Game Boy
The original. A green screen and a dream.
Market price
Loose $60
Boxed $180
Checked on 2026-11-05. Not live, a rough guide only.
The story
The one that started it all. The DMG-01, short for Dot Matrix Game, traded the sharp color of its rivals for something more useful: batteries that lasted, a price parents could stomach, and a library that never stopped growing.
It is big, it is grey, and the pea-soup screen is almost unreadable without good light. None of that mattered. Tetris came in the box in most regions, and that was enough to sell it to everyone.
For collectors it is the sentimental heart of the family. For modders it is a blank canvas: backlights, bivert chips, new shells and pro-sound mods have kept the DMG alive long past its retirement.
Specs
- CPU
- Sharp LR35902 @ 4.19 MHz
- Screen
- 2.6" reflective STN LCD, 160 × 144, 4 shades of grey
- Power
- 4 × AA (about 15-30 hours)
- Plays
- Game Boy
- Headphone jack
- Yes
Special editions
- Play It Loud! series (red, yellow, green, black, clear, blue)
- Original grey (DMG-01)
Mods for the Game Boy
See all mods you can doWe don’t have a step-by-step guide written up for the Game Boy yet. In the meantime, browse the full list of mods the community takes on, from screen swaps to fresh shells and rechargeable power.