Ah the Game Boy. After witnessing business folk messing around with calculators on a train, Gunpei Yokoi's brainwave was to make a portable device created using cheap components. That process ultimately evolved into the Nintendo Game Boy, a gaming system with its own power source and a green monochrome screen, beset with a chunky design. What many considered a unwieldly grey brick managed to utterly dominate and decimate the competition over the best part of a decade.
Seeing off more powerful handhelds with ease, the dimunitive portable system also amassed a huge library of games in the process. But which of these games are the best? Do they still hold up today? Do you wish there was a hardback book dedicated to the device that fawns over the platform like you do? That's where GAMEBOOK: The Unofficial DMG Companion comes in.
Fresh from writing about amiibo in 2021, Paul Murphy felt the need to write about his love for the Game Boy, and revisited many games from the vast repertoire available. What you get here is pure, unadulterated love for the original king of handhelds.
As well as a quintessential list of the best Game Boy games, there will be a historical dive into the platform as well as more in-depth retrospectives on many of the titles that defined the handheld. There's a tribute to the great Gunpei Yokoi and a foreword from some chap called Steve Jarratt as well. The retrospectives on iconic franchises have been written by some outstanding freelance writers which go into more detail about the definitive Game Boy titles. These features are accompanied by some mesmerising artwork.
GAMBOOK: The Unofficial DMG Companion will cover the original Game Boy era only, which runs from 1989 to 1998. So that begins with the original DMG-01 model and goes up to the GameBoy Pocket and the GameBoy Light. If you just did a double take, then yes, that says GameBoy Light. It released only in Japan and featured a backlight. Nintendo decided not to release it outside of Japan. Probably because its launch would have clashed with the Game Boy Color. Don't worry, it is explained in the book. There's also a small section on the Analogue Pocket, for probably obvious reasons.
As well as some interesting pieces alongside the best games, it also has some brilliant photography inside the book as well. The book is 21cm x 21cm in size. Coming with a hard-cover, the book is finished with high-quality, uncoated paper stock and all sorts of cool content across 272 pages. Second Edition, 2024.