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[For maximum immersion, activate the Night Vision to have everything in gray and green.]

Let's face it: as great as the Game Boy is, the screen has always been a pain in the neck for everybody. You had to contort yourself while randomly adjusting the contrast until you find the exact position where the source of light would be just right without it reflecting on the screen. Little did you know, but Nintendo was well aware of the problem even before its 1989 release, and after multiple internal tests, they realized that lime green would actually bring the best contrast with the LCD overlay. It was not ideal, but it was the best they could make to keep the system effective with an attractive price. The best solution, as history would eventually prove, would have been to have a backlit screen, but the short-lived Game Gear showed that this was way too energy-consuming at the time. Several years later, in 1996, the Game Boy Pocket would finally get rid of the infamous green screen in a Product Facelift attempt, while the backlit screen would be integrated to the Japan-only Game Boy Light in 1998.

Now that the history lesson is over, let's talk good old nostalgia! The Game Boy had some of the most awesome games of the time, even by arcade and console standards: Link's Awakening, Wario Land, Kirby's Dream Land, Tetris, and let's not forget the debut of the Pokémon juggernaut. Between that and the almost 120 millions units sold in a decade, let's say that it probably shaped the childhood of many 90's kids. Then decades passed, people grew up, technology advanced, and games became more and more impressive. But for some, something was lost in the process. In other words: 'it was better before', a feeling that kick-started Retro Gaming and waves of Retraux games made for (and often by) this new—and yet old—audience.

But sometimes just making a game 'pixelated' is not enough to tickle the nostalgia of the informed consumer. Then try this simple trick: make the game look like a good ol' Game Boy game simply by making it green! This artistic choice will not only save you the cost of a colorist, but also catch the eye of the aforementioned 90's Kid scrolling the app store in search of a 'real game'. The simple view of those shades of green will ensure him two things: it will be Simple, yet Awesome and Nintendo Hard. Obviously, this is not entirely true. Although games looking like that are often made by other retro-feeling seekers and might actually be really good, it does not make them automatically better (or any different for that matters) than its competitors.

Other developers use the Green Boy Color more sporadically: for examples, it could be used in Nintendo Hard bonus levels, Retraux Flashbacks (or even actual flashbacks for some Long-Runners), or maybe just as a Mythology Gag or homage in the grand scope of video game history, the monochromatic green considered as a Video Game equivalent of black and white cinema. In the end, it is still really amazing to see how much something as painful as this green screen was overshadowed by the quality of its system, and became something positive by association in collective consciousness.

Sub-Trope of Retraux. Compare Deliberately Monochrome. Lime green is sometimes also used to reference Game & Watch games, as some of them had this screen color (though most were gray or yellow). An acceptable less common variant is the use of sepia tones, emulating the palette used when Game Boy games are played on the Game Boy Color and Advance, but watch out: it is more often a simple Monochrome Past setting than this. An even rarer occurrence is the use of one of the several GBC alternative palettes^note , the crimson one being the most popular. However, games using a black and white palette, even to evoke the Game Boy (like the retro level of Kirby's Adventure) do not apply here — though it was how it appeared on the Game Boy Pocket and also one of the GBC retro-palettes, it is not specific enough. And let's end with a quick mention of the less known and appreciated variation (let's call it its little hipster cousin) that is the use of a red and black palette. All hail theVirtual Boy!

See also Matrix Raining Code, inspired by the green font color used in some of the first models of computers, and Battle Zone 1980, a game which popularized the use of green Vectors to represent old-school games and computers. Those—as well as this trope—can have a Sickly Green Glow if they symbolize some kind of malevolent AI.

Has nothing to do with a young man who would have a green pigmented skin like Beast Boy, nor the assumption that green would be a particularly masculine color (like say blue).

Examples:

• The Super Game Boy comes with 32 default palettes, with 3-H being the usual green palette.
• In Oscar for SNES you can find a Game Boy power-up which makes most of the screen green.

• Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas continues the Running Gag of featuring fake retro game console, this time with the 'eXsorbeo', a rather... Freudian console with games like One Eye Monster War, Squirt, or Morning Missile Crises, the former also having a fake gameplay sequence with the signature green palette. The In-Universe 'fansite' is still accessible here.

• The Poketch in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, a multifunction Gadget Watch displayed at all time on the bottom screen, has a pixelated greenish look. It is eventually possible to change the color, though.

• By default, Nintendo 3DS's Game Boy games for Virtual Console display a palette simulating the Game Boy Pocket screen. However, by holding the L and R buttons and pressing Y, you could get a green palette instead.
• Mutant Mudds: Some bonus levels called 'G-Land' have a green filter over them. There also are 'V-Land' levels with a Virtual Boy-esque black and red filter.
• Super Smash Bros.:
  • The 'Dream Land' stage from Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS, which later returned for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate under the name 'Dream Land GB', is a mashup of various levels from the original Kirby's Dream Land and has the classic green palette, the stage even being 'played' inside a Game Boy. The Omega version of the stage gets rid of the Game Boy frame and of the 'flatness', and is a true 2½D environment in monochromatic green.
  • King Dedede and Mr. Game & Watch both have a GB lime green Palette Swap. Justified for both, as the former debuted on the Game Boy^note and the latter was the pioneer of handheld consoles and occasionally had green screen as well.

• 2-bit Cowboy is an indie RetrauxAction-Adventure game set in Western which uses the green Game Boy palette.
• . The use of green is somewhat justified here.
• Although Gunman Clive's sepia tone is justified by its Western setting, the game is clearly an homage to old-school platformers, and the very few colors there are from the Game Boy Color's true palette. There is even an official and fully functional Game Boy portof the first level!
• The mobile game Stack has various and random limited palettes of color, but suspiciously uses the Game Boy green for his app icon.
• Timing Hero is a simple 'dodge and attack' mobile game with a Game Boy aesthetic, from the pixelated green graphics to the chiptune music and sounds.
• Clones of games originally found on old Nokia mobile phones such as Snake often simulate a black-on-green background typical of backlit displays of the time, along with a skeuomorphic UI reminiscent of a Nokia 3310 or 5110.

• Both Evoland games start with a greenish Game Boy aesthetic. The principle of the game is to wander through video game history, each upgrade literally upgrading the games graphics and mechanics, making the Game Boy period a Monochrome Past. In the second game, it is mostly used for Retraux Flashbacks.
• The GameBoy Jam is an event organized every year in which the contestants have to design a game in one week with the Game Boy resolution (160px x 144px) and only four colors. Although those colors are let to the appreciation of the developers, most of them use the green palette (with sepia in second and black and white and third).
• In chapter 6 of Gods Will Be Watching, several characters can be seen playing a holographic version of Pong with the distinctive green palette. The young Eddie is even playing it on a small portable device reminiscent of the Game Boy.
• The 'Journey of the Prairie King' Game Within a Game in Stardew Valley. It uses a combination of multiple signature colors from the Game Boy: green, sepia, the crimson shade from the GBC internal emulator, and even a bit of old black and white at the end.
• One secret level of Super Meat Boy takes place in a sepia Game Boy Color, with the signature Game Boy 'ting!' before the level.
• Super Smash Land is a Video Game Demake of the Super Smash Bros. series to make it look like if it was an actual Game Boy game, with two buttons gameplay and green graphics.
• In Tower Of Heaven, the use of monochromatic green is mostly an artistic choice used to evoke melancholia, coupled with a restrictive old-school gameplay.
• Although the sepia tone of the intro of Undertale might be a simple case of Monochrome Past, the general Retraux aesthetic of the game might indicate that it is an actual reference to the Game Boy Color graphics. One shot◊ in particular uses two of the GBC's specific palettes.
• Fez has a Sewer area that's rendered in Game Boy green. And it's connected to a Foundry level rendered in the far less nostalgic Virtual Boy red-on-black palette.
• Alex The Allegator 4 uses pixelated graphics and four shades of green.

• One Nerf NOW!!strip has Jo trying literal green-shaded Nostalgia Goggles. According to him, it is 'less rosy than expected'.
• One installment of Square Root of Minus Garfield had a Garfield comic recolored with the Game Boy's green palette.

Action Button Entertainment is a video game development studio consisting of Tim Rogers, Brent Porter, Michael Kerwin, and Nicholas Wasilewski that has produced five games: Ziggurat (2012), TNNS (2013), Ten by Eight (2013), Tuffy the Corgi (2014), and Videoball (2016). The group convened in 2010 as Rogers worked on Ziggurat based on an idea he had while playing Angry Birds that he could not complete on his own. Porter joined Action Button after responding to a call for artists Rogers made via Twitter, and Kerwin joined based on a connection he had with Rogers from producing a mockup of a game concept Rogers outlined in his Kotaku column.

History[edit]

Action Button Entertainment was founded by Tim Rogers.^[1] The studio consists of Tim Rogers, Brent Porter, Michael Kerwin, and Nicholas Wasilewski, who have built all of the studio's four games from Ziggurat through Videoball.^[1] Their games are consistently 'simple' in their aesthetics and controls.^[1] The team formed during the development of Ziggurat, which began with an idea Rogers had while playing Angry Birds about pushing back a swarm of bats by shooting projectiles at them. He decided that he could not make the game alone. Rogers put out a call for artists on Twitter with a submissions request of 'fan art of the Japanese box art of Phantasy Star II', and Action Button artist Brent Porter replied in under an hour with an entry Rogers called 'incredible'.^[2] In mid 2011, Rogers decided to work on an iPhone game for a few weeks as a break from a larger project. Rogers said the team was convinced by his design document—this game would become Ziggurat. Rogers contacted an Internet acquaintance who had previously mocked up a design idea from Rogers's Kotaku column, programmer Michael Kerwin, who came through with a rough draft within a week. Andrew Toups converted a soundtrack created by Rogers's rock band into an 8-bit soundtrack. After six months of hiatus and working at a social games company, Rogers rekindled development and the team finished the Ziggurat,^[2] which was released in February 2012.^[3]

Rogers has said that he aspires for Action Button Entertainment to make games that share his preferred gaming styles and his hobbies. Realizing that the common link between his top 25 video games (including Panzer Dragoon, Cave Story, Canabalt, and his favorite, Out of This World) was minimalist aesthetics with no overt story to tell other than through game mechanics, Rogers wanted Ziggurat and future games to live up to those expectations and used his gut to fine-tune design decisions. The games also reflect aspects of Rogers's personality, such as in the 'scream sound effect' on Ziggurat made and distorted from his guitar based on sounds made by eccentric Japanese musicians whose records he owned.^[2] He also called Ziggurat a descendant of his hobbies: Ibara: Black Label and the Rubik's Cube.^[2]

Games[edit]

Ziggurat[edit]

Ziggurat, stylized as ZiGGURAT, is a retro-style arcadeshooter video game developed by Action Button Entertainment for iOS platforms. As the world's last human fighting off incoming aliens^[4] from atop a ziggurat, the player uses simple touch controls to charge and shoot the enemies away, and dies if hit by an enemy. The game has 16-bit graphics style and an 8-bit chiptune soundtrack.^[5] Action Button designer Tim Rogers developed the game idea based on his experience with Angry Birds, which later led to the formation of Action Button as a company with Ziggurat as its first release^[2] on February 17, 2012.^[3]

The game received 'generally favorable' reviews, according to video game review score aggregator Metacritic.^[6] Reviewers praised Ziggurat's controls and minimalism.^[4][5][7] It won a Destructoid Editors' Choice Award,^[3] and Time magazine picked the game as one of the best for the then new high-resolutionthird generation iPad.^[8]

TNNS[edit]

TNNS, pronounced 'tennis',^[9] is a brick-breaking action game released in November 2012 for iOS. As a universal app, it is playable on iPhones, iPads, and iPods. It was developed by Action Button Entertainment and produced by Rabbx. Players use a paddle along the screen's left side to bounce a ball towards breakable objects on the right side of the screen,^[10] and to avoid getting the ball in their goal.^[1] A star box ends the level. The game's over 500 stages are built as puzzles^[10] and played at random.^[9] Level features include wormholes that move the ball from one part of the screen to another and arrows that change the ball's trajectory.^[9] Power-ups include 'multi-ball', which puts multiple balls into play.^[9]TNNS also includes objectives, a same-device two-player mode, objectives, in-app purchases, and Facebook and Twitter integration.^[9] Action Button later released an Android version.^[11]

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The game Action Button described as 'about keeping your eyes on balls'^[12] was inspired by tennis.^[1] It was released with little advanced notice in early November 2012.^[9] Danny Cowan of IndieGames.com compared it with Sidhe Interactive's Shatter^[10] and VG247 called it a rendition of Breakout.^[12]Pocket Gamer's Mark Brown likened it to both and further compared it with Alleyway, Arkanoid, and Super Hexagon with a 'telekinetic power' to alter the ball's direction apart from the panel (as in Shatter).^[9] He found the game frustrating at times when unable to control the ball. Though Brown found TNNS fun, different, and addictive, it had 'not quite won [him] over'.^[9]

Ten by Eight[edit]

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Ten by Eight, stylized as 10×8, is a puzzle video game by Action Button Entertainment where players match tiles. It was released on July 31, 2013 in North America for PlayStation Mobile^[13]—the PlayStation Vita and compatible devices.^[14] International editions followed.^[13] Players align similarly colored blocks and trace the path they create when aligned.^[14] The goal is to make the longest path possible, and bonus points are awarded for paths that connect the screen's edges.^[15] Star blocks act as power-ups that extend combos,^[14] such that a chain of green tiles can link to a chain of red tiles using a star block. Points can be spent on new character unlocks, including some from Ziggurat, that have no gameplay function. Ten by Eight has three modes of play. In endless mode, rocks around the grid block possible paths and can only be cleared by making paths that envelop the rocks. The game ends if a rock fully crosses the grid. The zen mode has no rocks or time limit. The timed mode sets a several-minute restriction on gameplay and has no rocks.^[14] Rogers produced an 'infomercial-style trailer' for the game, which VG247 called one of his signature moves^[13] and that IndieGames.com called 'glorious'.^[14]

Paste's Garrett Martin rated the game 8.0 of 10. Though he acknowledged untimed 'endless' modes as usually the best puzzle game mode, he found Ten by Eight's endless and zen modes 'problematic', citing the difficulty and frustration in removing the endless mode's rocks and the dearth of urgency in the zen mode.^[15] Martin found the timed mode's length to be 'perfect', but suggested that the Vita's screen was less so, recommending a tablet release.^[15] He compared the minimalist soundtrack to Kraftwerk, and noted that players uninterested in high scores would not stay interested for long.^[15]

Videoball[edit]

Videoball is a minimalist sports video game by Action Button Entertainment. Using solely one analog stick and one button, players control triangles that shoot projectiles^[1] to knock a circular ball into the opposing team's endzone.^[16] Holding the button creates a projectile (a 'unit') that fires upon release. The projectile can propel the ball, nullify other projectiles, or incapacitate opponents.^[1] The projectile charges the longer the button is held, such that a charged 'slam' shot can sail across the full screen.^[17] Games last an average of four minutes.^[17]

Videoball designer Tim Rogers describes the game as 'an abstract minimalist electronic sport'.^[16] Its development began as a dare from QWOP developer Bennett Foddy, Rogers's friend, to make a 'one-button StarCraft'.^[16] Rogers compared the game's design process to Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, where Ramsay convinces failing restaurants to provide fewer menu options and to make those dishes well.^[1]Polygon's Tracey Lien discussed their process as 'chasing a certain purity' and mentioned the strong role of strategy in playing the game.^[1] Rogers noted basketball-like strategy in prototype games, with players positioned as center or forward positions or playing zone defense.^[17] He livestreams prerelease sessions of Videoball via Twitch.^[1] The game is expected for release in 2014 with cross-platform multiplayer^[1] and support for more than six simultaneous players.^[17]

Reviewers all cited Videoball's minimalism both in aesthetics and gameplay, and compared the game with the skill and strategy of football and basketball.^[1][16] Before its release, PC Gamer's Wes Fenlon wrote that he thought about Videoball daily after last playing two weeks prior due to its 'addictive sort of fun' and his excitement for local multiplayer on PC following Hokra and TowerFall.^[16] He felt that the game's tagline of being appropriate for both a child's birthday party and prison was correct albeit silly.^[16] Fenlon praised the game's minimalist visuals, 'peppy music, and chirpy sound effects'.^[16] He compared the player's controls to that of Asteroids and contrasted its simplicity with the 100-hour onboarding process for League of Legends,^[16] having learned Videoball after 'a couple minutes'.^[17]Polygon's Tracey Lien compared the game's feel to basketball, football, and hockey. Citing the strong role of strategy in playing the game, she compared the array of projectiles fired to military strategy or a football play.^[1]

Tuffy the Corgi[edit]

Tuffy the Corgi and the Tower of Bones is a 2D platform adventure game for PlayStation Mobile where the player attempts to collect all 108 bones about a single, long level. As the player-character Tuffy is constantly running, the player can only jump and change direction^[18] by pressing any button on either side of the screen. When the player touches a spike or enemy, they must restart the game from the beginning.^[19] It features a counter that shows how many times the player has died.^[18] Rogers produced a video trailer for the game.^[20] The game was designed by Rogers, programmed by Kerwin, and illustrated by Porter. Ken 'Coda' Snyder made the music. It was released in June 2014.^[20]Game Informer's Jeff Marchiafava wrote that the platformer was 'hopelessly difficult', as it required a 'level of perfectionism only speedrunners possess'.^[21] He added that Tuffy was both what he 'loved and hated' about the video games of his youth, between its 16-bit era art, tight platforming controls, 'unforgiving' gameplay, and 'reliance on rote memorization' of path through the level.^[21] Marchiafava added that gameplay trends had forgotten these types of games for a reason, and concluded that he 'never warmed to Tuffy' despite his interest in 'punishing retro platformers like Spelunky and Super Meat Boy'.^[21]

References[edit]

1. ^ ^{abcdefghijklm}Lien, Tracey (February 19, 2014). 'It's a sport, it's four to five flavors on a plate, it's Videoball'. Polygon. Vox Media. Archived from the original on May 24, 2014. Retrieved May 24, 2014.
2. ^ ^abcdeRogers, Tim (February 22, 2012). 'Introducing ZiGGURAT'. Kotaku. Gawker Media. Archived from the original on May 25, 2014. Retrieved May 25, 2014.
3. ^ ^abcPinsof, Allistair (February 20, 2012). 'Review: ZiGGURAT'. Destructoid. Game Revolution. Archived from the original on May 25, 2014. Retrieved May 25, 2014.
4. ^ ^abCowan, Danny (February 21, 2012). 'Mobile Game Pick: Ziggurat (Action Button Entertainment)'. IndieGames.com. UBM Tech. Archived from the original on May 24, 2014. Retrieved May 24, 2014.
5. ^ ^abEdge Staff (February 27, 2012). 'Ziggurat review'. Edge. Future. Archived from the original on May 25, 2014. Retrieved May 25, 2014.
6. ^'Ziggurat Critic Reviews for iOS'. Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on May 25, 2014. Retrieved May 25, 2014.
7. ^Leray, Joseph (March 1, 2012). ''ZiGGURAT' Review – Once More Unto the Breach, Dear Friends'. TouchArcade. Archived from the original on May 25, 2014. Retrieved May 25, 2014.
8. ^Peckham, Matt (March 19, 2012). '25 Best iPad Games for Your New 'Resolutionary' Tablet'. Time. Time Inc. Archived from the original on May 25, 2014. Retrieved May 25, 2014.
9. ^ ^abcdefghBrown, Mark (November 5, 2012). 'ZiGGURAT developer's TNNS is Breakout by way of Super Hexagon'. Pocket Gamer. Steel Media. Archived from the original on May 25, 2014. Retrieved May 25, 2014.
10. ^ ^abcCowan, Danny (November 12, 2012). 'iOS Release: TNNS (Action Button)'. IndieGames.com. UBM Tech. Archived from the original on May 24, 2014. Retrieved May 24, 2014.
11. ^Miller, Patrick (May 2013). 'Revisiting Android'. Game Developer. UBM TechWeb: 19.
12. ^ ^abHillier, Brenna (November 6, 2012). 'TNNS is the new game from ZiGGURAT dev'. VG247. Archived from the original on May 24, 2014. Retrieved May 24, 2014.
13. ^ ^abcHillier, Brenna (July 31, 2013). '10×8 out now on Vita, PS Mobile devices'. VG247. Archived from the original on May 24, 2014. Retrieved May 24, 2014.
14. ^ ^abcdePolson, John (August 4, 2013). 'Release: ZiGGURAT, TNNS dev's puzzle addiction for PS Vita - Ten By Eight'. IndieGames.com. UBM Tech. Archived from the original on May 24, 2014. Retrieved May 24, 2014.
15. ^ ^abcdMartin, Garrett (August 9, 2013). 'Ten By Eight Review (Vita)'. Paste. Wolfgang's Vault. Archived from the original on June 11, 2014. Retrieved June 10, 2014.
16. ^ ^abcdefghFenlon, Wes (February 25, 2014). 'Hands-on with Videoball: a local multiplayer electronic sport for the living room'. PC Gamer. Future Publishing. p. 1. Archived from the original on May 25, 2014. Retrieved May 24, 2014.
17. ^ ^abcdeFenlon, Wes (February 25, 2014). 'Hands-on with Videoball: a local multiplayer electronic sport for the living room'. PC Gamer. Future Publishing. p. 2. Archived from the original on May 25, 2014. Retrieved May 24, 2014.
18. ^ ^abShoemaker, Natalie (June 25, 2014). 'Tuffy the Corgi runs into our hearts and Vitas'. Technology Tell. Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Retrieved July 14, 2014.
19. ^Rogers, Tim (June 25, 2014). 'Tuffy the Corgi Out Now on PlayStation Mobile'. PlayStation Blog. Sony Computer Entertainment America. Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Retrieved July 14, 2014.
20. ^ ^abHernandez, Patricia (June 25, 2014). 'Corgi Time'. Kotaku. Gawker Media. Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Retrieved July 14, 2014.
21. ^ ^abcMarchiafava, Jeff (July 28, 2014). 'A Throwback Platformer That Has You Chasing Your Tail – Tuffy The Corgi And The Tower Of Bones'. Game Informer. GameStop. Archived from the original on September 14, 2014. Retrieved September 14, 2014.

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