I recently acquired this and am having a hard time finding out any information. This is a US system and has a matching atomic orange back instead of the black back found on the Japanese limited edition system. It was sold to me as a mock up for a test run. Just trying to figure out if it is actually something rare, or if it was released in North America and I just didn't know about it. Did any Gameboys have atomic orange backs? Any information would be greatly appreciated.
The orange gameboy color was available in Japan in 1999. The bezel with the pokemon on it is from a pokemon gameboy color that was yellow/blue in color. That pokemon gameboy was released in US and Australia. I think you have a hybrid on your hands. Perhaps the bezel was damaged on the atomic orange gameboy, and they fitted the bezel from a broken pokemon gameboy on there?
The battery cover at least looks fake; real ones don't have "GAME BOY" embossed in the plastic, it's a sticker and the plastic is smooth underneath. I've had like 50 US gameboy color systems over the years and they were all stickers/smooth plastic, but only one Japanese one (which also had the sticker and smooth plastic) so it's possible the embossing thing could have been a late feature on import systems to save money or something. It's cool though either way, looks really nice. I kinda want one now, hah.
I have an atomic purple GBC and it does have "GAME BOY" embossed in the battery cover. I am 100% sure it is real, I bought it new back in '98 or '99.
Really? That's so weird, I've never come across one like that, they always have a sticker and are smooth underneath. I used to buy them and mod them all the time with lights so I went through a ton of them over a few years and the battery covers were always identical. Maybe it was only the later ones that had that, a cost cutting measure or something.
My GBC, GBA and GBA SP all say "GAME BOY" right on their respective battery covers, no stickers, and they're all European systems. Maybe there's different battery covers between regions, similar to how my US N64 has the model information sticker above the EXT slot, while my PAL machine has a smaller one to the right of the slot, and a different sticker (age & power supply warnings) above it?
Weird, all the SP systems I've ever seen have the Gameboy embossed on the battery cover, but every GBA and GBC I've seen have the sticker. That's interesting, are the stickers on the back of your european systems the same otherwise? I had a Japanese clear system and the only way I could tell the difference was by looking up the model number from the big main sticker; otherwise everything looked identical to the US systems. This reminds me of how the very early GBP systems don't have a LED power light, that really tripped me out the first time I came across one like that.
I haven't seen any US GBx stickers so far (or not that I remember), but I presume they differ from their European counterparts as my EU machines all have "EUR" written on them somewhere. The GBC says "CGB-EUR" in the bottom left corner, the GBA "C/AGB-EUR" and GBA SP "C/AGS-EUR" in the bottom right one. Not to mention they also have various European safety markings on then - namely a CE mark and the German LGA Nürnberg and GS marks - and the GBAs mention the postal code and city of NoE's headquaters, D-63760 Großostheim. Edit, a shot of my GBC's, GBA's and SP's backs; the embossed "GAME BOY" on the SP isn't in the picture, tho.
I haven't seen one like that ether. I do know that all 3 systems had a warning/help label over the name and that the GB Micro has nothing at all.
That's awesome, thanks for the pic! The only Japanese system I've had is the clear one and like I said it looked pretty much identical to the US systems other than the model number if I remember correctly. I've never had any euro systems before, it's interesting to see the little differences. TPSNT a few posts up said he also had an embossed battery cover on his and he bought his brand new, but I see he's located in the Netherlands so I'm thinking that the embossing thing was probably euro-only (unless he imported a US/JPN system). Interesting!
