The first Pokémon games, Pocket Monsters Red and Green, were released for the Game Boy.
Nintendo's monochrome handheld provided the technical foundation for Pokémon's collecting and trading mechanics. Players could connect two Game Boy systems with a Link Cable to trade Pokémon and battle with friends.
That connection feature was central to the game's design. Satoshi Tajiri had imagined creatures moving between linked handhelds, drawing on both his interest in collecting insects and the Game Boy's communication capability.
Pokémon later appeared on the Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo Switch, and other platforms. However, the original Game Boy remains the system that introduced the franchise in Japan in 1996.