Monday, April 09, 2012

From the back of my boyhood closet, part seven

The last of the seven game-related treasures I unearthed from my boyhood closet during a recent trip to see my parents is the complete-in-box GameBoy system seen in the photos below.

This "find" actually shocked me because I distinctly remember selling my first GameBoy and most, if not all, of my GameBoy titles as a teen. After inspecting this system's box, though, I realized it couldn't be the GameBoy in question, as a handwritten note on its backside indicates that I acquired it in 1994--five years after Nintendo's pioneering portable was introduced to North America.


As such, I'm guessing I did sell my first GameBoy--which came in a completely different box and which I received as a gift within a year of its release--and then I bought the "basic" system seen in the photos above and below at some later date.

Anyway, enough about that. The real news here is that I found an original GameBoy--along with its box, manuals and other paperwork--in the back of my childhood closet.


Oh, and did I mention that the system is in nearly perfect condition? I say "nearly" because although superficially everything is rather immaculate, things aren't as flawless beneath the surface. Specifically, the system's screen is missing a few lines of pixels. I don't know if that's due to its age or if it's due to the fact that at some point I seemingly left some batteries in it for a long period of time (resulting in some massively corroded innards), but it doesn't much matter now, does it?

What does matter: It still works well enough that I can play a game on it if I so desire.

12 comments:

Kimimi said...

That's a real classic there! I remember my brother and I begging for Game Boys (or Game Gears - we wouldn't have minded either!) for Christmas one year... my dad, being an Atari fan, bought us both Lynxs instead... It was a sensible option at the time in a way (and they certainly weren't cheap!) as it was clearly the most powerful of the three handhelds, but Viking Child just wasn't Sonic or Mario :)

Bryan Ochalla said...

Ah, the Lynx! I so wanted one of those for a time, Kimimi -- mainly because of games like California Games and Klax.

Of course, I wanted a Game Gear, too. Never got one, though. Thankfully, one of my best friends had one. I'd play Columns whenever I went to his house :)

Kimimi said...

Klax was really good! I only really enjoyed the skateboarding part of California Games though. To be fair it had better games than I tend to give it credit for, but it wasn't a patch on the other two.

My best friend had a Game Gear (unrelated coincidence), and I still have the old brick GB I got in a trade so I didn't exactly go without good handheld gaming, I just had to wait a little while :)

Bryan Ochalla said...

Yeah, I agree that the poor ol' Lynx couldn't really compare to either the GameBoy or Game Gear. It sure made things interesting for a while, though!

Anyway, I'm glad to hear you didn't have to suffer too long without one of the 'brick' GBs, as you call them. Yes, you needed light to be able to see anything, and even then the screen looked like pea soup, but I still love the system overall (esp. its design).

SUIKA said...

Aren't GameBoy boxes great? There's such a variety of designs. And, why are the brick ones so timeless? Why are the buttons purple? I can't even remember as a kid how or where I acquired the knowledge of one but then I saw my cousins' one on his bed and.. Just the feeling, upon seeing it.. Man, it's such a feeling.

Bryan Ochalla said...

Oh, yes, SUIKA, I think GB boxes are great, too. I especially like the first one that appeared in the US, although the one shown in this post is nice, too.

It's interesting to note that the Japanese GB's box was much ... simpler. Much less colorful, too. I don't dislike it, but it's not as cool as the US ones, you know?

I also like that the buttons on the original GB are purple, by the way. I'm not sure why they're like that, but I'm glad they are all the same :)

Sean said...

I do find it amusing that you forgot having purchased this second Game Boy. Any reason why you bought another one only a few years after selling the first?

Viewtiful_Justin said...

Sweet. That's pretty awesome.

Bryan Ochalla said...

Sean: I honestly have no idea :| Like I said, I distinctly remember going into some used game shop and selling both my GameBoy and pretty much all of the GB games I had purchased up to that point. I don't at all remember purchasing a second one ... but I must have! The writing on the back of the system definitely is mine, for starters.

Anyway, it isn't entirely unusual for me to sell a system and then buy a replacement a few years down the road -- or at least it used to not be unusual. That's why I decided to stop selling my systems and games a couple of years ago.

Bryan Ochalla said...

I agree, Justin! This was my favorite of all of the things I pulled from my closet, BTW -- that's why I saved it for last :)

free standing closet said...

That looks sweet, nice idea!

Bryan Ochalla said...

Not sure if you're a real person or SPAM, free standing closet, but if you're the former, thank you! :)