Gaming : Nintendo GameBoy (Fourth Gen)

Nintendo Game Boy

Technical Specifications

CPU: 8-bit Z80 CMOS (4.19MHz)

RAM: 8KB

Colors: 4 (Grayscale)

Sprites: 40

Sprite Size: 8x16 or 8x8 pixels

Resolution: 160x144 pixels

Sound: 4 channel audio

Graphical Changes : 

Changes are a must when comparing it to a previous gen console, above that this is a hand held console which means more hardware must be placed in a smaller space. It had a smaller resolution of 160 × 144 and also a much lower colour count of 2,this means it only had the capability of displaying p to 4 shades of grey. These reduced specifications are inevitable and expected when producing a hand held console compared to a normal one.

History

Created by Gunpei Yokoi along with the the Nintendo Research and development team. the same people who created the Nintendo Game and watch series and also some popular games for the NES.

It is an 8-bit handheld console, released in Japan on April 21st 1989, North America in August 1990 and the "Tata game Boy" as it is known in southern Asia.

NES

Game & Watch 

The Gameboy was a combination of both the Nintendo Entertainment system and the Game & Watch series, it was the second hand held console to use the cartridge system after the Microvision hand held Gameboy by Milton Bradley's and was originally bundled with the mega popular game Tetris.

Many other technological superior handheld consoles were released during its life time though this didn't hinder its success. Between it and the Game Boy colour 118.69 million units where sold world wide.During its release in America in a matter of weeks the Nintendo entire shipment of 1 million units where sold.

Nintendo Gameboy Commercial

The Device

The main controls of the Gameboy are found at the bottom half at the front of the console, also sporting 4 operational buttons A, B, Select and Start. along side those it had the directional pad. At the top of the Game Boy it had a sliding on and off switch and a slot where the cartridge is to be placed. The Nintendo Company recommended that the user should leave the cartridge in the dive whilst not using it to prevent any dust or other dirt to get inside the console. 

Centre for computing history . 2015. Nintendo Game Boy. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/4033/Nintendo-Game-Boy/. [Accessed 08 April 15].