Electronic Handheld Games
Electronic Handheld games come in
all sorts of sizes and shapes. This is one of their defining features,
in order to make up for the simple games they compensated by having them
housed in extravagant cases. Some handheld games are more suited to sitting
on a tabletop or the floor.
UK maker of loads of
early electronic games such as Astrowars. Their mini arcade classics such as:
- Invaders from space
- Star Force
- Firefox
- Scramble
With some of the coolest
case designs ever made Bambino games have to be a collectors favourite.
They made a total of 11 games from around 1979-1980. Also notable
for being one of the first manufacturers to use VFD displays where
sprites were made from shaped coloured bulbs (Vacuum Fluorescent
Display).
Nintendo Game and Watch are now quite collectable. Some of the first outings for characters
such as
Mario and
Donkey Kong were on Game and Watch.
Blip is one of the first
Electronic games ever made. That said, it is more mechanical than electronic.
Plays like pong with a weird red moving light. There are several games
like this in the series - the stunt bike one is good.
Entex produced a range of official arcade games based on arcade classics such as Pacman 2,
Galaxian and Defender. Good designs and quite playable games.
Invader 1000. Space Invaders handheld was very popular at the time.
Another very early electronic game this time from Tandy. Ogre Eater is a Pacman clone.
Gameboy. The best selling computer game system in the world.
A huge library of games, all newer versions backward compatible
and no regional protection. Its dominance of the handheld market
continued with the release of the Advance model.
Basically a handheld version of the
Master System, seems
big by today's standards but still has one of the largest screens for
a handheld to date. A bit heavy on batteries but loads of cheap games
available. TV tuner and radio attachments are good but hard to find
now.
Slightly smaller than a game gear this is a superb handheld
version of the PC Engine. Came with a colour screen and plays HU Card
games. Very scarce these days but still available in a few places.
Had a TV tuner available as an attachment as shown but I think this
only works in Japan?
The first hand-held colour video game system. Sold by Atari. Offers multi-player competition,
built-in 3D and distortion graphic effects and a 16bit graphics engine. Ahead of its time
really if only it wasn't about the size of a brick. Games came on slimline cards with a curled
edge.
Another good handheld that couldn't compete with the Gameboy. Still some superb games,
a nice TFT LCD screen and a good battery life make this a superb alternative to the GBA.
Removed from US and European markets last year its now also ceased production in Japan.
Lots of good Neo Geo conversions, beat-em-ups and RPG games.
Only released in Japan the WonderSwan is one of the smallest handhelds
to date but still has one of the largest screens. Monochrome and colour
versions available. Only a Limited amount of games available so doesn't
really stand much of a chance against the Gameboy. Does have some superb
accessories such as the wonder borg programmable robot bug, wonder wave
wireless link and the wonder witch development kit.
The latest 32bit handheld Gameboy looks set to take over the world yet again.
Nice size screen, loads of buttons, but best of all loads of SNES titles
being converted including
Mario Kart,
Street Fighter and
F-Zero which were
available at launch.
Chilloutgames