03/14 1320 New Nintendo product transforms Game Boy ... SAN FRANCISCO (MARCH 14) BUSINESS WIRE - March 14, 1994--Nintendo of America Inc. Monday unveiled a new technological advance that will allow millions of video-game enthusiasts to play more than 350 Game Boy cartridges on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (Super NES), displaying them in full color on the television screen for the first time. This new product, called Super Game Boy, innovatively links the capabilities of a portable video-game system with a home video-game system. It is a Super NES cartridge that contains a Game Boy adapter. When a Game Boy cartridge is inserted into the product, it is transformed from a 2-by-2-inch, black-and-white game to a bright, multicolored image on a big television screen complete with stereophonic sound. The product also allows players to customize colors and designs. Super Game Boy will be available June 6 at a suggested retail price of $59.99. (a) "Games are where it's at in 1994," said Peter Main, Nintendo's vice president, marketing. "Super Game Boy is a great new product for Nintendo game players. Through it, mega-hit Game Boy titles like Nintendo's 'Super Mario Land' series, 'Kirby's Dreamland,' 'Tetris,' 'Metroid II: Return of Samus,' 'Wario Land,' 'Legend of Zelda,' 'Links Awakening' and 'Donkey Kong' will now be available to Super NES owners for the first time." Super Game Boy displays all Game Boy game action in varying shades of four colors. For personalized play, players may customize several prestored color palettes to change the appearance of the screen. For example, ice levels can be colored blue, and jungle screens can be green. New titles specially designed for Super Game Boy will be able to display up to 256 colors. Different, animated, decorative borders can be placed around the central game-play screen. Using a Super NES controller or Super NES Mouse, players either select one of several prestored designs or create their own through a paint-type program, drawing not only on the borders but on the game-play screen itself. "The advantage for the player is clear," said Dan Owsen, Nintendo's product manager. "There are great Game Boy games out there with as much depth as Super NES games. Now, with Super Game Boy, players can enjoy even more great games on their Super NES. All you have to do is plug your favorite Game Boy game into the Super Game Boy adapter which then fits into the Super NES like any other cartridge." Future Game Boy games will be programmed to take advantage of special Super Game Boy capabilities. The first new Game Boy title to capitalize on Super Game Boy's capabilities will be "Donkey Kong," a best seller in arcades. It will be released at the same time as Super Game Boy. Nintendo's licensees and game developers will receive development specs immediately. Nintendo expects Super Game Boy to be one of its biggest-selling products in history. "When you combine Game Boy's installed based of 17 million with the Super NES installed base of 15 million, the sales potential is tremendous," Main said. "The value and quality of game play will be great for both kids and adults." Nintendo of America sells personal, home and arcade video games in the United States. The Redmond, Wash.-based company is headquarters to the company's marketing operation in North America and is a subsidiary of the world's largest manufacturer and marketer of video games, Nintendo Company Ltd., of Kyoto, Japan. -0- (a) Although Nintendo of America may suggest retail prices for products, dealer is free to determine on its own the prices at which it will sell products. --30--TJM/la CONTACT: Golin/Harris, Los Angeles Alison Holt Brummelkamp or Elizabeth Loer, 213/623-4200 KEYWORD: CALIFORNIA WASHINGTON INDUSTRY KEYWORD: COMPUTERS/ELECTRONICS COMED ENTERTAINMENT PRODUCT Z REPEATS: New York 212-575-8822 or 800-221-2462; Boston 617-330-5311 or 800-225-2030; SF 415-986-4422 or 800-227-0845; LA 310-820-9473