Game Boy Color
Game Boy Color is a handheld video game console created by Nintendo and released in Japan in 1998-10-21 and later that same year in the USA and Europe. In addition to being backward compatible with all original Game Boy games, it gave the developers of new games access to limited color, a faster CPU, and larger ROM cartridges for more impressive games.
Similar to how the Game Boy Advance is like a portable SNES, the Game Boy Color is like a portable NES. However, since it was released 15 years later, the games made for the GBC don't have 1980s style game play, but that of the late 1990s and early 2000s.
The processor is a system-on-chip called the Nintendo CPU CGB. It consists of an 8-bit Sharp SM83 CPU (a custom Intel 8080/Zilog Z80 hybrid), a color version of the Picture Processing Unit, and the same custom APU which can process two pulse waves, a PCM 4-bit wave sample channel, and a noise channel. The display uses a color LCD with a resolution of 160x144 pixels divided into 8x8 pixel tiles.
The Game Boy Color, and several of its variants, are included in the Controller Font.
Contents
Personal
I've only ever picked up a Game Boy Color in real life a handful of times, but I have played several games using emulators. I haven't liked that many games made for it.
I do not own, nor have I ever owned, a Game Boy Color, but I have played dozens of games for it.
Games
- See all Game Boy Color Games.
These are the Game Boy Color games that are important to me:
Review
Good
- The addition of color, though still quite limited, was a step in the right direction.
- Being backward compatible with the entire Game Boy library was very nice.
- Having a built-in color palette index for original Game Boy games was a great way to add more life to older games.
- The multitude of color cases was a nice addition.
Bad
- As a platform, there just weren't that many good games released for it.
- The majority of the platform's most popular titles are just remakes of existing Game Boy or NES games. This makes it clear that Nintendo never really took the platform seriously and just used it as a stop-gap until they could release the Game Boy Advance they had been planning since 1996.
- Despite being released a full decade after the original Game Boy, the system didn't see much in the way of innovation.
Ugly
- Nothing.