In an attempt to combine the best features of the NES and the 'Game & Watch' handheld games, Gunpei Yokoi's R&D1 team at Nintendo developed the Game Boy, released in Japan in 1987 and two years later worldwide.

The Game Boy has been a massive success for Nintendo. Despite rival consoles from Atari, Sega, Bandai and many others, the Game Boy is still the king of the handheld console market.

Although some would consider the black and white screen of the Game Boy to be a disadvantage, it actually made the system a more viable choice for consumers, compared to the battery-hungry Sega Game Gear and Atari Lynx systems.

Later revisions to the Game Boy's design led to the Game Boy Pocket, which took fewer batteries and had a more compact case. Then came the Game Boy Color which had the same casing design as the Game Boy Pocket but incorporated a new colour LCD screen injecting some life into the then ageing machine.