Now You’re Playing With Power! Portable Power!
The original Game Boy is one of the most important video game consoles from my young life. Though it definitely was not my first gaming console. And it definitely was not my first portable video game system. When it came to home systems, I ground my teeth on the Atari 2600, that I found buried in the bottom of a cardboard box in the closet. Soon after there was the NES, that was on every child’s X-Mas list. Games like: Asteroid, Combat, PONG, Missile Command, Excite Bike, Super Mario Brothers, Duck Hunt, Paperboy, and Legend of Zelda all highlighted my earlier gaming years. These games would set the table for a lifetime of gaming.
Now as far as portable games go, those handheld two or three control-button handheld electronic games still hold a special place in my heart. I had a handful of these. One was a baseball game that I played the hell out of. So much so that I mastered the art of the homerun. Another game was Gauntlet. A fantasy game where you battle monsters as you work your way through a maze. You moved left and right/forward and backward as the maze/enemies emerged. It was quite fun.
Depending on the game, playing on these handhelds was only slightly better (or worse) than playing a game on a solar powered calculator. The characters and surroundings only moved just enough to imply movement.
There were a far cry from the games we have today. But to a kid in his sub-double digit years; these, my Walkman, a mountain’s worth of AA battery’s(eventually rechargeable ones), and some books are all that got me through constant long road trips moving from state to state(or town to town) with at least a speck of sanity.
Then came the Game Boy. A battery powered Nintendo you could take with you. To use an incredibly overused phrase: This thing was a game-changer.
Sure, those handheld electronic games, like Gauntlet, were fun and all. But they were so very one dimensional, and they were usually only one single-serve game per handheld unit. With the Game Boy came cartridges, each with their own games, much like home consoles. The on screen characters had actual movement. Mario could seemingly run and jump across a screen(and in the case of Mario Land: Fly a plane or use a submarine). Samus could shoot alien bugs in Metroid while platforming in hives. The hyper-speed of Tetris on the higher levels would stress me the fuck out as blocks plummeted from the top of the screen.
I can still vividly remember the startup events as you turn on the Game Boy. The red power(battery) light blinked on, a chime sound rings as the Nintendo logo came onto the small monochrome screen from the top before whatever gamesoft was loaded into the back booted up with its music and title screen. This is core-memory type stuff.
I only owned a handful of games for the Game Boy. Tetris, Super Mario Land, Metroid II, Castlevania II: Belmonts Revenge, Baseball, and Radar Mission are the ones I readily remember. There was a couple more that came later on, but they were not as memorable. This handful of games was enough for years of gaming in the back seat of a car, or being held-up in my room.
While I played the hell out of all of those games, It was one in particular I likely played more than others. And it probably is the last one that you would think from the above short list. One of the only two in my collection that are not franchise staples even to this day.
Radar Mission
Radar Mission was a knock-off of the tabletop boxed game Battleship. The one with the plastic ships and white and red pegs. In the game you take control of a Naval Admiral that is tasked with wiping out the enemy. As games go, this is a simple enough concept. Good guys, good. Bad guys, bad. ‘Splode badguys.
Growing up in the waning years of the Cold War, military propaganda was still everywhere, particularly in the form of movies. And me being a military-brat, I soaked it all up. Movies like: Top Gun, Hunt for Red October, and Crimson Tide were all favorites. Hell, I used to play Radar Mission while listening to the Top Gun soundtrack on cassette. I wore that tape out.
Was this game spectacular? In hindsight, no. But for a kid of that age? Fuck yes It was!. So, I kept returning to Radar Mission when I was getting wrecked in Castlevania (probably my second favorite game), or was all platformed-out from Super Mario Land.
Unlike tabletop Battleship, you would get feedback about your range from target. A large splash for near-misses, and a small splash for absolute misses. Sometimes you would end up near-missing a target like 3-4 times. Creating an outline of the enemy ship in misses. All while your enemy is laying waste to your fleet. Where this game differed from Battleship, was that it wasn’t just 100% ships. There was also planes and even tanks on land for some stages. In the games other mode you switch from a guided missile destroyer to a submarine. This mode was more action-based than other game-mode. As you physically moved the submarine, controlling its dives and surfaces. This made it much more fast paced.
The Gaming Accessory Craze Begins
I remember the accessories that came out for the Game Boy. There were clip on lights, because the screen was not backlit. There was a magnifier screen that fit over the top of the console which helped make things bigger, but completely screwed up depth perception. Seriously, this game system probably contributed heavily to an entire generation of kids needing glasses. There was one version of this magnifier that had speakers that folded out for better sound.
For me, the Game Boy’s accessories were really the start of the third-party accessory boom that took off. Into the 90’s you started seeing third-party controllers, cases, you name it. Hell, there was even a camera and printer for the Game Boy. You could seriously print(on calculator paper(severely dating myself here)) an incredibly low definition picture taken from your Game Boy. Because, why not?
These were all great and whatnot, but the absolute most important accessory for the Game Boy, in my humble opinion, was the rechargeable battery pack. It was a small grey brick with a belt clip and a semi-long cable that plugged into the console and powered it up. This thing was the holy grail of accessories. It gave you a couple of hours of gameplay, Whereas the AA batteries would drain like a pool with a screen door attached. This battery pack also gave you the option to play the console while it was plugged in to the wall power socket, so there was no loss in game-time. There was even a cable to plug it into a cars cigarette lighter.
Lego, Once Again, Not-So-Much Pulling On The Nostalgia String, But Ripping It Out
I really wanted the Lego Nintendo Entertainment System Lego kit. The one that came complete with an analog TV with a movable scene on the screen. But I just do not have any kind of space, whatsoever, for larger kits. And I do not want to buy them for the purpose of storing the unopened boxes in my closet. Hoping for a day I can display them. So I passed on the NES and instead lived vicariously through Tyson. Now the Lego Game Boy, I could not pass on. The size of the kit is perfect for the space I have devoted to displaying such hobby things.
Though I don’t know why, I am always surprised at how Lego manages to design these kits. Not only to be aesthetically pleasing and nostalgia inducing, but to also be semi-functional(albeit in minute ways). For this kit, things like the buttons, the contrast and volume wheels, and even the power switch are all moveable. How they manage this all is pretty neat.
For the D-Pad they did a real good job at making it seem realistic under the shell. This was accomplished by adding contact pads. For the movement they have a spongy rubber piece In the center that you insert the “D-Pad” on top of. It has just enough action to allow you to press each of the cardinal directions and make it seem realistic.
For the A and B buttons they designed a simple rig with a rubber band wrapped around three clips behind it to simulate the action of pressing these buttons.
I thought that the bands position was a little off, seeing as it doesn’t exactly position in the center of the button. But it works just fine.
The Start and Select buttons are the most low-tech designs of all of the movable parts in this kit. They are literally just rubber wheels that you place into the respective slots. That’s it. Kind of funny, but surprisingly effective. The wheels sponginess provides just enough of a reaction when you press them to make it seem realistic.
In this picture you can see the rubber piece used for the D-Pad(upper right) and the wheels for the Start and Select buttons. My only criticism is the D-pad. I wish they would have made that smooth. Like using smooth rails on top. But I get it. That would have Andy the cross-shaped piece too bulky/tall.
When it comes to the screen of the Game Boy, they used lenticular image cards to create the moving images. These things also brought a wave of nostalgia, though(fittingly) out of right field. I used to collect baseball cards in my youth, and occasionally buried in those packs(or in cereal boxes) were thick “holographic” cards that showed players moving. Like swinging a bat, running, or throwing a ball. These were lenticular image cards. When I looked at the Game Boy lenticular cards, I remembered holding those baseball cards in my hand, moving them back and forth to make the image move. In those jaded years, it was magic.
Accessible from the back, Inside the Game Boy is a lever-like clip that functions as a tool to keep these cards in place in the front window. This also allows you to easily change the card to match the cartridge that you insert. It’s a very low tech solution that works very well.
When it comes to the cartridges, there are two. Super Mario Land and Legend of Zelda: Links Awakening. These too are pretty cool in their simplicity. They both come with stickers that perfectly mimic the originals. And like all stickers when it comes to Lego, I stressed out when applying them. The inside of the Zelda cartridge has a small Easter egg. The battery that was used to keep the ram powered for save files. Pretty cool.
The final product is an awesome recreation of the original handheld console. So much so that when I see it out of the corner of my eye I instinctively reach for it to turn it off to save the batteries. Because I can see the screen is “on”. This has actually happened more times than I am willing to divulge.
I really dig the stand for both the Game Boy itself, and the stand for the spare cartridge. This stand also holds the extra lenticular image cards. Which is neat, but I feel like they could also be stored inside the unit itself behind the prominently displayed card. Will have to try that out later.
This kit was a major walk down memory lane. I unfortunately do not have my actual Game Boy or its games anymore. They were all lost to time. But building this kit and recounting it all here has me seriously thinking about picking one up. Time will tell if I do or not though. I am trying to lessen my worldly collections as I get older, not increase them.
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Robert
All of the following are true, except for one:
Robert is: a Hobbyist with too many hobbies to list, a Music Lover, an RPG/JRPG Gamer, a Mustard Lover, Chaotic Neutral, a Japanese Speaker, a Veteran, an Otaku, an Aviation Professional, a New York Rangers Fan, a Chaos Lover With Loyalist Tendencies, in a toxic relationship with spicy foods..
