Nintendo Game Boy

Despite mixed reviews criticizing its monochrome graphics and larger size compared to competitors like the Sega Game Gear, Atari Lynx, and NEC TurboExpress, the Game Boy rapidly outsold them all. An estimated 118.69 million units of the Game Boy and its successor, the Game Boy Color (1998), have been sold worldwide, making it the fourth best-selling console ever.

The Game Boy featured a dot-matrix display, a directional pad, four game buttons, a single speaker, and uses Game Pak cartridges.

Following the success of the Game & Watch single-game handhelds, Nintendo developed the Game Boy to be more like a portable console, with interchangeable cartridges. The concept proved highly successful and the Game Boy became a cultural icon of the 1990s.