The Game Boy Game Link Cable dropped in 1989 alongside the original Game Boy, and it was the secret weapon for turning solo gaming into a head‑to‑head showdown. This little gray cable let you hook up two Game Boys for multiplayer classics like Tetris, and later versions like the Game Link Cable for Game Boy Color (1998) and the Advance Link Cable (2001) kept the tradition alive with faster speeds and four‑player support. It was clunky, it was wired, and if someone yanked it mid‑match your game was toast—but for anyone trading Pokémon or battling friends in Mario Kart: Super Circuit, this cable wasn’t just an accessory, it was the lifeline that made portable multiplayer real.