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

Are 3d games on portable console likely to exists?

[imperator_mundi]

At present day portable games are more or less equivalent to console game of early 90 (i.e. GBA SP is more or less a portable SNES) on a smaller screen, now the question is if it's possible to do the transition to 3d games with this kind displays.

Otherwise it will be interesting to see the direction in wich the genres of "portable games" (or better games for portable devices) will evolve (Just one thing is sure, we will see more and even more Pokemons).

I have a Vectrex - NOT portable

[hirschma]

There is no way that a Vectrex could be considered portable :)

The unit is about the same size and weight as an old-time all-in-one-Mac (in fact, it is so similar that most folks that see it think it IS a Mac with a built-in portrait screen). Batteries are out of the question, and the built-in CRT is simply too fragile to take too many knocks.

Yes, it has a handle on top, but I doubt that any of its owners were lugging it to school very often.

I will say that it is very fun little system, and can't be beat for games like Star Castle and Asteroids - absolute clones of the originals due to the vector graphics employed.

I always though....

[Anonymous Coward]

That the reason that nintendo rarely changed their gameboy system was because none of the other systems posed a threat. Nintendo hardly had to do any work, the original game boy was introduced in 1989 and went seven years before they got arround to making a minor upgrade. Then two years after they get arround to producing one with color. Then after about three years they finally get around to making a major upgrade with the gameboy advance.

I hope that the newer systems in the works do a lot better then those that have tried and failed. It would be nice to see some competition, breaking up Nintendo's handheld monopoly, and maybe make Nintendo more serious about its handheld systems.

My love affair with portable gaming.

[VermifugeRT]

Yes, I posted this on the site too, but it's rare for me to write as much on any subject so I thought I would share.

As a kid I ha a number of these game and watch systems, including the double screen donkey Kong. Portable gaming ever since has been a big part of my daily life.

I had a GameBoy at launch. I think the price was about $89, and it came with Tetris. I was instantly fascinated ability to swap games just like my NES! I must have been 11 years old or so, and $89 was no small amount of money.

With a little convincing (and a lot of annoyance) My mother got me a game boy right at launch. I still have it, with all the games. It's in immaculate condition. The GameBoy traveled with me every where. To school, Vacations or even just as far as my back yard. No I wasn't a very active child.

As the 16 Bit era ushered out the 8 bit cpu the market changed, as did the portable gaming scene. With it came my favorite gaming system, and portable of all time. The NEC Turbo Grafx 16! The Turbo Grafx 16 never had enough respect state side. Its Japanese counterpart the PC Engine was a phenomenal success in Japan. Because of this it spawned of several variations of the hardware including the PC Engine Core systems, The PC Engine Shuttle, PC Engine LT, Super Grafx and the PC Engine GT!

Ah the PC Engine GT. Other wise known as the Turbo Express. Was, and a way still is the best portable game system ever made. It wasn't a complete dog on battery life like the Lynx (which I did enjoy but never owned.) It featured dimensions similar to the GameBoy with an active matrix screen. The best since passed or present ever featured on a portable game system. Sure it had a few poor pixels but it was better looking and more visible then even the GameBoy Advance SP.

I loved this system! It played the same games as my Turbo Grafx 16 and was light years ahead of my game boy. Sadly its high price of $299 (back in 1992) was and still is restrictive. I just could not justify traveling with such a pricy pricey of tech. Because of this it mostly stayed at home.

Now I am a happy owner of the GameBoy Advance (Both the classic and SP.) Its low price point makes it "disposable" and I do so much commuting. It's also the best showcase for some of the best 16 bit 2D gaming the 90's had to offer. With new classic like Advance Wars and Final Fantasy : Tactics, the GBA continues to be one of my all time favorite gaming systems only matched by the failed yet amazing NEC Super Grafx.

Re:GameBoy

[cynicalman]

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

<david_letterman voice="top_ten">

One word: Tetris.

</david_letterman>