Hand-Held Electronic Game

Filed June 26th, 1989

This is the Nintendo Game Boy, the first modern cartridge-based gaming handheld. But you already knew that. It seems like a fitting patent with which to conclude this gallery–while its greenish monochrome graphics and tiny screen may mark it as a brainchild of the 1980s, it thrived into the late 1990s and therefore holds dual citizenship in at least two eras of electronic gaming. The Game Boy Micro, the last model in the Game Boy line–to date, anyhow–shares some of the original’s personality but isn’t compatible with its cartridges, alas.

In the mood to look at more vintage patent drawings of technology products? Check out our slideshow of thirty-one years of Apple patents and this one of (ho ho ho) Christmas-related ones.