wondering why I wanted the game system. I told them that it was for a game to be released a few months later and I didn't want to buy both the game and system at the time since I was worried the silver color I wanted would be sold out when the game would be released.

However, they wanted me to get Yoshi's Story which had also came out a while ago since I did like it and my sister really loved Yoshi (she was 3 at the time). I wanted the Game Boy Pocket and at the end of the day I got both the Game Boy Pocket and Yoshi's Story since they brought Yoshi's Story anyway so my sister could play it.

[darsparx]

In fact, I remember I brought my Game Boy Pocket in the local Toys R Us during the summer. It was kinda funny. I had the money for the system and when my mom, grandmother and my sister went into Toys R Us I went right to the games. I pulled the ticket out (which is what they used back then. If you wanted a game you would use a ticket and pay for the game then with the ticket and proof of payment they would get the system from the back). My mom and grandmother were wondering why I wanted the game system. I told them that it was for a game to be released a few months later and I didn't want to buy both the game and system at the time since I was worried the silver color I wanted would be sold out when the game would be released.

Oh the ticket system...I remember thee well...they still used that in the early 2000's if I remember since that was one of the first and last times I went to toys r us for games...I thought i remembered such a system of doing that but I couldn't really remember what it was until now....

(please someone tell me I'm not the only one without a original gb that really wants to get one just for the heck of having it?)

[Sano]

YAY! Happy Birthday!