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Happy 25th birthday, Game Boy! You still work after all these years

The Game Boy launched in North America 25 years ago this week. Mine still works today!

In this culture of throwaway technology, where we break, replace or upgrade our phones every 12 months, the original Game Boy still stands strong. It still works. My goodness, witness the miracle as I turn my Game Boy on TWENTY FIVE YEARS after it was first released:

It was such a revelation back then. You have to understand that before the Game Boy we were playing with handheld monstrosities like this Splatterhouse LCD game:

splatterhouse_lcd

Or this, which came out in 1984 and gave us two player gaming on the same screen. It was no Game Boy, though:

micro vs system

And you think cloning games is a new phenomenon? Mini-Munchman was my homeboy in 1981!

mini munchman

Forget those guys. 1989 ushered in a revolution. Game Boy had the battery life. It had DOT MATRIX WITH STEREO SOUND. Most importantly, it had the games. Glorious, glorious games.

Happy birthday Game Boy. We salute you!

You can read all about the Game Boy's performance in the historic console wars right here.

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