Game Boy in the context of Computer printing

A printer is a peripheral machine which makes a durable representation of graphics or text, usually on paper. While most output is human-readable, bar code printers are an example of an expanded use for printers. Different types of printers include 3D printers, inkjet printers, laser printers, and thermal printers.

The Game Boy Printer, known as the Pocket Printer in Japan, is a thermal printer accessory released by Nintendo. It allows users to print special images from over 100 compatible Game Boy and Game Boy Color games onto thermal paper, which can then be applied as stickers. The accessory was designed primarily for use with the Game Boy Camera, which it released alongside in 1998.

The history of video games began in the 1950s and 1960s as computer scientists began designing simple games and simulations on minicomputers and mainframes. Spacewar! was developed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) student hobbyists in 1962 as one of the first such games on a video display. The first consumer video game hardware was released in the early 1970s. The first home video game console was the Magnavox Odyssey, and the first arcade video games were Computer Space and Pong. After its home console conversions, numerous companies sprang up to capture Pong's success in both the arcade and the home by cloning the game, causing a series of boom and bust cycles due to oversaturation and lack of innovation.

By the mid-1970s, low-cost programmable microprocessors replaced the discrete transistor–transistor logic circuitry of early hardware, and the first ROM cartridge-based home consoles arrived, including the Atari Video Computer System (VCS). Coupled with rapid growth in the golden age of arcade video games, including Space Invaders and Pac-Man, the home console market also flourished. The 1983 video game crash in the United States was characterized by a flood of too many games, often of poor or cloned qualities, and the sector saw competition from inexpensive personal computers and new types of games being developed for them. The crash prompted Japan's video game industry to take leadership of the market, which had only suffered minor impacts from the crash. Nintendo released its Nintendo Entertainment System in the United States in 1985, helping to rebound the failing video games sector. The latter part of the 1980s and early 1990s included video games driven by improvements and standardization in personal computers and the console war competition between Nintendo and Sega as they fought for market share in the United States. The first major handheld video game consoles appeared in the 1990s, led by Nintendo's Game Boy platform.

Tetris (Russian: Тетрис) is a puzzle video game created by Alexey Pajitnov, a Soviet software engineer. In typical Tetris gameplay, falling tetromino shapes must be neatly sorted into a pile. Once a horizontal line of the game board is filled in, it disappears, granting points and preventing the pile from overflowing. Since its initial creation, this gameplay has been used in over 220 versions, released for over 70 platforms. Newer versions frequently implement additional game mechanics, some of which have become standard over time. As of December 2024, these versions collectively serve as the second-best-selling video game series with over 520 million sales, mostly on mobile devices.

In the mid-1980s, Pajitnov worked for the Dorodnitsyn Computing Center of the Academy of Sciences, where he programmed Tetris on the Elektronika 60 and adapted it to the IBM PC with the help of Dmitry Pavlovsky and Vadim Gerasimov. Floppy disk copies were distributed freely throughout Moscow before spreading to Eastern Europe. Robert Stein of Andromeda Software saw the game in Hungary and contacted the Dorodnitsyn Computing Center to secure a license to release the game commercially. Stein then sub licensed to Mirrorsoft in the UK and Spectrum HoloByte in the US. Both companies released the game in 1988 to commercial success and sub licensed to additional companies, including Henk Rogers' Bullet-Proof Software. Rogers negotiated with Elektronorgtechnica, the state-owned organization in charge of licensing Soviet software, to license Tetris to Nintendo for the Game Boy and Nintendo Entertainment System (NES); both versions were released in 1989.

Donkey Kong is a video game series and media franchise created by the Japanese game designer Shigeru Miyamoto for Nintendo. It follows the adventures of Donkey Kong, a large, powerful gorilla, and other members of the Kong family of apes. Donkey Kong games include the original arcade game trilogy by Nintendo R&D1; the Donkey Kong Country series by Rare and Retro Studios; and the Mario vs. Donkey Kong series by Nintendo Software Technology. Various studios have developed spin-offs in genres such as edutainment, puzzle, racing, and rhythm. The franchise also incorporates animation, printed media, theme parks, and merchandise.

Miyamoto designed the original 1981 Donkey Kong to repurpose unsold arcade cabinets following the failure of Radar Scope (1980). It was a major success and was followed by the sequels Donkey Kong Jr. (1982) and Donkey Kong 3 (1983). Nintendo placed the franchise on a hiatus as it shifted focus to the spin-off Mario franchise. Rare's 1994 reboot, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) game Donkey Kong Country, reestablished Donkey Kong as a major Nintendo franchise. Rare developed Donkey Kong games for the SNES, Game Boy, and Nintendo 64 until it was acquired by Microsoft in 2002; subsequent games were developed by Nintendo, Retro Studios, Namco and Paon. After Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (2014), the franchise went on another hiatus, which ended with Donkey Kong Bananza (2025).

The 1980s was the second decade in the industry's history. It was a decade of highs and lows for video games. The decade began amidst a boom in the arcade video game business with the golden age of arcade video games, the Atari 2600's dominance of the home console market during the second generation of video game consoles, and the rising influence of home computers. However, an oversatuation of low quality games led to an implosion of the video game market that nearly destroyed the industry in North America. Most investors believed video games to be a fad that had since passed, up until Nintendo's success with its Nintendo Entertainment System (NES, Famicom) revived interest in game consoles and led to a recovery of the home video game industry. In the remaining years of the decade, Sega ignites a console war with Nintendo, developers that had been affected by the crash experimented with PC games, and Nintendo released the Game Boy, which would become the best-selling handheld gaming device for the next two decades. Other consoles released in the decade included the Intellivision, ColecoVision, TurboGrafx-16 (PC Engine) and Sega Genesis (Mega Drive).

Notable games of the 1980s included Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3, Mario Bros., Duck Hunt, Tetris, The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Castlevania, Mega Man, Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Double Dragon, Punch-Out!!, Contra, Mega Man 2, SimCity, Prince of Persia, Gauntlet, Gradius, Out Run, Defender, Missile Command, Frogger, Q*bert, Dig Dug, Pitfall!, Elite, and Maniac Mansion.

The Microvision (aka Milton Bradley Microvision or MB Microvision) is the first handheld game console that used interchangeable cartridges and in that sense is reprogrammable. It was released by the Milton Bradley Company in November 1979 for a retail price of $49.99, equivalent to $221.00 in 2025.

The Microvision was designed by Jay Smith, the engineer who later designed the Vectrex video game console. The Microvision's combination of portability and a cartridge-based system led to moderate success, with Smith Engineering grossing $15 million in the first year of the system's release. However, its small game library, its small screen, and a lack of support from established home video game companies led to its discontinuation in 1981. According to Satoru Okada, the former head of Nintendo's R&D1 Department, the Microvision inspired the Game Boy, the follow-up to Game & Watch, after Nintendo designed around Microvision's limitations.

The Game Boy Color (abbreviated as GBC or CGB) is an 8-bit handheld game console developed by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on October 21, 1998, and in international markets the following month. Compared with the original Game Boy, the Game Boy Color features a color TFT screen instead of monochrome, a CPU running at up to twice the speed, and four times as much memory. It is backward compatible with games developed for its predecessor. The Game Boy Color was released during the fifth generation of video game consoles and competed with the WonderSwan and Neo Geo Pocket, and Genesis Nomad.

The handheld is slightly thicker, taller and has a smaller screen than its immediate predecessor, the Game Boy Pocket, but is significantly smaller than the original Game Boy. As with its predecessors, the Game Boy Color has a custom 8-bit processor made by Sharp. The American English spelling of the system's name, Game Boy Color, remains consistent throughout the world.

The Game Boy Camera, released as Pocket Camera in Japan, is an accessory for Nintendo's Game Boy game console. It was released on February 21, 1998, in Japan, and manufacturing ceased in late 2002. As a toy for user-generated content, it can be used to shoot grayscale photographs, edit them or create original drawings, and transfer images between GBC units or to the 64DD art game suite Mario Artist. The accessory featured a 180°-swivel front-facing camera that allowed users to capture selfies. Its images can be printed to thermal paper with the Game Boy Printer. The GBC's cartridge contains minigames based on Nintendo's early games such as the arcade video game Space Fever and the Game & Watch handheld game Ball, and a chiptune music sequencer; photographers have embraced its technological limitations as artistic challenges.

The history of Nintendo, a Japanese video game company based in Kyoto, starts in 1889 when Fusajiro Yamauchi founded "Yamauchi Nintendo", a producer of hanafuda playing cards. Sekiryo Kaneda was company president from 1929 to 1949. His successor Hiroshi Yamauchi had Nintendo producing toys like the Ultra Hand, and video games, including arcade games, the Color TV-Game series of home game consoles (1977—83), and the Game & Watch series of handheld electronic games (1980—86).

Shigeru Miyamoto designed Donkey Kong (1981) for arcades: Nintendo's first international hit game, and origin of the company's mascot, Mario. After the American video game crash of 1983, Nintendo filled a market gap there by releasing their Japanese Famicom home console (1983) as the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1985. Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka's innovative Famicom/NES titles, Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda, greatly influenced gaming. The Game Boy handheld console (1989) and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System home console (1990) were successful, yet Nintendo had an intense business rivalry with Sega's consoles. The Virtual Boy (1995), a portable console with stereoscopic 3D graphics, was a critical and financial failure. With the Nintendo 64 (1996), Nintendo began making games with fully-3D computer graphics. The Pokémon media franchise, partially owned by Nintendo, has been a worldwide hit since 1996.

Nintendo has developed eight home video game consoles and multiple portable consoles for use with external media, as well as dedicated consoles and other hardware for their consoles. As of September 19, 2025, Nintendo has sold over 869.95 million hardware units.

The company's first console, the Color TV-Game, was a success in Japan but was never released in other territories. Their first systems to achieve worldwide success were the Game & Watch handheld series, before achieving greater worldwide success with the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), originally released as the Family Computer (Famicom) in Japan in 1983. The NES restarted the video game industry after the video game crash of 1983, and was an international success. In 1989, Nintendo released the Game Boy, which became the first handheld console to sell in large numbers. In the early 1990s, Nintendo's market lead began to decrease; although the 1990 Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) was a strong seller, the Sega Genesis was a very strong contender. Nintendo and Sega would both lose a significant portion of the console market towards the end of the 1990s, as Sony's PlayStation became the most popular console, beating the Nintendo 64, though Nintendo managed to sell more than Sega Saturn.

Gunpei Yokoi (Japanese: 横井 軍平, Hepburn: Yokoi Gunpei; 10 September 1941 – 4 October 1997), sometimes transliterated as Gumpei Yokoi, was a Japanese toy maker and video game designer. As a long-time Nintendo employee, he was best known as the original designer of several notable Nintendo products, including the Ultra Hand toy, the Game & Watch and Game Boy handheld game systems, as well as the producer of a few critically acclaimed franchises such as Metroid and Kid Icarus. The modern Nintendo philosophy of focusing on interactive gameplay over cutting-edge technology was espoused by Yokoi.

Satoru Okada (岡田 智 Okada Satoru, born January 10, 1947) is the former general manager of Nintendo Research & Engineering, the division designing and developing Nintendo handheld game consoles. He is best known for creating the original Game Boy and its successors. He was also assistant producer and director of and contributor to several Nintendo games, notably Metroid, released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1986.

Okada entered Nintendo in 1969 and went on to work as an engineer at Nintendo Research & Development 1 with Gunpei Yokoi, who developed the hugely successful Game & Watch and Game Boy handheld game consoles. In 1996, Yokoi left Nintendo which caused R&D1 to split, its engineers creating a portable hardware division of which Okada became the general manager. His team lacked Yokoi but nevertheless developed hugely successful handheld consoles: the Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Game Boy Advance SP and Nintendo DS. Okada initially opposed the Nintendo DS' dual-screen design but was overruled by Hiroshi Yamauchi.

Tetris is a 1989 puzzle video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy. It is a portable version of Alexey Pajitnov's original Tetris and it was bundled with the North American and European releases of the Game Boy itself. It is the first game to have been compatible with the Game Link Cable, a pack-in accessory that allows two Game Boy consoles to link for multiplayer purposes. A remaster, Tetris DX, was released on the Game Boy Color in 1998. It was released for the Nintendo 3DS' Virtual Console in December 2011 without multiplayer functionality. The game was released on the Nintendo Classics service in February 2023.