Game Boy Color is Nintendo successor to the 8-bit Game Boy handheld game console, and was released on October 21, 1998 in Japan, November 19, 1998 in North America, November 23, 1998 in Europe and November 27, 1998 in the United Kingdom. It features a color screen and is slightly thicker and taller than the Game Boy Pocket. As with the original Game Boy, it has an 8-bit processor.he Game Boy and Game Boy Color combined have sold 118.69 million units worldwide.The Game Boy Color was a response to pressure from game developers for a new and much more sophisticated system of playing, as they felt that the Game Boy, even in its latest incarnation, the Game Boy Pocket, was insufficient. The resultant product was backward compatible, a first for a handheld system, and leveraged the large library of games and great installed base of the predecessor system. This became a major feature of the Game Boy line, since it allowed each new launch to begin with a significantly larger library than any of its competitors.Games that are designed specifically for the Game Boy Color are housed in clear-colored cartridges, and will not function in an earlier Game Boy or the Super Game Boy (or will simply display a warning message and refuse to play). Games that are designed for the Game Boy Color, but which also include backwards-compatibility with the previous Game Boy systems, have a similar design to the original grey Game Boy cartridges, but are colored black for identification.The European and American releases of Pokémon Yellow and Pokémon Gold and Silver feature different-colored cartridges, although they are technically identical to the standard black ones. Game Boy Color Cartridges will function correctly when used in a Game Boy Advance or Game Boy Advance SP system. No cartridges made for any system earlier than a Game Boy Advance will function in the Nintendo DS or Nintendo DS Lite, and nothing earlier than a DS card will function in a Nintendo DSi or 3DS.