A historical perspective

Handheld gaming platforms have always been a few steps behind its console counterpart, but that’s proven to be a small trade off for the benefits of portability, and to an extent, even part of the appeal.

Taking a short trip back in time, we will look at some of the handhelds from which some of the current devices have evolved from.

First of all, just to get it out of the way, we will be looking at mobile phone games. The first ever mobile phone game to be created was the black and white version of ‘Snake’; it came embedded in the Nokia 6110 model in 1997. The game play was kept very simple; you simply lead the snake (which was really a thick black line) around the screen picking up black dots. Every dot you collected added another link to the snake making it grow a little. Then in 2001 Nokia introduced a coloured version to their mobile phones, this was a major step forward in mobile representation.

Snake: http://www.apniapps.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/snake-game.jpg
N Gage: http://www.411mania.com/siteimages/ngage_43163.jpg

Later on, Nokia attempted to frankenstein both gaming and mobile phone aspects (unsuccessfully) in to a single package, this was branded as the N-Gage. To be honest, there were actually some good quality games released for this platform, but the phone to game integration was of a poor standard. Users didn’t feel very comfortable tilting the phone sideways to speak and hear, and if that wasn’t bad enough, the lack of assistance available online (or even offline) was pitiful at best.

Mattel: http://www.handheldmuseum.com/Mattel/FB.htm

I believe the first ever mobile gaming device kicked off around 1977. It was a led based device created by Mattel Electronics loaded with a single football game. Mattel also released other sports and action genre games, regardless of them all having pretty much the same movements, they were all quite popular.

Nintendo: Game and Watch

Then come 1980 and we see Nintendo enter the scene with Game & Watch (created by game designer Gunpei Yokoi). As the name suggests, the device contained a clock and an alarm, but the main attraction was the gaming functionality. Titles such as Donkey Kong, Mario Bros, Zelda, etc. were imported to the Game and Watch for the first time, and due to their popularity on the arcade machines people went crazy for these handheld games. Each came with one game loaded and a ‘Game A’ and ‘Game B’ button, with Game B generally being the faster and more difficult version of Game A. In total 59 different Game & Watch games were produced for sale, and one that was only available as a contest prize, bringing it to t total of 60.

In 1984 a company named Epoch tried their hand at the mobile gaming market by producing the Game Pocket Computer. It was released only in Japan and had five games available. But as you can tell from the number of people who have actually heard of it, it never really caught on.

Enter the Nintendo Game Boy – 1989. I think it’s almost impossible to fully comprehend how much this device help mould the way for the rest of the mobile gaming platforms that would follow. It is by far one of the most successful gaming consoles systems ever sold. Part of this success was due to its reasonable price (~£47 at launch), but the rest of it was down to the games available, including the complimentary preloaded game of Tetris.

Gameboy: http://www.ratteswg.de/Uber_mich/Hobbies/Nintendo/Gameboy.jpg
Gameboy Pocket: http://rerunvideos.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/Game_boy_pocket.jpg
Gameboy Light: http://rabatomusic.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/game-boy-light.jpg

Everyone remembers that the screen on this device was green with somewhat blurry graphics, so it couldn’t be the hardware that was attracting the customers in. this serves strongly in support of the argument that it’s the games that make the system, the not hardware. Over the years Nintendo re-released improved versions of the Game Boy, first with the slimmer Game Boy Pocket version in 1996 (which replaced the green screen with a regular grey screen), then the Game Boy Light (which had a backlit screen).

NEC Turbo Express: http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1180/1335422521_c3d441e92b.jpg

As we now enter the 90’s, there comes a need to mention NEC’s Turbo Express. For their period of time, they managed to produce on of the most technically impressive handhelds. The Turbo Express was actually a portable version of their console system, the Turbgraphx 16. It was more or less the same size as a Game Boy with a sharp screen resolution (allowing video playback). But there was a huge downside; they had catered their device to a niche market which had yet to be formed – hardcore gamers, because at the price of $299.99US they would be the only ones buying this handheld.

Sega Game Gear: http://www.studio42.info/GameGear/game-gear.jpg

The only other competition against the Game Boy worth mentioning at this time is Sega’s Game Gear. Like some of its predecessors it did manage to have a colour screen, but the key thing they managed to avoid was the lofty price tag. By managing to keep the price at a reasonable £73.99, Sega managed to gain an advantage over Atari and NEC. Even with their ever increasing (and better selection of games) it was only a modest success in comparison to Nintendo’s increasing dominance in the market.

Neo Geo Pocket: http://www.gameconsoles.com/images/Ngp.gif
Neo Geo Colour: http://www.racketboy.com/images/ngpc-1.jpg

Neo-Geo! Everyone who was gaming around 1998-1999 knows of the Neo-Geo. Neo-Geo are most notably famous for their presence in the arcade sector of gaming (King of Fighters, Samurai Showdown, etc.), so by attempting to build on this reputation they branched out to the mobile space with the Neo-Geo Pocket. The effect they had wasn’t what they were expecting to have as the Pocket only supported a greyscale screen. So the following year they attempted to fix this by releasing the Neo- Geo Pocket Colour. For reasons unknown, they failed to attract support from third party developers and ultimately fell short of gaining enough supporters to actually pose as a threat to the current market leaders (who were consequently Nintendo).

Bandai Wonderswan were in the sector for only a short period of time in 1999-2000. They earned a modest success in Japan, this was most likely due to the exclusive licence they managed to get a hold of from SquareSoft which allowed them to deploy the Final Fantasy games to their system. But, just as the Wonderswan was gaining ground on Nintendo, SquareSoft broke a deal with Nintendo and Bandai lost their rights to exclusivity.

Nintendo DS: http://www.retrogame-shop.com/shop/images/nintendo_ds.jpg
Nintendo DS Lite: http://www.gizkid.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/nintendo-ds-lite.jpg

Now entering the 2004 era, we have to have a mention of the Nintendo DS/ DS Lite. Initially when the concepts and rumours appeared on the net, people were approaching it sceptically saying that the dual screens and stylus additions were too flamboyant and less game conscious. But once the games began to be released, the gamers were soon won over. There were some very innovative titles available soon, and coupled with the WiFi availability, the DS was fast becoming the new favourite. Not much later, a new slimmer, lighter and smaller version of the same device was released – the DS Lite. Ofcourse today we have the DS XL, DSi, etc…

Sony PSP: http://www.btechpcrepair.com/computer-repair-blog/uploaded_images/psp-719045.jpg

Then came 2005, and Sony thought maybe they should show everyone else what they’re about – so enter the scene the Playstation Portable, the most technically advanced portable system to date. Despite the relatively higher price tag than the previous devices (£150) and only a handful of name worthy games, they seem to be holding on to their smaller piece of the market. Many users double the PSP as a media player to playback their movies and music, I think to counterbalance this Sony ended up bringing the PSP 3000.

Tiger Telematics introduced their system called the Gizmodo in late 2005. This device did so poor, I still can’t fathom what their brief might have been. I mean, their system was fairly powerful, it had GPS and even a camera attached. But with the games and every other element being so poor the company eventually filed for bankruptcy.

GP2X: http://retrothing.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/gp2x.jpg

We finally rest on the GamePark GP32/GP2X. I’m sure not many know of this device, but let me tell you, this is what you would consider the holy grail of mobile gaming. With a standard memory card and some free to download emulators, you can pretty much play any of the thousands of games available to play on any handheld and arcade systems. Even with a price of £149.99 the package seems inviting, except the only problem you have now is being careful of whom you inform as the game companies won’t be too pleased of their loss.

Refs:

Cell phone history:

http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/jan2006/id20060122_077129.htm

Handheld History:

http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/Various/feature.asp?c=2850

http://gaming.wikia.com/wiki/History_of_handheld_game_consoles

http://www.pcworld.com/article/183679/30_years_of_handheld_game_systems.html

Mattel Football:

http://www.handheldmuseum.com/Mattel/FB.htm

Nintendo Game & Watch:

http://museoretro.com.ar/gamewatch/jpg/gamewatch.html

NEX Turbo Express: