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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class, a

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Speaker 1: show that believes there's no time like the present to

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Speaker 1: learn about the past. I'm Gabeluesier, and today we're celebrating

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Speaker 1: the birthday of the game Boy, an underpowered video game

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Speaker 1: console that succeeded not in spite of its limitations, but

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Speaker 1: because of them. The day was April twenty first, nineteen

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Speaker 1: eighty nine. Nintendo released the original game Boy in Japan.

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Speaker 1: The portable gaming console was developed by Gunpei Yukoi, one

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Speaker 1: of Nintendo's first video game designers. The chunky gray device,

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Speaker 1: which he dubbed the game Boy, was designed to be

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Speaker 1: as accessible and inexpensive as possible. It didn't feature the

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Speaker 1: latest and greatest technology like full color gras or a

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Speaker 1: backlit screen, but it more than made up for those

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Speaker 1: technical limitations by being durable, practical, and most importantly, a

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Speaker 1: lot of fun to play. The consumer friendly approach of

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Speaker 1: Yokoye and his team more than paid off in the

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Speaker 1: long run. The game Boy went on to become one

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Speaker 1: of the most influential and successful video game consoles ever made.

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Speaker 1: It sold well over one hundred million units. Worldwide, and

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Speaker 1: by the end of its lengthy run on store shelves,

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Speaker 1: it had spawned a family of successor systems. In that way,

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Speaker 1: the Humble game Boy changed the shape of the entire

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Speaker 1: video game industry and cemented Nintendo's place as the undisputed

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Speaker 1: king of handheld gaming. Contrary to popular belief, the game

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Speaker 1: Boy was in Nintendo's first crack at portable video games.

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Speaker 1: About a decade earlier, the company had introduced a series

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Speaker 1: of handheld devices called game and Watch. Gunpei Yukoi came

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Speaker 1: up with the idea while riding a commuter train to

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Speaker 1: work one day. He noticed a fellow businessman playing around

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Speaker 1: with a calculator just to pass the time, and he

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Speaker 1: began to wonder if the same LCD screen and display

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Speaker 1: technology of a calculator could be used to make handheld

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Speaker 1: video games. The concept developed rapidly from there. Instead of

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Speaker 1: just numbers and symbols, the graphics processor would be used

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Speaker 1: to create characters and objects that could then be set

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Speaker 1: against a pre printed background scene. Built in controller buttons

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Speaker 1: on either side of the screen would then allow the

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Speaker 1: player to move around a character to complete basic tasks.

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Speaker 1: For example, one of the earliest game and watch devices

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Speaker 1: challenged the player to guide a deep sea diver across

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Speaker 1: the screen to a sunken treasure chest, all while avoiding

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Speaker 1: the moving tentacles of a giant grabby octopus. As for

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Speaker 1: the watch, in the name game and Watch, that came

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Speaker 1: from the device's timekeeping feature, although really maybe game and

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Speaker 1: clock would have been more appropriate. The graphics and gameplay

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Speaker 1: of the game and Watch were about as simple as

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Speaker 1: it gets, but they were still more engaged than aimlessly

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Speaker 1: pressing buttons on a calculator. Plus, as the Game and

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Speaker 1: Watch series continued into the early nineteen eighties, the systems

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Speaker 1: and their controls got a bit more complex. For example,

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Speaker 1: the Donkey Kong game and watch system was the very

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Speaker 1: first piece of video game hardware to use the now

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Speaker 1: iconic cross shaped directional pad or dpad. That feature was

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Speaker 1: another little master stroke from Yukoi, who had run into

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Speaker 1: trouble while trying to adapt Nintendo's successful Donkey Kong arcade

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Speaker 1: game for the handheld market. Most portable games of the

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Speaker 1: era only had the player move left and right, but

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Speaker 1: Donkey Kong required movement along both the X and Y axis.

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Speaker 1: Yukoi experimented with different ways to achieve that wider range

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Speaker 1: of movement, including a tiny joystick, which he found uncomfortable,

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Speaker 1: as well as four separate buttons arranged in the shape

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Speaker 1: of a cross. That setup proved awkward as well as

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Speaker 1: it caused the player to look away from the screen

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Speaker 1: to make sure they were hitting the right button. Yukoy's

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Speaker 1: poll was the Dpad, a single cross shaped pad placed

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Speaker 1: on top of a ball, which could then be pressed

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Speaker 1: in any direction with just a slight adjustment of the finger.

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Speaker 1: It was an elegant solution and a literal game changer.

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Speaker 1: One year after the release of Donkey Kong on the

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Speaker 1: Game and Watch, Nintendo released a home video game console

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Speaker 1: called the Famicom or Family Computer, and although the system

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Speaker 1: was connected to a TV set and played on a

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Speaker 1: larger screen, the included controllers took design cues from the

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Speaker 1: handheld systems, including Ukoy's innovative dpad. In nineteen eighty four,

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Speaker 1: the popular Famicom was redesigned for the Western market and

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Speaker 1: released as the Nintendo Entertainment System or the NES for short.

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Speaker 1: The console single handedly revived the flagging American video game market,

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Speaker 1: and by nineteen eighty nine it had sold nearly thirty

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Speaker 1: million units. Worldwide. The system's success made Nintendo's synonymous with

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Speaker 1: video games, but after more than half a decade on

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Speaker 1: the market, its flagship product was beginning to look a

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Speaker 1: bit dated. The company had been hard at work behind

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Speaker 1: the scenes on its next home console, the Super famycom

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Speaker 1: or Super Nintendo, but in nineteen eighty nine, it wasn't

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Speaker 1: quite ready yet. In the meantime, Nintendo needed a hot

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Speaker 1: new product to keep its momentum going, something that would

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Speaker 1: satisfy its existing customers while also attracting a brand new audience.

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Speaker 1: Once again, the task fell to Gunpei Ukoi, and once

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Speaker 1: again he delivered. Ukoy's game Boy, combined elements of both

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Speaker 1: the Game and Watch and the NAS and to a

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Speaker 1: proper handheld console. The biggest shakeup was enabling the system

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Speaker 1: to play all kinds of different software titles. For the

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Speaker 1: Game and Watch series, each system came preloaded with a

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Speaker 1: single game, so if you wanted to play a different title,

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Speaker 1: he had to buy a whole new system. The game Boy,

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Speaker 1: on the other hand, borrowed a page from the NAS

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Speaker 1: by allowing users to play games on interchangeable cartridges. The

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Speaker 1: game Boy also included a comparable button layout to NES

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Speaker 1: controllers featuring a B, select and start buttons, as well

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Speaker 1: as a dpad embedded right below the systems. Built in

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Speaker 1: screen portability wasn't the only thing the game Boy had

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Speaker 1: in common with the Game and Watch series. For both products,

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Speaker 1: Gunpei Yukoy relied on a design philosophy called lateral thinking

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Speaker 1: with withered technology. Instead of building his devices with state

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Speaker 1: of the art components, he used older, more established technologies

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Speaker 1: in clever new ways, like using the graphics processor of

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Speaker 1: a calculator to program a video game. The more mature

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Speaker 1: tech Yukoy used was not only cheaper than the cutting

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Speaker 1: edge electronics of the day, it was also easier to

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Speaker 1: source and better understood. For example, Nintendo's chief competition, Sega

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Speaker 1: and Atari, each released their own handheld systems within one

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Speaker 1: year the game Boy. Both of those boasted stronger processors

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Speaker 1: and full color, backlit screens that could be easily seen

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Speaker 1: in the dark, clear advantages over the Nintendo game Boy.

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Speaker 1: On the flip side, though, that advanced technology came with

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Speaker 1: a heftier price tag and significantly shorter battery life. Sega

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Speaker 1: and Atari systems each provided three to five hours of

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Speaker 1: gameplay off of six double a batteries and costs between

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Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty and one hundred and eighty dollars each.

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Speaker 1: The game Boy, on the other hand, could last up

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Speaker 1: to fifteen hours running off of four double A batteries,

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Speaker 1: and it was significantly cheaper too, releasing in Japan for

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Speaker 1: around twelve five hundred yen or roughly one hundred US dollars.

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Speaker 1: You might think that embracing withered technology was a way

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Speaker 1: to cut corners, but in Nintendo's case, it was just

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Speaker 1: the opposite. The company understood that a console is only

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Speaker 1: as good as the games it plays, and game Boy

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Speaker 1: developers worked hard to produce great, noteworthy games regardless of

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Speaker 1: the hardware's limitations. They couldn't rely on flashy visuals to

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Speaker 1: make their games appealing, so instead they focused on the gameplay,

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Speaker 1: pairing simple stories and fun mechanics that would hold a

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Speaker 1: player's interest and keep them coming back for more. In

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Speaker 1: the hands of Yukoi and his team, the game Boy's

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Speaker 1: weaknesses became its greatest strengths. It didn't matter that it

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Speaker 1: had a small, colorless screen or a low power processor.

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Speaker 1: The system's affordable price point, longer battery life, and simple

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Speaker 1: yet robust design made it the clear choice for gamers

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Speaker 1: on the go. In fact, Nintendo's entire stock some three

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Speaker 1: hundred thousand units sold out within the first two weeks

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Speaker 1: of release in Japan, and when the game Boy made

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Speaker 1: its way to the US three months later, sales were

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Speaker 1: just as brisk, if not more so. The system launched

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Speaker 1: in Japan with four games to choose from, Super Mario, Land, Baseball, Alleyway,

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Speaker 1: and Yakuman. Alleyway played similar to the game Breakout and

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Speaker 1: task players with chipping away at brick walls using a bat.

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Speaker 1: Yakuman was a puzzle game similar to Majong, Baseball was

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Speaker 1: a stripped down version of the sport, and Super Mario

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Speaker 1: was a side scrolling platformer game similar to the NES title,

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Speaker 1: but designed with the game Boy's limitations in mind. A

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Speaker 1: portable video game system was an easy sell in Japan's

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Speaker 1: fast paced society, where it appealed not only to children

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Speaker 1: but to adult commuters as well, but no one knew

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Speaker 1: how the game Boy would fare outside of Japan. To

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Speaker 1: help insure its success, Nintendo of America decided to sweeten

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Speaker 1: the deal for Western buyers. In Japan, the game Boy

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Speaker 1: came packaged with headphones and batteries, while the games themselves

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Speaker 1: were sold individually for around twenty six hundred yen or

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Speaker 1: roughly twenty dollars. However, for the system's North American release,

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Speaker 1: Nintendo decided to bundle each system with a free game.

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Speaker 1: The initial plan was to include Super Mario Land, since

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Speaker 1: Mario was the company's best selling franchise, but Bulletproof Software

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Speaker 1: founder Henk Rogers had a different idea. He thought Nintendo

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Speaker 1: would be better off bundling one of his titles, a

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Speaker 1: popular Soviet puzzle game called Tetris. Shortly before the game

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Speaker 1: Boy's release, Rogers had a life changing meeting with Nintendo

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Speaker 1: of America president Minoru Arakawa. He later recounted it during

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Speaker 1: an interview, saying quote, I remember this conversation very clearly.

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Speaker 1: Mister Arakawa, I think you should include Tetris with the

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Speaker 1: Game Boy. And he said to me, why should I

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Speaker 1: include Tetris? I have Mario. I said, well, if you

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Speaker 1: want little boys to buy your Game Boy, then include Mario.

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Speaker 1: But if you want everyone to buy your Game Boy,

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Speaker 1: then include Tetris. You can still sell Mario afterwards. In

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Speaker 1: the end, Arakawa agreed, and when the Game Boy hit

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Speaker 1: North American shores. In the fall of eighty nine, every

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Speaker 1: system sold came with a copy of Tetris. Nintendo produced

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Speaker 1: one million game Boys for the US that year and

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Speaker 1: sold every single one of them. Remarkably, the game Boy's design,

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Speaker 1: arguably outdated at the time of its release, went unchanged

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Speaker 1: for nearly a decade. In nineteen ninety six, a slimmer

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Speaker 1: sleep version of the same system was released as the

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Speaker 1: game Boy Pocket. Then, in late nineteen ninety eight, the

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Speaker 1: game Boy Color hit store shelves, providing modest graphical updates

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Speaker 1: over its predecessor, including most notably a color display. By

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Speaker 1: the time of the Game Boy Colors release, the original

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Speaker 1: model had surpassed sixty four million sales worldwide, and the

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Speaker 1: combined sales of both systems now amounts to nearly one

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Speaker 1: hundred and twenty million units and half a billion games.

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Speaker 1: Nintendo finally discontinued both game Boy models in two thousand

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Speaker 1: and three, two years after the release of a new

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Speaker 1: thirty two bit handheld system called the game Boy Advance.

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Speaker 1: In the two decades since then, Nintendo continued to avoid

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Speaker 1: the graphical arms race in favor of releasing handheld systems

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Speaker 1: centered on clever uses of well worn technology such as

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Speaker 1: touchscreens and stereoscopic three D. Then, in twenty seventeen, the

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Speaker 1: company made the unprecedented move of combining a home console

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Speaker 1: with a handheld one. The resulting hybrid system, the Nintendo

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Speaker 1: Switch has also gone on to become one of the

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Speaker 1: top selling consoles of all time, even surpassing the Game

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Speaker 1: Boy in early twenty twenty three. That said, you shouldn't

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Speaker 1: feel too bad for the old Gray Brick. Many of

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Speaker 1: its most famous titles are still playable in their original

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Speaker 1: form as part of the Switch's virtual console. They're just

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Speaker 1: as charming, fun and in demand now as they were

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Speaker 1: thirty years ago, which isn't bad for a piece of

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Speaker 1: withered tech. I'm Gabe Bluesier and hopefully you now know

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Speaker 1: a little more about history today than you did yesterday.

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Speaker 1: You can learn even more about history by following us

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Speaker 1: on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at TDI HC Show, and

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Speaker 1: if you have any commons or suggestions, you can always

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Speaker 1: send them my way by writing to this day at

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Speaker 1: iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks to Chandler Mays and Ben Hackett

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Speaker 1: for producing the show, and thanks to you for listening.

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Speaker 1: I'll see you back here again soon. For another day.

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00:13:00,360 --> 00:13:01,400
Speaker 1: In history class,