All the corners of the portrait-oriented rectangular unit are softly rounded, except for the bottom right, which is curved. The color scheme is made from two tones of grey with accents of black, blue, and dark magenta.

The console features a dot-matrix screen with adjustable contrast dial, five game control buttons (a directional pad, two game buttons, and 'START' and 'SELECT'), a single speaker with adjustable volume dial and, like its rivals, uses cartridges as physical media for games. It is Nintendo's second handheld game console and combines features from both the Game & Watch handheld and NES home system. It was designed by the same team that developed the Game & Watch series of handheld electronic games and several Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) games: Satoru Okada, Gunpei Yokoi, and Nintendo Research & Development 1. It was first released in Japan on April 21, 1989, in North America later the same year, and in Europe in late 1990. The Game Boy is an 8-bit fourth generation handheld game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo. Worldwide: 118.69 million (including Play It Loud! edition, Game Boy Pocket, Game Boy Light and Game Boy Color units)

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