Hardware review A friend of mine runs a site called The Gadgeteer.com. She has a review of the Game buddy. It's a rechargable power pak for the GB Pocket. Check out the review and the rest of the fine site.
Click here to check it out

Portable tremors According to the latest issue of Nintendo Power, we can expect to see rumbling GB carts in the future. It'll work like the rumble pak but it'll be the cart that will have the rumbling compontents. Either that or there will be an add-on device which will go into the GB an th cart will go into the add-on, which would make more sense if you ask me.

Happy Holidays Well hopefully everyone's holidays were great. mine were, hence the lack of updates lately. :) Things are going to get back to normal Monday and also sometime this week I may or may not have a big announcement to make. Anyways I hope everyone got all the games they wanted!

Correction I made a slight error on the url of a cool site. The site is a web ring for gaming sites by girls. I regret the error and incase you missed the article, just scan down to check it out and here's both of the urls from the article.
Video game girl ring
Mai's KOF site

Tokimeki and Beatmania on the GB In Japan, the game Tokimeki will be ported to the Gameboy according to Gamespot and it will 32 Mbits in size. The is going to be divided into 2 seperate carts though. Also Beatmania is being ported to the GB also. It will have 20 songs, 10 from the orginal game and 10 GB exclusive songs. The GB version will also have a versus mode which will utilize the link cable. Alsi it will have configurations and it will be Gameboy color compatible. Beatmania will be out March 11 in Japan and Tokimeki Memorial Pocket: Culture version and the sports version will be out February 11 for 4,200 yen(roughly $35US).

Interesting reading Here are 2 files that any Gameboy fan should read. The one is the GBC primer which gives you a look at the way the GBC works along with specs. Also it has the button combinations to change the colors of your games. The other file is Nintendo's requirements to submit software which will give you some insight on what developers are required to do. Both are interesting to read. You will need PKZip or Winzip to unzip the files and you will need MSWord to read the GBC Primer(prime.zip) and you will need Adobe's Acrobat reader to read the software submission requirements(soft.zip)which you can download for free at www.adobe.com
prime.zip(683kb)
soft.zip(93kb)

You dirty rat Take 2 entertainment and Tarantula will produce a a game called Rats and it combines platform action with maze like puzzles, a funky rat charcater and supposively a decent soundtrack. The game involves hoping and dodging through a vertical maze filled with junk food which your charcater must collect in a given amount of time. There is also a pop gun for you to use against enemies. Look for the game by the end of the year.

Can't see your GBC? ASCII entertainment software will be releasing the Super light boy which will work with the GBC and GB Pocket. The unit fits on the top and includes a polished magnifying lens and light to help you see. The lens will magnify the screen 1 and a half times.

Rainbow 6 is on the way Red Storm is planning on releasing it's excellent first person shooter on the N64 and Gameboy Color. Both titles are planned for a release in the 4th quarter of 1999. If you've played Rainbow 6, you'll know that you play a forces team and you must take out terrorists and other similar guys. The game uses alot of strategy and it's 3D, so it's hard to say how the GBC version will turn out but I'd expect something similar to Capcom's old NES game called Rescue: The embassy mission.

Sorry for the delay Well I've let the site for along time with out updating. Well everything is back to normal. Now back to all that email.

The games list Here are the known Gameboy Color games so far. Arcade hits: 720 degrees, Arcade hits: Defender/Joust, Arcade hits: spy hunter/ Moon patrol, Blitz, Bomberman Pocket, Bugs Bunny crazy castle 3, A bug's life, Crazy carrot, Conker's pocket tales, Deja vu 2, Game and Watch Gallery 2, Gex 3D, Las Vegas cool hand, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, Looney Tunes, Men in Black, Montezuma's revenge, Mortal Kombat 4, NBA in the zone, NBA Jam'99, NHL Blades of steel, Pitfall 3D, Power battle, Quest for Camelot, Ratz, San Francisco Rush, Shadowgate classics, South Park, Spawn, Titus Jr., Tetris DX, Top Gear Pocket, Turok 2, VRally, Wario land 2 and WWF.

Comment tips So you have a question, chances are I have an answer so you decide to use the email form. That's great but make sure you get your email address right or that you put on in. I can't repsond if I don't have the address. I do understand some people don't like to give out their email address so use the forum if you want to stay annonymous. The only reason I mention this is because my email from this site has jumped up quite a bit which means there are more mistakes. I do want to help and you don't want to waste your own time writing the email so double check your address.

Titus attempts to make good games Titus is publishing 3 titles for the N64 and Gameboy Color. The titles are, Xena: Warrior Princess, Hercules: The legendary journeys and Blues brothers 2000, all are due for the 4th quarter of 1999. Now the games could be good but anything based on a bad movie can't be that good.

Why stay in the river? After the color version of Legend of the River king, Natsume is going to work on Legend of the Sea king, which will have 65 types of salt water fish, 5 different styles of fishing, the ability to trade fish with your friends via game link and it'll keep track of time so you can fish into the night and into the morning if you want. Expect to see the title in January 1999.

FAO Schwarz toy exclusive The U.S. debut of Pokémon toys will be celebrated at FAO Schwarz in New York City on Tuesday, November 17, 1998, making FAO Schwarz the only retailer in the country on that first day to offer Hasbro’s Pokémon toys.

New titles from Interplay Interplay announced it's publishing 2 titles for the Gameboy Color, both which are due in-store by next spring. The first game, Caesar's Palace 2 includes 19 games, including roulette, blackjack, slots, video poker, mini-baccarat, keno, and poker challenge. The game will be developed by Rune craft. The other game is Wicked surfing which is developed by RUNANDGUN INC. and it's a surfing simulation. There will be 7 different characters and 2 modes,thrash and contest.

Harvesting new screen shots Here are 2 screen shots for the color versions of Harvest moon and Legend of the River King. Look for these titles in December.
Harvest Moon color image
Legend of the River king color image

Sale numbers As you know, the GBC sold out in most stores through out Japan within the first 2 days. Well Nintendo released the primary sales figures for the launch. According to the magazine Famitsu, as of October 25th, Nintendo sold 155,574 units in Japan. Also the Gameboy POcket's price will be reduced to 3,800 yen as of November 14th as I stated before. December 12th is also targeted as the release date for the GBC version of Zelda and it will retail for 3,500 yen.

It's coming The Gameboy Color shipped today which means you should start seeing it in stores anytime now and make sure you pick it up fast because I bet it'll sell fast. Also on a non Gameboy releated note, Zelda 64 demos are in the stores now so check it out.

Spy strategies Are you having trouble with James Bond 007 still? Well if the faq at this site wasn't enough, then head over to www.nintendo.com's Gameboy section and check out their online strategy guide for the game.

Ready to get jazzed? G.O.D(Gathering of Developers) is planning on publishing the PC game Jazz Jack Rabbit on the Gameboy Color. Look for the title sometime next year.

One for the girls There's so many male gamers out there and some times we forget that girls do actually play games too. Well if you're a girl gamer and you have a website then here's a web ring for you. http://i.am/gamegirl is a webring specifically for girl gamer web sites and the woman that runs that site also has another game related site at http://hey.to/mai which is has very nice look to it. This particular site "is for guys who are "man enough" to visit a site that is all info, comments and words about KOF instead of a bunch of ripped pictures put nicely together" as Mai would put it.

Gameboy tunes in Zelda 64 According to Next Generation magazine, fans of the Gameboy version of The Legend of Zelda should recognize some of the music. Previsouly it was thought that the game had all original music but apparently not. I just hope the Zelda theme song is still in the game too.

Even more new screen shots Here are some screen shots for Turok 2: Seeds of Evil and Mortal Kombat 4 for the Gameboy Color. Like I said earlier the Turok 2 shots show little improvement over the original's graphics and the MK4 shots look quite good considering the previous MK games.
Mortal Kombat 4 image 1
Mortal Kombat 4 image 2
Mortal Kombat 4 image 3
Turok 2 image 1
Turok 2 image 2
Turok 2 image 3

Fly with Pikachu All Nippon Airways are running a Pokémon sweepstakes starting January 31st 1999. It's only offered to domestic flights and they're giving away Pokémon cards, stadium jackets and Gameboy Colors. They will also have Pokémon painted on some of their planes.

Top 50 Videogames.com has a top 50 list of the best Gameboy games. If you're wondering if your favorites made it then check out the link below.
Videogames.com's Gameboy top 50

Yoda Stories preview I forgot to mention Yoda Stories came out on the PC awhile ago so you may be able to find a copy of it to try out. I do think Yoda Stories is going to be one of the better Gameboy titles but keep in mind the previews are for new games I have not played, unless it's stated other wise.

More GBC screen shots Here are more screen shots for GBC games. The games shown are Bomberman Pocket which is 8 megs, uses a password save feature, only one player and published by Hudson soft. The next one is Montezuma's revenge which is also 1 player, features a password save feature and is published by Take 2 Interactive. The 3rd game is Game & Watch Gallery 2 which is also 1 player and features a battery back up save feature and is published by Nintendo. As you may recall one of my first news articles was to inform you that Game & Watch Gallery 2 would be a color game. I have more Game & Watch Gallery 2 screen shots in the preview so you can see what each game is like. Keep in mind the shots in the preview are from the Japanese version and aren't in color but the gameplay is the same.
Bomberman Pocket image 1
Bomberman Pocket image 2
Montezuma's Revenge image 1
Montezuma's Revenge image 2
Game & Watch Gallery 2 image 1
Game & Watch Gallery 2 image 2
Game & Watch Gallery 2 image 3

Cheating on the GBC If you want to use the Gameshark with the Gameboy Color here's some information from Gamespot that you'll need to know. First off, it will only work with Gameboy/Super Gameboy titles, not Gameboy Color titles. Since Interact never claimed the Gameshark would be compatible with the GBC you can't get mad at them and they'll watch the market to see if a GBC Gameshark will be worthy of producing.

Zelda's new dungeon Screen shots of the new dugeon from Zelda DX have been released. Below are links to 4 of them. Over all there's not too much as far as new and exciting but it'll give you a hint of what the game will look like.
Zelda DX image 1
Zelda DX image 2
Zelda DX image 3
Zelda DX image 4

Pikachu wants to help 6 world class long distance runners are going to raise $10,000 to benefit California's Special Olympics program in a 500 mile run. What does this have to do with Nintendo? Well it'll also celebrate the launch of Pokémon Pikachu. The event will begin today at 5pm at Hillsdale high school atheletic track in San Mateo, California. The 6 member team will run an average of 90 miles per day, ending their run in San Diego on Thrusday November 12. Each day, the runners will record each mile ran but utilizing the pedometer function of Pokémon Pikachu. Pokémon Pikachu is just one of the very few games that encourage exercise and it is a good idea if it does encourage atleast a few people to exersice.

Arcade hits are coming 3 new titles based on arcade titles are coming to the Gameboy. They are Arcade hits: 720 degrees, Arcade hits: Defender/Joust and Arcade hits: Spy hunter/Moon patrol. Look for these titles this fall.

Quick game updates I just got to look at some new screen shots for some color games. NIntendo Power had screen shots of ShadowGate Classics, Las Vegas Cool hand, Montazuma's revenge, Titus Jr, Top Gear Pocket, South Park and Turok 2 among other games which I already have screen shots for. All these games look amazing and they prove conversions of NES games should be pretty easy. ShadowGate Classics is just like the original NES game graphically. Las Vega Cool hand looks like your average card games cartridge. Montazuma's revenge is one of the prettiest side scrollers so far. Titus Jr. stars Titus the fox in a side scroller which looks good but slightly average so far. Pitfall 3D isn't 3D like I said it wouldn't be earlier. The name is deceiving but the game looks good. Top Gear Pocket looks like a beautifully colored version of F1 Race with rally styled cars ratehr than F1 cars. Turok 2 is identical, graphically, to the original Turok Gameboy game except it has color. Perhaps the lack of a graphic upgrade could hurt the fun but we'll have to see. South Park looks interesting. It's a appears to be a side scroller or a puzzle type game., I can't say for sure until I get more information. I've only seen one screen shot. In the screen shot you're controlling one of the boys while other's appear on the screen along with items and cows. I assume each kid has a different ability and you'll be able to change between the kids to accomplish your goals. Keep an eye out in the future for screen shots of these games at this site.

Maybe next time Sony Hot off the presses at the Associated press, Nintendo has grabbed the rights for the Star Wars prequels. Sony and Nintendo both wanted them but Nintendo won out which may be due to their relation with Lucas arts. What this means is Lucas arts is handling the N64 games based on the prequels and Nintendo will handle the Gameboy Color versions and it also means no prequel games on the PSX. No release dates have been given.

GBC accessories Now that the Gameboy Color is out some accessories are coming out too. One is Car boy which retails for 1,500 yen. it's a adapter that lets you plug your GBC into a car's cigarette lighter for power and it's produced by Hori Electronics. The second one is a bar code reader which reads all those bar codes on various prducts and uses the info to change some elements of a game. The first game to use it is Bardigan which will be released December 11th. I might add the original Gameboy had a bar code reader which probably won't work with the new bar code reader games. Also no word on if these accessories will come to the US.

Neo Geo who? Famitsu Weekly polled gamers an retailers this week and came up with some interesting numbers on the GBC and NeoGeo pocket. The first poll was done with 501 gamers and it asked which they felt would succeed.
Neo Geo Pocket: 80 Yes, 421 No
Gameboy Color: 290 Yes, 211 No
The GBC has sold out and chances are those 211 are the only 211 gamers that don't want one or chaned their mind because the GBC is hot. They also asked retailers if they felt if the systems would succeed and here's the results.
Neo Geo Pocket: 8 Yes, 212 No
Gameboy Color: 240 Yes, 78 No

Pokémon rules the air waves According to 4Kids entertainment, the distributors of the Pokémon TV show, Pokémon has received a 6.9 rating on Tuesday in the New York market. What this means is that Pokémon is beating out The Today Show, CBS This morning and Good morning America. New York is only has one of the 115 stations running Pokémon but since it's a large market is can be used a good way to determine the over all success of the cartoon. Tom Kenney, president of the Summit Media group, the sydnicators of the show, said "Pokemon offers something for all its viewers. It has an emotional storyline, every episode ending with a moral, as well as a competitive edge filled with action. Teenagers love it too because they are usually the first age group to find out about the newest and hottest video games. They tune in because the Pokemon storyline gives the viewer clues on how to play the Pokemon Game Boy game." It's possible that the US could catch Pokémon mania just like Japan if this keeps up.

Stuck in Pokémon? I just added 3 more large faqs for Pokémon in the faqs section and with a total of 4 faqs on the game you shouldn't run into any troubles. But if you still have problems, feel free to post any questions in the forum.

I have to give them respect If you never hear of EAGB then you're missing out on one of the best Gameboy sites specifically made for the Asian markets. I've been visiting it for quite awhile and I feel it's about time to give them some credit for running an awesome site. Also they have a contest to win a Pocket Pikachu so feel free to participate in it. They also have some mpegs of the Gameboy Color in action and like always they have some of the best news from Japan. Everything from Pokémon to Gameboy "date sims". It's definitly a must see if you're interested in Gameboy stuff from other countries. Here's a link their site

Release dates Ok on some sites you've heard the GBC is moved up to a November 19 release and a November 18 release. Well on my trip into EB I asked them and they said November 19. Either way if you pre order or have your name on a list at EB they will call you the day it's in so don't worry unless you don't have an EB or a similar store. Also Pokémon Pikachu is coming November 2. On a unrelated non Gameboy topic my local EB also lists Zelda 64's release at November 24 instead of the 23rd and seeing how popular this game will be I thought I would throw that in and I might add EB gives you a cool Zelda T-shirt when you pre order.

More Zelda info and screen shots Zelda DX, know as Zelda no Densetsu: Yume no Miru Sima DX is going to have a December 12 release and a price of $3,500 yen. Some of the changes are a new dungeon, the ability to change into different colored clothes/armor, take pictures at certain spots that you can print out with the printer and new characters which seems to be mainly just monsters. The color palette looks much better in the new set of screen shots. Before it looked like Zelda just had a Super Gameboy type palette, now it looks like it takes full advantage of the color abilities. Check out the shots below.
Zelda image 1
Zelda image 2
Zelda image 3
Zelda image 4
Zelda image 5
Zelda image 6
Zelda image 7
Zelda image 8

NCL's holiday lineup Some of Nintendo of Japan's Gameboy line up includes Pokémon card GB which is based on the card version of the Pokémon game and it will retail for 3,500 yen ($30 US) and it will probably do well since the cards have sold 8 billion sheets. The line up also includes the new version of Zelda for the GBC which will retail for 3,500 yen($30 US).

NCL lowers the the pocket's price Nintendo has lowered the price of the Gameboy Pocket in Japan. The new price is 3,800 yen($32 US) and there's no word on whether the US price will be lowered but chances are the Gameboy Pocket's lower price is due to great GBC sales so the same should happen here later this year.

Gameshark codes for all The offcial site for the Gameshark(www.gameshark.com) has finally put up codes for the Gameboy. So if you bought a Gameshark I suggest you check out the site. I won't be covering Gameshark codes here because I'm personally not a huge fan of the Gameshark, especially since the N64 GS deleted my memory card files for SF Rush. Keep in mind this type of stuff is typical of 3rd party accessories.

Missed any news? If you missed any news from last week or even last month, check out the news archives. The 1st page is the oldest and the 4rd page obviously being the newest. So if you missed last weeks news the click on the 4th archive page and check out all the recent GB happenings.

News Archives
1st News page
2nd News page
3rd news page
4th news page