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.

Image from nectaris.tg-16.com

This wasn't really the only thing these GB-KISS carts could do, however. They could transfer game-data as well, though I haven't had the chance to try that out yet. Also, Hudson released a product which connected to PCs called the KISS-LINK which could be used to send downloaded data to your Game Boy. The KISS-LINK also included a series of mini-games which could be sent to the Game Boy to be played. All in all, it's a pretty ambitious project, but it doesn't seem to have been all that successful. There's no solid list I could find for all games with GB-KISS functionality, but I know of about a dozen or so, most of which were games made for the original Game Boy, though all four versions of Robopon/Robot Ponkottsu (or Poncots? I don't really know) for the Game Boy Color also had GB-KISS functionality, as they required the IR sensor to detect TV remote signals.... for some reason. As for the exact list of which games utilized GB-KISS, it's hard to tell, as there are carts that seem like likely candidates, such as Chousoku Spinner doesn't actually advertise GB-KISS anywhere on the cart or box. Also, backwards compatible Game Boy Color games came in black shells (obviously there are exceptions) so it becomes much harder to tell if any are in fact hiding IR sensors. To fully ascertain this knowledge, I would need to buy ever black-cart game Hudson released and open all of them to catalog their innards. In reality, I doubt the topic really needs my investigative eye, it really matters very little, especially with the Game Boy Color carts.

Image from RetroGamer

Now, I can't say whether or not Nintendo was inspired by the GB-KISS when making this decision or not, but the Game Boy Color came out with IR built in. This is, essentially, what stopped the GB-KISS from really carrying on, as it was no longer needed to have the IR sensor in the cartridge. The Game Boy Color had games which used IR in a number of ways, which I won't really get into here. I will, however, bring up a couple IR-related oddities that came out for the Game Boy Color.

The IR sensor is at the very top of the unit. Image from Wikipedia.

The Pocket Pikachu 2 GS, a hybrid virtual pet and pedometer, had an IR port at the top of the unit, and could send data to Pokemon Gold and Silver. It merely uses the game's already existing Mystery Gift system which gave players a random Item when they connected to either a Pocket Pikachu 2 or another Game Boy Color with Pokemon Gold or Silver inserted. Nothing too exciting to see here. Something kinda similar is how a Furby game for the GBC could connect to an actual Furby toy, but I have no clue what that actually did, and can't test it for myself.

It's not easy to see, but the orange hunk of plastic is the add-on for the IR sensor. The reason the cartridge itself is so odd is due to it having a rumble feature. Image from Terapeak.com

This is arguably even duller than the previous oddities, but a Japanese exclusive game, Chee Chai Alien made such heavy use of the IR sensor that it came bundled with a hunk of plastic to... amplify it? The game (apparently) revolves around using the IR sensor to detect certain light sources, and the add-on is meant to help with that. It's also a game that came in rumble enhanced cartridge, but that's for a different article.

Image from Rose Colored Gaming

After the Game Boy Color's IR port came... nothing ‒–OOPS WAIT, THE POKEMON MINI! Boy is it easy to forget this thing existed... Anyway, the Pokemon mini, AKA Nintendo's least successful handheld by far, featured an IR port for multiplayer. It also featured rumble, again, different article.

 IR was removed from the Game Boy advance completely. As far as I know, there were no cartridges that added IR back in. This was repeated by the DS, however, in this case, there were of couple games which added IR back in.

Image from Bulbapedia

Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver were the first DS games to have IR tech in the cartridge itself. This was added so that the games could connect with the Pokewalker, a more modern update of the Pocket Pikachu. After this, Pokemon Black & White and Pokemon Black 2 & White 2 also featured IR tech for certain multiplayer features. As far as the DS goes, that seems to be about it for IR.

New 3DS pictured here. Image from Nintendo.

After the DS came the 3DS, which had IR included in every model. It is used for games, as well as for a couple accessories. This includes the Amiibo reader for non New 3DS systems, as well as the Circle Pad Pro. By this point, IR has pretty much returned to the state it had with the Game Boy Color. As a side-note, the Wii U Gamepad, despite not being a handheld console, does have IR, and can even be used as a TV remote.

Image from Nintendo.

The Switch, on the other hand, is a bit odd. Technically not an integral to the system, every right Joy-con controller for the switch has an included IR motion camera. My knowledge of this is highly limited, but it seems like the Joy-con cannot actually send out data, so use for things like trading of items may be impossible. Instead, the IR sensor is meant to detect motion and shapes in front of it. Time will tell if this can be used for any peripheral, I suppose.
In all, I don't really know what the point of this article was. Infrared in gaming never set the world on fire, but it didn't need to. It's just a handy, if occasionally unreliable,  tool for sending data. If you made it all the way through this trivia-fest, I applaud you.