Game Boy Color
Manufacturer	Nintendo
Product family	Game Boy line
Type	Handheld game console
Generation	Fifth generation era
First available	JP October 21, 1998 NA November 1998 EU 1999 AUS 1999
CPU	Custom, Zilog Z80-alike
Media	Cartridge
Units sold	Worldwide: 118. A console manufacturer is a company that manufactures and distributes Video game consoles It is also known as a first-party Video game publisher. is a Multinational corporation headquartered in Kyoto Japan founded on The line is a line of battery -powered Handheld game consoles sold by Nintendo. A handheld game console is a lightweight portable electronic machine for playing Video games Unlike Video game consoles the controls screen and speakers Video games were introduced as a commercial entertainment medium in 1971, becoming the basis for an important entertainment industry in the late 1970s/early 1980s in the United The fifth-generation era (more commonly known as the 32 bit era and occasionally after the release of the Nintendo 64, the 64 bit era and more rarely For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Japan topics. Events 1512 - Martin Luther joins the theological faculty of the University of Wittenberg. Year 1998 ( MCMXCVIII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar) Events Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences hosts 1st Annual Interactive Achievement Awards; inducts Shigeru Miyamoto of Nintendo Events BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts hosts the 2nd annual BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Awards March – Australasia is a Region of Oceania: New Zealand, Australia, Papua New Guinea, and neighbouring Islands in the Pacific The Zilog Z80 is an 8-bit Microprocessor designed and sold by Zilog from July 1976 onwards In various types of electronic equipment a cartridge can refer one method of adding different functionality or content (e This is a list of Video game consoles and Handheld game consoles that have sold or shipped at least one million units 7 million, including Game Boy units (as of March 31, 2006)[1][2]
Best-selling game	Pokémon Gold and Silver, approximately 14. Events 307 - After divorcing his wife Minervina, Constantine marries Fausta, the daughter of the retired Roman Emperor Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. This is a list of Video games that have sold or shipped at least one million copies including the top ten best-selling franchises. Pokémon Gold and Pokémon Silver, released in Japan as, are both the second installments of the Pokémon series of role-playing 51 million combined (in Japan and the US) (details). This is a list of Video games that have sold or shipped at least one million copies including the top ten best-selling franchises. [3][4] The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages, 3. The Legend of Zelda Oracle of Seasons and The Legend of Zelda Oracle of Ages are two Action-adventure games developed by Flagship 96 million copies, and Oracle of Seasons, 3. 96 million copies (as of March 2004). Events January 20 — Wired s Vaporware Awards gives its first "Lifetime Achievement Award" to recurring winner [5][6]
Backward compatibility	Game Boy
Predecessor	Game Boy Pocket
Successor	Game Boy Advance

The Game Boy Color (ゲームボーイカラー, Gēmu Bōi Karā^?, shortened to GBC) is Nintendo's successor to the Game Boy and was released on October 21, 1998 in Japan and in November 19, 1998 in North America and November 23, 1998 in Europe. In Technology, especially Computing (irrespective of platform a product is said to be backward compatible when it is able to take the place of an older product The is a handheld video game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo. The line is a line of battery -powered Handheld game consoles sold by Nintendo. The Game Boy Advance (often shortened to GBA) is a 32-bit handheld video game console developed manufactured and marketed by Nintendo. is a Multinational corporation headquartered in Kyoto Japan founded on The is a handheld video game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo. Events 1512 - Martin Luther joins the theological faculty of the University of Wittenberg. Year 1998 ( MCMXCVIII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar) For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Japan topics. It features a color screen and is slightly thicker and taller than the Game Boy Pocket, but smaller than the original Game Boy. The line is a line of battery -powered Handheld game consoles sold by Nintendo. The is a handheld video game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo. As of March 31, 2006, the Game Boy and Game Boy Color combined have sold 118. Events 307 - After divorcing his wife Minervina, Constantine marries Fausta, the daughter of the retired Roman Emperor Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. 7 million units worldwide. ^[1][2]

History

The Game Boy Color was a response to pressure from game developers for a new and much more sophisticated system of playing, as they felt that the Game Boy, even in its latest incarnation, the Game Boy Pocket, was insufficient. The resultant product was backward compatible, a first for a handheld console system, and leveraged the large library of games and great installed base of the predecessor system. In Technology, especially Computing (irrespective of platform a product is said to be backward compatible when it is able to take the place of an older product This became a major feature of the Game Boy line, since it allowed each new launch to begin with a significantly larger library than any of its competitors. The line is a line of battery -powered Handheld game consoles sold by Nintendo.

Specifications

The processor, which is a Z80 workalike made by Sharp with a few extra (bit manipulation) instructions, has a clock speed of approx. The Zilog Z80 is an 8-bit Microprocessor designed and sold by Zilog from July 1976 onwards () is a Japanese Electronics manufacturer founded in 1912 It takes its name from one of its founder's first inventions the Ever-Sharp Mechanical pencil, which 8 MHz, twice as fast as that of the original Game Boy. The is a handheld video game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo. The Game Boy Color also has four times as much memory as the original (32 kilobytes system RAM, 16 kilobytes video RAM). Additionally, the Game Boy Color could address more ROM, allowing games as much as eight times the maximum size of those for the original Game Boy. The screen resolution was the same as the original Game Boy, which is 160x144 pixels.

The Game Boy Color also featured an infrared communications port for wireless linking. Infrared ( IR) radiation is Electromagnetic radiation whose Wavelength is longer than that of Visible light, but shorter than that of However, the feature was only supported in a few games, and the infrared port was dropped for the Game Boy Advance and later releases. The Game Boy Advance (often shortened to GBA) is a 32-bit handheld video game console developed manufactured and marketed by Nintendo. The console was capable of showing up to 56 different colors simultaneously on screen from its palette of 32,768, and could add basic four-color shading to games that had been developed for the original Game Boy. It could also give the sprites and backgrounds separate colors, for a total of more than four colors. This, however, resulted in graphic artifacts in certain games; a sprite that was supposed to meld into the background was now colored separately, exposing the trick.

• One such trick occurred in Pokémon Red and Blue. and, released in Japan as Pocket Monster Red and, are the first two installments of the Pokémon series of role-playing Video games Players were supposed to navigate through Koga's gym by feeling around invisible walls and encountering rival trainers in the gym. Below is a list of Gym Leaders from the Kanto region in the fictional Pokémon series of video games games, Anime and Manga. On the Game Boy Color and Super Game Boy, these walls could be seen as clearly as dots. The Super Game Boy is an adaptor cartridge for Nintendo 's Super Nintendo Entertainment System, as well as the Super Famicom in Japan.
• In Super Mario Land, there are many hidden sprites (in the form of hidden enemies/opportunities) exposed by using a multicolored palette. is a platforming Video game developed by Nintendo for the Game Boy Handheld game console. These and other "spoilers" can be avoided by using the monochromatic color palette as described below. Monochrome comes from the Greek μονόχρωμος ( monochromos) meaning “of one color” which is a combination
• In The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (original version) there is an area full of statues, some of which are enemies and some of which are normal. The Legend of Zelda Link's Awakening, known in Japan as, is an Action-adventure game developed and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy handheld The enemy statues blend in normally but the pallette trick in the GBC makes them stand out.

Cartridges

. Nintendo also made black cartridges that were compatible with the Game Boy Color, the older Super Game Boy and the original Game Boy. The Super Game Boy is an adaptor cartridge for Nintendo 's Super Nintendo Entertainment System, as well as the Super Famicom in Japan. The black color distinguished these special cartridges from the grey Game Boy carts and the transparent Game Boy Color carts. The black cartridges had notches in the corner like old Game Boy cartridges, allowing an original Game Boy to be turned on when they were inserted, while the Game Boy Color cartridges did not. Special Game Boy Color palettes were built into the black carts, making it impossible to change their palette. Game Boy Color games also feature the different color cartridges for the European and American releases of the Pokémon games.

The clear purple Game Boy system

Color palette

When playing an original Game Boy game on a later system, the user can choose which color palette is used. This is achieved by pressing certain button combinations, namely either A or B (both achieving different results) and an arrow key, while the Game Boy logo is displayed on the screen. It is also possible to use a monochromatic color scheme that preserves the original look of the game by pressing B+Left.

In addition, most Game Boy games published by Nintendo have a special palette that is enabled when no buttons are pressed. Any game that does not have a special palette will default to the Dark Green (Right + A) palette instead. Notable games that do have preset palettes are Metroid II: Return of Samus, Kirby's Dream Land 2, Super Mario Land, and the Wario Land series. is the second game in the ''Metroid'' series, and the only one on the Nintendo Game Boy. Kirby's Dream Land 2, known in Japan as, is a platforming Video game developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the is a platforming Video game developed by Nintendo for the Game Boy Handheld game console.

Games

The last Game Boy Color game released in Japan that was also compatible with the Game Boy and Super Game Boy was From TV Animation - One Piece: Maboroshi no Grand Line Boukenhen! (June 2002). This gave the original Game Boy (1989-2002) one of the longest continuous lifespans of any console, only bested by the Atari 2600 (1977-1992), and the Neo-Geo AES/MVS (1990-2006). The Atari 2600 is a Video game console released in October 1977 The Neo Geo is a cartridge -based arcade and home Video game system released in 1990 by Japanese game company SNK. In the US, the last game was Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. The video game Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was released in 2002

Sales

As of March 31, 2005, the Game Boy and Game Boy Color combined has sold 32. Events 307 - After divorcing his wife Minervina, Constantine marries Fausta, the daughter of the retired Roman Emperor Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The is a handheld video game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo. 47 million units in Japan, 44. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Japan topics. 06 million in the Americas, and 42. The Americas are the lands of the Western hemisphere or New World, consisting of the Continents of North America and South America 16 million in other regions. ^[7] As of March 31, 2006, the Game Boy and Game Boy Color combined have sold 118. Events 307 - After divorcing his wife Minervina, Constantine marries Fausta, the daughter of the retired Roman Emperor Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. 7 million units worldwide. ^[1][2]

See also

• List of Game Boy Color games
• List of Player's Choice games

References

External links

• Official website
• Game Boy Color at Nintendo. com (archived versions at the Internet Archive Wayback Machine)
• Game Boy Color games list at Nintendo. The Internet Archive ( IA) is a Nonprofit organization dedicated to maintaining an on-line Library and archive of Web and com (archived from the original at the Internet Archive Wayback Machine)
• Game Boy Color at the Open Directory Project