Game Boy

The Game Boy is an 8-bit handheld video game console made by Nintendo, which was released in 1989. It is a fourth generation video game console.

Games
The Game Boy utilizes cartridges to play its games.

Sound Specifications
The Game Boy, being an 8-bit game system, has very similar sound hardware to the Nintendo Entertainment System. However, there are four channels, as there is no dedicated sampling channel. The Game Boy's sound channels are as follows.

Pulse Wave 1 And 2
The sound that these channels output, also known as the "square wave", is responsible for the instantly recognizable "8-bit" sound. It is mainly responsible for providing the higher-pitched sounds. The four pulse width/duty cycle settings are 12.5%, 25%, 50%, and 75%. The higher the number, the "fuller" the sound.

The 25% and 75% duty cycles sound identical.

Wave
This channel is programmable to be able to play any kind of sound: i.e. pulse waves, triangle waves, and samples. Although digitized voice samples are extremely rare in original Game Boy games, when they do appear, it is through the wave channel.

Noise
The noise channel is used only for percussion and sound effects. An example of this is the cries from the Pokemon games, which were all generated by noise. It somewhat resembles a television displaying static.