A stripped-down version of Super Mario Bros. was released for the format in 1986, although this edition has a full-color screen and offers the full game. Or games, since as well as the NES title, you’ll also get The Lost Levels, the version of Super Mario 2 that was only released in Japan.

When the Game & Watch series itself turned 30, Nintendo offered Club Nintendo members a special, limited edition of its first title, Ball. For the unaware, Ball tasked you with keeping two balls in the air (and only had two buttons to help you do so!), which passed for entertainment in 1980. 

Nintendo

Because this is the 35th anniversary edition, Nintendo says that there are 35 little touches for fans to find both inside and outside the hardware. If you fancy delving in, you’ll be able to do so on November 13th so long as you throw $50 at your nearest electronics retailer. 

In the early ‘90s, Netscape ruled the world with Navigator, an internet browser that was easy and accessible, empowering folks to get online. For $49 — unless you had a free version provided by your ISP — the nascent internet was at your fingertips. Microsoft had slept on the web and belatedly came to the conclusion that it was a threat to Windows’ global dominance. So, far later than it should, the company decided that it needed to take ownership of what we did online.

Microsoft drew, uh, inspiration from Netscape, licensing code from the browser Netscape was based on (Mosaic) and set to work. At the start, Internet Explorer wasn’t as good as Navigator. It didn’t play well with Java and was riddled with bugs. But it also had the virtue of being free, as Microsoft began giving it away with Windows updates and eventually baking it into the OS itself. This set an expectation that nobody need ever pay for a web browser ever again.

Robert Sorbo via Getty Images

In 1995, Netscape Navigator reportedly held 70 and 80 percent of the US web browser market. However, by 1998, Internet Explorer had supplanted Netscape on the back of this free giveaway. But it wasn’t just the public who had noticed: So had Bill Clinton’s Department of Justice, who had been lobbied by Netscape about what was going on.

That same year, the Department of Justice launched an antitrust action, investigating whether Microsoft had violated antitrust laws. They contended that bundling Internet Explorer with the OS, and giving it away for free, violated the first two sections of the Sherman Act. It didn’t go well for Microsoft. CEO Bill Gates was roasted in depositions by (future star lawyer) David Boies. The judge agreed, and declared in his judgment that Microsoft wasn’t just behaving anti-competitively, it also needed to be broken up.

In his decision, Judge Thomas P. Jackson said that Microsoft was attempting to hold onto a monopoly through “anticompetitive means.” He added that the company should be split into two: One building the Windows operating system and another responsible for other software. But rather than motion for a hearing to further examine if a break-up was appropriate, he just demanded it. 

This immediately gave Microsoft a point of law on which to base an appeal, and Jackson’s decision would be examined in great detail by The Ringer. Department of Justice economist Daniel Rubinfeld said that his colleagues “assumed that there would be a follow-on set of hearings,” to hash out the merits of breaking up Microsoft. Then acting attorney-general Doug Melamed added that Jackson’s ruling implied that he was “tired of the case” in a way that was “irresponsible.” 

Microsoft would eventually settle with the Department of Justice, establishing a three-person independent committee would have the power to scrutinize Microsoft’s business. The company also had to develop an internal antitrust compliance policy to ensure this didn’t happen again. But it was a case of too little, too late for Netscape, which was bought by Aol (now owned by Verizon Media, Engadget’s parent company) just as its market share began falling. By 2004, Internet Explorer had around 90 percent of the market, Navigator had faded to single digits. Microsoft had won. 

And then, just as soon as it had, it began to lose. Firefox had been slowly eating small chunks of Microsoft’s market share, and then in 2008, Google’s Chrome turned up. The two browsers between them were breaths of fresh air compared to Internet Explorer, with its numerous flaws. Its lack of standards compliance, persistent faults and the ease at which it would crash meant power users hated it. 

There are a number of market share sources, each with slightly different statistics, but the trend is unmistakable. From owning the market in 2004, Microsoft’s dominance was eroded pretty much constantly. By 2013, Internet Explorer had less than 30 percent of the market, with the spoils being shared by Chrome, Firefox and Apple’s Safari, as iOS grew into the juggernaut it is today. Internet Explorer wound up a joke that even Microsoft had to laugh at.

Microsoft would, eventually, replace Internet Explorer with Edge, a new browser that has since been redeveloped to use Google’s Chromium engine. It fixes many of the problems that people ever had with its predecessor.

The brush with the government was a chastening experience for Microsoft and one that may have dented its ambitions. Senator Richard Blumenthal and academic Tim Wu wrote in The New York Times that the case forced Microsoft to be more cautious. “Imagine a world in which Microsoft had been allowed to monopolize the browser business,” they wrote, “Microsoft would have controlled the future of the web.”

They argued that Microsoft, even with a more friendly Department of Justice under G.W. Bush, was far less aggressive. And in doing so, allowed a space into which Google, Facebook, Amazon and others could grow on their own terms. And yes, they added, while it was ironic that those companies were now in the line of fire, it was evidence of a healthy market.

In fact, Microsoft has hardly suffered from its apparent indiscretion, becoming one of the wealthiest companies in the world. It’s more profitable now than it was at the height of its notoriety, despite the fact that many of its rivals are now soaking up the attention. 

The makers of real-time messenger Slack say that its business is being ripped off by Microsoft Teams, which is now bundled as part of Office 365. “They created a weak, copycat product,” said Slack general counsel David Schellhase “and tied it to their dominant Office product.” Schellhase added that it’s the same play Microsoft adopted in their (admittedly successful) attempt to topple Netscape Navigator. Slack has now filed a complaint with the European Commission, asking for regulators to investigate the behavior. 

But that is for the future. We’re at the very start of Big Tech’s antitrust reckoning, but it’ll be interesting to see how all of this shakes out. Maybe, we’ll see a whole new wave of innovation and a whole new bunch of companies emerging from the conflicts. What will the next tech giant create in the wake of what happens in the next few years? We don’t know, but perhaps it’ll be just as interesting as what came after Internet Explorer.

It’s been a long time coming, but Halo 2: Anniversary is finally coming to the PC as part of the Master Chief Collection. It arrives on Steam, the Microsoft Store and Xbox Game Pass for PC on Tuesday May 12th, where it will join Halo: Reach and Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary.

There’s still a little way to go before the full collection is available on PC — it’s still notably missing Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST and Halo 4, although Microsoft has said they’ll drop before the year is out. At least PC gamers know the titles are on the way, although that’s probably not much consolation given the console version of the collection launched with them all ready to go back in 2014.  

To get it, you just need to enter the code B-GOOGLE21 a checkout (in the UK), but note that there are some restrictions. Stadia pre-orders are excluded across Europe, and in France, the Pixel 3a isn’t part of the deal. Subscriptions to Nest Aware are also excluded. Note that the promo code appears to be different for each country, as well, and you need to have an address in the purchasing country.

All told, it’s a rare opportunity to get Google hardware deals apart from the usual sale times around Christmas and Thanksgiving. Also, if you’re planning on buying a Pixel 3 of some kind, be aware that Google is launching the Pixel 4 sometime in the fall. We know exactly what to expect from that phone, so if you need the improved camera and other features, plan accordingly.

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I remember like it was yesterday. It was 1991, and I had my nose pressed up against the glass outside a branch of Dixons, on Park Street in Bristol (England). I was staring at a revolutionary new handheld console that would change gaming as we know it: the Atari Lynx II. At least, that’s what I thought at the time. History would prove me wrong. So very, very wrong. 30 years ago, the real pioneer of gaming handhelds — Nintendo’s Game Boy, of course — was released in Japan. It had even been around in the UK a while before my uninformed beak was smudging up windows of big box electronics stores. (The Game Boy came to the UK in 1990.)

Despite choosing the Lynx, I almost instantly knew I’d made a mistake. All the other kids in my class, bar one, made the right choice (Dave Galloway, the other Lynx owner, and I soon became close friends). The playground soon changed from scrappy games of football to pockets of kids gathered around someone playing Tetris, or maybe two people playing Tetris against each other. Dave and I were elsewhere playing two-player California Games (which is amazing, FWIW).

I loved the Lynx, but it was hard not to envy the endless stream of new and exciting titles for the Game Boy. Or its impressive battery life and actual pocket-friendly size. Atari went after superlatives (first color portable! 16-bit graphics!) and tried to squeeze an (80s) arcade into a small box. Nintendo took a totally different approach, knowing that handhelds required boiling things down to the basics, and focusing on the gameplay. Atari’s portable had all the graphical power, on paper at least, but somehow, the worlds created on Nintendo’s green dot-matrix baby looked more inviting and skillfully drawn for the limited display. Not shoehorned down from an arcade machine.

Thirty years later (for this story), I righted that wrong, and bought an original Game Boy on eBay. It cost me about $40, and came with Mortal Kombat. It’s in surprisingly good condition for something older than some of my colleagues here at Engadget. It works just fine, and the two-tone bootup chime still stirs a tinge of jealousy, even though this one belongs to me.

But nostalgia is always rosy. The moment Mortal Kombat loaded up, I was instantly reminded of the Game Boy’s Achilles heel: that small, fuzzy, squint-inducing display. Even in the middle of the day, I found myself struggling to focus on the gray-and-green image before me, occasionally finding myself focusing on my reflection and not the game. I thumbed for the contrast wheel, hoping that I could gently roll the image into clarity, but it basically seesaws between all black, all green and usable. How did we tolerate this? Because it was 1990, and nothing beat the satisfaction of slamming a much-needed “straight” into the perfect gap for a Tetris.

As much as I struggled with that display — hardly surprising after 30 years of LCD and OLED development — one thing remains true: the games are still pretty cracking. I wanted to enjoy the true Game Boy experience so I also shelled out for a copy of Super Mario Land (and Star Wars, for no reason other than it was a deal). Both of these games somehow seem to have more depth than their nearest rivals on the Lynx. Game Boy titles draw you in with simple graphics, clever gameplay and cute, creative worlds. The Lynx was more about high scores or button-mashing (not entirely, but given there are only about 70 games, there’s not a massive variety).

As much as I am enjoying the Game Boy, I realize (in hindsight) one clear benefit of the Lynx, at least if you’re a collector type like me. The small library is pretty easy to pick up, and there’s enough rare stuff to keep things interesting once you do. The Game Boy, with its vast library (and Japan-only releases) and cacophony of accessories and special editions would be maddening to collect. Of course, these are small consolations and a long time coming. For the last three decades, it’s always been the most fun to play overall, and that’s what really counts.

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Man, I loved my transparent Game Boy Pocket. Wave Race, Grand Theft Auto, James Bond 007 — I rammed each cartridge into my handheld and didn’t stop playing until the credits rolled. There was one title, though, that I could never quite beat: Metroid II: Return of Samus, a 2D action-adventure by R&D1, the fabled development team behind Donkey Kong and the original Mario Bros.

I remember the game feeling absolutely enormous. Samus’ quest took place in a subterranean labyrinth that was seemingly impossible to navigate without a notepad and pen. The scale was daunting, yet utterly mesmerizing. I could spend hours sprinting through its cavernous corridors, looking for items and ferocious Metroid monsters to blast. Before too long, I would get stuck and slowly backtrack towards the surface, looking hopelessly for weapons, bosses and areas I might have missed. If a friend didn’t have the solution, I would eventually give up and move onto something else.

I returned to Metroid II many times. If I couldn’t find a way forward, I simply restarted the game and played the opening few hours again. It was mildly therapeutic until, of course, I got stuck in the same part again.

I never consulted a walkthrough and, therefore, have no idea how much progress I made. To be honest, I’m scared to look even now. I’m not sure what would be worse: to know that I was only a few hours from completion, or that I barely scratched the surface of a tricky but relatively straightforward adventure. Looking at a walkthrough now would also reveal the game’s outer limits and, by extension, shatter the sense of wonder and infinite possibilities that R&D1 crafted so perfectly in the ’90s.

That same fear stopped me from playing the official remake, Metroid: Samus Returns, on the Nintendo 3DS a couple of years back.

I still have my original Metroid II cartridge in a drawer somewhere, gathering dust. I’ll occasionally take it out and admire the tiny artwork, but I never, ever play it. (I wouldn’t be surprised if the battery inside the cartridge had died, taking the save file with it.) Deep down, I like that Metroid II ultimately conquered my brain. It adds to the mythos and unrealistic expectations I’ve built up around the game.

Metroid II is special to me, even if I barely made a dent in its campaign.

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I got my Game Boy in 1990. As the youngest of four, there weren’t many things that were mine; there was my elder brothers’ NES, and later their Mega Drive and Saturn. But the Game Boy? That was mine, and I adored it, even if I only had Tetris at first.

Within a couple of years, I had a few more titles — Tennis, Super Mario Land and Gremlins 2 — but none of them captured my attention the way Link’s Awakening did. I was 8 at the time, and it was a truly formative experience. Anyone at Engadget present for Nintendo’s recent Direct presentation can confirm my excitement upon discovering it was coming to the Switch.

I stuck with the Game Boy for a very long time. I’ve been trying to remember what other games I played — Alien 3 was definitely a winner — but mostly just Tetris on the daily.

As time went by, my faithful Game Boy was superseded by all manner of consoles. Of course, I lusted after the Game Gear (4,096 colors!), and I distinctly remember pleading for a Game Boy Pocket when I was about to enter high school. But the one I wanted most was the Game Boy Light.

Released only in Japan in 1998, the Light fit somewhere between the original Game Boy and the Pocket in size, but had one thing no other Game Boy had: an electroluminescent display. It was the stuff of legend among kids at school, and for five months or so, I thought of nothing else. Then, the Game Boy Color came out, and I had a new object to lust after.

I picked up a Game Boy Color almost immediately, thanks to winning “letter of the month” in Computer and Video Games magazine in late ’98. But it never really captured my attention the way the original did. The Saturn and N64 were basically the only things I wanted to play, and I was already counting down the days until the Dreamcast would hit UK shores (October 14, 1999!). Tetris DX was a pretty sweet companion on the bus, though.

Honestly, until a few weeks ago, I’d forgotten about just how much I wanted the Light. Turns out, I now have a job and some manner of disposable income, and so I decided to have a look through eBay at some hugely overpriced secondhand models. Then, last week, I found it: a limited edition Pokemon Center Game Boy Light, with all of its original packaging. I had to have it. I’ve probably (okay, definitely), spent more than I should have for a console which I’m unlikely to ever play. But I owed it to the 13-year-old inside me, who I can confirm is ecstatic about the decision.

Image: WikiCommons (Game Boy flat), Marco Verch/Flickr (Game Boy Light)

The first collection, Arcade Classics, comprises a bumper pack of Konami’s 1980s hits, including Haunted Castle, A-Jax, Gradius, Gradius 2, Life Force, Thunder Cross, Scramble and TwinBee. This one goes on digital sale on April 18 for the reasonable price of $20.

Next up, and arriving in “early summer,” is the Castlevania: Anniversary Collection. This will also include eight titles, four of which have been confirmed: Castlevania (NES), Castlevania 2: Belmont’s Revenge (Game Boy), Castlevania 3: Dracula’s Curse (NES) and Super Castlevania 4 (Super NES). Most of these have been accessible before in some shape or form, but having them on Switch and other contemporary platforms is a nice addition to the Konami catalogue.

The Contra: Anniversary Collection will also arrive in early summer, again an eight-title collection, with confirmed games including Contra (arcade), Super Contra (arcade), Super C (NES), and Contra 3: The Alien Wars (Super NES) — a great pickup for retro enthusiasts.

Konami says that each collection will come with a digital book that features behind-the-scenes notes, never-before seen design sketches and interviews with development staff. While it’s not yet clear which other titles will round out the Castlevania and Contra collections, Konami certainly has a decent catalogue to choose from. It would be great to see Vampire Killer for the MSX2 on a modern platform, for example.