JEDDAH: Thirty years ago this week, Nintendo changed video gaming forever by introducing the Game Boy handheld console.
Youths in Saudi Arabia and worldwide were hooked, and the grey block was one of the first major successes for Nintendo.
With a black and green reflective screen, an eight-way direction pad, two action buttons, and a start and select button, it used game cartridges that were inserted in the back. Six years after its launch, colored versions of the Game Boy were introduced to the market, although old-school grey was the favored choice for many Saudis.
Jeddah-based photojournalist Iman Al-Dabbagh recalls when she got her first Game Boy. “I shared it with my brother,” she said. “We got it with a few games. ‘Super Mario’ and ‘Tetris’ were my favorite. We also had the ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ game.”
In Game Boy’s 30 years, more than 1,000 games were manufactured. Puppeteer and voice actor Ammar Sabban said: “The accessories were the coolest. You had a magnifier, a camera where we’d take selfies, and this was back in the 1990s. You could print stickers as well.”
Who could forget such hits as “Super Mario Land”, “Tetris”, “Kirby’s Dream Land”, “Final Fantasy”, “The Legend of Zelda”, “Donkey Kong” and “Wario Land”? Game Boy made “Tetris” a global phenomenon, and it is still played to this day.
When Russia cosmonaut Aleksandr Serebrov visited the MIR space station in 1993, he was allowed to take his Game Boy, but with the weight restriction he was only allowed one cartridge: “Tetris” was his choice.
The Game Boy was originally sold in the US for $89.95; the cost in Saudi Arabia was around SR500 ($133) or more.
Saudis interviewed by Arab News recall how they bought their Game Boys during their travels to the US for holidays; the downside was having to wait a long time to buy new games. That is how the concept of swapping cartridges came about.
Dina Azeez and Fahda Al-Magbool, both 35, recall hiding their Game Boys under their school desks. “Fahda’s (Game Boy) was yellow and mine was red,” said Azeez. “We had one class that was one of the most boring, so we spent most of the time playing. We often swapped games, but only swapped the ones we never wanted in the first place.”
Al-Magbool replied to Azeez: “I remember you giving me one of the silliest games — I can’t recall the name at the moment — and I threw it in the trash because I hated it so much.”
Alaa Sendi, an English-language instructor at King Abdulaziz University, said: “My favorite was Mario. Swapping games was the highlight of the summer — out with the old and in with the new.” She added: “I’d love to play with it (the Game Boy) again. I had the original grey one, and when the ones with color came out I got the red one.”
Abdulaziz Al-Ayesh, a 20-year-old gamer and collector, has two Game Boy Advances, three Game Boy Colors, three Game Boy Advance SPs and more. He collects many different consoles and their variations.
“I got my first Game Boy in 2003. It was a Game Boy Advance SP, and my favorite games were ‘Pokemon’ and ‘Kirby: Nightmare in Dreamland.’ I missed out on the Mario craze,” he said.
The consoles can sell for a high price depending on the model and year of manufacture, he added.
“If I were to sell my rarest Game Boy (Advance model), I might be able to get around $200 or higher,” Al-Ayesh said. “People online tend to be more knowledgeable about the worth of retro games. Local retro shops in Saudi usually sell items for exaggerated prices, and they have loyal customers.”
Nintendo was arguably the top form of entertainment for Saudi kids in the 1990s, whether it was the Game Boy or the Super Nintendo. Although discontinued in 2003, more than 200 million Game Boys were sold worldwide.
“I had all versions of the Game Boy,” said Sara Fakieh, founder of the ArabicTypo notebook brand. “Every year it just had to be the latest Game Boy.”
from Saudi Arabia http://bit.ly/2UX7GZ6
via Latest News of Dubai
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