Talk:Game Boy

Are ROM sizes in bits or bytes?

Is the unit really bits in the following (section "Technical specifications")?

"... 256 kb, 512 kb, 1 Mb, 2 Mb, 4 Mb and 8 Mb cartridges"

That is, 256 kilobits, 512 kilobits, etc.

If it is I think they should be converted to/listed in bytes, to avoid confusion and be more consistent with the unit that is normally used for (electronic) memory capacity.

What do you think?

--Mortense (talk) 18:14, 2 September 2010 (UTC)

Considering I had nothing better to do, I'd like to just mention that all conventional computer memory is stored in bits, as it is all binary. - Odokee (talk) 09:50, 3 September 2010 (UTC)

Using bits as the base unit is correct. This is by convention for memories (when talking about memory chips rather than consumer goods) and that's how Game Boy ROM sizes were reported back then, from official sources. On the other hand, it might be suitable to clarify that the prefixes in question are actually Mebi and Kibi, by changing the prefixes to Ki and Mi from k and M. Nitro2k01 (talk) 02:03, 10 October 2010 (UTC)

Yep, it's almost certainly correct. There are very few truly large gameboy cartridges; the bulk of what consumes space in, say, a 6MB (48mbit) SNES cartridge is graphics and sound data. The gameboy operates a 2-bit colour system, and doesn't need large backgrounds or sprites thanks to the low resolution (160x144), plus it only has a synth-plus-noise chip with little if any in the way of sample playback; the SNES ran at a typical -minimum- of 256x224 (2.5x the screen area) in 8-bit colour or sometimes higher - for the same "size" of game, that alone could count for easily an 6x reduction in space required for graphics... plus it used PCM samples for its musical instruments.

Doing a quick bit of division, an 8Mbit cartridge is 1MByte ... 1 and 2 Mbits are 128-256kByte which were certainly common 8-bit game cart sizes (the Master System used to *boast* of it's 1Mbit "Mega" carts)... 256kbit is 32kByte. Which is small, yes, but still plenty for a simplistic, near-monochrome, 8-bit game. For example - Tetris, Space Invaders or one of a myriad of Breakout clones. How much space do you think they actually need, when there's been plenty of conversions of all of those for home computers that had to load the game off a cassette, at 1200 baud, into 16kbytes of RAM (shared between all parts of the system including the video hardware) before it could be run? And many 16-bit home computer games came on a single 720~800kByte floppy disk or two 360k ones? I don't think I've yet seen an original Gameboy cartridge ROM image file that's over 512kByte, in fact... (GBC ones may be larger). :-)

Also, ROM sizes are traditionally given in megabits, as they have been a common feature to computer systems regardless of word/element size (e.g. 36-bit CPU IBMs with either 6 or 9 bit characters ("bytes")), and were originally supplied - as were RAM chips - in single-bit widths, simplifying their packaging and internal design (it could be a very simple bit-matrix with a small amount of address decode circuitry and no need to simultaneously output multiple bits on different legs), and allowing system manufacturers to just buy a bulk quantity of generic chips and arrange them whatever way they liked - or order in, say, 4... 6... 8... 9... 36... different batches of 1-bit ROMs to the required designs. So you'd get a pile of, say, 1kbit memory chips... arrange them in four banks of eight chips each... voila, a 32-kbit memory. Or 4kBytes to you and me in the modern world. You'll also find that things like Playstation memory cards are sold this way... a "one meg" PSX card is actually 128kByte. Makes it sound bigger, more impressive, like less of a rip-off when a 1Mb(it) card costs, say, £5-£10, and a box of ten 1.4MB(yte) floppy discs is the same price...

193.63.174.211 (talk) 17:44, 17 May 2012 (UTC)

What does this even mean?

"it combined features from both the Nintendo Entertainment System and Game & Watch and its B&W (except for Konami/Factor 5 games and Seaquest DSV shown in color)."

Apparently someone reverted my edit but what the hell is this supposed to mean? Could someone who actually knows English (unlike whoever wrote it) please review this? 84.249.104.18 (talk) 00:35, 10 September 2011 (UTC)

Still not making a whole lot of sense: "The Game Boy is Nintendo's second handheld system following the Game & Watch series introduced in 1980, and it combined features from both the Nintendo Entertainment System and Game & Watch and its B&W." Let's break this down, shall we - as it is now, the text above states that the Game Boy combined features from the following: 1) the Nintendo Entertainment System, 2) Game & Watch, 3) Game & Watch's B&W (whatever the heck that is). I'd edit myself but since my edits concerning nonsensical sentences are always reverted I won't bother. I'm guessing it's supposed to read ", and it's black&white." but vOv 213.138.152.225 (talk) 14:01, 14 December 2011 (UTC)

Production Cycles

Until when was each revision (above all the classic Game Boy) produced ?
If possible specify the year/month/date of production/shipping of the last unit and in each region (JAP/EU/US).
I could not yet find a reliable source.
Hippo99 (talk) 08:15, 21 October 2011 (UTC)

Why the Z80-like CPU was chosen for the GameBoy and not the 6502, for example ?

Could someone maybe put in a section in the main article to explain why the Z80 style (but customised with modifications, including internal sound channels) CPU was chosen for the GameBoy and not the 6502 (could have been customised also like the NES), for example ? Surely it can't of been because the Z80 was seen as being "easier" to program by a lot of people? Was it cost (hard to understand since 6502 was very cheap I thought) ? Was it because the Z80 would use significantly less power than e.g. the 6502 (I don't know?). Was it because Z80 needed less support chips and thus could use a smaller PCB, important in such a small hand held unit (Z80 can refresh DRAM by itself without extra external IC's for example)? I couldn't find any info online about this elsewhere? Live Steam Mad (talk) 19:43, 3 April 2012 (UTC)

It's a low power mod of the Z80, made by Sharp. Presumably no 6502-equivalent chips were available? 193.63.174.211 (talk) 18:10, 17 May 2012 (UTC)

Discontinuation dates?

Nintendo seems to have done their damnedest to pretend like the Gameboy was all one continuous run from the introduction of the original white-box monster through to the death of the final incarnation of the GBC... but that's a bit contrived for my liking, too much of a ploy to ensure they could claim the guinness "highest sales/longest production run" top spot in perpetuity. And wikipedia seems to be aiding and abetting in carrying this on.

The original big-ass gameboy production stopped at some point in favour of the GB Pocket, and then the GB Pocket was phased out once the GBC was established... or at least, they sure stopped being sold! (Maybe they kept making one or two a year to keep it technically true, and hiding the results in a hole in the desert next to all of Atari's surplus ET cartridges?) ... Can anyone pin down what the dates are for these, even to the nearest quarter-year? 193.63.174.211 (talk) 18:14, 17 May 2012 (UTC)

Front-lit DS

I removed the assertion that the DS was front-lit on this page as I couldn't find any sources to verify that. Feel free to add it back if you know any sources.Dive7 0 (talk) 21:23, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

Other names

What other name were considered before deciding on Game Boy? Did the project have any codenames? --209.203.125.162 (talk) 03:26, 8 December 2013 (UTC)