09/06/2021 13:00
Clarín.com
Technology
Updated 09/06/2021 13:00
Nintendo could be about to launch an online service for
Game Boy and Game Boy Color games.
This was confirmed by the specialized site Eurogamer, which gives the news as confirmed despite the fact that the Japanese company has not yet ruled on the matter.
Currently, Nintendo Switch Online has a large selection of older games for anyone who pays for the service online.
Players have access to titles from the Nintendo Entertainment System (
NES
) and Super Nintendo Entertainment System (
SNES
), as well as online games for more modern installments such as
Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Mario Party.
Now, rumor has it that Nintendo might be adding a new section to its retro games roster in celebration of its third anniversary approaching next month.
There are other sites that confirm the rumor, as well as podcasts and different shows dedicated to Nintendo.
All part of a famous data mining that was done in 2019, where it could be seen that
several emulators “live”
within the Switch online code
that have not yet been used
.
One of these, nicknamed "
Hiyoko
" in code, may be for Game Boy and Game Boy Color games.
The third anniversary of the online service is September 18, 2021, and it would be quite a celebration to add all these nostalgic titles so that owners of Switch, Switch Lit
and even the future Switch OLED can play them.
It makes sense considering that the Switch is a portable device just like the Game Boy and Game Boy Color and
lends itself to unearthing these titles that many haven't played in decades.
What remains unknown is the Game Boy Advance, the portable that followed the Game Boy and has excellent games.
The Game Boy, a vintage brand
The Game Boy was Nintendo's first portable console: the third best-selling console in history (below Playstation 2 and Nintendo DS) with 118.69 million units, and
a milestone in the history of video games in particular, and of technology in general.
It had a very small black and white screen (more like green), a modest processor,
a D-pad with two buttons and - the great novelty of the time - interchangeable cartridges.
Then it received several versions, iterations and updates:
Game Boy Pocket, Game Boy Color
and some less known as the Game Boy Light, which had a backlight
.
Today, Nintendo's portable mode
is "solved" in its hybrid Nintendo Switch, which is portable and home at the same time.
Game Boy Color, the successor with color screen and more "pocket" from Nintendo.
Photo Flickr
Owner of the Pokémon franchise, which gave Nintendo a spike in sales around 2000, when times would be dark for the company's home consoles.
The Game Boy is an icon of 90s culture.
Now, players have expectations of being able to
relive those installments
, or discover them for the first time.
Especially if you take into account that the NES online library has about 80 games and that of the SNES, about 50: they are lists of games curated with games that were even difficult to get at the time.
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