History of Handheld Video Game Consoles

By: Daniel DiMatteo -100396491

Vickram Bal - 100577962

Introduction

Friday, April 9, 2010(1)

Table of Contents 1) The Early Years

• Mattel’s LED-based Handhelds – 1977-78• Milton Bradley Microvision – 1979• Nintendo’s Game & Watch Series – 1980-91• Epoche Game Pocket Computer – 1984

3) The Now Generation

• Nokia N-Gage / N-Gage QD – 2003-2004• Nintendo DS / DS Lite – 2004/05• PlayStation Portable – 2004• Gizmondo – 2005

2) The New Wave

• Nintendo Game Boy – 1989• Atari Lynx / Lynx 2 – 1989• NEC Turbo Express – 1990• Sega Game Gear – 1990• Sega Nomad – 1995• Tiger Electronics game.com – 1997• Neo-Geo Pocket / Pocket Color – 1998-99• Game Boy Color – 1998• Bandai WonderSwan – 1999-2000• Game Boy Advance / Advance SP /

Micro – 2001 / 2003 / 2005

4) The Grey Area

• GamePark GP32 / GP2X• PDAs Emulators

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The Early Years

Mattel’s LED-based Handhelds - 1977-78

• Handheld video games with interchangeable cartridges wouldn’t take hold for about another decade.

• Mattel managed to pry video games away from quarter-swallowing arcades and dim televisions with their successful line of LED-based, single-game handhelds.

• Most popular game was Football, but the company also released the creatively-titled Baseball and Basketball.

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The Early Years

Milton Bradley Microvision – 1979

• Designed by Jay Smith

• Released in 1979

• Combined the cartridge interchangeability that was propelling Fairchild and Atari into the forefront with the portability that had helped Coleco and Mattel sell millions of hand held games.

• Had some initial success grossing $8 million in its first year of production, and boosting Smith Engineering into a million-dollar operation.

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The Early Years

• Introduced in 1980

• Went on to produce dozens throughout the decade offering a small glimpse of what was to come from the company.

• The handhelds featured a clock and alarm but the real attraction was the games, which included titles like Donkey Kong, Mario Bros, and Balloon Fight.

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Nintendo’s Game & Watch Series – 1980-91

The Early Years

Epoche Game Pocket Computer – 1984

• Is a handheld game system released by large Japanese toy manufacturer Epoch in 1984-85.

• For its time, it was quite advanced as far as videogames go.

• 75x64 pixel B&W dot-matrix display

• Interchangeable game cartridges

•A circular D-pad with six action/selection buttons.

•Was a fun and dynamic experience.

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The New Wave

Nintendo Game Boy – 1989

• Is the most successful video game system ever -- handheld or otherwise.

• Part of its success is likely due to its reasonable price ($109 US at launch)

• Most of it is a result of the games (Tetris).

• The games make the system, not the hardware.

• Nintendo would make some improvements to the design over the years.

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The New Wave

Atari Lynx / Lynx 2 – 1989

• Released in 1989

• The world's first color handheld portable videogame system.

• Offered multi-player functionality, 3D graphic capabilities, reversible controls, and a backlit color LCD screen.

• Featured a strong library of games and technical abilities beyond that of its contemporaries.

• Was ultimately unsuccessful due to Atari's inability to persuade developers to write enough high profile games for the system.

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The New WaveNEC Turbo Express – 1990

• Released in 1990 - did well in Japan

• Never had the same success in North America.

• Was released overseas to compete with the Atari Lynx, Nintendo Game Boy and Sega Game Gear

• Technically, it was the superior system but sales told a different story.

• Insanely expensive.

• Ultimately went bankrupt due to the popularity of Nintendo Gameboy and Sega Game gear

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The New Wave

Sega Game Gear – 1990• Released in 1990.

•  The Game Gear was to be "everything the Game Boy wasn't"

• Had full color backlit screen and be more comfortable in the hands. 

• Proved to be an attractive feature for third-party software developers.

• Graphically and ergonomically superior than GameBoy

• Over 240 games were released. 

• After a successful few years, it saw its end in 1997.

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The New Wave

Sega Nomad – 1995• Introduced in late 1995

• It was conceived as a handheld version of the Genesis console

• Has a decent 320x224 pixel backlit 3.25-inch color LCD display.

• Could also serve as a TV-based home console

• Suffered because it was released near the end of the Genesis console's lifespan.

• The price was eventually reduced well below $100

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The New Wave

Tiger Electronics game.com – 1997

• Handheld console released in September 1997.

• Aimed at an older target audience

• First console to use a touch screen

• First to include basic personal digital assistant (PDA) functions

• First to allow two game cartridges to be inserted at once

• First handheld to allow internet access to a 14.4 kbit/s modem.

• Was a commercial failure, similar features were later used with great success by Nintendo in their DS handheld console.

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The New WaveNeo-Geo Pocket / Pocket Color – 1998-99

• Released on October 27, 1998 in Japan.  • The Pocket was a 16-bit grayscale handheld meant to compete with Nintendo's Game Boy. 

• Main selling point would be their quality line of games. 

• Needed to have an edge over their main rival, which prompted them to release a color version of the NGP.

• Pocket color comes with a world clock, calendar, horoscope and alarm system. 

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The New WaveGame Boy Color – 1998

•The Game Boy Color was a response to pressure from game developers for a new and much more sophisticated system of playing

•Has four times as much memory as the original (32 kilobytes system RAM, 16 kilobytes video RAM).

•The screen resolution was the same as the original Game Boy, which is 160x144 pixels.

•Featured an infrared communications port for wireless linking.

•Capable of showing up to 56 different colors simultaneously on screen from its palette of 32,768,

•Could add basic four-color shading to games that had been developed for the original Game Boy

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The New WaveWonderSwan Color – 2000

• The WonderSwan Color made its debut in 2000 • The enhanced machine managed to secure around ten per cent of the Japanese handheld market.

• The success was short-lived due to the Nintendo Game Boy Advance

• Came complete with two D-pads (one on top of the other on the left-hand side of the machine) that allowed the user to play the system vertically as well as horizontally

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The New Wave

Game Boy Advance – 2001

• Was released in March 2001.

• Became the successor to the ever-so-popular Game Boy Color

• Has an improved in terms of processing power, graphics capabilities and aesthetics

• Two extra buttons were added to the top left and right of the unit too.

• The GB Advance retailed at $99  (9)

The Now Generation

Nokia N-Gage / N-Gage QD – 2003-2004

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Nintendo DS / DS Lite – 2004/05

•Revised version of the QD but did not really take off

•Nokia still appreciates the technology and hopes to incorporate N-Gage gaming capabilities into their Smartphones eventually

•Not immediately well received by gamers

•Highlights: -built in WiFi and numerous great games

The Now Generation

PlayStation Portable – 2004

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•At the time, was most technically advanced handheld system•Many gamers found it to be too expensive•Used the UMD (Universal Media Disc) format which is not found anywhere other than in the Playstation Portable platform

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Gizmondo – 2005

•Did not really take off outside of Europe•Had some innovative features such as GPS (Global Positioning System) and a built-in camera•No great games and quite expensive

The Grey Area

GamePark GP32 / GP2X

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PDA/ cell phone

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• Uses memory cards and some emulators to allow users to play almost any classic video game that they can think of

•These days, almost anyone can have access to handheld games via their PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) or cell phone•Emulators exist for PDAs as well

Conclusion

• As users have access to more innovative forms of technology, previous models of handheld games become obsolete

• They no longer offer the same high interest and intrigue that they once did.

• Companies strive to produce newer more engaging and real-life games to satisfy the ever growing appetite of gamers.

ReferencesPictures:

(1) http://www.engadget.com/2006/03/03/a-brief-history-of-handheld-video-games

(2) http://www.cyberiapc.com/vgg/atari_lynx.htm

(3) http://www.disgruntleddesigner.com/chrisc/GamePokekon/index.html

(4) http://www.atariage.com/Lynx/history.html

(5) http://thetoybox1138.blogspot.com/2009_02_01_archive.html

(6) http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/Various/Handheld+Classics/feature.asp?c=6536

(7) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Boy_Color

(8) http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/Various/Handheld+Classics/feature.asp?c=7285

(9) http://www.cyberiapc.com/vgg/pics/nintendo_gameboyadvance1.jpg

References Continued (# indicates slide)

Information:

(3) http://www.engadget.com/2006/03/03/a-brief-history-of-handheld-video-games/

(4) http://gamesmuseum.pixesthesia.com/history/gen2/microvis/microvis.html

http://www.engadget.com/2006/03/03/a-brief-history-of-handheld-video-games/

(6) http://www.disgruntleddesigner.com/chrisc/GamePokekon/index.html

(7) http://www.engadget.com/2006/03/03/a-brief-history-of-handheld-video-games/

(8) http://www.atariage.com/Lynx/history.html

(9) http://www.game-machines.com/consoles/turboexpress.php

(10) http://www.cyberiapc.com/vgg/sega_gamegear.htm

(11) http://www.retrothing.com/2006/01/sega_nomad_a_ha.html

(12) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game.com

(13) http://www.cyberiapc.com/vgg/neogeo_pocket.htm

(14) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Boy_Color

(15) http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/Various/Handheld+Classics/feature.asp?c=7285

(16) http://www.cyberiapc.com/vgg/nintendo_gameboysp.htm

References Continued (# indicates slide)

Information:

(17) http://www.engadget.com/2006/03/03/a-brief-history-of-handheld-video-games

(18) http://www.engadget.com/2006/03/03/a-brief-history-of-handheld-video-games

(19) http://www.engadget.com/2006/03/03/a-brief-history-of-handheld-video-games

Thank you for listening

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