They had four shades of grey. They decided that was enough.
The original Gradius ran in arcades on hardware that could push hundreds of colours and sprites simultaneously. The Game Boy offered 160 pixels across, four shades of grey, and enough processing power to do what the engineers decided it should do — no more. Bringing Gradius to that machine was a choice most developers would not have attempted. Konami did not attempt a faithful reproduction. They asked a different question: what is a Gradius game, stripped of everything the hardware cannot do? The power-up bar survived the answer. The moai heads survived. The tactical choice between speed and firepower and shield survived. Everything that could not fit was left out without apology. The result was not a lesser Gradius. It was a proof that the core of a good game is smaller than it looks — that the right ten ideas, on a screen the size of a playing card, still make something worth playing.
About this game
Nemesis (1990) is the Game Boy debut of the Gradius series — a horizontal scrolling shooter that arrived just nine months after the handheld itself. Rather than a direct port of any single game, Konami assembled Nemesis from pieces of the arcade Gradius, Famicom Gradius II, and the MSX version, then added original boss designs and a stage-select screen rare for the era. The power-up bar system survived the leap to monochrome LCD intact: collect capsules, advance the cursor, and choose your own capabilities. Five stages of flying through volcanic caverns, moai stone formations, and organic grottos followed. That the game holds together — clear sprites, playable speed, music the Game Boy hardware has no business producing — is a testament to what Konami's handheld team had mastered by 1990.
Key Features
Horizontal scrolling shooter using the Gradius power-up bar system: collect capsules from defeated enemy formations, advance the weapon cursor, and choose from Speed Up, Missile, Double, Laser, Option (attack drones), or Force Field. Options limited to two simultaneously due to hardware sprite limits. Five stages with distinct themes — volcanic cavern, moai stone formation, organic grottos, prehistoric fossil field, and fortress interior. Stage-select and difficulty-select available from the start without any code. Adjustable starting lives (up to 99). Two-loop structure with increased difficulty on the second loop.
The Story Behind
When Nemesis shipped in February 1990, the Game Boy had been on sale for less than a year. Nintendo's engineers had designed the hardware with battery life and durability as top priorities — a 160×144 dot matrix screen, four shades of grey, an 8-bit processor running at roughly 4 MHz. Bringing Gradius — an arcade series defined by fast scrolling, dense sprite work, and layered parallax — to that hardware was not a conservative ambition. Konami's solution was to treat the Game Boy not as a degraded arcade but as a different instrument: sprites were redesigned from scratch for monochrome clarity, background complexity was deliberately reduced, and simultaneous Options were halved from the arcade maximum of four to two. The result ran without the sprite flickering that plagued many early Game Boy shooters. Composer Michiru Yamane, who worked on the soundtrack alongside Tomoya Tomita, went on to compose Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (1997) — one of the most acclaimed game soundtracks ever made. Nemesis was followed by Nemesis II (1991), released in North America as Gradius: The Interstellar Assault, which replaced the remix structure with entirely original stages.
Tricks & Tales
The North American Ultra Games version tells a completely different story: the player pilots a ship called the Proteus 911 for a galactic police force against an enemy named King Nemesis — same game, entirely separate fiction. The Japanese and European ROMs are identical; the North American ROM differs. Composer Michiru Yamane, credited here early in her career, went on to write the score for Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (1997), widely regarded as one of the finest game soundtracks ever recorded. The 1997 Konami GB Collection Vol.1 rerelease retitled the game Gradius and added Super Game Boy colour palette support. The 2000 European rerelease adds Game Boy Color support but is GBC-only and will not run on an original DMG Game Boy.
Collector's Guide
Region & Compatibility
The Game Boy has no region lock — a Japanese Nemesis cartridge plays on any Game Boy, Game Boy Pocket, or Game Boy Advance worldwide. The North American Ultra Games release (DMG-NME-0) has a different ROM with rewritten story content but identical gameplay. One important exception: the Konami GB Collection European 2000 rerelease (titled Gradius) adds Game Boy Color support but is GBC-only and will not run on the original DMG hardware.
Maintenance Tips
Vertical lines on the LCD are the Game Boy's signature aging defect. The cause is delamination of the ribbon cable that connects the LCD panel to the board. The standard repair is to apply heat along the ribbon cable near the LCD edge -- a soldering iron (at low temperature) run slowly along the ribbon cable reflows the connection and usually clears the lines. This repair has a documented success rate and requires no replacement parts. The speaker can be replaced with any 8-ohm 0.5W speaker of similar dimensions; audio quality often improves noticeably with a new unit. Clean battery terminals with vinegar and a cotton swab if corrosion is present. The contrast dial uses a potentiometer that can be cleaned with contact cleaner if the image is unstable at certain positions. Use fresh alkaline AA batteries -- rechargeable NiMH cells run at lower voltage and may cause erratic behavior.
Going deeper
Explore the machine this game ran on, and what to check before you buy or care for one:
What to Watch Out For
Before buying, these are the points worth knowing — from someone who handles original Japanese Nemesis copies regularly.
Does Nemesis have a save battery — will my progress be lost when I turn it off?
Nemesis has no save battery and no save function. Progress is lost when power is cut. Konami's answer was the built-in stage-select screen: you can start on any of the five stages with up to 99 lives — no code required. Check that the stage-select screen appears and all five stages load before buying.
Are the Japanese, North American, and European versions different games?
The gameplay is identical across all three regions. The North American version (Ultra Games label) has a different ROM with a rewritten story — the player's ship is renamed Proteus 911 and the fiction is entirely separate. The Japanese and European ROMs are identical. Game Boy cartridges have no region lock, so any version plays on any hardware worldwide. Important exception: the 2000 European Konami GB Collection rerelease is GBC-only and will not run on an original grey DMG Game Boy.
Before You Buy
Things worth knowing before you buy Nemesis
A short checklist for buying a used Game Boy cartridge wisely — useful with any seller, anywhere.
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Choose a seller who tests it before shipping
A copy that has actually been powered on and checked is a known quantity. An untested one is a gamble you only settle after it arrives.
Look for a seller who states it was function-tested and says what they confirmed. A serious seller can tell you exactly what was checked.
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Good news — Game Boy is region-free
Game Boy and Game Boy Color cartridges are not region-locked, so a Japanese copy plays on any Game Boy worldwide.
Just confirm the hardware family — original GB, Color, or Advance — matches the cartridge.
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If this title saves your progress, check the battery
Cartridges that save use a small coin-cell battery that fades over decades — a dead one wipes your save without warning.
Ask the seller whether the save function was tested. Replacing the battery is possible, but doing so erases any existing save.
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Check that the contacts are clean
Dirty edge contacts are the most common cause of startup and sound trouble in cartridges of this age.
Choose a seller who cleans the contacts before shipping. A note that it was tested and cleaned means the basics were handled.
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Read the seller's reviews and return policy
A 100% positive record across thousands of sales is close to a guarantee — packing, communication and problem-solving all work for everyone. A return policy protects you if something is off.
Read the feedback and confirm a clear return window before you buy.
The last step before buying anywhere is knowing what it's worth.
See what it's selling for on eBay →Unexpected Discoveries
Games you weren't looking for — but might be glad you found.
Rooms this game lives in
Wander deeper — explore the themed rooms where Nemesis sits alongside its kin.
Memories from around the world
This is a young museum, and this page is still waiting for its first voices. The memories people send reach Taisei personally, and the ones that move him find a home here over time — always with the writer's blessing. Yours could be the very first for this game.
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