25 Things You DIDN'T Know About the Game Boy & Game Boy Color

25 Things You Didn’t Know About The Game Boy & Game Boy Color

Welcome to MojoPlays, and today we’re looking at Nintendo’s OG handheld consoles, and talking about the things we missed. These are 25 Things You Didn’t Know About The Game Boy and The Game Boy Color. Let’s a-go.

Kirby is White

Here’s a weird little bit of history: when Kirby first showed up in the West, he wasn’t pink… he was white. This mostly came down to confusion on Nintendo’s side. When Nintendo of America received the game to localise, nobody clearly told them what colour Kirby was supposed to be. Since his debut was on the Game Boy, which, let’s be honest, wasn’t exactly bursting with colour, it left things pretty ambiguous. So they just rolled with white and called it a day. TYPICAL WEST. I don’t really know what that means, I just wanted to sound political and cool.

Boot Function

Boot screens have pretty much always been part of turning on a console, but the "Game Boy" handled it differently than your PS2, or your Apple Pippin... Ya’ll remember the Apple Pippin? Sorry, focus. When you powered up the Game Boy, that iconic Nintendo logo would drop down from the top of the screen and land in the centre. Looks simple, but here’s the twist: that logo wasn’t stored on the console at all. It actually came from the cartridge you had plugged in. If you ever turned the "Game Boy" on without a game inserted, you’d just get a blank block instead of the logo. Neat.

16 Person Multiplayer

The "Game Boy" had multiplayer way before wireless was a thing, thanks to its link cable, though most people didn’t use it to its full potential, because its full potential was a little bit OP. Usually, games supported between one and four players, which was already pretty impressive for the time. But one game completely pushed the limits. "Spaceball 2000" somehow managed to support up to 16 players at once, which even earned it a Guinness World Record. I didn’t even have 16 friends, let alone 16 friends with Game Boys and link cables.

Sewing Boy

For some reason, people were obsessed with making the "Game Boy" do literally anything except play games, but this is a weird one. Singer sewing machine company jumped in around 2000 with something called the Izek. It was designed as a beginner sewing machine for kids, but here’s the twist, you actually controlled it using a "Game Boy" connected by a cable. Through the handheld, you could pick from around 80 different stitching patterns, and it could even embroider letters and short messages. The whole thing feels odd, the kind of odd that only took off in Japan, god I love Japan.

Two Different Crystals

Most people point to "Pokémon Gold & Silver" as the biggest hits on the Game Boy Color, but there’s a strange little detail with "Pokémon Crystal" that a lot of players miss. It actually had two different versions released. The regular version, and then the 1.1 release. The weird part? Almost nobody really knows what was changed or fixed in that update. It’s one of those tiny gaming mysteries that has never received a solid answer.

Built for Ports

The "Game Boy" kept things simple, but in a really smart way. It used an eight-direction D-pad, along with four buttons: A, B, Start, and Select. If that sounds familiar, it’s because it’s basically the exact same layout as the "Nintendo Entertainment System" controller. That familiarity was a big deal. Players could pick it up and instantly know what they were doing, no learning curve needed. But it also helped developers just as much. Since the control scheme matched the NES so closely, it made porting games over to the handheld way easier. Which the Game Boy did, a LOT.

Early Wireless Connection

If you always hated linking two "Game Boy Color" systems because of the cable restrictions, well boy do I have a surprise for you. Some games could connect using the infrared port built into the top of the console. No wires, no setup mess, just line the systems up and it worked. It was so rarely used that most of us just forgot it existed. Looking back, it’s pretty cool. From what I found, the "Game Boy Color" was actually the first handheld to include any kind of wireless communication. Unless you count my broken PS1 with the power cable ripped out of the back.

Can Play in Color

One of the coolest things about the "Game Boy Color" and even the "Game Boy Advance" is how they handled older games. You didn’t need to mess around with codes or settings, just slot in your original "Game Boy" cartridge, turn the system on, and it would automatically display in color. It wasn’t true full-color remakes or anything like that, but the systems added preset color palettes that made those older games feel a bit more alive.

Twelve Secret Colors

I only learned this when I fully and totally legally emulated some old Game Boy games. The "Game Boy Color" lets you swap between different colour palettes when playing original "Game Boy" titles, and it’s surprisingly easy to do. Each palette uses around 7–10 colors, with options like Negative, Grayscale, and Pastel Mix that can totally change how a game looks To activate it, just hold different directions on the D-pad along with A or B during the startup screen. Miss that moment and you’re out of luck until the next reset.

14 Years

The "Game Boy" first launched back in 1989, and through the entire 90s it was everywhere. It quickly became one of the most popular consoles around, and somehow just refused to fade out even when newer hardware showed up. When the "Game Boy Advance" released in 2001, you’d think that would be the end, but nope, the original kept selling anyway. It didn’t officially get discontinued until 2003, which means it stuck around for a massive 14 years. A whole year longer than the PS2, the highest selling console of all time, which lasted 13 years.

Wiiboy

Here’s another “first” that doesn’t get talked about enough. "Kirby Tilt ‘n’ Tumble" was actually one of the earliest motion-controlled games ever made. Instead of using buttons the whole time, you physically tilted the "Game Boy" to move Kirby around. It’s basically a maze-style game, but the controls are what make it stand out. I’ve never played it myself, but after watching clips, I want it, I want it, good lord I want it.

4 Shades of Grey

Looking back, the 8-bit "Game Boy" felt like magic to kids, but technically, it wasn’t exactly cutting-edge, even at the time. That iconic screen? It could only show four shades of that grey, which is SUPER unimpressive: It sounds like a 50 Shades parody set in an old person's home. Meanwhile, other handhelds were already pushing things further. The Sega "Game Gear", for example, had a full-colour screen and a much more modern look compared to the Game Boy’s chunky grey brick design. But still, Game Boy won the handheld war.

Calculator Inspiration

The idea for the "Game Boy" actually came from a pretty everyday moment. Gunpei Yokoi was on a train when he noticed a businessman messing around with a calculator, doing that thing where you flip numbers upside down to make words, you know? 80085. That simple bit of boredom sparked something. Yokoi took that idea and, working with Nintendo’s R&D1 team, turned it into a handheld system you could play anywhere. And the rest is history. Sadly, he passed away in a car accident years later. Dammit, that’s a sad way to end an entry. Ahh, 80085.

Backlight Before SP

If you ever tried playing the "Game Boy" at night, you probably remember the struggle, no backlight meant you basically needed a lamp just to see anything. Trying to play under the covers? Good luck. The SP is when everything changed, in the west. In Japan, Nintendo had actually fixed this issue. They released the "Game Boy Light," which finally added a proper light-up screen. In the west, we got weird peripheral attachments that BARELY worked.

Not The First Handheld

The "Game Boy" might be the most iconic handheld ever, but it definitely wasn’t the first to try the idea. That title actually goes to the Microvision, a cartridge-based system released in 1979 by Milton Bradley. It had some early success, but things didn’t last long, only 12 games were made, and it was discontinued after about two years. Nintendo didn’t jump into handheld gaming until later with the "Game & Watch" series, which featured standalone devices with built-in games. Those were a huge hit, selling over 40 million units before fading out in the early 90s. This meant the Game Boy wasn’t even Nintendo’s first HIT handheld console.

Neil Young Loves Nintendo

If you’re trying to figure out what Neil Young has to do with the "Game Boy," it’s actually a pretty cool crossover. The cover for his 2000 album "Silver & Gold" wasn’t taken on some high-end camera, it came from a "Game Boy Camera." Yep, that tiny accessory was responsible for the final image, and it was reportedly taken by his daughter, Amber. We’ll talk more about the camera soon, but for now, let’s appreciate this GOD AWFUL image.

Boom Box Boy

If you wanted to listen to music while playing the "Game Boy," your options were pretty limited, but some accessories tried to fix that. One of the stranger ones was the Boom Box Boy, which basically turned your Game Boy into a radio. Plug it in, and it would pick up local stations, letting you listen through the speaker or headphones while you played. Sounds like a great idea on paper. In reality… not so much. You couldn’t properly tune into specific stations, so you were stuck with whatever signal it grabbed. It was also way too loud, and to make things worse, it blocked the volume controls entirely. Basically, it kinda sucked.

Surprising Record

Here’s a weird stat about the "Game Boy", it’s one of the only Nintendo handhelds where a "Pokémon" game didn’t end up as the best seller. Even though "Pokémon Red & Blue" were massive, they released late in the system’s life, so they just missed taking the top spot. Instead, that title went to "Tetris," which moved an insane 35 million copies. The only other handheld where this happened was the "Nintendo DS."

Work Boy

These days, productivity apps are everywhere, but back in the 90s you needed something like a PDA to handle that kind of stuff. For some reason, someone looked at the "Game Boy" and thought, “yeah… this could totally be an office device, this definitely won’t make whoever used it a pariah in the cubicles.” That idea turned into the Work Boy, a strange add-on made by Fabtek. It came with a full keyboard and software for things like a clock, planner, and even a currency converter, basically trying to turn your handheld into a mini workstation.

Game Boy Printer

Okay, we’re back on the Game Boy Camera, released in 1998, but did you know there was also a tiny thermal printer to go with it? It lets you take super low-quality photos and print them out on little strips of paper, which honestly feels like an early version of the selfie before that was even a thing. You could mess around with your pictures too, adding pixelated wigs, glasses, and other goofy edits. It turned into chaos pretty quickly, especially at school.

Space Boy

One of the biggest draws of the "Game Boy" was being able to take it anywhere, instead of being stuck at home like with a regular console, though mine kinda just went from my bedroom to the toilet, and back to the bedroom. In 1993, one astronaut more adventurous than me brought his "Game Boy" with him into space. It went up to the Mir space station and stayed there with him for 196 days. And of course, the game he chose to bring was "Tetris”. I know this is cool, but I don’t think you guys understand how big the turds were that I took while playing my Game Boy.

Original Release Colors

The name "Game Boy Color" isn’t just about the screen, it also ties into the actual hardware itself. When it first launched, the system came in a range of different coloured shells. It gave players a bit more personality when picking their system, whether they wanted something bright or more low-key. But did you know that the colors it released in, were the colors in the word “color’ on that actual Game Boy? Interesting!

Comboy

Back in the early 90s, relations between Japan and South Korea were pretty tense, and Nintendo knew that could affect sales. The idea of buying a Japanese product didn’t sit well with a lot of Korean consumers at the time, so they found a workaround. Instead of selling the "Game Boy" directly, Nintendo licensed it to Hyundai, who released it locally under a different name, the Mini Comboy. This wasn’t a one-off deal either. The year before, the "Nintendo Entertainment System" had already been rebranded as the Comboy in Korea. The partnership kept going too, with Hyundai later releasing the Super Comboy and the Comboy 64, which were versions of the "Super Nintendo Entertainment System" and "Nintendo 64." At the end of the day, hate will never beat sales.

Nintendo Gulf

There’s a famous "Game Boy" story often called the “Gulf War Game Boy,” and it’s honestly kind of unbelievable. The system belonged to Stephan Scoggins, who was stationed in the Middle East during the Gulf War. During a bombing, the handheld was badly damaged, burnt, melted, and with parts of the motherboard exposed. It looked completely done for. When it eventually made its way back to Nintendo, technicians didn’t expect much. But someone decided to test it anyway using a copy of "Tetris"… and somehow, it still worked perfectly. Because of that ridiculous level of durability, the system ended up on display at Nintendo World Store, where it became a symbol of just how tough the "Game Boy" really was.

Fishing Boy

If you thought the Sewing Boy was the weirdest thing ever made for the "Game Boy," think again. In 1998, Bandai released something even stranger, the Game Boy Pocket Sonar. Instead of helping you organise your life, this thing helped you catch fish. It plugged into the console and acted as a fish finder, letting you scan the water and spot fish up to 20 metres deep. The results would show up right on the "Game Boy" screen, turning your handheld into a legit fishing tool. As long as you weren’t night fishing, it was actually a pretty dope add-on.