For the following presentation, I have employed the method that proposes Jules David Prown in Mind in Matter, beginning with a short description of the object in question; then moving to the deduction stage to finalize with speculation.

(Show a picture of the Classic GB + Original Packaging (1989) from “History of Consoles”)

Before your eyes, you have a grey brick labelled as Nintendo Game Boy. Beginning with the upper side, you can see the power switch. On the front panel, there is a liquid crystal screen (LCD) coloured in green olive. On top of it, a grey frame is protecting it. On the left-hand side of the frame, there is also a lightbulb and a sign that reads “BATTERY.” On the left-hand side, there is the external power supply jack, and the contrast dial for the screen; whereas, on the right-hand side, there is the volume dial, along with the extension connector and cover used for two-player games. Proceeding with the rear view of the Game Boy, the upper side shows an aperture; whereas the lower side shows the battery cover area. All in all, Nintendo Game Boy is made up of plastic, metal, rubber and glass.

But what’s so special about the GB, you may ask? Well, the Game Boy reminds me of the “Tetris Brick Game.”

(Show a picture of the “Brick Game” from Chubby Tree)

Around the year 1990, owning and playing with a brick game was quite popular in Mexico, due to the release of the Game Boy only the year before. To a certain extent, the TBG was a substitute to those who could not afford a GB or were addicted to playing Tetris. When I was younger I had one GB just like the one in the picture. It was heavy to carry around (for it ran with four AA’s,) and too big to hold it with one hand. The first game I played with it was “Tiny Toon Adventures 2: Montana’s Movie Madness.” The stereo sound was okay, but not great considering that most T.V. sets featured an involving surrounding sound during that time. The graphics were not that great either; they were not in color, compared to arcade games I used to play with. I also had trouble playing at certain types of light and when it was dark, too. Still, it was my first Game Boy, so I appreciated it for its portability and its capability to make me dive into other imaginary worlds when I was bored. Now, stepping back in time, the Game Boy sold in 1989 is more than an object or a commodity for personal entertainment as it was for Canada or the U.S.A.; the GB is also an event, one of many forces of globalization, individualization, and technology advancement. It is an active appropriation of values for developing countries. I would argue that, on the one hand, the event named Game Boy, for Mexico represents the beginning of a process known as cultural hybridization in young boys and adolescents; ;whereas, the arrival of the GB, in the U.S.A., on the other hand, sets the tone for the eventual establishment of technological gadget culture.

Chris Barker defines the term cultural hybridization as a process by which cultures around the world embrace a variety of traits coming from another culture, while still holding their own traditional culture (298.)

Play Game Boy Commercial on Youtube (30 seconds)

Arcade games, the Atari and the NES had provided until 1989 Mexican teenagers with ways of interacting with other forms of entertainment. In 1989, arcade games were already popular in Mexico City. They were introduced in the early 80s. Convenient stores would rent arcade games to increase the sales of their products. Arcade games were varied, you could play games, like Mortal Combat, Street Fighter II, Snow-Bros and Super Mario, for only a few cents. Teenagers would gather outside these convenient stores to play with either neighbors, friends or complete strangers. Also, having a GB is a direct encounter with the North American entertainment and outlook through the ownership of this object. When Mexican teenagers adopt the GB, as their “object”, its continuous use adds the GB to the Mexican culture. Thus, the active key verbs are: encounter, adopt, use, and reinvent (yourself.)

Now, contextualizing the GB in the North American Market, I would suggest herein that the handheld console (1) becomes a commodity; (2) reinforces the idea of a thriving technological era; what is more, the T.V. commercial expresses and represents self-identify as a project (or imaginary fantasy) by processes of fantasy and self-invention, processes of “seeing oneself as” this or that. Visual imagery displays the processes of subjectivity and identity – phantasmic wish fulfillment (e.g. the boy mimicking the robot’s behavior and movements to become like the robot.) There exists a sense of decision, a way to incorporate fantasy into reality in a way that modifies reality (Bracher 123.)  All in all, one of the myriad interpretations there is contemplates that the GB, as a cultural object, is key of transition, training and socializing for young American men for its technological capabilities and the message the T.V. commercial deliver to their audience. Still, my interpretation is only one possible way of approaching the GB.

Concluding question/thought:

So, what do male teenagers living in Quebec, somewhere in the U.S.A. and Mexico City share in common besides puberty, considering that they do not share the same ethnicity? They share a common popular culture.

Works Cited

Barker, Chris. Cultural Studies: Theory and Practice. Los Angeles: SAGE, 2012. Print.

Bracher, Mark “On the Psychological and Social Functions of Language: Lacan’s Theory of the Four Discourses,” Lacanian Theory of Discourse: Subject, Structure and Society, ed. Bracher (New York: NYUP, 1994) 107-28.

History of Consoles: Nintendo Game Boy (1989) http://gamester81.com/history-of-consoles-nintendo-game-boy/

NINTENDO Corporation “GameBoy + Tetris T.V. Commercial [1989]” Online video clip. Youtube. Youtube, 13 August 2009. Web. 6 October 2017.