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GAME BOY JOURNAL
Welcome to the Game Boy Journal, the field n
otes of a lifelong DMG-01 collector.
This is where the little grey box that fit in a
pocket and quietly changed gaming gets the
attention it deserves: the stories behind the hardware, the games that defined it, the strange accessories and the rare variants most people never knew existed.
Expect well-researched articles, surprising facts and the occasional look behind the scenes of the collection itself. Whether you are a serious collector, a curious newcomer or simply nostalgic for that pea-green screen, there is a story here waiting to pull you in. Pick an article and start exploring.
CATEGORIES
DEEP DIVES - SPECIAL ARTICLE SERIES
Write Your Own Game Boy Games: A Beginner's Journey in Two Series
You do not need to be a programmer to make a real Game Boy game. Two hands-on series take you from an empty folder to a polished, cartridge-ready game, explained in plain English. Here is where to start.
Marcel Pflug
3 min read
The Game Boy Around the World: One Console, Eleven Stories
The same grey box lived a different life on every continent. Our series traces the Game Boy from Tokyo to Lagos to Switzerland, market by market.
Marcel Pflug
3 min read
Build Your Own Game Boy Game, Part 1: Setting Up Your Workshop
The start of a hands-on series. By the end you will have written Snake for the Game Boy in C and run it on a real DMG-01. Today, we set up the tools.
Marcel Pflug
5 min read
Third-Party Game Boy Hardware, Part 1: The Big Names
Nintendo built the console; a whole industry built everything else. Part one of a series on the third-party makers, with a dedicated look at Nuby, Joyplus, ASCII, Naki, Beeshu, Saitek, Datel and InterAct.
LATEST ARTICLES
RECOMMENDED ARTICLES
The Tetris Story: From Moscow to the Game Boy
It was born behind the Iron Curtain, fought over in courtrooms, and became the game that sold the Game Boy. The full story of Tetris, its tangled rights, its trivia and its Game Boy successors.
Third-Party Game Boy Hardware, Part 1: The Big Names
Nintendo built the console; a whole industry built everything else. Part one of a series on the third-party makers, with a dedicated look at Nuby, Joyplus, ASCII, Naki, Beeshu, Saitek, Datel and InterAct.
Meet GBuddy: The Game Boy Museum's AI Curator
There is a little Game Boy with glasses and a bow tie waiting in the corner of every page. Meet GBuddy, the museum's AI curator, who knows this collection inside out and is happy to answer your questions.
ALL ARTICLES
Write Your Own Game Boy Games: A Beginner's Journey in Two Series
You do not need to be a programmer to make a real Game Boy game. Two hands-on series take you from an empty folder to a polished, cartridge-ready game, explained in plain English. Here is where to start.
The Game Boy in Africa: Built to Survive
Long battery life, no need for a screen light and near-indestructible hardware made the Game Boy quietly ideal far from the official markets.
The Tetris Story: From Moscow to the Game Boy
It was born behind the Iron Curtain, fought over in courtrooms, and became the game that sold the Game Boy. The full story of Tetris, its tangled rights, its trivia and its Game Boy successors.
The One-Man Game Boy Studio That Gives Its Games Away
Dr. Ludos builds new Game Boy games, sells them on real cartridges, and gives away the source code so the next person can make theirs.
Third-Party Game Boy Hardware, Part 1: The Big Names
Nintendo built the console; a whole industry built everything else. Part one of a series on the third-party makers, with a dedicated look at Nuby, Joyplus, ASCII, Naki, Beeshu, Saitek, Datel and InterAct.
Level Up Your Snake, Part 1: Drawing Graphics the Game Boy Way
A new series that takes the Snake game from the beginner series further. Before we add a title screen and score, we learn how Game Boy graphics were really made, and design our own start screen and font.
Where Play Comes First: Gameorama, Lucerne's Interactive Game Museum
In Lucerne, Gameorama lets you play the whole breadth of gaming culture, and it is the perfect counterpart to the Game Boy Museum.
Meet GBuddy: The Game Boy Museum's AI Curator
There is a little Game Boy with glasses and a bow tie waiting in the corner of every page. Meet GBuddy, the museum's AI curator, who knows this collection inside out and is happy to answer your questions.
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Three Game Boy Games at the Extremes
Every console library has its heights and its depths. Borrowing a title from the classic western, here are three Game Boy games that sit at the very extremes: one brilliant, one forgettable and one infamous.
What Makes a Game Boy Valuable: A Collector's Perspective
Two Game Boys can look almost identical and yet be worth wildly different amounts. To a collector, the reasons are clear, and they are what make the hunt absorbing.
Unboxing a 1989 Game Boy: What's Really Inside the Original Box
Everything inside a 1989 Game Boy box was made to be torn open and thrown away, which is exactly why a complete one is so special today.
Hidden Gems: Underrated DMG-01 Games Worth Collecting
Tetris and Pokemon get the headlines, but the Game Boy library runs far deeper. Three underrated games that belong in any thoughtful collection.
Tetris and the Game Boy: The Bundle That Built an Empire
A Soviet puzzle, a Dutch businessman, a tangle of Cold War rights and a little grey handheld. How Tetris and the Game Boy conquered the world together.
Region by Region: Japanese, European and US Game Boys Compared
Switch on a Japanese, British and American Game Boy and you can barely tell them apart. Look at the boxes and codes, and three different products appear.
The Game Boy Camera and Printer: Nintendo's Pocket Photo Lab
Long before every phone had a camera, Nintendo turned a games console into one, complete with a tiny thermal printer for instant prints.
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