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Handhelds

A handheld game console is a lightweight, portable electronic machine for playing video games. Unlike video game consoles, the controls, screen and speakers are all part of a single unit. more...

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Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, several companies--including Coleco and Milton-Bradley--made lightweight table-top or handheld electronic game devices. Today, these machines are not 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 and a minuscule 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 1983, Palmtex released the Home-Computer Software Super Micro Cartridge System. However, only three games were made for it and it never sold many units.

Early 1990s

The early 1990s saw the relaunch 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 were not 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.

Even though third-party rechargeable batteries were available for the battery-hungry alternatives to the Game Boy, they had to be discharged before being recharged since they were in Nickel cadmium format. NiMH batteries, which do not require discharging before recharging, would not be released until the late 90's, well after the Game Gear, Atari Lynx, and the original Game Boy had been discontinued. During the time when technologically superior handhelds had strict technical limitations, batteries had a very low mAh rating since batteries with heavy power density were not yet available.

Game systems of today have rechargeable Li-Ion batteries with proprietary shapes, such as the Nintendo DS and Sony PlayStation Portable. Unlike the aforementioned current-generation consoles, the GP2X uses standard alkaline batteries. Since the mAh rating of batteries has gone up to a high quantity, some lower end handhelds of today like the GP2X only need a couple of AA batteries for power.