Placeholder Image

Subtitles section Play video

  • Let’s just admit it: Small screens are kind of a pain to look at for long periods of time.

  • Until that magical invention known as the DSiXL, it felt like I was struggling to look

  • at a postage stamp animated with my favorite portable games. And while something like that

  • might be passable for short periods like Tetris or whatnot, around the mid-90’s a magic

  • thing happened: POKEMON. Sure, there had been other portable RPGs around, like Legend of

  • Mana, the early SaGa games, and Link’s Awakening, but nothing caused kids to sink more hours

  • into their portable fixations than the prospect of catchingem all, and being the very

  • best like no one ever was. And while Red and Blue came with built-in Super Game Boy functionality,

  • as the series developed, more and more extra bits got tacked on. Time for a minor hardware

  • upgrade!

  • Here it is, folks, the Super Game Boy 2. It’s translucent, because Nintendo was convinced

  • that was a cool thing at the time. It’s functionally identical to its predecessor,

  • save for one important difference: See that little port on the side? After Pokemon popularized

  • the idea of Game Boy connectivity past what anyone had expected, it became clear that

  • making this new device compatible with the various trading mechanisms and whatnot was

  • of crucial importance. Heck, you can hook up a printer to this thing. Who says we didn’t

  • get interesting add-ons? Nuts to the whole Super Nintendo PlayStation rigmarole. Weve

  • got the capacity for a PRINTER. So you can stick Pokedex entries to the inside of your

  • locker, so you have something to read when youre locked in there. I kid, I kid. You

  • wouldn’t have enough light to read them, anyway.

  • Alas, we never did receive this device here on Western shores. By 1998, when it was released,

  • we were already deep into the N64 era, and we’d see some similar functionality when

  • the Transfer Pak and Pokemon Stadium allowed for playing your Game Boy carts at double

  • and even triple-speed, a blessing that has to be experienced to be believed. It’s a

  • cute little quirk of science, and a odd and interesting addition to your collection, especially

  • if you like teal translucent things. With glowy bits. That allow you to hook printers

  • up to things.

Let’s just admit it: Small screens are kind of a pain to look at for long periods of time.

Subtitles and vocabulary

Click the word to look it up Click the word to find further inforamtion about it