The first Pokémon games, Red and Green, were released for the Game Boy.
Nintendo’s original Game Boy provided the hardware for the Japanese debut in 1996. Its link cable made one of Pokémon’s defining ideas possible: players could connect two systems to trade creatures and battle one another. That trading feature helped distinguish Pokémon from many other role-playing games of its era.
The games used the Game Boy’s monochrome display, although later releases and hardware could show them with color. Pokémon Blue was later released in Japan with revised artwork and dialogue, and the international Red and Blue versions used elements from that updated version.
Pokémon Yellow arrived later for the Game Boy and was inspired partly by the anime. It gave players Pikachu as a starting partner and made Pikachu follow the player outside its Poké Ball. These releases helped establish the series before later generations moved to newer Nintendo handhelds.