The older games were colored cartridges

[Palamon]

The first three generations (in English) game cartridges were special. They were all colored. The Japanese Game Boy games were not, however, they were grey, but the Game Boy Advanced versions were all colored in all regions of the world.

This promptly stopped after generation III, however, and all game cartridges were just black/grey.

Tbh... I miss this. It was so special and cool that Pokemon games were colored. The stickers on the cartridges just haven't really been the same since, but I guess since DS/3DS/Switch cartridges are small, you can't really make them special.

 

[pkmin3033]

I especially liked Crystal's cartridge! It was partially transparent so you could see the inner workings, and it was just...cool. Especially as a Gameboy Colour that had a similar design was released at the time. It really gave off a "next gen" kind of feel to it at the time!

Probably be difficult to make tiny cartridges a different colour, but that doesn't mean they could have had foil covers like Gens 2 and 3 did or something.

 

[Roni]

This was how I discovered (very recently) my old Emerald cartridge to be fake lmao. It's no wonder the battery dried out as soon as I first booted it up.

 

[Venonat in Space]

I have Emerald and Blue. I think it's a neat feature.

 

[Sydian]

i miss it. i remember anticipating it happening with diamond and pearl and was super disappointed when the trend ended there. even with the colors/metals theme ending, the games still typically have color associated with them (blue for sword, moon, and x, red for shield, sun, and y for example) it could have been a continuing trend.

i guess if you want to get technical about it. pokemon black and black 2 are black cartridges...lol

 

[Lunar]

I actually really miss this, my oldest memories with Pokemon were the green cartridge of Emerald and the red of FireRed, it just added something extra to the experience. Like it didn't mean much, but it was there, and it was really cool!

I especially liked Crystal's cartridge! It was partially transparent so you could see the inner workings, and it was just...cool.

Also this! I loved Crystal's cartridge, especially as how old the game was and how special they made it look. I was a kid when I played that for the first time too, so that always has a place in my heart as well!

 

[Zeostar]

It was nice, and in particular I loved how the Gen 3 cartridges looked.

 

[Caite-chan]

Do you think it's even worth it to make cartridges colorful again with how small they are?

 

[Iceshadow3317]

I kinda wish they could continue to do this. It would make it easier to find specific games when they are in storage.
Is it worth it... probably not. So it will probably never come back.

 

[budube]

I remember them, though only the FR, Sapphire and Emerald. I liked a lot the Sapphire one, more than anything. That blue was really nice!!

 

[faf]

They honestly should bring them back because it's what made the Pokemon games unique. I still think it would have been cool if SwSh had a little Sword/Shield on top of a cartridge but I digress.

 

[Figment]

They honestly should bring them back because it's what made the Pokemon games unique. I still think it would have been cool if SwSh had a little Sword/Shield on top of a cartridge but I digress.

Yeah, It would've been really be cool to see them come back with SWSH, although, i think that a cyan coloured cartridge for Sword and a magenta coloured cartridge for Shield instead of the usual grey like on every other switch game would've been better and more noticeable than a small image on the top of the cartridge.

 

[Caite-chan]

They could make them colored but now a days most people just download the game and not bother getting a physical copy. Not only that but I think it costs extra to add color to a cartridge than having them gray or black.

 

[TheRose]

i remember getting my first pokemon game. it was blue version. I loved that game so much. it wasn't the first colored game boy cart i had though. that honor went to donkey kong land

 

[Hiroshi Sotomura]

Of note, the first-gen Japanese games had generic Game Boy cartridges. They had unique ones since the second-gen games (although Gold/Silver had different cart colours in Japan, largely to denote their Game Boy Color compatibility).

Fourth-gen used standard DS game cards, but the Japanese games had holofoil cartridges (and HG/SS used very subtle foil). None of these specialties made it outside of Japan.

Given the digital/physical split these days and the ability to manufacture a single game card type en-masse, it probably isn't as cost-effective to produce special ones without a real good reason.

 

[SawkTheWarrior]

I Have Blue.

 

[Gigadweeb]

Would be very cool to have this back. Certainly made them much easier to spot loose.