Tech

13 chiptune cover songs to celebrate Nintendo Game Boy's 25th birthday

by Mark Teo

April 21, 2014

It’s hard to believe that the GameBoy, Nintendo’s revered handheld system, turns 25 today. Indisputably, it’s one of the most important gaming consoles to have ever existed: Debuted in 1989 and discontinued in 2003, in sold nearly 119 million units—and, in our childhoods, they provided our ADD-torn minds with sweet, sweet entertainment.

The GameBoy, according to Geek, only had 716 games. But gaming wasn’t its only purpose: Musicians have also hacked the device and, after installing software like Nanoloop, reinvented the device as an 8-bit musical instrument. The music produced by sounded like the themes you’d hear on Tetris—it was simplistic, addictive, and delightful, and a whole chiptune scene developed around the D.I.Y. instrument.

The phenomenon has also made its way north—and, thanks to GameBoy wielding forward-thinkers like Kevin Stebner, who mans a chiptune project called GreyScreen, continues to expand as a genre. So, to commemorate the trusty console, here are 13 chiptune covers of songs we love.