Ultimately, it does not matter for those who contemplate the GBC its personal system or not — it is a part of a lineage of transportable perfection and wonderful little factor. In honour of the event, right here, a handful of us on Team Nintendo Life look again fondly on a console that, for therefore many avid gamers, opened a door to an entire world of transportable Nintendo goodness…
Ollie Reynolds, workers author
I distinctly bear in mind getting my Game Boy Color on Christmas Day again in 1999. Pokémon Blue had launched only a few months earlier within the UK and I used to be already completely enamoured with the TV sequence at this level, so my pleasure was by way of the roof.
Those early days had been a few of the better of my gaming life. For one, the Game Boy Color was the primary piece of {hardware} that I might wholly name my very own; up till that time, something I’d performed both belonged to my older brother or had been handed down when he upgraded to the following large factor.
Naturally, then, I carried my Game Boy Color in all places and sunk absurd quantities of hours into Pokémon. I used to be in love with the franchise at this level, and I bear in mind my pals and I’d hyperlink up throughout our lunch breaks in school and commerce Pokémon. To today, it’s nonetheless the one Pokémon recreation that I’ve managed to 100% full, and it’s truthfully not even shut.
One factor that makes me chuckle to today, nonetheless, is that I used to suppose the console’s batteries had been working out each time my Pokémon bought poisoned in battle. I didn’t realise that the flickering display was linked to the standing change and I truthfully thought the hand-held was merely struggling to maintain its lights on. Please inform me I’m not the one one to make this error!
Alana Hagues, deputy editor
I haven’t got something earth-shattering to say in regards to the Game Boy Color. It was the primary console I might actually name “my very own” — lime-green colored, so it stood out subsequent to all the opposite house consoles I needed to share with my brother. But the GBC? It was mine.
Like any child within the late ’90s, it was all Pokémon. I took my GBC to high school, and I managed to seize a hyperlink cable and commerce Pokémon with my pals — although we positively bought into bother for attempting to do it between lessons. Hamtaro: Ham-Hams Unite!, Super Mario Land, Mario Golf, and Pokémon Pinball grew to become my companions for sneaky late nights and distracted weekend mornings, however mainline Pokémon was my true obsession.
Pokémon Yellow was my very first RPG because of this. It taught me in regards to the technique of turn-based battles and the enjoyable of exploration — and Pokémon Silver solely expanded upon that just a few years later. I grew to become a Pokémaniac earlier than an RPG pal, although, and that meant I desperately needed a kind of Yellow GBCs.
The distinctive colors of every console, and the restricted version, made me develop an actual appreciation for distinctive {hardware} designs. My eyes all the time gentle up at fascinating console colors because of the GBC, and even when there is a collaboration I’m not concerned about, I’ll all the time take time to admire the variations in a console.
Like a lot of my childhood, nonetheless, my GBC is not a part of my small assortment, however I’ve to surprise how completely different my tastes could be had I not performed Pokémon Yellow all these years in the past. It’s the explanation I like enjoying video games whereas wrapped up in a blanket, regardless of the climate.
Kate Gray, contributor
I had the Atomic Purple GBC, like all of the cool youngsters did. It was largely a Tetris-in-the-car machine — I nonetheless get goosebumps each time I see a rocket taking off — however I slowly amassed a group of surprisingly good film diversifications, too, just like the Toy Story Racer recreation that Traveller’s Tales made, or the Harry Potter recreation that cemented itself in my nostalgia gland like one thing I ought to most likely see the physician about.
Here’s a enjoyable little anecdote for you, although: I unintentionally Pavlov’d myself into needing to pee each time I play video games within the automobile, and it is all due to the Game Boy Color. Some neuron connection in my mind managed to hyperlink “video video games within the automobile” with “I actually need to pee,” as a result of, nicely, as a child, these are the 2 issues that you just do within the automobile, and ever since then, I am unable to play ANYTHING within the automobile with out my mind going “OOOH, OOH, I KNOW THIS ONE.” No DS, no 3DS, no Switch. You’d suppose the elevated graphical constancy would bamboozle my mind out of recognising it as “video video games,” however no.
Sadly, I haven’t got my GBC anymore, and I do not truly know why. Did I commerce it in for my Game Boy SP, which I additionally haven’t got anymore (it was the silver one)? Did I depart it behind at a grandparent’s home? Did I drop it within the ocean, like Rose on the finish of Titanic? I suppose we’ll by no means discover out. RIP, little GBC.
Gavin Lane, editor
The Game Boy Color was my first Game Boy — the machine on which I performed Pokémon, Link’s Awakening, and Super Mario Land 2. Yep, I by no means needed to take care of the DMG’s blurry display again within the day.
One of my fondest recollections is enjoying, of all issues, Super Mario Bros. Deluxe — extra particularly, trying on the further modes and functions in that individual port. With the calendar, you had been in a position to skip years forward and discern what day of the week, say, twenty first October 2023 was going to be. Amazing!… Okay, maybe not superb, however in these nascent days of the web whenever you could not simply ask Siri what day it might be a thousand years from now, that little perform on the SMB GBC port felt like magical prognostication.
I’ve nonetheless bought my unique Teal system, and it is in glowing nick, too. Obviously, my OG console has a particular place in my coronary heart, however final yr a present from fellow Nintendo Lifer Liam Doolan had me reevaluating issues. He very generously despatched me an Ozzie! Ozzie! Ozzie! variant from his Australian homeland, and it is a factor of magnificence!
I’ve bought half a thoughts to mod it with a brand new backlit display, however I’m additionally hesitant to crack into such a comparatively uncommon console. Maybe I ought to give my Teal the remedy?
Ah, we love you GBC. Let us know your Game Boy Color recollections and favorite video games within the feedback, and tell us the place you stand on it being a part of the Game Boy ‘household’ of programs on this ballot…
