Games - Handheld game console

Home > Listing Index > Games > Handheld game console

	Games - Handheld game console

A handheld game console is a lightweight, portable electronic machine for playing video games. Unlike video game consoles, however, the controls, screen and speakers are all part of a single unit. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, several companies – including Coleco and Milton-Bradley – made lightweight table-top or handheld electronic game devices. Today, these machines aren't considered strictly consoles, since they often would only play a single game. The first true handheld game console with interchangeable cartridges was the Milton Bradley Microvision in 1979. Nintendo has dominated the handheld market since the release of the Game Boy in 1989, and is often credited as popularizing the handheld console concept.

History

Origins

The first handheld game console to use interchangeable game cartridges was the Microvision, designed by Smith Engineering, and distributed and sold by Milton-Bradley in 1979. A small screen, a small selection of games (only thirteen) led to its demise only two years later. Today, working Microvisions are quite rare. The keypad could be easily damaged and the LCD technology of the late 1970s was poor, leading to liquid crystal leaking and darkening. In 1984, Japanese company Epoch released their Game Pocket Computer. Despite decent reviews, the system failed.

Early 1990s

The early 1990s was the re-launch of the handheld game console pillar of the video game market after the demise of the Microvision. As backlit LCD game consoles with color graphics consume a lot of power, they weren't battery friendly like the non-backlit original Game Boy with monochrome graphics which allowed more battery life. During this timeframe, rechargeable battery technology was not yet mature thereby rendering the advanced game consoles of the time such as the Game Gear and Atari Lynx marketing flops in the handheld video game market. Now since game systems of today have proprietary rechargeable batteries such as the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP, handheld video game consoles of today are doing better than the ones from the past. Unlike the aforementioned current-generation consoles, the GP2X uses rechargeable alkaline batteries.

Nintendo Game Boy

It wasn't until five years later that Nintendo released the Game Boy. The design team headed by Gumpei Yokoi had also been responsible for the Game & Watch system, as well as the Nintendo Entertainment System games Metroid and Kid Icarus. The Game Boy came under scrutiny by some industry critics, saying that the monochrome screen was too small, and the processing power was inadequate. The design team had felt that low initial cost and battery economy were more important concerns, and when compared to the Microvision, the Game Boy was a huge leap forward.

Yokoi recognized that the Game Boy needed a killer app – at least one game that would define the console, and persuade customers to buy it. In June 1988, Minoru Arakawa, CEO of Nintendo of America saw a demonstration of the game Tetris at a trade show. Nintendo purchased the rights for the game, and packaged it with the Game Boy system. It was almost an immediate hit. By the end of the year more than a million units were sold, and 25 million were sold by 1992. The original Game Boy (along with the Game Boy Pocket, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance) is the best selling game console ever, having sold more than 190 million units . Some say that the Game Boy line had already reached more than 220 million units sold.

Although the Game Boy is by far the most successful handheld game system, there were a number of other systems made throughout the 1990s.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Handheld game console ]

Searches on eBay

handheld game console