Game Boy Console (1989)

The original Game Boy from 1989 is where portable gaming truly began. Designed by Gunpei Yokoi at Nintendo, this chunky grey brick with its green-tinted dot-matrix screen outsold every competitor despite being technically inferior. The secret was the game library — Tetris alone moved millions of units — and those four AA batteries lasting far longer than anything else on the market.

The Game Boy is one of the most iconic pieces of gaming hardware ever made, and collecting them has become a serious hobby. Clean, working units with good screens are the baseline. What drives premium prices is completeness: the original box, the manuals, the link cable, and especially a bundled copy of Tetris. Japanese DMG-01 units and special editions like the Play It Loud colored variants are particularly sought after.

When buying, test the screen first — look for dead lines (horizontal or vertical bars that stay visible). These are caused by failing ribbon cable connections and range from easy fixes to permanent damage. Check that the contrast wheel works smoothly. Inspect the cartridge slot pins for corrosion and test with a known-good game. Battery compartment corrosion is common but usually cleanable. Yellowed shells are cosmetic and can be retrobrighted, but cracked shells are harder to fix.