Game Boy Color

The Game Boy Color (also referred to as GBC) is Nintendo's successor to the Game Boy and was released on October 21, 1998 in Japan and in November 1998 in the United States. It features a color screen, and is only slightly larger than the Game Boy Pocket. The processor is twice as fast as a Game Boy's, and has twice as much memory. It also had an infrared communications port for wireless linking which did not appear in later versions of the Game Boy, such as the Game Boy Advance.

Related Topics:
Nintendo - Game Boy - October 21 - 1998 - Japan - November - United States - Game Boy Pocket - Infrared - Game Boy Advance

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The Game Boy Color was a response to pressure from game developers for a new system, as they felt that the Game Boy, even in its latest incarnation, the Game Boy Pocket, was insufficient. The resultant product was backward compatible, a first for a handheld console system, and leveraged the large library of games and great installed base of the predecessor system. This became a major feature of the Game Boy line, since it allowed each new launch to begin with a significantly larger library than any of its competitors.

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The console was capable of showing up to 56 different colors simultaneously on screen from its palette of 32,768, and could add basic four-color shading to games that had been developed for the original Game Boy.

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