The Game Boy wasn’t the first hand-held console from Nintendo; it was preceded by the Game & Watch series, a line of individual handheld versions of popular Nintendo games including “Donkey Kong,” “The Legend of Zelda,” and “Mario Bros.”
The Game Boy had some serious handheld competition upon its 1989 release: Rival Atari came out with its own handheld device, the Lynx, around the same time. Unlike the little unlit, monochrome, pea-green-screened Game Boy, Lynx featured a backlit screen, color graphics, and the ability to network with other consoles. Another rival was Sega’s Game Gear, which also boasted a lit, color screen and compatibility with Sega’s larger gaming consoles.
But the Game Boy trounced them both, owing to its cheap price ($89.99, compared to $189.95 for the Lynx), easy portability, and long battery life. The initial US release bundled the Game Boy with Tetris, catapulting that game to unprecedented popularity as a result. Before Nintendo discontinued the Game Boy line in 2003, nearly 120 million units were sold worldwide.
