The original Pokémon Red and Green debuted on Nintendo’s Game Boy.
The Game Boy was a monochrome handheld released in 1989, and Pokémon’s first games were designed for that system. Their simple graphics, portable format, and link-cable features helped make collecting and trading central parts of the experience.
Players could connect two Game Boy systems with a Game Link Cable to battle or trade Pokémon. Because some species were exclusive to one version, trading was necessary for players seeking to complete the original Pokédex.
Pokémon Yellow later appeared on Game Boy, while remakes such as FireRed and LeafGreen were released for Game Boy Advance. Those later systems are sometimes incorrectly named as the platform of the original games.