An independent developer is releasing its fifth new Gameboy game since late 2018, bringing a physical cartridge to the now 31-year-old handheld gaming system. 

I, like many other people, grew up playing one of the many Nintendo handhelds. I recently found excessive time due to the coronavirus, and at this time, I discovered nostalgia for retro games. 

I was surprised when I heard that a small studio is developing a new game for the original GameBoy. This specific console had its production halted in 2003. However, 17 years later, there are still people willing to make fresh content for it.

The founder and lead developer at Greenboy Games, Dana Puch, has been making new titles for the original GameBoy since 2016 and releasing them since 2018. Puch claims her passion for making these games comes from the limitation. 

A GameBoy game cannot be more than one megabite of memory, can only hold four music channels and has a limited color pallet. Puch calls this the “art from restriction.” Embracing the difficulties that come with this gray brick is what lead her to make these games. 

The first game published by Greenboy Games was “Leo Legend” in 2018. The game challenges players to take penalty shots in a soccer game, scoring five points to win.

According to Puch, this was the first game she was comfortable putting her name on.

Their most recent title, “Where’s my body?” is a point-and-click adventure where you play as a severed hand trying to escape a mad scientist’s lab. This type of game is typically suitable for those who enjoy puzzles and nonlinear thinking.

The game was successfully crowdfunded in August of this year on Kickstarter and is supposed to ship in November. Physical copies can still be pre-ordered via greenboygames.com as of this writing. Puch plans to release the second editions of her previous games as well in the next few months. 

The GameBoy has sold more than 118.69 million units worldwide. The majority of the units being sold in both North and South America. 

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