The original Pokémon Red and Green debuted on the Game Boy.
Nintendo’s monochrome handheld provided the hardware for the first Pokémon adventure. Players explored the Kanto region, captured Pokémon, battled other Trainers, and exchanged creatures with another Game Boy using a Link Cable.
The games are sometimes associated with the Game Boy Color because later Pokémon releases supported that system and because the international versions arrived around the period when color handheld gaming was becoming more prominent. However, Red and Green were originally Game Boy titles.
The Game Boy’s communication feature was especially important to Pokémon’s design. Trading was not merely an optional extra: some species could only be obtained by exchanging Pokémon between different versions, encouraging players to connect their consoles.