15+ Hours of research went into this video. Huge thank you to Alex for the translations and Sendico for making this happen. I REALLY hope you enjoy this video!!! Sendico - bit.ly/2uH5yJk
The Retro Future just to let you know I watched your video and did a quick google in Japanese. Turns out that Imagineer also ran a campaign for 3000 units when they released Medarot for Gameboy around 28th November 1997. This is information from a Rakuten listing for a unit. Link here: www.google.co.uk/amp/s/item.fril.jp/amp/32300bf9151d06ff5a756ea9d9623595
Another reference to it also being distributed as a reward for Medarot is made in this blog: www.nikkansports.com/amusement/anime_game/column/anno/news/f-ag-tp0-20150213-1434095.html EDIT: The chaps below in the comments found the killer image here that proves the above: i.ebayimg.com/images/g/17wAAOSwqfNXovwp/s-l1600.jpg Rapid solving of the mystery and credit to them.
It says on the postcard in the image enjirube1 linked that it's 200 units per month being raffled out over 5 months (Dec '97 to Apr '98), 1000 units total. So together with the 2000 units for MRC, that's a maximum of 3000 units total. Not 3000 for Medarot alone. (Likely less than 3000 if they had spare stock left after MRC.) It also says to look in the magazine "Comic Bon Bon" for a hint on how to find the answer to the contest. Found a photo of that magazine page on twitter here: twitter.com/hiroyanada/status/902538566772826112/photo/1 Medarot btw is a Pokemon clone type of game, and this would be about the very first set of games in the series released on 28 November 1997: i.imgur.com/xlaRorH.jpg What you needed to do for the contest was to find a secret password consisting of 4 hiragana characters, hidden at 4 in-game locations, and fill in the 4 squares on the postcard and mail it in.
The Game Boy Light, the phosphorus front lit Game Boy Pocket variant, was already out in Japan when the known competition started, and all of the first wave Medarot games were also released after the GB Light if there was a competition around them. I'm guessing Imagineer just didn't want to pay extra to make custom, glow-in-the-dark Game Boy Lights.
@@killerfoxraspberryplays8903 I was gonna say that the promotion was earlier than the release of the GB Light but... from the "purchase" date card shown with the serial number, it shows a date of January 12th 1998 (Heisei 10th year), which is JUST SHY OF THE GB LIGHT RELEASE. Like, missed the mark by about 4 months. Of course, it wouldn't be possible (or at least feasible) to get a GB light with the custom packing and shell even on release date, let alone before that.
"Dude, I won a glow-in-the-dark handheld from Nintendo!" "Tubular, homie, let's play it in the dark so we can watch it glow while we play!" "Yeah, about that..."
-Ah yes, we're gonna make this one special! -How special? -You know the Game Boy doesn't glow right? You know people complain they can't see it in the night right? -Oh, you want to commission Game Boys with backlit screens? -What? I mean the Game Boys that glow, not screens that glow! -Oh. Oh...
Is it just me or is second-hand stuff from Japan just generally in better nick than stuff from elsewhere? A lotta American stuff is soooo bashed about that it drives me insane.
This is instantly my new favorite official Gameboy colorway. The Pocket is so under-rated, but at the time, it was a huge step up from the DMG in every aspect. People honk a lot about it not having a backlight, but Nintendo tried that with the GB Light and the screen kinda sucked and ate batteries. The backlit handhelds of the time were the same way. It just wasn't possible at the time to be cheap, power efficient, and backlit. The high contrast screen on the pocket made a big difference, and I played many night time hours with just a small worm light attachment. I still look forward to someone figuring out a 1:1 OLED mod for the Pocket with crisp blacks like the Arduboy. The trick will probably be getting 4 shades out of it.
i find it sad how overlooked the pockets are, theyre deffinitelly a big upgrade over the dmg. since i collect gameboys too i obviously have one DMG too. just one, and i havent touched it literally in years, its just sits there as a display piece, really not keen on even playing on it. i dont find DMGs appealing even from modding point of view. pockets on the other hand, i have a bunch of them, even similary rare one as the one in the video, and once a good backlight screen drops for them im more than keen on building one, haha
that gameboy is so crazy. the lack of uv pigment in it while it was locked away. showed up like crazy when you took it out. it slowly turned from a ugly green to a briliant lime green within seconds taken out the box. super cool!
Maybe it was a golden ticket like thing with the Medarot game, where a select number of copies contained a survey page that you would need to send in to get the Game Boy? I'm not sure, just spitballing here XD Eitherway, really cool video! Never knew this existed!
Elliot, I think this is probably the most exciting video in your channel so far. I hope you can find any information about the origin of this GBC. Also I think it should be interesting to have a video in your channel showing how to preserve a console in good shape, how to storage it. Congratulations from Argentina
Medarot was released the same year 1997 but in November, where MRC was in July. So clearly the campaigns can't have happened at the same time, because you clearly stated the first competition would end in September. So it seams fair to reason that after the competition of MRC ended in September it was clear to Genki they had a surplus of these Game Boys and decided to do a campaign with Medarot. However unless something has been lost in translation, the Medarot campaign doesn't have to have been a competition as well, could also have been done with early orders of Medarot. The best chance we have of knowing about this is probably getting somebody fluent in Japanese to look through gaming magazines that contained information on Medarot from October and November of 1997. Maybe both were equally planned but based on information on the first campaign being so much more abundant insinuates to me that the second might have been done briefly to get the rest of the stock out.
In terms of not just speculation I found these two things I posted to another viewer that seemed to be able to translate Japanese. i.ebayimg.com/images/g/17wAAOSwqfNXovwp/s-l1600.jpg (from: www.ebay.com/c/1577032761) obotukasan.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/images/2009/02/26/photo.jpg
You should make a replica of this... But using the GBC's hardware specs, a backlit transflective screen, and using a 3D printed case using LIT glow-in-the-dark pigment.
This is really really cool I thought I saw an ad for one of these before. It reminds me of the famitsu GameBoys. There was a pocket and a light variant. And each was also limited to a very small production run. I have a famitsu gb light and its my favorite gameboy by far.
My best find was a Casio QV-10. Got it from my local flea market including the original packaging, all accessories and the printer. Paid 15€, value for the camera: over 1200€, value for the printer: unknown.
Maybe with the first competition they didnt get a full 2000+ submissions and still had too many game boys that they did a 2nd completion using medarot to get the rest out
Hey I know a lot of people are joking about it being glow in the dark and yet you cant see the screen, but hey wouldn't it be cool to make a back light mod. It would probably not be worth it considering how expensive these are, but in theory, very interesting idea!
For the best glowy results charge it underneath another light source for a few minutes, it could definitely glow more than what you showed in the B roll!
Japanese text: The little star: "Hikaru" which means "light." So yes, that's letting you know that it glows in the dark. The white banner on the front: "Game Boy Electric Cartridge (Glows?)" which, yeah. What you expected. The white banner on the side appears to say "Game Boy Pocket" in katakana, but I can't get a good enough look at it.
I just picked up the transparent Extreme Green with all of the correct stickers on it, but no box. Bought it in USA from a guy in Canada. Pretty cool system that's hard to find.
Dang man, while I am not a huge fan of gameboys, I can appreciate the enthusiasm for one. Especially one as expensive as this. Rare too, that's important.
I don't know about sendico specifically, but a lot of those auction+mail forwarding sites will receive the item and repackage it better before sending it on.
You said Genki correctly the first time! It means You good? on it's own in japanese, but when it's said like "Genki desu ka?" it means How Are you? /Are you good?" :)
Hello Elliot!!! Excellent job on the research!I have one of these too, but console only no box and relatively discoloured. Cant wait to see a video about the pri cla atlus edition gameboy pocket one day. Thats probably even rarer that this one and in my opinion the prettiest gameboy pocket ever. Also a famitsu gameboy light please. :D
I'd like to have one of these Gameboys in my collection. This is really nice looking Gameboy Pocket. I've got a old Macintosh Mouse in my Apple collection. Those are really cool.
That is super cool! My most wanted console is the Astro boy GB Light but they be pricey. I also really want the Daiei hawks N64. I do have the controller just not the control deck
You know, I should comment on this one in 2000 contest exclusive Game Boy Pocket, but my takeaway ended up being a bit of nostalgia about seeing Medarot come up, I forgot about that but I remember them dubbing it and airing it in America like on Fox Kids or something, I don't remember the exact schedules but I feel like it was the kind of show they shoved between Beyblade and Digimon to get people to watch it.
You got Genki right the first time. The Spirit Bomb, an attack Goku learned from King Kai in Dragon Ball Z, is actually named Genki Dama in the original Japanese version. Genki can mean energy, health, pep or original spirit, among other things.
