Nintendo Game Boy

Home , Atari Lynx, Game Boy, Microvision, ROM cartridge, Tetris (Atari)

By: Kevin Millar and Humza Syed Agenda

● History ● System Overview ○ Memory ○ CPU ○ Registers and ISA ○ Display ○ Game Cartridges ● Future Impact History ● Milton Bradley Microvision ○ Released in 1979 ○ First programmable handheld ○ Library of 11 games ○ LCD matrix screen ○ Interchangeable cartridges ○ Decent battery Life ○ 16x16 resolution ○ 0.1 MHz CPU ● Nintendo Game & Watch ○ Displayed game characters and objects ○ 59 unique games released between 1980 and 1991 ● Nintendo Game Boy ○ Originally released in 1989 ○ Interchangeable cartridges ○ Bundled with Tetris ○ Competed with Atari Lynx and Sega Game Gear Overview of System

● Grayscale dot-matrix LCD display ● 64 Kb LCD Display SRAM ● 64 Kb Working SRAM ● 32-pin connector for ROM cartridge ● 6-pin subconnector for serial communication ● Sound amp ● Speaker ● Stereo headphone connector ● Input connector for external power source Memory

● 32 KB of programming area; 0x0-0x7FFF ○ 0x000-0x0FF used for starting address for interrupts ○ 0x100-0x14F used for storing name of the game in ROM ○ 0x150 used as starting address of the user program ● 8 KB for display; 0x8000-0x9800 ● CPU internal RAM; 0xFE00-0xFFFF ○ 0xFE00-0xFE9F used for OAM-RAM ○ 0xFF00-0xFF7F and 0xFFFF used for instruction registers and system controller flags ○ 0xFF80-0xFFFE used as CPU work/stack RAM CPU

● Sharp LR35902 ● 8-bit CPU ● 1.05 MHz (Machine Cycle) ● 4.19 MHz (Clock Cycle) ● 127 x 8 bits of RAM ● 8 kB RAM for LCD Display (Internal) ● 8 kB Working RAM (Internal) ● 16-stage Frequency Divider ● 8-bit Timer ● 4 types of Internal Interrupts ● 1 type of External Interrupt ● DMA COntroller ● 4 Input Ports P10 ~ P13 ● 2 Output Ports P14 and P15 ● Serial I/O Ports SIN, SCK, SOUT CPU Instruction Set Architecture LCD Display and Controller

● 160 x 144 Dot-Matrix Display ● Background ○ 8 x 8 dots ● Object ○ 8 x 8 dots ○ 8 x 16 dots ● Number of Usable Characters ○ Background: 256 ○ 8 x 8 Object: 256 ○ 8 x 16 Object: 128 ● Grayscale ○ Background: 4 shades, 1 palette ○ Object: 3 shades, 2 palettes Future Impact

● Popularized portable gaming ● Brought people together ● Introduced major game franchises ● Proceeded by future handhelds ● Nintendo remains at the top of the handheld market ○ Nintendo Switch References

● J. Vincent, “The Game Boy turns 25: How a 'grey brick' took over the world of portable gaming,” The Independent, 22-Apr-2014. [Online]. Available: https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/the-game-boy-turns-25-ho w-a-grey-brick-took-over-the-world-of-portable-gaming-9273092.html. [Accessed: 12-Dec-2017]. ● T. Fahs, “IGN Presents the History of Game Boy,” IGN, 27-Jul-2009. [Online]. Available: http://www.ign.com/articles/2009/07/27/ign-presents-the-history-of-game-boy?page=1 . [Accessed: 12-Dec-2017]. ● Game Boy Programming Manual. Nintendo of America Inc., 1999. Questions?