Nintendo "Game Boy" hand-held games console

Nintendo "Game Boy" hand-held games console, serial no. G09081254, with "Tetris" game cartridge, 1989.

The successor to Nintendo's Game & Watch series, the Nintendo Game Boy became a landmark handheld video game console. The console was powered using four AA batteries and had a monochromatic dot-matrix display. The console featured a built-in speaker and utilised four directional buttons in a cross shape, two face buttons labelled 'A' and 'B', and two function buttons labelled 'Start' and 'Select'. There were two dials on the side of the console, one to change the volume and the other to adjust the screen contrast.

The Game Boy was the first Nintendo handheld console to have a cartridge slot for interchangeable cartridges, letting players swap and play hundreds of different titles on one console rather than having a single built-in game. The North American and European releases of the Nintendo Game Boy were bundled with the game Tetris, a shape-slotting puzzle game. Other popular games on the console included Super Mario Land and Pokémon Red, Green and Blue.

The Nintendo Game Boy has been heralded for its lasting cultural impact and commercial success. It helped to popularise handheld gaming for a generation of players and remains one of the best-selling games consoles ever.