The Pokémon video game series began on Nintendo’s Game Boy, which hosted the original Pokémon Red and Green games in Japan.
The Game Boy was a monochrome handheld released by Nintendo in 1989. Pokémon arrived late in the system’s life, but its emphasis on collecting, trading, and long-term progression helped give the console a remarkable second wave of popularity. Players could connect two Game Boys with a Link Cable to battle or trade Pokémon.
The hardware had important limitations: it used a small screen, simple sound, and limited memory compared with contemporary home consoles. Game Freak designed the games around those constraints rather than treating them as a disadvantage. The compact presentation made the world portable, while the Link Cable supplied a social feature unusual for handheld role-playing games.
Later Pokémon releases appeared on the Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, and other systems. The original platform remains historically significant because it made Pokémon a portable collection game before the franchise expanded into animation, cards, merchandise, and mobile titles.