So, while that weird green glow may have not been the perfect solution to that particular problem, it did offer a way for Nintendo to provide a somewhat unusual second source of light. Again, just look at what happened to the Atari Lynx and Sega Game Gear. However, the relative brightness of the Game Boy’s screen may have been one of the biggest contributing factors to the final decision to “go green.” After all, properly backlighting handheld game consoles has historically been quite difficult (even the Game Boy Advance suffered from backlighting issues), and trying to backlight a handheld game console in 1989 would have torpedoed Nintendo’s plans to keep the Game Boy cheap and accessible.
For that matter, Nintendo still utilizes elements of that design philosophy to this day.Īll of that helps explain why the Game Boy’s designers didn’t even try to offer full-color graphics, but why did they settle on that weird green screen? Well, there are really two good answers to that question. His beliefs on that matter weren’t always popular (the Game Boy was even mocked internally at Nintendo for its weak power and simple design concepts), but they obviously worked out in the Game Boy’s favor. More importantly, Yokoi was a big believer in a design philosophy commonly known as “Lateral Thinking of Withered Technology.” Basically, he believed that Nintendo was often better off finding new ways to use older, cheaper, and more proven technology than they were trying to deal with the expensive growing pains of figuring out new technology. Many original Game Boys still function today, and there’s always that famous story of the Game Boy that reportedly survived a bombing during the Gulf War. Those things were built to last. It’s also hard to call the Game Boy a cheap console with a straight face.
More importantly, those handheld devices required more batteries and “boasted” battery lives that were atrocious even by the standards of that era. After all, the Game Gear and Atari Lynx may have been more technologically advanced, but their base costs were notably more expensive. In fact, the Game Boy team rightfully recognized that handheld gaming devices of that era needed to be simple in order to be consumer-friendly. I know that sounds like something corporations say whenever they want to justify maximizing their profits and screwing over consumers in the process, but that wasn’t the case here. See, Game Boy designer Gunpei Yokoi and other key members of the Game Boy design team were all about keeping things cheap and practical. There’s a big difference between “power” and “practicality,” though, and understanding the difference between those concepts is the key to understanding the philosophy behind the Game Boy’s green screen. The creators of the Handy Game device (which eventually became the Atari Lynx) tried shopping their technology to Nintendo (as well as other major game companies), so Nintendo obviously knew there were more advanced alternatives out there that offered far more power and more advanced visuals.
You also can’t say that Nintendo wasn’t aware of the existence of that technology. After all, the Atari Lynx handheld gaming device was released the same year, and its screen supported full-color graphics. However, it’s not entirely accurate to blame the Game Boy’s green screen on the idea that there were simply no better alternatives available at the time.
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