| Final-Fan said: "Game Boy = Game Boy Pocket = Game Boy Light (All can only play Game Boy games and a very few specially designed additional carts as mentioned previously in this thread.)" My understanding is that about 25% of GBC games were this type. That is not "a very few specially designed additional carts". Disclaimer: I do not have independent verification on my information (unsourced statement on Wikipedia) so I could be wrong about the amount of games. In any case it's not "the same" as PS1/PS2/PS3 because there are no PS2 games that play on the PS1 and there are no PS3 games that play on the PS2. Also, the GBC was not "pretty much as different" from the GB as the DS was from the GBA. For instance: the GBC's processor is (based on a little research) the same as the GB's only twice as fast. The DS has a CPU basically the same (again, I think) only twice as fast as the GBA's as its secondary processor; the main CPU is a different type and twice again as fast. On another angle, the GBC's memory is 4x the GB; the DS's is over 10x the GBA's as well as a different type. And then there's the more obvious differences between the DS and GBA. |
I can see where both of you are coming from. Most likely the biggest difference between the PS1/PS2 and GB/GBC comparison is that, even after the GBC was released, many games were released for the GB, though they could also be played on the GBC. But there were probably many games that were released that could only be played on the GBC, such as the Pokemon games, Gold and Silver.
Though in the end, probably why they were included together, now that I look at launch dates, is that the GBA came out 3 years or so after the GBC, while the GB had lasted 10 years before anything besides a redesign was launched. Interestingly enough, the GB/GBC line lasted for nearly 12 years before a "real" successor was released.
The only reason I bring this up is, though all redesigns of hardware increase sales due to people rebuying the system, the GBC revision was bigger than most, due to it's unnatural point that it included actual hardware updates, while most redesigns simply redesign the look/feel/etc of the system, and no more. Also, since the GBC could play games that the GB couldn't, and thus makes it more of it's own system, that would increase sales even more, which is obvious, because the GB/GBC sold nearly 120 million units, while the GPA only sold 80 million (though it had a measly 4 year lifespan before the DS came out... though it has sold relatively well since then). The DS and PSP together only equal 96 million units, and the DS is considered one of the most successful consoles ever, right? So in the end, I would like to split up the numbers because I feel it's inflated more than any other handheld, thus showing a false sales trends. And since there really isn't all that much sales trends to look at (the GBA is probably the only handheld to have good graph data for yearly sales), having false sales in the prior years would make it even worse.
And yes, I owned the ET game. It was great, until you realized that glitch would never let you beat the game. lol
