The 1989 Nintendo Game Boy, which established and dominated the hand-held market for at least ten years. A handheld game console, or plainly handheld console, is a little, portable collected video game console with a built-in screen, game controls and speakers. [ 1 ] Handheld game consoles are smaller than home video recording game consoles and contain the console, screen, speakers, and controls in one unit, allowing people to carry them and play them at any clock or position. [ 2 ] [ 3 ]
Reading: Handheld game console – Flickroom
In 1976, Mattel introduced the foremost hand-held electronic bet on with the publish of Auto Race. [ 4 ] Later, respective companies—including Coleco and Milton Bradley —made their own single-game, lightweight table-top or handheld electronic game devices. [ 5 ] The first commercial successful hand-held console table was Merlin from 1978 which sold more than 5 million units. [ 6 ] The foremost hand-held game comfort with interchangeable cartridges is the Milton Bradley Microvision in 1979. [ 7 ] Nintendo is credited with popularizing the hand-held console concept with the release of the Game Boy in 1989 [ 3 ] and continues to dominate the hand-held console commercialize. [ 8 ] [ 9 ] The first internet -enabled hand-held comfort and the first with a touch screen was the Game.com released by Tiger Electronics in 1997. [ 10 ] The Nintendo DS, released in 2004, introduced touch screen controls and radio on-line gaming to a across-the-board audience, becoming the best-selling hand-held cabinet with over 150 million units sold worldwide. [ 11 ]
Contents
history
timeline
This table describes handheld games consoles over video crippled generations with over 1 million sales .
Origins
The origins of hand-held plot consoles are found in hand-held and tabletop electronic plot devices of the 1970s and early 1980s. These electronic devices are adequate to of playing only a single game, [ 3 ] they fit in the decoration of the bridge player or on a tabletop, and they may make use of a variety of video displays such as LED, VFD, or LCD. [ 12 ] In 1978, handheld electronic games were described by Popular Electronics magazine as “ nonvideo electronic games ” and “ non-TV games ” as clear-cut from devices that required practice of a television receiver screen. [ 13 ] Handheld electronic games, in turn, find their origins in the deduction [ citation needed ] of previous hand-held and tabletop electro-mechanical devices such as Waco ‘s Electronic Tic-Tac-Toe ( 1972 ) [ 12 ] Cragstan ‘s Periscope-Firing Range ( 1951 ), [ 14 ] and the emerging optoelectronic -display-driven calculator grocery store of the early 1970s. [ 15 ] [ 16 ] This deduction happened in 1976, when “ Mattel began work on a wrinkle of calculator-sized sports games that became the world ‘s first hand-held electronic games. The project began when Michael Katz, Mattel ‘s new product category marketing film director, told the engineers in the electronics group to design a game the size of a calculator, using LED ( light-emitting diode ) engineering. ” [ 17 ]
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- our big success was something that I conceptualized—the first handheld game. I asked the design group to see if they could come up with a game that was electronic that was the same size as a calculator.
- —Michael Katz, former marketing director, Mattel Toys.[17]
- our big success was something that I conceptualized—the first handheld game. I asked the design group to see if they could come up with a game that was electronic that was the same size as a calculator.
The result was the 1976 release of Auto Race. [ 18 ] Followed by Football late in 1977, [ 19 ] [ 20 ] the two games were so successful that according to Katz, “ these simple electronic hand-held games turned into a ‘ $ 400 million category. ‘ ” [ 12 ] Mattel would belated win the honor of being recognized by the diligence for initiation in hand-held game device displays. [ 21 ] Soon, other manufacturers including Coleco, Parker Brothers, Milton Bradley, Entex, and Bandai [ 5 ] began following up with their own tabletop and hand-held electronic games. In 1979 the LCD-based Microvision, designed by Smith Engineering and distributed by Milton-Bradley, [ 22 ] became the inaugural hand-held game comfort and the foremost to use exchangeable game cartridges. [ 7 ] The Microvision game Cosmic Hunter ( 1981 ) besides introduced the concept of a directional embroider on hand-held gambling devices, [ 23 ] and is operated by using the thumb to manipulate the on-screen character in any of four directions. [ 24 ] In 1979, Gunpei Yokoi, traveling on a bullet educate, saw a bore businessman playing with an LCD calculator by pressing the buttons. Yokoi then thought of an mind for a lookout that doubled as a miniature bet on machine for killing clock. [ 25 ] Starting in 1980, Nintendo began to release a series of electronic games designed by Yokoi called the Game & Watch games. [ 26 ] Taking advantage of the technology used in the credit-card-sized calculators that had appeared on the market, Yokoi designed the series of LCD-based games to include a digital clock time expose in the corner of the screen. [ 27 ] For later, more complicate Game & Watch games, Yokoi invented a thwart shaped directional pad or “ D-pad ” for control of on-screen characters. [ 28 ] Yokoi besides included his directing slog on the NES controllers, and the cross-shaped finger control soon became criterion on game comfort controllers and omnipresent across the television bet on diligence since. [ 29 ] [ 30 ] When Yokoi began designing Nintendo ‘s inaugural hand-held crippled console, he came up with a device that married the elements of his Game & Watch devices and the Famicom console, [ 31 ] including both items ‘ D-pad control. The leave was the Nintendo Game Boy. In 1982, the Bandai LCD Solarpower was the first solar-powered bet on device. Some of its games, such as the horror -themed game Terror House, features two LCD panels, one stacked on the other, for an early 3D effect. [ 32 ] In 1983, Takara Tomy ‘s Tomytronic 3D simulates 3D by having two LCD panels that were lit by external lighter through a window on circus tent of the device, making it the beginning dedicated base video 3D hardware. [ 33 ]
Beginnings
The late 1980s and early 1990s saw the beginnings of the contemporary hand-held plot comfort industry, after the demise of the Microvision. As backlit LCD game consoles with color graphics consume a lot of power, they were not battery-friendly like the non-backlit original Game Boy whose black and white artwork allowed longer battery life. By this charge, rechargeable battery technology had not yet matured and sol the more advance game consoles of the time such as the Sega Game Gear and Atari Lynx did not have closely equally much success as the Game Boy. even though third-party rechargeable batteries were available for the battery-hungry alternatives to the Game Boy, these batteries employed a nickel-cadmium work and had to be completely discharged before being recharged to ensure utmost efficiency ; lead-acid batteries could be used with car lap limiters ( cigarette light plug devices ) ; but the batteries had mediocre portability. The late NiMH batteries, which do not share this prerequisite for maximum efficiency, were not released until the former 1990s, years after the Game Gear, Atari Lynx, and original Game Boy had been discontinued. During the time when technologically lake superior handhelds had nonindulgent technical limitations, batteries had a very low mAh fink since batteries with heavy world power concentration were not so far available. advanced game systems such as the Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable have rechargeable Lithium-Ion batteries with proprietary shapes. early seventh-generation consoles such as the GP2X habit standard alkaline batteries. Because the mAh rate of alkaline batteries has increased since the 1990s, the power needed for handhelds like the GP2X may be supplied by relatively few batteries .
Game Boy
The original Game Boy Nintendo released the Game Boy on April 21, 1989 ( September 1990 for the UK ). The design team headed by Gunpei Yokoi had besides been creditworthy for the Game & Watch system, equally well as the Nintendo Entertainment System games Metroid and Kid Icarus. The Game Boy came under scrutiny by Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi, saying that the monochrome screen was excessively small, and the work world power was inadequate. The design team had felt that gloomy initial monetary value and battery economy were more authoritative concerns, and when compared to the Microvision, the Game Boy was a huge leap ahead. Yokoi recognized that the Game Boy needed a killer whale app —at least one crippled that would define the cabinet, and persuade customers to buy it. In June 1988, Minoru Arakawa, then-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 arrangement as a launch title. It was about an contiguous collision. By the end of the year more than a million units were sold in the US. [ 34 ] As of March 31, 2005, the Game Boy and Game Boy Color combined to sell over 118 million units worldwide. [ 35 ] [ 36 ]
Atari Lynx
Atari Lynx I and II In 1987, Epyx created the Handy Game ; a device that would become the Atari Lynx in 1989. It is the first color hand-held cabinet ever made, ampere well as the first with a backlit screen. It besides features networking support with up to 17 other players, and advanced hardware that allows the zoom and scaling of sprites. The Lynx can besides be turned top down to accommodate left-handed players. however, all these features came at a very high price point, which drove consumers to seek cheaper alternatives. The Lynx is besides very gawky, consume batteries identical promptly, and lacked the third-party support enjoyed by its competitors. Due to its high price, short battery life sentence, production shortages, a dearth of compelling games, and Nintendo ‘s aggressive selling political campaign, and despite a redesign in 1991, the Lynx became a commercial failure. Despite this, companies like Telegames helped to keep the arrangement alive long past its commercial relevance, and when fresh owner Hasbro released the rights to develop for the populace world, independent developers like Songbird have managed to release new commercial games for the organization every class until 2004 ‘s Winter Games .
TurboExpress
TurboExpress handheld The TurboExpress is a portable translation of the TurboGrafx, released in 1990 for $ 249.99. Its japanese equivalent is the personal computer Engine GT. It is the most advanced hand-held of its time and can play all the TurboGrafx-16 ‘s games ( which are on a small, credit-card size media called HuCards ). It has a 66 millimeter ( 2.6 in. ) screen, the same as the master Game Boy, but in a much higher resolving power, and can display 64 sprites at once, 16 per scanline, in 512 colors. Although the hardware can merely handle 481 coincident colors. It has 8 kilobytes of RAM. The Turbo runs the HuC6820 CPU at 1.79 or 7.16 MHz. The optional “ TurboVision ” television radio receiver includes RCA audio/video input, allowing users to use TurboExpress as a television monitor. The “ TurboLink ” allowed two-player play. Falcon, a flight simulator, included a “ neck and neck ” dogfight modality that can only be accessed via TurboLink. however, very few TG-16 games offered cooperative play modes particularly designed with the TurboExpress in heed .
Bitcorp Gamate
Gamate and bet on cards The Bitcorp Gamate is the one of the first hand-held game systems created in answer to the Nintendo Game Boy. It was released in Asia in 1990 and distributed global by 1991. Like the Sega Game Gear, it was horizontal in orientation and like the Game Boy, required 4 AA batteries. Unlike many by and by Game Boy clones, its inner components were professionally assembled ( no “ glop-top ” chips ). unfortunately the system ‘s fateful flaw is its screen. even by the standards of the day, its screen is quite difficult to use, suffering from alike ghosting problems that were park complaints with the first generation Game Boys. Likely because of this fact sales were quite poor, and Bitcorp closed by 1992. however, new games continued to be published for the asian market, possibly arsenic late as 1994. The full number of games released for the system remains unknown. Gamate games were designed for stereo good, but the console is only equipped with a mono speaker .
Sega Game Gear
Sega Game Gear The Game Gear is the third discolor handheld cabinet, after the Lynx and the TurboExpress ; produced by Sega. Released in Japan in 1990 and in North America and Europe in 1991, it is based on the Master System, which gave Sega the ability to quickly create Game Gear games from its big library of games for the Master System. While never reaching the tied of success enjoyed by Nintendo, the Game Gear proved to be a fairly durable rival, lasting longer than any other Game Boy rivals. While the Game Gear is most frequently seen in black or united states navy blasphemous, it was besides released in a kind of extra colors : bolshevik, ignite amobarbital sodium, yellow, clear, and purple. All of these variations were released in small quantities and frequently entirely in the asian market. Following Sega ‘s achiever with the Game Gear, they began development on a successor during the early 1990s, which was intended to feature a touch screen interface, many years before the Nintendo DS. however, such a engineering was very expensive at the time, and the hand-held itself was estimated to have cost around $ 289 were it to be released. Sega finally chose to shelve the estimate and alternatively release the Genesis Nomad, a hand-held adaptation of the Genesis, as the successor. [ 37 ]
Watara Supervision
The Watara Supervision with tilting screen. The Watara Supervision was released in 1992 in an attack to compete with the Nintendo Game Boy. The beginning model was designed identical much like a Game Boy, but it is grey in color and has a slightly larger screen. The moment model was made with a hinge across the concentrate and can be flex slenderly to provide greater comfort for the drug user. While the system did enjoy a humble degree of success, it never impacted the sales of Nintendo or Sega. The supervision was redesigned a final clock as “ The Magnum ”. Released in limited quantities it was roughly equivalent to the Game Boy Pocket. It was available in three colors : chicken, green and grey. Watara designed many of the games themselves, but did receive some third base party confirm, most notably from Sachen. A television arranger was available in both PAL and NTSC formats that could transfer the Supervision ‘s black-and-white palette to 4 colors, similar in some regards to the Super Game Boy from Nintendo .
Hartung Game Master
The Hartung Game Master is an obscure hand-held released at an unknown sharpen in the early 1990s. Its graphics fidelity was much lower than most of its contemporaries, displaying barely 64×64 pixels. It was available in black, white, and purple, and was frequently rebranded by its distributors, such as Delplay, Videojet and Systema. The demand numeral of games released is not known, but is likely around 20. The system most frequently turns up in Europe and Australia .
former 1990s
By this time, the miss of significant development in Nintendo ‘s product occupation began allowing more advance systems such as the Neo Geo Pocket Color and the WonderSwan Color to be developed .
Sega Nomad
Sega Nomad The Nomad was released in October 1995 in North America merely. [ 38 ] [ 39 ] The release was five years into the market couple of the Genesis, with an existing library of more than 500 Genesis games. According to former Sega of America research and development head Joe Miller, the Nomad was not intended to be the Game Gear ‘s successor ; he believed that there was short planning from Sega of Japan for the raw hand-held. [ 40 ] Sega was supporting five different consoles : Saturn, Genesis, Game Gear, Pico, and the Master System, a well as the Sega CD and 32X add-ons. In Japan, the Mega Drive had never been successful and the Saturn was more successful than Sony ‘s PlayStation, thus Sega Enterprises CEO Hayao Nakayama decided to focus on the Saturn. [ 41 ] By 1999, the Nomad was being sold at less than a third of its original price. [ 42 ]
Game Boy Pocket
The 1st release Game Boy Pocket The Game Boy Pocket is a redesign version of the original Game Boy having the lapp features. It was released in 1996. notably, this magnetic declination is smaller and lighter. It comes in seven unlike colors ; red, yellow, fleeceable, black, clear, silver, blue, and tap. It has space for two AAA batteries, which provide approximately 10 hours of plot playing period. [ 43 ] The screen was changed to a genuine black-and-white display, preferably than the “ pea soup ” monochromatic display of the original Game Boy. [ 44 ] Although, like its predecessor, the Game Boy Pocket has no backlight to allow play in a darken area, it did notably improve visibility and pixel response-time ( largely eliminating ghosting ). [ 45 ] The beginning model of the Game Boy Pocket did not have an LED to show battery levels, but the feature of speech was added due to populace necessitate. The Game Boy Pocket was not a fresh software platform and played the like software as the original Game Boy exemplary. [ 46 ]
The Game.com ( pronounced in television receiver commercials as “ game com ”, not “ game dot com ”, and not capitalized in marketing material ) is a hand-held game console released by Tiger Electronics in September 1997. It featured many newly ideas for hand-held consoles and was aimed at an older target audience, sporting PDA-style features and functions such as a tint screen and stylus. however, Tiger hoped it would besides challenge Nintendo ‘s Game Boy and gain a take after among younger gamers excessively. Unlike early hand-held bet on consoles, the first game.com consoles included two slots for game cartridges, which would not happen again until the Tapwave Zodiac, the DS and DS Lite, and could be connected to a 14.4 kbit/s modem. Later models had only a single magazine slot .
Game Boy Color
The Game Boy Color was the foremost hand-held by Nintendo featuring Colors The Game Boy Color ( besides referred to as GBC or CGB ) is Nintendo ‘s successor to the Game Boy and was released on October 21, 1998, in Japan and in November of the like year in the United States. It features a color screen, and is slenderly bigger than the Game Boy Pocket. The central processing unit is twice adenine debauched as a Game Boy ‘s and has twice vitamin a much memory. It besides had an infrared communications port for radio receiver linking which did not appear in late versions of the Game Boy, such as the Game Boy Advance. The Game Boy Color was a reception to atmospheric pressure from game developers for a newly system, as they felt that the Game Boy, even in its latest incarnation, the Game Boy Pocket, was insufficient. The resulting intersection was backward compatible, a first for a hand-held console table system, and leveraged the boastfully library of games and great install base of the predecessor system. This became a major feature of the Game Boy line, since it allowed each new launch to begin with a significantly larger library than any of its competitors. As of March 31, 2005, the Game Boy and Game Boy Color combined to sell 118.69 million units global. [ 35 ] [ 36 ] The cabinet is capable of displaying up to 56 different colors simultaneously on screen from its palette of 32,768, and can add basic four-color shade to games that had been developed for the original Game Boy. It can besides give the sprites and backgrounds separate colors, for a full of more than four colors .
Neo Geo Pocket Color
Neo Geo Pocket Color The Neo Geo Pocket Color ( or NGPC ) was released in 1999 in Japan, and by and by that year in the United States and Europe. It is a 16-bit color hand-held bet on console designed by SNK, the manufacturer of the Neo Geo home plate console table and arcade car. [ 47 ] It came after SNK ‘s original Neo Geo Pocket monochromatic hand-held, which debuted in 1998 in Japan. In 2000 following SNK ‘s buy by japanese Pachinko manufacturer Aruze, the Neo Geo Pocket Color was dropped from both the US and european markets, purportedly due to commercial failure. [ 48 ] The arrangement seemed well on its way to being a success in the U.S. It was more successful than any Game Boy rival since Sega ‘s Game Gear, but was hurt by several factors, such as SNK ‘s ill-famed miss of communication with third-party developers, and anticipation of the Game Boy Advance. [ 49 ] The decision to ship U.S. games in cardboard boxes in a cost-cutting move preferably than hard plastic cases that japanese and european releases were shipped in may have besides hurt US sales. [ 50 ]
Wonderswan Color
The Wonderswan Color The WonderSwan Color is a hand-held game console designed by Bandai. It was released on December 9, 2000, in Japan, [ 51 ] Although the WonderSwan Color was slenderly larger and heavier ( 7 millimeter and 2 gram ) compared to the original WonderSwan, the color interpretation featured 512 kilobyte [ 52 ] of RAM and a larger tinge LCD riddle. In addition, the WonderSwan Color is compatible with the original WonderSwan library of games. prior to WonderSwan ‘s secrete, Nintendo had virtually a monopoly in the japanese video game hand-held market. After the release of the WonderSwan Color, Bandai took approximately 8 % of the market share in Japan partially due to its abject price of 6800 yen ( approximately US $ 65 ). [ 52 ] Another rationality for the WonderSwan ‘s success in Japan was the fact that Bandai managed to get a cope with Square to port over the original Famicom Final Fantasy games with better graphics and controls. [ 52 ] however, with the popularity of the Game Boy Advance and the reconciliation between Square and Nintendo, the WonderSwan Color and its successor, the SwanCrystal promptly lost its competitive advantage .
early 2000s
The 2000s saw a major jump in invention, peculiarly in the moment half with the handout of the DS and PSP .
Game Boy Advance
The Game Boy Advance was a major upgrade to the Game Boy wrinkle In 2001, Nintendo released the Game Boy Advance ( GBA or AGB ), which added two shoulder buttons, a larger sieve, and more computing power than the Game Boy Color. The design was revised two years late when the Game Boy Advance SP ( GBA SP ), a more compress version, was released. The SP features a “ clamshell “ design ( folding open and closed, like a laptop computer ), a well as a frontlit color display and rechargeable battery. Despite the smaller form gene, the screen remained the lapp size as that of the original. In 2005, the Game Boy Micro was released. This revision sacrifices blind size and backwards compatibility with previous Game Boys for a dramatic reduction in full size and a bright backlit riddle. A modern SP model with a backlit screen was released in some regions around the lapp clock. Along with the Nintendo GameCube, the GBA besides introduced the concept of “ connectivity ” : using a hand-held system as a cabinet control. A handful of games use this feature, most notably Animal Crossing, Pac-Man Vs., Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Metroid Prime, and Sonic Adventure 2: Battle. As of December 31, 2007, the GBA, GBA SP, and the Game Boy Micro combined have sold 80.72 million units worldwide. [ 53 ]
Game Park 32
GP32 The original GP32 was released in 2001 by the south korean company Game Park a few months after the launch of the Game Boy Advance. It featured a 32-bit CPU, 133 MHz processor, MP3 and Divx actor, and e-book lector. SmartMedia cards were used for storage, and could hold up to 128mb of anything downloaded through a USB cable from a personal computer. The GP32 was redesigned in 2003. A front-lit screen was added and the new version was called GP32 FLU ( Front Light Unit ). In summer 2004, another redesign, the GP32 BLU, was made, and added a backlit blind. This version of the hand-held was planned for liberation outside South Korea ; in Europe, and it was released for example in Spain ( VirginPlay was the distributor ). While not a commercial achiever on a degree with mainstream handhelds ( lone 30,000 units were sold ), it ended up being used chiefly as a chopine for user-made applications and emulators of early systems, being popular with developers and more technically ace users. [ 54 ]
N-Gage QD Nokia released the N-Gage in 2003. It was designed as a combination MP3 musician, cellular telephone, PDA, radio, and gaming device. The system received much criticism alleging defects in its physical plan and layout, including its vertically oriented screen and necessity of removing the battery to change game cartridges. The most well known of these was “ sidetalking “, or the act of placing the telephone speaker and recipient on an edge of the device alternatively of one of the flat sides, causing the exploiter to appear as if they are speaking into a taco. The N-Gage QD was belated released to address the design flaw of the original. however, certain features available in the original N-Gage, including MP3 playback, FM radio reception, and USB connectivity were removed .
second gear generation of N-Gage launched on April 3, 2008 [ 55 ] in the kind of a service for selected Nokia Smartphones .
Cybiko
Cybiko Classic with extended antenna on the main background.
The Cybiko is a russian hand-held computer introduced in May 2000 by David Yang ‘s company and designed for adolescent audiences, featuring its own two-way radio textbook message organization. It has over 430 “ official ” freeware games and applications. Because of the text messaging system, it features a QWERTY keyboard that was used with a stylus. An MP3 player accessory was made for the unit of measurement a well as a SmartMedia calling card lector. The company stopped manufacturing the units after two merchandise versions and only a few years on the market. Cybikos can communicate with each other up to a maximum range of 300 metres ( 0.19 miles ). several Cybikos can chat with each early in a radio chat room. Cybiko Classic : There were two models of the Classic Cybiko. Visually, the lone difference was that the original translation had a world power switch on the side, whilst the update version used the “ escape ” key for exponent management. internally, the differences between the two models were in the inner memory, and the location of the firmware. Cybiko Xtreme : The Cybiko Xtreme was the second-generation Cybiko hand-held. It featured respective improvements over the original Cybiko, such as a fast processor, more RAM, more ROM, a new operating system, a modern keyboard layout and character invention, greater radio receiver roll, a microphone, improved audio output, and smaller size .
Tapwave Zodiac
In 2003, Tapwave released the Zodiac. It was designed to be a PDA -handheld plot console hybrid. It supported photos, movies, music, Internet, and documents. The Zodiac used a limited version Palm OS 5, 5.2T, that supported the special bet on buttons and graphics chip. Two versions were available, Zodiac 1 and 2, differing in memory and looks. The zodiac line ended in July 2005 when Tapwave declared bankruptcy .
Mid 2000s
Nintendo DS
The Nintendo DS has two screens ( the lower of which is a touch screen ), a microphone and Wi-Fi connectivity. The Nintendo DS was released in November 2004. Among its fresh features were the incorporation of two screens, a touch screen, radio receiver connectivity, and a microphone port. As with the Game Boy Advance SP, the DS features a clamshell design, with the two screens aligned vertically on either side of the hinge. The DS ‘s lower blind is tint sensitive, designed to be pressed with a stylus, a exploiter ‘s finger or a extra “ ovolo pad ” ( a small plastic pad attached to the comfort ‘s wrist strap, which can be affixed to the flick to simulate an analogue lodge ). More traditional controls include four expression buttons, two shoulder buttons, a D-pad, and “ Start ” and “ Select ” buttons. The console besides features on-line capabilities via the Nintendo Wi-Fi Flickroomn and ad-hoc wireless network for multiplayer games with up to sixteen players. It is backwards-compatible with all Game Boy Advance games, but like the Game Boy Micro, it is not compatible with games designed for the Game Boy or Game Boy Color. In January 2006, Nintendo revealed an update translation of the DS : the Nintendo DS Lite ( released on March 2, 2006, in Japan ) with an updated, smaller shape component ( 42 % smaller and 21 % lighter than the master Nintendo DS ), a cleaner design, longer battery life, and bright, higher-quality displays, with adjustable brightness. It is besides able to connect wirelessly with Nintendo ‘s Wii console. On October 2, 2008, Nintendo announced the Nintendo DSi, with larger, 3.25-inch screens and two integrated cameras. It has an SD circuit board storage slot in place of the Game Boy Advance slot, plus internal flaunt memory for storing download games. It was released on November 1, 2008, in Japan, April 2, 2009 in Australia, April 3, 2009 in Europe, and April 5, 2009 in North America. On October 29, 2009, Nintendo announced a larger version of the DSi, called the DSi XL, which was released on November 21, 2009 in Japan, March 5, 2010 in Europe, March 28, 2010 in North America, and April 15, 2010 in Australia. As of December 31, 2009, the Nintendo DS, Nintendo DS Lite, and Nintendo DSi combined have sold 125.13 million units cosmopolitan. [ 56 ]
Game King
The GameKing 2. The GameKing is a hand-held bet on cabinet released by the taiwanese company TimeTop in 2004. The beginning model while original in design owes a large debt to Nintendo ‘s Game Boy Advance. The second model, the GameKing 2, is believed to be inspired by Sony ‘s PSP. [ 57 ] This mannequin besides was upgraded with a backlit riddle, with a distracting background foil ( which can be removed by opening up the cabinet ). A color model, the GameKing 3 obviously exists, but was only made for a brief time and was difficult to purchase outdoor of Asia. Whether intentionally or not, the GameKing has the most archaic graphics of any hand-held released since the Game Boy of 1989. [ citation needed ] As many of the games have an “ honest-to-god school ” ease, the device has developed a minor cult following. The Gameking ‘s speaker is quite brassy and the cartridges ‘ sophisticate loop soundtracks ( sampled from early sources ) are apparently at odds with its primitive graphics. TimeTop made at least one extra device sometimes labeled as “ GameKing ”, but while it seems to possess more progress graphics, is basically an copycat that plays a handful of multi-carts ( like the GB Station Light II ). Outside of Asia ( specially China ) however the Gameking remains relatively unheard of due to the enduring popularity of japanese handhelds such as those manufactured by Nintendo and Sony .
PlayStation portable
PlayStation portable The PlayStation Portable ( officially abbreviated PSP ) [ 58 ] is a hand-held game comfort manufactured and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. [ 59 ] Development of the console table was inaugural announced during E3 2003, [ 60 ] and it was unveiled on May 11, 2004, at a Sony compress league before E3 2004. [ 61 ] The system was released in Japan on December 12, 2004, [ 62 ] in North America on March 24, 2005, [ 63 ] and in the PAL region on September 1, 2005. [ 64 ] The PlayStation Portable is the first hand-held video game console table to use an ocular disk format, Universal Media Disc ( UMD ), for distribution of its games. UMD Video phonograph record with movies and television receiver shows were besides released. The PSP utilized the Sony/ SanDisk Memory Stick Pro Duo format as its chief repositing culture medium. [ 65 ] [ 66 ] other distinguishing features of the comfort include its large see screen, [ 67 ] multi-media capabilities, [ 68 ] and connectivity with the PlayStation 3, other PSPs, and the Internet. [ 69 ] [ 70 ]
Gizmondo
The Gizmondo Tiger ‘s Gizmondo came out in the UK during March 2005 and it was released in the U.S. during October 2005. It is designed to play music, movies, and games, have a camera for taking and storing photos, and have GPS functions. It besides has Internet capabilities. It has a call for sending text and multimedia messages. Email was promised at plunge, but was never released before Gizmondo, and ultimately Tiger Telematics ‘, precipitation in early 2006. Users obtained a second service pack, unreleased, hoping to find such functionality. however, Service Pack B did not activate the electronic mail functionality .
GP2X Series
The Game Park Holdings GP2X F-100 The GP2X is an open-source, Linux-based hand-held video game console table and media player created by GamePark Holdings of South Korea, designed for home brew developers ampere well as commercial developers. It is normally used to run emulators for game consoles such as Neo-Geo, Genesis, Master System, Game Gear, Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, Nintendo Entertainment System, TurboGrafx-16, MAME and others. A new version called the “ F200 ” was released October 30, 2007, and features a touch screen, among other changes. Followed by GP2X Wiz ( 2009 ) and GP2X Caanoo ( 2010 ) .
late 2000s
Dingoo
The Dingoo A320 The Dingoo A-320 is a micro-sized bet on hand-held that resembles the Game Boy Micro and is open to game development. It besides supports music, radio receiver, emulators ( 8 piece and 16 act ) and video playing capabilities with its own interface much like the PSP. There is besides an onboard radio and recording course of study. It is presently available in two colors — white and total darkness. other alike products from the same manufacturer are the Dingoo A-330 ( besides known as Geimi ), Dingoo A-360, Dingoo A-380 ( available in pink, white and black ) and the recently released Dingoo A-320E .
PSP Go
PSP Go The PSP Go is a version of the PlayStation Portable handheld plot cabinet manufactured by Sony. It was released on October 1, 2009, in American and european territories, and on November 1 in Japan. It was revealed prior to E3 2009 through Sony ‘s Qore VOD serve. Although its plan is significantly unlike from other PSPs, it is not intended to replace the PSP 3000, which Sony continued to manufacture, sell, and accompaniment. On April 20, 2011, the manufacturer announced that the PSP Go would be discontinued so that they may concentrate on the PlayStation Vita. Sony late said that lone the European and japanese versions were being cut, and that the console table would still be available in the US. Unlike previous PSP models, the PSP Go does not feature a UMD drive, but alternatively has 16 GB of inner news bulletin memory to store games, video, pictures, and other media. This can be extended by up to 32 GB with the use of a Memory Stick Micro ( M2 ) flash card. besides unlike previous PSP models, the PSP Go ‘s rechargeable battery is not removable or replaceable by the drug user. The unit is 43 % lighter and 56 % smaller than the original PSP-1000, and 16 % lighter and 35 % smaller than the PSP-3000. It has a 3.8 ” 480 × 272 LCD ( compared to the larger 4.3 ” 480 × 272 pixel LCD on previous PSP models ). The shield slides up to reveal the chief controls. The overall shape and slide mechanism are exchangeable to that of Sony ‘s mylo COM-2 internet device .
Pandora
Pandora The Pandora is a hand-held game console/UMPC/PDA hybrid designed to take advantage of existing candid source software and to be a target for home-brew development. It runs a full distribution of Linux, and in functionality is like a minor personal computer with bet on controls. It is developed by OpenPandora, which is made up of erstwhile distributors and community members of the GP32 and GP2X handhelds. OpenPandora began taking pre-orders for one batch of 4000 devices in November 2008 and after fabrication delays, began shipping to customers on May 21, 2010. [ 71 ] [ 72 ]
FC-16 Go
The FC-16 Go is a portable Super NES hardware clone manufactured by Yobo Gameware in 2009. It features a 3.5-inch display, two radio controllers, and CRT cables that allow cartridges to be played on a television sieve. Unlike other Super NES clone consoles, it has region yellow journalism that only allow NTSC North american cartridges to be played. later revisions feature stereo sound end product, larger shoulder buttons, and a slenderly re-arranged clitoris, ability, and A/V output signal layout .
2010s
Nintendo 3DS
The original bluish green Nintendo 3DS The Nintendo 3DS is the successor to Nintendo ‘s DS hand-held. The autostereoscopic device is able to project stereoscopic three-dimensional effects without prerequisite of active shutter or passive polarize glasses, which are required by most current 3D televisions to display the 3D impression. The 3DS was released in Japan on February 26, 2011 ; in Europe on March 25, 2011 ; in North America on March 27, 2011, and in Australia on March 31, 2011. The system features backward compatibility with Nintendo DS serial software, including Nintendo DSi software except those that require the Game Boy Advance slot. It besides features an on-line service called the Nintendo eShop, launched on June 6, 2011, in North America and June 7, 2011, in Europe and Japan, which allows owners to download games, show, applications and information on approaching film and bet on releases. On November 24, 2011, a limited edition Legend of Zelda 25th Anniversary 3DS was released that contained a alone Cosmo Black unit decorated with gold Legend of Zelda associate imagination, along with a copy of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D. There are besides early models including the Nintendo 2DS and the New Nintendo 3DS, the latter with a larger ( XL/LL ) random variable, like the original Nintendo 3DS, a well as the New Nintendo 2DS XL .
Xperia Play
Xperia PLAY The Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY is a hand-held crippled comfort smartphone produced by Sony Ericsson under the Xperia smartphone brand. The device runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread, and is the first to be part of the PlayStation Certified course of study which means that it can play PlayStation Suite games. The device is a horizontally sliding call with its original form resembling the Xperia X10 while the slider below resembles the skidder of the PSP Go. The skidder features a D-pad on the left side, a hardening of standard PlayStation buttons ( 
, 
, 
and 
) on the right, a long orthogonal touchpad in the middle, startle and blue-ribbon buttons on the bottom right corner, a menu button on the bottom left corner, and two shoulder buttons ( L and R ) on the back of the device. It is powered by a 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, a Qualcomm Adreno 205 GPU, and features a expose measuring 4.0 inches ( 100 millimeter ) ( 854 × 480 ), an 8-megapixel television camera, 512 MB RAM, 8 GB inner storage, and a micro-USB connection. It supports microSD cards, versus the Memory Stick variants used in PSP consoles. The device was revealed officially for the first prison term in a Super Bowl ad on Sunday, February 6, 2011. On February 13, 2011, at Mobile World Congress ( MWC ) 2011, it was announced that the device would be shipping globally in March 2011, with a launching lineup of around 50 software titles .
PlayStation Vita
PlayStation Vita The PlayStation Vita is the successor to Sony ‘s PlayStation Portable ( PSP ) Handheld series. It was released in Japan on December 17, 2011 and in Europe, Australia, North, and South America on February 22, 2012. The hand-held includes two analogue sticks, a 5-inch ( 130 millimeter ) OLED/LCD multi-touch capacitive touch screen, and supports Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and optional 3G. internally, the PS Vita features a 4 core ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore processor and a 4 core SGX543MP4+ graphics processing whole, a well as LiveArea software as its independent drug user interface, which succeeds the XrossMediaBar. The device is in full backwards-compatible with PlayStation Portable games digitally released on the PlayStation Network via the PlayStation Store. however, PSone Classics and PS2 titles were not compatible at the time of the primary public dismissal in Japan. The Vita ‘s dual analogue sticks will be supported on selected PSP games. The graphics for PSP releases will be up-scaled, with a smoothing filter to reduce pixelation. On September 20, 2018, Sony announced at Tokyo Game Show 2018 that the Vita would be discontinued in 2019, ending its hardware output. [ 73 ] production of Vita hardware formally ended on March 1, 2019. [ 74 ]
Razer Switchblade
The Razer Switchblade was a prototype minor like a Nintendo DSi XL designed to run Windows 7, featured a multi-touch LCD screen and an adaptive keyboard that changed keys depending on the game the user would play. It besides was to feature a full mouse. It was beginning unveiled on January 5, 2011, on the Consumer Electronics Show ( CES ). The Switchblade won The Best of cerium 2011 People ‘s Voice prize. It has since been in development and the release go steady is inactive stranger. The device has likely been suspended indefinitely .
Nvidia Shield
Nvidia Shield Portable Project Shield is a hand-held system developed by Nvidia announced at CES 2013. It runs on Android 4.2 and uses Nvidia Tegra 4 SoC. The hardware includes a 5-inches multitouch filmdom with support for HD graphics ( 720p ). The cabinet allows for the stream of games running on a compatible desktop personal computer, or laptop. Nvidia Shield Portable has received desegregate reception from critics. by and large, reviewers praised the performance of the device, but criticized the cost and miss of worthwhile games. Flickroom ‘s review noted the system ‘s “ extremely impressive personal computer bet on ”, but besides that due to its high price, the device was “ a hard sell as a portable game console ”, specially when compared to exchangeable handhelds on the market. [ 75 ] Flickroom ‘s Eric Franklin states in his review of the device that “ The Nvidia Shield is an highly well made device, with performance that pretty much obliterates any mobile merchandise before it ; but like most raw console table launches, there is presently a miss of available games worth your time. ” [ 76 ] Eurogamer ‘s comprehensive examination review of the device provides a detail history of the device and its features ; concluded by saying : “ In the here and now, the first-gen Shield Portable is a gloriously niche, luxury product – the most brawny Android system on the market by a clear stretch and possessing a singular link to PC gaming that ‘s seriously impressive in beta phase, and can only get better. ” [ 77 ]
Nintendo Switch
The Nintendo Switch in portable mode The Nintendo Switch is a hybrid console that can either be used in a hand-held form, or inserted into a dock post attached to a television to play on a bigger shield. The Switch features two detachable wireless controllers, called Joy-Con, which can be used individually or attached to a grapple to provide a traditional gamepad shape. A handheld-only revision named Nintendo Switch Lite was released on September 20, 2019. The Switch Lite had sold about 1.95 million units cosmopolitan by September 30, 2019, entirely 10 days after its establish. [ 78 ]
Evercade
Evercade is a hand-held game comfort developed and manufactured by UK company Blaze Entertainment. It focuses on retrogaming with ROM cartridges that each contain a number of emulate games. Development began in 2018, and the console was released in May 2020, after a few delays. Upon its launch, the console offered 10 game cartridges with a combine sum of 122 games. Arc System Works, Atari, Data East, Interplay Entertainment, Bandai Namco Entertainment and Piko Interactive have released emulate versions of their games for the Evercade. Pre-existing homebrew games have besides been re-released for the console by Mega Cat Studios. The Evercade is adequate to of playing games in the first place released for the Atari 2600, the Atari 7800, the Atari Lynx, the NES, the SNES, and the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive .
2020s
Analogue Pocket
The Analogue Pocket is a FPGA -based hand-held game console designed and manufactured by Analogue, Inc., [ 79 ] It is designed to play games designed for handhelds of the fourth, fifth and sixth coevals of television game consoles. The console table features a design evocative of the Game Boy, with extra buttons for the support platforms. It features a 3.5 ” 1600×1440 LTPS LCD display, an SD card port, and a connection cable port compatible with Game Boy link cables. The Analogue Pocket uses an Altera Cyclone V central processing unit, and is compatible with the original Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance cartridges out of the box. With magazine adapters ( sold individually ) the Analogue Pocket can play Game Gear, Neo Geo Pocket, Neo Geo Pocket Color and Atari Lynx game cartridges. The Analogue Pocket includes an extra FPGA, allowing 3rd party FPGA exploitation. The Analogue Pocket was released in December 2021 .
steamer deck
steam deck The Steam Deck is a hand-held computer device, developed by Valve, which runs SteamOS 3.0, a tailor distro of Arch Linux and includes subscribe for Proton, a compatibility layer that allows most Microsoft Windows games to be played on the Linux-based operate on system. In terms of hardware, the Deck includes a customs accelerated march unit ( APU ) built by AMD based on their Zen 2 and RDNA 2 architectures, with the CPU running a four-core/eight-thread whole and the GPU running on eight compute units with a total calculate performance of 1.6 TFLOPS. [ 80 ] Both the CPU and GPU use varying timing frequencies, with the CPU running between 2.4 and 3.5 GHz and the GPU between 1.0 and 1.6 GHz based on current processor needs. [ 81 ] [ 82 ] Valve stated that the CPU has comparable performance to Ryzen 3000 desktop computer processors and the GPU performance to the Radeon RX 6000 series. [ 83 ] The Deck includes 16 GB of LPDDR5 RAM in a quad channel configuration. [ 82 ] [ 84 ] Valve revealed the Steam Deck on July 15, 2021, with pre-orders being made option the future day. The Deck was expected to ship in December 2021 to the US, Canada, the EU and the UK but was delayed to February 2022, with other regions to follow in 2022. [ 85 ] Pre-orders were limited to those with Steam accounts opened before June 2021 to prevent resellers from controlling access to the device. [ 85 ] Pre-orders reservations on July 16, 2021 through the Steam shopfront concisely crashed the servers due to the demand. While initial shipments are still planned by February 2022, Valve has reported to raw purchasers that wider handiness will be by and by, with the 64 GB model and 256 GB NVMe model due in Q2 2022, and the 512 GB NVMe model by Q3 2022. [ 86 ] Steam Deck was released on February 25, 2022. [ 87 ] [ 88 ]
