Game Boy: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

The Nintendo Game Boy was released in 1989. It was a handheld video game console that combined aspects of Nintendo's successful Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) television video game console with their earlier handheld electronic games marketed under the name "Game & Watch." It contained an 8-bit Z80 processor with a monochrome LCD display and 4-channel stereo sound. Shortly after the introduction of the Game Boy, Sega and Atari released handheld games, the Sega Game Gear and the Atari Lynx. Both had superior color LCD displays but both also suffered from short battery life and limited game availability. Nintendo shipped over 100 million units of the Game Boy and its successor, the Game Boy Color around the world.

All original Game Boys were bundled with Tetris, an addictive game developed in 1985 by Russian mathematician Alexey Pazhitnov, assisted by Dmitry Pavlovsky and Vadim Gerasimov. As with the NES, game software was stored on removable cartridges, allowing users to switch games at whim. Nintendo also marketed a number of accessories with this version of the Game Boy, including a camera and printer attachment.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date made: 1989
• user: Huynh, Richard
• patent holder: Nintendo Co., Ltd.
• maker: Nintendo Co., Ltd.
• Object Name: video game console
• Physical Description: plastic (overall material)
• Physical Description: metal (overall material)
• Physical Description: rubber (overall material)
• Physical Description: glass (overall material)
• Measurements: overall: 14.7 cm x 8.9 cm x 3.8 cm; 5 13/16 in x 3 1/2 in x 1 1/2 in
• Place Made: Japan
• ID Number: 2003.0344.01
• accession number: 2003.0344
• catalog number: 2003.0344.01
• Credit Line: Richard Huynh
• Data Source: National Museum of American History

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed.