Happy 20th Birthday Nintendo Gameboy

The game system we grew up is celebrating another birthday yet it still seems as new as the day it was released, albeit through an occasional facelift or two. It’s been twenty years since the release of Nintendo’s finger-numbing handheld video game. It’s almost impossible to believe but this little electronic gem sold an estimated 200 million units worldwide.

In a time when video games had moved from the arcades into family homes, the original Game Boy sold for 80 dollars (at today's exchange rate) and was the first portable console with changeable game cartridges. It was marketed as "35 hours of games in your pocket with just four batteries." The Game Boy was first associated with games ranging from Tetris to the endless adventures of Pikachu and its Pocket Monsters friends but has since kicked off a revolution in gaming software.

Consoles of the Game Boy series including the Pocket, Lite and Color versions have since sold 118 million units, while the follow-up Game Boy Advance series sold 82 million consoles. Nintendo’s portable consoles have grown up with their users and in 2004 Nintendo launched the dual-screen or DS portable console, which has since sold more than 100 million units around the world.

So here’s to you Nintendo for designing such a great game system and providing a 24-hour babysitting service for our youth for the last 20 years. Maybe next year, I’ll take the Gameboy out to the strip club, pop a frosty and from then on he’ll be known as Gameman.