Pokémon Red and Green first released on the Game Boy.
Nintendo’s monochrome handheld provided the hardware for the original Pokémon role-playing games in Japan in 1996. Despite the system’s simple display, the games created a large world filled with towns, routes, battles, items, and collectible species.
The Game Boy’s link cable was especially important to Pokémon’s design. Players could connect two systems to trade creatures and battle one another, turning the handheld into a social collecting device rather than a purely solo console.
The games are sometimes associated with the Game Boy Color because later Pokémon titles, including Gold and Silver, were designed for that platform. Red and Green, however, began on the original Game Boy. Their success helped extend the system’s commercial life and established Pokémon as Nintendo’s major handheld franchise.