Handheld console

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A handheld console (also often called a handheld video game console or handheld game ( s ) console ) is a portable electronic device primarily designed for playing video games . In contrast to stationary consoles , the controls, screen and, if necessary, speakers are already built into the console. During the 1960s and 1970s, various manufacturers, including Mattel and Milton Bradley , brought portable tabletop and other ( LCD ) consoles onto the market for the first time (tabletop consoles are not counted among the handheld consoles because they are not part of the Take away are intended). The first handheld console was Mattel's 1976 Matell Auto Race . The first commercially successful handheld console was Merlin - the Parker Brothers electronic wizard from 1978. The first handheld console with interchangeable game modules was the Microvision , the Published in 1979 by Milton Bradley. With the launch of the Game Boy in 1989, Nintendo has conquered the market leadership in the handheld sector to this day and has contributed to the popularization of the handheld concept. The first internet-capable handheld console and at the same time the first with a touchscreen was the Game.com from Tiger Electronics from 1997.

history

origin

Microvision with “ blockbuster ” cartridge

The first handheld console with interchangeable game modules, the Microvision, was developed by Smith Engineering in 1979 and sold by Milton Bradley (MB for short). Due to the rather small LC display and a game selection of only 13 titles, however, it did not prove to be a long-term success and production was stopped two years later. The controls were easily damaged, and the late 1970s LCDs were of poor quality, often leaking or dark, which is why the Microvision's working devices have become a rarity.

In 1983 Palmtex released the home computer software super micro cartridge system in the USA .

Five years after the Microvision , in 1984, the Game Pocket Computer from Epoch-sha , the first programmable handheld console , appeared exclusively in Japan . Only five games were officially released for the system.

In 1989 Nintendo released the Game Boy . The development team, led by Gunpei Yokoi , was already responsible for the Nintendo Game & Watch series, the Nintendo Entertainment System and the games Metroid and Kid Icarus . Critics from the game industry were initially skeptical of the device due to its black and white screen and low processor performance. However, the design team felt that low manufacturing costs and low battery consumption were more important than graphics for a handheld console . Compared to the Microvision, the Game Boy was a big step forward, especially in this regard.

Yokoi realized that the Game Boy needed a “ killer application ”, at least one game that would represent the console and convince customers to buy it. In June 1988, Minoru Arakawa , CEO of Nintendo of America , saw a demonstration of the game Tetris at a trade fair. Nintendo acquired the rights to the game and sold it as a bundle with the Game Boy. Success was not long in coming and by the end of 1989 over a million units had already been sold. By 1992, sales were around 25 million. With almost 120 million units sold ( including Game Boy Pocket and Game Boy Color ), the Game Boy is one of the best-selling game consoles of all.

1990s

Atari Lynx (first version from 1989)
Nintendo Game Boy (first model from 1989)

During the 1990s, various manufacturers tried unsuccessfully to challenge Nintendo's market leadership with the release of new handheld consoles. The Atari Lynx , for example, appeared in the same year as the Game Boy as the first handheld with a color screen. In addition to other special features, the device had a backlight and could be rotated for left-handers . Due to its high price, immense battery drain, production bottlenecks, a lack of engaging games, and Nintendo's aggressive marketing campaign, the Atari Lynx never sold particularly well, despite the more advanced technology and the release of a revised version in 1991.

In response to the Game Boy's continued success, several handhelds were developed to exploit its major weakness, poor graphics performance. The Sega Game Gear, for example, appeared towards the end of 1990 and, like the Lynx, had a backlit color display. The internal architecture of the Game Gear was similar to that of the Sega Master System , so that Sega was able to offer a large selection of games for the Game Gear, which had originally been developed for the Master System, within a short period of time. However, the Game Gear had the same weaknesses as the Lynx and, although it was more successful than the Lynx, the Game Gear also failed to challenge the Game Boy's dominance of the market.

In the course of the 1990s other handheld consoles appeared, such as B. NEC's PC Engine GT , the Watara Supervision or the Neo Geo Pocket . Despite the technical superiority of most of these consoles, none of them became serious competition for the Game Boy.

Nine years after its release, the Game Boy received its first color display model, the Game Boy Color, in 1998 . Its dimensions roughly corresponded to the smaller and lighter Game Boy Pocket , but also had a color screen that could display 32,000 different colors and an infrared interface that served as a multiplayer connection. The device was backwards compatible with the Game Boy and could therefore be used with the comparatively few exclusive Game Boy Color games as well as with all old Game Boy games, whereby the additional computing power of the Game Boy Color was very low.

Modern handhelds

On March 21, 2001, Nintendo released the Game Boy Advance, a successor to the Game Boy Color with additional shoulder buttons, a larger screen and significantly more computing power. Two years later, the Game Boy Advance SP was released in 2003, a compact, foldable version with a backlit display and built-in lithium-ion battery of the Game Boy Advance. The N-Gage by Nokia from 2003 Nintendo's Game Boy Advance could not pose any competition.

The Nintendo DS was released on November 21, 2004 in North America, a little later in Japan and in 2005 in Australia and Europe. The DS meant the departure from Nintendo's previous approach to further expand the existing Game Boy. The device has two LC screens, of which the lower one reacts to touch and enables the player to control menus and characters more intuitively. The DS also has voice control , is compatible with Game Boy Advance games and enables wireless gaming with up to 16 players via a WLAN connection - and also to Nintendo's Wii home console . This is the case with some games, such as B. Mario Kart DS , also possible over the Internet.

Sony's PlayStation Portable (PSP for short) was released in late 2004 in Japan, early 2005 in North America and on September 1, 2005 in Europe. The PSP also has wireless multiplayer support and is the first handheld console whose software titles are stored on optical data media, so-called UMDs , which allows larger amounts of data, and thus allows the playback of films, similar to a DVD . Games can be saved on the enclosed memory sticks . Superior to the Nintendo DS in terms of screen size, screen quality and graphics performance, the PSP also enables music and films to be played and pictures to be viewed. However, the PlayStation Portable was more expensive and had a shorter battery life than the DS, which meant that this console could not hold a candle to the DS either.

The GP2X from Gamepark Holdings was released on November 10, 2005 in Germany. For the GP2X, you can create games and applications (so-called homebrew ) yourself thanks to the software development kit approved by the manufacturer . The GP2X works with Linux and is a full-fledged portable media player that can also emulate game consoles such as the Super Nintendo Entertainment System through emulators . Thanks to a memory card slot for SD cards with up to 4 gigabytes, an open source operating system, support for USB devices and standard batteries, some developments on the part of the manufacturer and the community can still be expected today.

In 2010 the Pandora , which was developed by parts of the GP2X community , first appeared in small numbers . The handheld console based on an open source Linux focused heavily on homebrew development and emulation. In 2011 the successor to the handhelds from Nintendo and Sony appeared. With the Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo brought a handheld with a 3D screen onto the market, while Sony relied primarily on increased hardware performance and a touch interface on the back of the console with the PlayStation Vita .

Lately, traditional handhelds have increasingly faced competition from the technologically advanced smartphones and tablets . These meanwhile also display attractive 3D graphics and offer mobile games without the additional purchase costs of your own device as well as cheaper game prices. However, various handheld consoles from Chinese production continue to appear.

On March 3, 2017, Nintendo released its new game console, the Nintendo Switch . For the first time, it follows a hybrid hardware concept and functions both as a stationary console on a television and as a handheld console with removable control elements called " Joy-Con ".

Here is a small selection of well-known handheld consoles (for more consoles see "Chronology"):

Chronology (selection)

Entex Select-A-Game (1981) with module (2 players can play at the same time.)
Epoch Game Pocket Computer (1984)

A more detailed listing of game consoles, including trading consoles, can be found in the list of game consoles .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b retro.ign.com
  2. ↑ Technical data. Retrieved on February 16, 2019 (German).