The history of portable game consoles. Part 1 Bashny.Net

The first attempts
Microvision
What did you think when you hear the term "portable game console?" Most likely - on the PlayStation Portable. Of course, we get to it, but the beginning was still not even by Nintendo. One of the first in the 1970s, the company became Milton-Bradley with his portable consoles Microvision, in which (O gods!) Even had the opportunity to change the game. Resolution LCD display is only 16x16 pixels, which at the moment seems unreal - as you can play when you have only a 256 points on the display?
It is very unusual and it seems that the control buttons are located not on the console and on the cartridge. Number of buttons - two to twelve, it depended on the specific game. Console consisted only of the body, the chip for the screen and the buttons and the wheel.
The range of games was extremely small - for three years, sales of the console they came out only some 13 pieces.
Total has sold 8 million copies of Microvision.





Compare the size of a PSP.



One of the games released in the first year of sales - Star Trek: Phaser Strike.



Palmtex Home-Computer Software Super Micro Cartridge System
In 1984 exits Palmtex Home-Computer Software Super Micro Cartridge System. Rather, is it not even heard - because the handheld game system in terms of sales was a failure.



Nintendo
And now, after that the company became the leader of Nintendo, in 1989, releasing a Game Boy. But the path to this began with a series of games Game & Watch. The Soviet Union had its Game & Watch, wolves and rabbits, it was called Electronics. Read more about the history of the company advise you to read here: history, led by Nintendo Hiroshi Yamauchi.



In a series of games Game & Watch was introduced D-Pad, now seemingly indispensable element joystick almost any game console.



Talisman series of games - Mr. Game & Watch.



Native Soviet version. We were able to take up at the end of the movie?



Then, in 1989, Nintendo released the first Game Boy. Then the mass was released versions, including color in 1996. Display resolution - 160 × 144, a lot of games and low power consumption, as well as the release of other versions of the range of these consoles have made the most popular. Surely you, dear readers, or they themselves were still a happy owner of Game Boy.
In addition to games, there were other bonuses. Among them - the external battery, the ability to combine multiple game boy to play together, play games on the Game Boy on the TV and even sonar to find fish in the water.



And a printer ...



Just a dream child of the 90s.



In this video, the robot stops to destroy everything because begins chopped Man Tetris.





The first colored console
Atari Lynx
In 1989, Atari released the first color game console Lynx. Trying to capture the market of portable game consoles provalilas.Ne Despite the great advantages of the schedule of Game Boy, the then general monochrome console was left behind.
One of the nails in its coffin - it is too high power consumption. Six batteries enough for four hours of the game, while in the Game Boy had only four batteries, and could play much longer.
Even the nails - it is a slow game, as well as their release after a long delay. And the body, by the way, was a little less than completely filled with air - blame this study, according to which the console with a large housing can be sold at a higher price.
Their good:
- A color display
- The possibility of playing together up to 17 people
- The ability to rotate the screen 180 degrees, which was a bonus for left-handers.
Here's a fun movie - it starred Tobey Maguire, known Spiderman.



In 1991, Atari released an updated console, making it a little more attractive. And minor updating the chipset and display. In any case, by the mid-1990s, the stores this console was very difficult to find.



NEC Turboexpress
One of the first color handheld game console has Turboexpress by NEC in 1990. It was a portable version of which was published a couple of years before the TurboGrafx-16 consoles.
It was the first portable game console with 16-bit graphics. Resolution 2, 6 inch screen - 400x270 pixels. Very good.





A TV tuner card, sold separately, made from a real Turboexpress portable TV.



Sega Game Gear
In the early 1990s, Sega went on the warpath, and introduced the world to his own version of the portable console. It was a Sega Game Gear, the hardware is made on the basis of eight-game console Sega Master System. It simplified the transfer of games on home consoles portable. In addition, the had a number of advantages over the Game Boy:
- 3 color screen, 2 inches
- Support for expansion modules (even TV tuner)
- The lens, increasing the display to 5 inches
But these snacks accompanied by one minus the overlapping almost everything: too high egergozatraty. Set of batteries will last for four hours of play. So if you wanted to take it camping or to the clinic - you need to was a bag of batteries.



Console with a lens Super Wide Gear.



Oh, the advertising of the 1990s! The decay and despair of being clearly visible to Nintendo Game Boy, which is then returned to the seller, because you see the color console someone brought. Excellent flight of fancy.

--img21--

This video is fun, but he was still nonsense.

--img22--

Game Boy Color
The first color handheld console, Nintendo released only in 1998. It was the Game Boy Color, the successor of the classic version. For this console was released about seven hundred games, among which there is even a game in the genre of Survival Horror.
The console is equipped with an 8-bit processor Z80, running at 8 MHz, 32 kilobytes of memory and 17 kilobytes of video memory. Display diagonal of 60 mm instead of a 169h144 pixels. There were several versions of the body in various colors, including transparent. To work need two penlight batteries.
The best-selling games were Pokemon Gold and Silver.

--img23--

In the video - gameplay Resident Evil: Gaiden.

--img24--

--img25--

This infomercial in 1998. You, too, saw the guy behind the wheel of cars from the TV series The Clinic?

--img26--

In the next section we'll talk about the Nokia N-Gage, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable.

--img27--

Source: habrahabr.ru