Objectives
Game Boy World is meant to be two things: One, a chronological index of all Game Boy titles released globally. And two, an in-depth exploration of those games contextualized within the history of the platform, of games, and of the times.
Obviously, this is a huge task and will happen slowly, over the course of many years.
At the basic level, Game Boy World will be a comprehensive listing of the Game Boy platform (and possibly others, such as Lynx and Game Gear) presented as a cover gallery. I am adding a few new items to the gallery each day in approximately chronological order. While the site tech requires things to appear in a strictly chronological fashion by default, extensive tagging will allow more granular filtering: By platform, developer, publisher, year, genre, multiplayer, title, and more.
At the more involved level, I am steadily working my way through the system’s catalog to provide detailed write-ups and videos for each game as well. The two most recent items will always sit at the top of the site, while the remainder will appear in their proper chronological slot.
Methods
I am playing through (or at least a fair amount of) every single game in the Game Boy library.
I record all footage from actual cartridges on real hardware. I’m recording through a Super Game Boy 2 (thanks to “Joseph Joestar” for the donation) on an RGB-modded Super NES Jr., which is then upscaled to 720p resolution through an XRGB mini Framemeister and recording with an Elgato HD60 capture device. I am aiming for maximum fidelity—the highest-quality and most faithful video quality possible.
I intend for Game Boy World to be a public resource and am photographing and scanning the packaging materials for every game I can get me hands on. This is a very expensive endeavor so contributions of material or sponsorship through Patreon are greatly appreciated! When video capture gameplay quality warrants, I will post raw HD footage of games to my YouTube channel for others to use as they wish in their own video projects.
I am doing as much research as possible on game creators, both individuals and companies.
Limitations
While Japanese release dates are chronicled to the exact date, that information generally doesn’t exist for American releases until the late ’90s. At best, I can pin American release dates down to the month, but even digging through a number of online newspaper archives I can’t find even a specific American release date for Game Boy. Even Nintendo doesn’t seem to know! As such, American release dates will be listed as the 15th of their given month unless more granular information exists online.
The system and most of its games being of Japanese origin, much information about Game Boy exists only in Japanese. I can read some small amount of Japanese, but certainly not to the degree necessary for proper research.
While I am attempting to produce as much content as a primary source as possible—including footage and packaging scans—any time I use outside materials I always credit resources in the full text of game entries and videos, as needed.
Help needed
For the moment, I’m not quite ready to take on help with coverage, though I anticipate doing so sooner or later. But I could definitely use help sourcing material!
If you would like to donate games, I could use all the cartridges I can get my hands on. I have the first three or four months’ worth of games in-hand already, but the costs add up. I’ll take whatever I can get, even if it’s crap – every game gets covered here. I’ll also happily accept donations of hardware and accessories. I’m keeping a public running list of Game Boy titles in my possession. If you can contribute games or especially boxes to the cause, I will be eternally grateful!
I could also use help digging through Japanese resources for information, especially on obscure titles and developers.
Please contact me via email if you can help. And please, consider supporting this project through Patreon!
Thank you for your support!
Jeremy Parish
April 24, 2014 (updated Nov. 29, 2015)