The original Pokémon Red and Green games debuted on Nintendo’s Game Boy handheld console.
Game Freak designed the games for the monochrome, cartridge-based system that had become famous for portable play. Although the Game Boy had modest hardware by later standards, its link port enabled one of Pokémon’s defining ideas: connecting two systems to trade and battle.
The original games used a top-down role-playing format. Players traveled through the Kanto region, collected Pokémon, challenged Gym Leaders, and worked toward completing the Pokédex. The Game Boy’s connectivity made the collection concept social rather than purely single-player.
Pokémon Yellow later supported the Game Boy Color’s enhanced palette, and international releases of Red and Blue also worked on the original Game Boy. The franchise eventually moved to newer Nintendo handhelds, but its foundation was built on the Game Boy.