Here's to the best $65 I've ever spent (or, the Japanese GameBoy's packaging is pretty sweet, ain't it?)

I know, I know. The "Year of the GameBoy" posts are coming fast and furious now. Sorry about that. 2014's almost over, though, and I really want to fit as many "Year of the GameBoy" write-ups into it as possible. Hence my last handful of posts.

At least this particular post isn't about a GameBoy game--although I'm not sure those of you who aren't fans of Nintendo's iconic-yet-bricklike handheld will enjoy a post about the system (as well as its Japanese packaging and instruction manual) any more than you'd enjoy a post about one of its games.

It's kind of hard to hate a post that includes photos like the one above, though, right? I mean, just look at that awesome packaging. 

Also, it includes text that alerts passersby to the fact that this system is a "Handy Game Machine." No wonder Nintendo sold a billion of these suckers in the 14-plus years they were on the market.

Here (above) is another shot of the Japanese GameBoy's packaging (and of the system itself). Sorry for the varying quality of the photos included in this post, by the way. They were taken on three different days, and each day offered up different lighting scenarios.

Anyway, the shot above showcases the Japanese GameBoy's oh-so-1990s instruction manual. And because it's a Japanese manual that was produced before, say, the year 2000, it features a number of completely adorable illustrations, such as the ones below.

The back of the GameBoy's Japanese instruction manual can be seen below. I like the design that runs along its edge. I also like that this GameBoy's original owner seemingly acquired it early in 1991.

The backside of the GameBoy's Japanese packaging isn't as thrilling as its front, but that's OK with me. At least it reminds viewers of the rechargeable battery pack Nintendo used to sell for its first handheld. I've always found its design to be appealing, for whatever reason.



I bought the GameBoy shown throughout this post early in the year, by the way, and only paid about $65 for it, if memory serves.

Even better: its screen is in immaculate condition, with absolutely no dead pixels (he says as he furiously knocks on wood)--something that can't be said about the last GameBoy I bought.

See also: previous 'Year of the GameBoy' posts

Which GameBoy Advance is your favorite?

In news that is sure to shock absolutely no one, I currently have GameBoy Advance on the brain. That's especially true since I suggested as much on Twitter last week. (You can follow me here if you'd like, by the way.)

Because I firmly believe in the phrase "misery loves company," I thought I'd rope all of you into obsessing about Nintendo's 32-bit handheld (don't you miss the days when we could refer to systems based on the number of bits associated with them?), too, by asking which of the company's three GameBoy Advance designs you liked best.

Me, I've always preferred the GameBoy Advance SP--in particular, the almost disgustingly cute Pikachu-branded systems (one of which can be seen below) that earned a release in 2005 and 2006.

Photo by diversionmary

As much as I like the Pikachu SP, though, I like the run-of-the-mill SPs nearly as much--thanks in large part to their pre-DS clamshell construction.

Photo by Arturo Martin

Don't take the commentary above to mean that I dislike the GameBoy Micro's design. On the contrary, I love it--especially when it's made to look like a mini Famicom or given a Mother-esque paint job.

Photo by Francois Houste

As for the first GameBoy Advance the folks at Nintendo bestowed upon the masses: I can't say I've ever been a fan of it. I'm not even sure why that is, to tell you the truth.

My first thought it to blame it on the system's toy-like appearance, but the same could be said of the original GameBoy and of the original DS, in particular, yet I consider both of those to be top of the line in terms of design (the former, especially).

What are all of your opinions on this most pointless of matters? Do you have a favorite when it comes to Nintendo's trio of GameBoy Advance designs, or would you just as well forget any of them ever existed?

'A Fashionable Invasion'

Remember this recent post, which featured the rather cheeky (in my opinion, at least) headline of "Swank Invaders"?

Well, the Space Invaders-inspired t-shirt design (below) that served as its focus is now up for a vote at threadless.com.



Should you like it, would you please give it a positive rating (here) sometime within the next four days so dorks like myself can buy a t-shirt bearing it and then wear it around town feeling a bit more dapper than we normally do?

See also: Previous posts related to the artist (Terry Fan) responsible for this awesome design

Who else hates how Bub's and Bob's designs have changed for the worse in recent Bubble Bobbles?

You may not be aware of this, but the dynamic dragon duo known as Bub and Bob--or Bubblun and Bobblun, if that's how you roll--haven't always looked like they single-handedly inspired the "herp derp" meme.

Yes, they've always been a bit cross-eyed. And, yes, they've always had buck teeth. Still, Bub's and Bob's earliest designs (see flyer below) were pretty darn cute, if you ask me.

Sadly, they weren't that cute for long. In fact, Bub and Bob somehow caught a serious case of the duhs between the release of the Famicom version of Bubble Bobble and the NES version.

Bubble Bobble Part 2 wasn't any better, with Bub and Bob appearing the definition of "dorky" both on that game's box art and within its gameplay.

The green-and-yellow dino on this t-shirt design isn't Bub, but I like it anyway

When I first came across the following t-shirt design last night (as always, click on it to take a closer look at it), I was sure the dino that serves as its focal point was supposed to be a Ren & Stimpy-esque re-imagining of one of my favorite game characters of all time: Bub (Bubblun, to some) of Bubble Bobble fame.

Sadly, that's not the case. Instead, the green-and-yellow character's name is "Hablaah the Magic Crocogator." Oooooookay.

Rather than let my disappointment get the better of me, I decided not only to vote on the design (at threadless.com) but to give it a good score to boot. (Note: I believe this may be the first time I've used "to boot" on this blog.)

I did that because I'm hoping the design will garner a high enough score to be "printed," as the folks at Threadless call it. Shortly after, I'll buy one of the shirts and then proceed to tell people that the puking creature at the center of the image is, in fact, Bub (or Bubblun, if that's your thing).

Should you want to support this endeavor, would you please go here and give Aaron Jacob Willman's whimsical design an appreciably high score?

Mario + Matryoshka = Marioshka!

What do you get when you toss Mario (Tanooki Mario, to be more specific) and a trio of Russian matryoshka dolls into a blender and make a t-shirt design out of the resulting sludge?

If you're Mat Hudson (aka Orphan Elliott), you get the following:

Tees bearing Hudson's design will be sold via Threadless should the design garner enough positive votes within the next two days. (Go here if you'd like to add to the tally.)

(Via gonintendo.com)

This GameBoy is outta this world

Is there a point to the piece below, or is it just supposed to be pretty? I actually posed (via Flickr) that question to guy who produced it--Seattle-based artist Cory Schmitz--but I have yet to hear back from him. So, for the time being I'm just going to assume there's an awesomely pertinent story behind this celestial collage.

Get a better look at Schmitz' "NASA Game Boy" here

Even if there isn't a point to it, though, and the piece is just supposed to be cool to look at, I'll be perfectly fine with that--because the piece is cool to look at, don't you think? Really, I'd hang a framed print of it in my office if I had one (a print, not an office).

In more serious Bubble Bobble news ...

In a (fairly) recent blog post, the always awesome auntie pixelante waxed poetic about how Bubble Bobble designer Fukio Mitsuji used "visual information to help the player understand the rules of a game."

Specifically, she focused on how Mitsuji explained, visually, using the giant frying pan seen in the screenshot below, the behavior of the game's fire/flame bubbles.

"Players pop the bubbles and the flames fall down to the wide, flat surface of the pan, which then catches fire--like cracking an egg and dripping it into a frying pan to sizzle," she writes. "The enemies that inhabit this stage bounce diagonally through the air; when they come down they touch the fire, pop into the air and come down as food that the players can gather. The word “POPCORN” written on the screen makes the metaphor complete."

If you're interested in game design in general and Bubble Bobble in particular--and who isn't interested in the latter?--I'd highly recommend reading the rest of pixelante's post (here).