Nintendo Handhelds and Infrared: A History

Image from nectaris.tg-16.com

You know what's the big fad with all the kids nowadays? INFRARED, of course!

I kid, but you might be surprised to learn that Nintendo portables actually have a really long history of implementing IR technology. It makes some degree of sense, as IR is a cheap, portable way to wirelessly send data- something which games like Pokemon have used to great effect. However, IR is a fairly limited technology and can't be used for fast-paced multiplayer, and far from every Nintendo handheld has featured the technology. Thus, IR has a pretty weird history in relation to Nintendo handhelds, being one of the only features I can think of that's been added, taken away, and added yet again to their hardware.

The original Game Boy and IR:

Image from Wikipedia.

The Game Boy and Game Boy Pocket both don't have any sort of IR tech built into them. You'd think that would be the end of it, but nearly ten years after the Game Boy's release, Hudson came out with a new kind of cartridge, one featuring black plastic and advertised a feature called the GB-KISS.

Image from nectaris.tg-16.com

GB-KISS is Hudson's name for the software they put in special cartridges that included IR sensors/blasters. The name is derived from the position the Game Boys had to be placed in to allow the cartridges to communicate, which looked a bit like they were kissing, I guess. Every game that had the software had an option called GB-KISS where players could send and receive data. The most basic type of data you could transfer were text messages, called KISS MAIL. You could write and receive text messages, and there's a whole save system where you can organize messages however you like. I've tested the feature and yep, it does indeed work.