History Of Portable Gaming Discussed

Thanks to Boomtown for the first part of their ongoing series, discussing the early history of handheld videogames. They start off with the Milton Bradley Microvision, which "actually arrived ten years prior to the release of the Game Boy", in 1979, and then discuss "Nintendo's famous line of simple portable LCD video games", the Game & Watch series, before covering the classic original Nintendo Game Boy, and "the world's first color handheld", the attractive but ultimately doomed Atari Lynx.

Comments

Microvision article looks fishy

[LookSharp]

The link to the Microvision states:

"Microvision was introduced by Milton Bradley in 1982. ... Milton Bradley rolled out just two new cartridges in 1980, and a final two in 1981."

So, was it released in 1979, or 1982? And:

"...an initial release of seven cartridges... two new cartridges in 1980, and a final two in 1981 ... With a small library of 10 titles..."

So seven plus two plus two equals ten? (Must be midwestern college math, where the "Big Ten" actually has 11 teams :)

Just seems like a strange set of mistakes for one article.

GameBoy

[vasqzr]

I think the reasons why the Game Boy was the most/only successful portable gaming system were:

1. Cheap. The color units were very expensive.
2. Fun games. Nintendo was ruling the homes with the NES and it only made sense to make GameBoy versions of the games. Third parties had a ton of success here too.
3. Battery life. 30 hours. The color units didn't last nearly as long and some required more than 4 AA batteries.

The screen was tiny, the sound was bad, and the spinach green graphics left lots to be desired.

Compare Tecmo Bowl on GameBoy to Joe Montana on Game Gear. You'd think the GameBoy would never have seen the light of day.

The Game Gear was $179.99 when it first came out and the Game Boy was around $99.99 I think...

Re:Are 3d games on portable console likely to exis

[h0mer]

I don't think 3D will make the same splash on portables as it did on the previous generation of consoles. The Sony PSP will most likely have 3D capability, and the N-Gage (which comes out this week) can do 3D as well. The problem is field of view. For now, the LCDs are too small and too low resolution to have decent 3D movement. I think trying to play something like Super Mario 64 on a tiny screen would be an exercise in frustration.

3D will be used, this I'm sure of, but it won't be for platform type games. I imagine you'll see 3D used in racing/flight games, and probably some psuedo-3D games such as Klonoa 1/2.

Let's not forget that portable games are generally played for shorter periods of time. It's much easier to pick up a 2D game and think "Ok I have to keep going right" than a 3D game where you have to orient yourself before you know where to go.

I think me and countless others look at the GBA as our 2D sanctuary. Let's hope that doesn't change anytime soon.

Re:Geez, it's like the 70's never existed.

[Rimbo]

There were actually 2 -- Football (later "Football I") and Football 2. The "Classic" is "Football 2." The revised versions use backlit LCD displays; the originals used bright-as-the-sun LED's.

Mattel had a whole line-up of portable electronic games that were initially sold through Sears. The first one, Auto Race, was in 1976, which makes it THE first portable all-electronic handheld game.