The Game Boy is a hand-held electronic game console with a choice of game cartridges. This model from the ‘Play it Loud’ series, released in 1995, has a transparent plastic case and illustrates a trend in product design adopted in the 1990s by such companies as Alessi, Philips, Nintendo and Apple.

An incredibly popular game console, Game Boy was selling in excess of 64 million units from its inception in 1989 through to 1998 when Nintendo began production of the Game Boy colour model. It became a portable and personalised accessory in a similar way to the Sony Walkman.

Designer Gunpei Yokoi (1941 – 97) was employed in Nintendo’s games department from the 1970s, and was responsible for some extraordinary products including the Ultrahand (an expansion arm), the Ultra Machine (a soft baseball throwing machine for the home), the Ultra Scope (a small periscope) and the Love Tester (arcade love testing). In 1981 Yokoi teamed up with Shigeru Miyamoto (who later produced Super Mario Brothers) to develop Donkey Kong.

Related objects

PowerGlove computer game accessory

Valentine typewriter