handheld game console the 1989 nintendo game boy which established and dominated the handheld market for ten years a handheld game console is a small portable selfcontained video game console with a builtin screen game controls and speakers in 1976 mattel introduced the first handheld electronic game with the release of auto race nintendo is credited with popularizing the handheld console concept with the release of the game boy in 1989 history for a list of all handheld video game consoles see list of handheld game consoles for a comparison of technical features of all handheld game consoles see comparison of handheld game consoles origins handheld electronic game the origins of handheld game consoles are found in handheld and tabletop electronic game devices of the 1970s and early 1980s these electronic devices are capable of playing only a single game our big success was something that i conceptualizedthe 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 game watch the result was the 1976 release of auto race began following up with their own tabletop and handheld electronic games in 1979 the lcdbased microvision designed by smith engineering and distributed by miltonbradley in 1979 gunpei yokoi traveling on a bullet train saw a bored businessman playing with an lcd calculator by pressing the buttons yokoi then thought of an idea for a watch that doubled as a miniature game machine for killing time including both items dpad controller the result was the nintendo game boy in 1982 the bandai lcd solarpower was the first solarpowered gaming device some of its games such as the horrorthemed game terror house features two lcd panels one stacked on the other for an early 3d effect beginnings the late 1980s and early 1990s saw the beginnings of the handheld game console industry as we know it after the demise of the microvision as backlit lcd game consoles with color graphics consume a lot of power they were not batteryfriendly like the nonbacklit original game boy whose monochrome graphics allowed longer battery life by this point rechargeable battery technology had not yet matured and so the more advanced game consoles of the time such as the sega game gear and atari lynx did not have nearly as much success as the game boy even though thirdparty rechargeable batteries were available for the batteryhungry alternatives to the game boy these batteries employed a nickelcadmium process and had to be completely discharged before being recharged to ensure maximum efficiency leadacid batteries could be used with automobile circuit limiters cigarette lighter plug devices but the batteries had mediocre portability the later nimh batteries which do not share this requirement for maximum efficiency were not released until the late 1990s years after the game gear atari lynx and 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 modern game systems such as the nintendo ds and playstation portable have rechargeable lithiumion batteries with proprietary shapes other seventhgeneration consoles such as the gp2x use standard alkaline batteries because the mah rating 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 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 also been responsible for the game watch system as well as the nintendo entertainment system games metroid and kid icarus the game boy came under scrutiny by some industry critics saying that the monochrome screen was too small and the processing power was inadequate the design team had felt that low initial cost and battery economy were more important concerns and when compared to the microvision the game boy was a huge leap forward yokoi recognized that the game boy needed a killer appat least one game that would define the console and persuade customers to buy it in june 1988 minoru arakawa thenceo 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 system as a launch title it was almost an immediate hit by the end of the year more than a million units were sold in the us atari lynx atari lynx atari lynx in 1987 epyx created the handy game a device that would turn into the atari lynx in 1989 it is the first color handheld console ever made as well as the first with a backlit screen it also features networking support with up to 17 other players and advanced hardware that allows the zooming and scaling of sprites the lynx can also be turned upside down to accommodate lefthanded players however all these features came at a very high price point which drove consumers to seek cheaper alternatives the lynx is also very unwieldy consumes batteries very quickly and lacked the thirdparty support enjoyed by its competitors due to its high price short battery life production shortages a dearth of compelling games and nintendos aggressive marketing campaign and despite a redesign in 1991 the lynx became a commercial failure despite this companies like telegames helped to keep the system alive long past its commercial relevance and when new owner hasbro released the rights to develop for the public domain independent developers like songbird have managed to release new commercial games for the system every year until 2004s winter games turboexpress turboexpress turboexpress handheld the turboexpress is a portable version of the turbografx released in 1990 for 24999 the price was briefly raised to 29999 soon dropped back to 24999 and by 1992 it was 19999 its japanese equivalent is the pc engine gt it is the most advanced handheld of its time and can play all the turbografx16s games which are on a small creditcard sized media called hucards it has a 66mm 26 in screen the same as the original game boy but in a much higher resolution and can display 64 sprites at once 16 per scanline in 512 colors although the hardware can only handle 481 simultaneous colors it has 8kilobytes of ram the turbo runs the huc6820 cpu at 179 or 716mhz the optional turbovision tv tuner includes rca audiovideo input allowing users to use turboexpress as a video monitor the turbolink allowed twoplayer play falcon a flight simulator included a headtohead dogfight mode that can only be accessed via turbolink however very few tg16 games offered coop play modes especially designed with the turboexpress in mind bitcorp gamate gamate gamate and game cards the bitcorp gamate is the one of the first handheld game systems created in response to the nintendo game boy it was released in asia in 1990 and distributed worldwide by 1991 like the sega game gear it was horizontal in orientation and like the game boy required 4 aa batteries unlike many later game boy clones its internal components were professionally assembled no gloptop chips unfortunately the systems fatal flaw is its screen even by the standards of the day its screen is rather difficult to use suffering from similar motion blur problems that were common 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 as late as 1994 the total number of games released for the system remains unknown gamate games were designed for stereo sound but the console is only equipped with a mono speaker sega game gear game gear sega game gear the game gear is the third color handheld console 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 large library of games for the master system while never reaching the level of success enjoyed by nintendo the game gear proved to be a fairly durable competitor lasting longer than any other game boy rivals while the game gear is most frequently seen in black or navy blue it was also released in a variety of additional colors red light blue yellow clear and violet all of these variations were released in small quantities and frequently only in the asian market following segas success with the game gear they began development on a successor during the early 1990s which was intended to feature a touchscreen interface many years before the nintendo ds however such a technology was very expensive at the time and the handheld itself was estimated to have cost around 289 were it to be released sega eventually chose to shelve the idea and instead release the genesis nomad a handheld version of the genesis as the successor watara supervision watara supervision the watara supervision with tilting screen the watara supervision was released in 1992 in an attempt to compete with the nintendo game boy the first model was designed very much like a game boy but it is grey in color and has a slightly larger screen the second model was made with a hinge across the center and can be bent slightly to provide greater comfort for the user while the system did enjoy a modest degree of success it never impacted the sales of nintendo or sega the supervision was redesigned a final time as the magnum released in limited quantities it was roughly equivalent to the game boy pocket it was available in three colors yellow green and grey watara designed many of the games themselves but did receive some third party support most notably from sachen a tv adapter was available in both pal and ntsc formats that could transfer the supervisions blackandwhite palette to 4 colors similar in some regards to the super game boy from nintendo hartung game master game master console the hartung game master is an obscure handheld released at an unknown point in the early 1990s its graphics were much lower than most of its contemporaries similar in complexity to the atari 2600 it was available in black white and purple and was frequently rebranded by its distributors such as delplay videojet and virella the exact number of games released is not known but is likely around 20 the system most frequently turns up in europe and australia late 1990s by this time the lack of significant development in nintendos product line began allowing more advanced systems such as the neo geo pocket color and the wonderswan color to be developed sega nomad genesis nomad sega nomad the nomad was released in october 1995 in north america only game boy pocket game boy game boy pocket the 1st release game boy pocket the game boy pocket is a redesigned version of the original game boy having the same features it was released in 1996 notably this variation is smaller and lighter it comes in seven different colors red yellow green black clear silver blue and pink it has space for two aaa batteries which provide approximately 10 hours of game play another notable improvement over the original game boy is a blackandwhite display screen rather than the greentinted display of the original game boy that also featured improved response time for less blurring during motion the game boy pocket takes two aaa batteries as opposed to four aa batteries for roughly ten hours of gameplay the first model of the game boy pocket did not have an led to show battery levels but the feature was added due to public demand the game boy pocket was not a new software platform and played the same software as the original game boy model gamecom gamecom gamecom the gamecom pronounced in tv commercials as game com not game dot com and not capitalized in marketing material is a handheld game console released by tiger electronics in september 1997 it featured many new ideas for handheld consoles and was aimed at an older target audience sporting pdastyle features and functions such as a touch screen and stylus however tiger hoped it would also challenge nintendos game boy and gain a following among younger gamers too unlike other handheld game consoles the first gamecom 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 144 kbits modem later models had only a single cartridge slot game boy color game boy color the game boy color was the first handheld by nintendo featuring colors the game boy color also referred to as gbc or cgb is nintendos successor to the game boy and was released on october 21 1998 in japan and in november of the same year in the united states it features a color screen and is slightly bigger than the game boy pocket the processor is twice as fast as a game boys and has twice as much memory it also had an infrared communications port for wireless linking which did not appear in later versions of the game boy such as the game boy advance the game boy color was a response to pressure from game developers for a new system as they felt that the game boy even in its latest incarnation the game boy pocket was insufficient the resulting product was backward compatible a first for a handheld console system and leveraged the large library of games and great installed 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 11869 million units worldwide the console is capable of displaying up to 56 different colors simultaneously on screen from its palette of 32768 and can add basic fourcolor shading to games that had been developed for the original game boy it can also give the sprites and backgrounds separate colors for a total of more than four colors neo geo pocket color neo geo pocket color neo geo pocket color the neo geo pocket color or ngpc was released in 1999 in japan and later that year in the united states and europe it is a 16bit color handheld game console designed by snk the maker of the neo geo home console and arcade machine it came after snks original neo geo pocket monochrome handheld which debuted in 1998 in japan in 2000 following snks purchase by japanese pachinko manufacturer aruze the neo geo pocket color was dropped from both the us and european markets purportedly due to commercial failure the system seemed well on its way to being a success in the us it was more successful than any game boy competitor since segas game gear but was hurt by several factors such as snks infamous lack of communication with thirdparty developers and anticipation of the game boy advance wonderswan color wonderswan the wonderswan color the wonderswan color is a handheld game console designed by bandai it was released on december 9 2000 in japan of ram and a larger color lcd screen in addition the wonderswan color is compatible with the original wonderswan library of games prior to wonderswans release nintendo had virtually a monopoly in the japanese video game handheld market after the release of the wonderswan color bandai took approximately 8 of the market share in japan partly due to its low price of 6800 yen approximately us65 however with the popularity of the game boy advance and the reconciliation between square and nintendo the wonderswan color and its successor the swancrystal quickly lost its competitive advantage early 2000s the 2000s saw a major leap in innovation particularly in the second half with the release of the ds and psp game boy advance game boy advance the game boy advance was a major upgrade to the game boy line in 2001 nintendo released the game boy advance gba or agb which added two shoulder buttons a larger screen and more computing power than the game boy color the design was revised two years later when the game boy advance sp gba sp a more compact version was released the sp features a clamshell design folding open and closed like a laptop computer as well as a frontlit color display and rechargeable battery despite the smaller form factor the screen remained the same size as that of the original in 2005 the game boy micro was released this revision sacrifices screen size and backwards compatibility with previous game boys for a dramatic reduction in total size and a brighter backlit screen a new sp model with a backlit screen was released in some regions around the same time along with the nintendo gamecube the gba also introduced the concept of connectivity using a handheld system as a console controller a handful of games use this feature most notably animal crossing pacman 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 8072 million units worldwide game park 32 gp32 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 32bit cpu 133mhz processor mp3 and divx player and ebook reader smartmedia cards were used for storage and could hold up to 128mb of anything downloaded through a usb cable from a pc the gp32 was redesigned in 2003 a frontlit 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 screen this version of the handheld was planned for release outside south korea in europe and it was released for example in spain virginplay was the distributor while not a commercial success on a level with mainstream handhelds only 30000 units were sold it ended up being used mainly as a platform for usermade applications and emulators of other systems being popular with developers and more technically adept users ngage ngage device ngage ngage qd nokia released the ngage in 2003 it was designed as a combination mp3 player cellphone pda radio and gaming device the system received much criticism alleging defects in its physical design and layout including its vertically oriented screen and requirement of removing the battery to change game cartridges the most well known of these was sidetalking or the act of placing the phone speaker and receiver on an edge of the device instead of one of the flat sides causing the user to appear as if they are speaking into a taco the ngage qd was later released to address the design flaws of the original however certain features available in the original ngage including mp3 playback fm radio reception and usb connectivity were removed second generation of ngage launched on april 3 2008 in the form of a service for selected nokia smartphones cybiko cybiko cybiko classic with extended antenna on the main desktop the cybiko is a russian handheld computer introduced in may 2000 by david yangs company and designed for teenage audiences featuring its own twoway radio text messaging system 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 addon was made for the unit as well as a smartmedia card reader the company stopped manufacturing the units after two product versions and only a few years on the market cybikos can communicate with each other up to a maximum range of 300 metres 019 miles several cybikos can chat with each other in a wireless chatroom cybiko classic there were two models of the classic cybiko visually the only difference was that the original version had a power switch on the side whilst the updated version used the escape key for power management internally the differences between the two models were in the internal memory and the location of the firmware cybiko xtreme the cybiko xtreme was the secondgeneration cybiko handheld it featured various improvements over the original cybiko such as a faster processor more ram more rom a new operating system a new keyboard layout and case design greater wireless range a microphone improved audio output and smaller size tapwave zodiac tapwave zodiac in 2003 tapwave released the zodiac it was designed to be a pdahandheld game console hybrid it supported photos movies music internet and documents the zodiac used a special version palm os 5 52t that supported the special gaming 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 nintendo ds the nintendo ds has two screens the lower of which is a touchscreen a microphone and wifi connectivity the nintendo ds was released in november 2004 among its new features were the incorporation of two screens a touchscreen wireless 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 dss lower screen is touch sensitive designed to be pressed with a stylus a users finger or a special thumb pad a small plastic pad attached to the consoles wrist strap which can be affixed to the thumb to simulate an analog stick more traditional controls include four face buttons two shoulder buttons a dpad and start and select buttons the console also features online capabilities via the nintendo wifi connection and adhoc wireless networking for multiplayer games with up to sixteen players it is backwardscompatible with all game boy advance games but not games designed for the game boy or game boy color in january 2006 nintendo revealed an updated version of the ds the nintendo ds lite released on march 2 2006 in japan with an updated smaller form factor 42 smaller and 21 lighter than the original nintendo ds a cleaner design longer battery life and brighter higherquality displays with adjustable brightness it is also able to connect wirelessly with nintendos wii console in october 2008 nintendo announced the nintendo dsi with larger 325inch screens and two integrated cameras it has an sd card storage slot in place of the game boy advance slot plus internal flash memory for storing downloaded games it was released on november 1 2008 in japan and was released in north america april 5 2009 and april 3 2009 in europe as of december 31 2009 the nintendo ds nintendo ds lite and nintendo dsi combined have sold 12513 million units worldwide in 2010 nintendo released a larger version of the dsi called the dsi xl game king gameking the gameking 2 the gameking is a handheld game console released by the chinese company timetop in 2004 the first model while original in design owes a large debt to nintendos game boy advance the second model the gameking 2 is believed to be inspired by sonys psp as many of the games have an old school simplicity the device has developed a small cult following the gamekings speaker is quite loud and the cartridges sophisticated looping soundtracks sampled from other sources are seemingly at odds with its primitive graphics timetop made at least one additional device sometimes labeled as gameking but while it seems to possess more advanced graphics is essentially an emulator that plays a handful of multicarts like the gb station light ii outside of asia especially 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 playstation portable the playstation portable officially abbreviated psp the playstation portable is the first handheld video game console to use an optical disc format universal media disc umd for distribution of its games umd video discs with movies and television shows were also released the psp utilized the sonysandisk memory stick pro duo format as its primary storage medium gizmondo gizmondo the gizmondo tigers gizmondo came out in the uk during march 2005 and it was released in the us 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 also has internet capabilities it has a phone for sending text and multimedia messages email was promised at launch but was never released before gizmondo and ultimately tiger telematics downfall in early 2006 users obtained a second service pack unreleased hoping to find such functionality however service pack b did not activate the email functionality gp2x series gp2x the game park holdings gp2x f100 the gp2x is an opensource linuxbased handheld video game console and media player created by gamepark holdings of south korea designed for homebrew developers as well as commercial developers it is commonly used to run emulators for game consoles such as neogeo genesis master system game gear amstrad cpc commodore 64 nintendo entertainment system turbografx16 mame and others a new version called the f200 was released october 30 2007 and features a touchscreen among other changes followed by gp2x wiz 2009 and gp2x caanoo 2010 late 2000s dingoo dingoo the dingoo a320 the dingoo a320 is a microsized gaming handheld that resembles the game boy micro and is open to game development it also supports music radio emulators 8 bit and 16 bit and video playing capabilities with its own interface much like the psp there is also an onboard radio and recording program it is currently available in two colors white and black other similar products from the same manufacturer are the dingoo a330 also known as geimi dingoo a360 dingoo a380 available in pink white and black and the recently released dingoo a320e psp go playstation portable psp go n1000 psp go the psp go is a version of the playstation portable handheld game console 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 sonys qore vod service although its design is significantly different from other psps it is not intended to replace the psp 3000 which sony continued to manufacture sell and support on april 20 2011 the manufacturer announced that the psp go would be discontinued so that they may concentrate on the playstation vita sony later said that only the european and japanese versions were being cut and that the console would still be available in the us unlike previous psp models the psp go does not feature a umd drive but instead has 16 gb of internal flash 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 also unlike previous psp models the psp gos rechargeable battery is not removable or replaceable by the user the unit is 43 lighter and 56 smaller than the original psp1000 and 16 lighter and 35 smaller than the psp3000 it has a 38 480 272 lcd compared to the larger 43 480 272 pixel lcd on previous psp models the screen slides up to reveal the main controls the overall shape and sliding mechanism are similar to that of sonys mylo com2 internet device pandora pandora console pandora the pandora is a handheld game consoleumpcpda hybrid designed to take advantage of existing open source software and to be a target for homebrew development it runs a full distribution of linux and in functionality is like a small pc with gaming controls it is developed by openpandora which is made up of former distributors and community members of the gp32 and gp2x handhelds openpandora began taking preorders for one batch of 4000 devices in november 2008 and after manufacturing delays began shipping to customers on may 21 2010 fc16 go the fc16 go is a portable super nes hardware clone manufactured by yobo gameware in 2009 it features a 35inch display two wireless controllers and crt cables that allow cartridges to be played on a television screen unlike other super nes clone consoles it has region tabs that only allow ntsc north american cartridges to be played later revisions feature stereo sound output larger shoulder buttons and a slightly rearranged button power and av output layout 2010s nintendo 3ds nintendo 3ds nintendo 3ds the nintendo 3ds is the successor to nintendos ds handheld the autostereoscopic device is able to project stereoscopic threedimensional effects without requirement of active shutter or passive polarized glasses which are required by most current 3d televisions to display the 3d effect 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 series software including nintendo dsi software it also features an online 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 demos applications and information on upcoming film and game releases on november 24 2011 a limited edition legend of zelda 25th anniversary 3ds was released that contained a unique cosmo black unit decorated with gold legend of zelda related imagery along with a copy of the legend of zelda ocarina of time 3d there are also other models including the nintendo 2ds and the new nintendo 3ds the latter with a larger xlll variant like the original nintendo 3ds the 2ds also has a successor the new nintendo 2ds xl xperia play xperia play xperia play the sony ericsson xperia play is a handheld game console smartphone produced by sony ericsson under the xperia smartphone brand the device runs android 23 gingerbread and is the first to be part of the playstation certified program which means that it can play playstation suite games the device is a horizontally sliding phone with its original form resembling the xperia x10 while the slider below resembles the slider of the psp go the slider features a dpad on the left side a set of standard playstation buttons and on the right a long rectangular touchpad in the middle start and select 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 1ghz qualcomm snapdragon processor a qualcomm adreno 205 gpu and features a display measuring 40 inches 100mm 854 480 an 8megapixel camera 512 mb ram 8 gb internal storage and a microusb connector it supports microsd cards versus the memory stick variants used in psp consoles the device was revealed officially for the first time 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 launch lineup of around 50 software titles playstation vita playstation vita playstation vita the playstation vita is the successor to sonys 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 handheld includes two analog sticks a 5inch 130mm oledlcd multitouch capacitive touchscreen and supports bluetooth wifi and optional 3g internally the ps vita features a 4 core arm cortexa9 mpcore processor and a 4 core sgx543mp4 graphics processing unit as well as livearea software as its main user interface which succeeds the xrossmediabar the device is fully backwardscompatible 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 release in japan the vitas dual analog sticks will be supported on selected psp games the graphics for psp releases will be upscaled with a smoothing filter to reduce pixelation razer switchblade razer switchblade the razer switchblade was a prototype pocketsized like a nintendo dsi xl designed to run windows 7 featured a multitouch lcd screen and an adaptive keyboard that changed keys depending on the game you play it also was to feature a full mouse it was first unveiled on january 5 2011 on the consumer electronics show ces the switchblade won the best of ces 2011 peoples voice award it has since been in development and the release date is still unknown the device has likely been suspended indefinitely nvidia shield shield portable nvidia shield portable project shield is a handheld system developed by nvidia announced at ces 2013 it runs on android 42 and uses nvidia tegra 4 soc the hardware includes a 5inches multitouch screen with support for hd graphics 720p the console allows for the streaming of games running on a compatible desktop pc or laptop nintendo switch nintendo switch nintendo switch portable mode the nintendo switch is a hybrid console that can either be used in a handheld form or inserted into a docking station attached to a television to play on a bigger screen the switch features two detachable wireless controllers called joycon which can be used individually or attached to a grip to provide a traditional gamepad form timeline of handheld consoles list of handheld game consoles notable handheld consoles from before the 90s mattel auto race 1976 mattel football 1977 mattel armor battle 1978 coleco electronic quarterback 1978 milton bradley microvision 1979 epoch game pocket computer 1984 japanese only not a success notable handheld consoles of the early 90s nintendo game boy 1989 first internationally successful handheld game console atari lynx 1989 first backlitcolor screen first hardware capable of accelerated 3d drawing turboexpress 1990 japan 1991 north america played hucard turbografx16pc engine games first consolehandheld intercompatibility sega game gear 1991 architecturally similar to sega master system notable accessory firsts include a tv tuner watara supervision 1992 first handheld with tvout support the super game boy was only a compatibility layer for the preceding game boy sega mega jet 1992 no screen made for japan airlines first handheld without a screen mega duckcougar boy 1993 4 level grayscale 27 lcd stereo sound rare sold in europe and brazil notable handheld consoles of the late 90s genesis nomad 1995 played normal genesis cartridges albeit at lower resolution neo geo pocket 1996 unrelated to neo geo consoles or arcade systems save for name game boy pocket 1996 slimmer redesign of game boy game boy pocket light 1997 japanese only backlit version of the game boy pocket tiger gamecom 1997 first internet support with use of soldseparately modem game boy color 1998 cybiko around 1998 sony pocketstation 1998 japanese only ps1 memory cardportable mini console in one sega visual memory unit 1998 dreamcast memory cardportable mini console in one snk neo geo pocket color 1999 bandai wonderswan 1999 developed by gumpei yokoi after leaving nintendo notable handheld consoles of the early 2000s bandai wonderswan color 2000 game park gp32 2001 first with full homebrew support game boy advance 2001 first 32bit handheld pokmon mini 2001 the smallest cartridgebased system that includes a blackandwhite lcd screen and the smallest integrated gamepad ever created bandai swancrystal 2002 minor redesign of wonderswan color pogo technology pogo 2002 first integrated pdagamescellphone device nokia ngage 2003 game system and gsm cell phone first combination of the two first included mp3 player and fm radio used bluetooth first wireless multiplayer first use of gprs for online play game boy advance sp 2003 redesign of gba slimmer clamshell form factor frontlit screen first handheld with a rechargeable battery gameking 2003 first handheld developed by a chinese company tapwave zodiac 2004 first pdagame handheld hybrid palm os pda with gamefocused form factor and features nokia ngage qd 2004 redesign of ngage removed mp3 playback and radio gpang 2004 compitable devices lg kv3600 2005 samsung sphg1000 2005 samsung sphb3200 2006 samsung schb450 2006 samsung schb550 2006 samsung sphb5200 2006 and others notable handheld consoles of the mid2000s nintendo ds 2004 first inclusion of dual screens builtin microphone and wifi for wireless multiplayer touchscreen playstation portable 20042005 first use of optical media uses memory sticks for saved data plays movies and music and views jpeg pictures gizmondo 2005 uses gprs network first inclusion of gps for locationbased games first builtin camera game boy micro 2005 redesign of gba smallest game boy form factor to date first transflective lcd screen in a handheld game boy advance sp backlit a low key rerelease of the gba sp with a backlit screen xgp 2005 and game park holdings gp2x 2005 successor units to the gp32 handheld each being developed by the two companies that split off from game park notable handheld consoles of the late 2000s nintendo ds lite 2006 redesign of ds including smaller size brighter screen levels and other subtle changes playstation portable slim lite 2007 redesign of playstation portable psp including smaller size lighter weight video out capability usb charge and other changes playstation portable3000 2008 minor redesign of the current psp slim lite including brighter screen built in mic and a ps button replacing the home button nintendo dsi 2008 small redesign of the nintendo ds lite some changes include built in internet camera use of sd card this model however does not have backward compatibility with game boy advance games psp go 2009 a brand new psp including no umd internal memory bluetooth and a sliding screen nintendo dsi llxl 2009 the fourth iteration of the nintendo ds handheld game console technically identical to the dsi with its distinguishing feature being its large form factor which will be almost an inch larger than the dsi and slightly thicker it will boast two 425 lcd screens 93 larger than the current ds lite mi2 2009 the mi2 is a small handheld game device created by planet interactive in cooperation with the chinese manufacturer conny it contains 100 built in games notable handheld consoles of the early 2010s dingoo a320 2010 a new version of the a320 which will have emulation for 11 consoles including the nes snes genesis and master system pandora 2010 open source handheld developed by former distributors and community members of the gp32 and gp2x xperia play 2011 a gaming smartphone designed by sony ericsson it is the first device to be part of the playstation certified program nintendo 3ds 2011 the first portable console to use the autostereoscopy technology which creates the illusion of 3d playstation vita 20112012 sonys successor to the psp series with two analog sticks bright oled screen and a rear touchpad gamegadget 2012 nintendo 3ds xl 2012 larger version of the original console snk neogeo x 20122013 released to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the neo geo aes home console gcw zero 2013 nvidia shield 2013 nintendo 2ds 2013 a cheaper version of the nintendo 3ds that cannot play games in 3d aimed at younger audiences jxd s7800 2013 notable handheld consoles of the mid2010s new nintendo 3ds 20142015 nintendo 3ds with the addition of a cstick zlzr buttons new nintendo 3ds xl 20142015 larger version of the new nintendo 3ds arduboy 2014 a credit card size arduino based handheld gaming console gpd xd 2015 gpd win 2016 nintendo switch 2017 a hybrid portable and home video game console new nintendo 2ds xl 2017 gpd win 2 2018 comparison of handheld game consoles list of handheld game consoles video game console emulator handheld electronic game handheld television linux gaming cloud gaming mobile game wikimedia commons has media related to handheld game consoles vtehandheld game consolesbandai lcd solarpower design master senshi wonderswan game parkholdings gp32 gp2x xgp gp2x wiz caanoo nintendocomparison game boy family game boy color game boy advance family advance advance sp micro virtual boy pokmon pikachu pokmon mini nintendo ds family nintendo ds lite dsi nintendo 3ds family nintendo 3ds 2ds new 3ds new 2ds xl switch nokia ngage ngage qd sega game gear nomad snk neo geo pocket neo geo pocket color neo geo x sony playstation portable xperia play playstation vita tiger rzone gamecom other handhelds1970s microvision 1980s selectagame entex adventure vision palmtex portable videogame system super micro nelsonic industries electronika epoch game pocket computer atari lynx 1990s turboexpress game master gamate barcode battler watara supervision mega duck 2000s tapwave zodiac gameking gpang service didj leapster gizmondo coleco sonic dingoo vsmile pocket 2010s jxd devices pandora dragonbox pyra shield portable leapster explorer gcw zero gpd xd gpd win gpd win 2 early units list comparison vtevideo game consolestypes home video game console list handheld game console list microconsole list dedicated console list generations first 197280 second 197692 third 19832003 fourth 19872004 fifth 19932005 sixth 19982013 seventh 200517 eighth 2012present emulator game history list manufacturer vtecomputer sizesclasses of computersmicrocomputerpersonalcomputerstationary workstation desktop home personal supercomputer portable tabletop smart tv interactive kiosk game arcade cabinet system board home console microconsole sff nettop plug smart speaker mobilelaptop desktop replacement 2in1 subnotebook netbook smartbook ultrabook ultramobile pc tablet ultramobile pc 2in1 phablet tabletop handheld handheld pc palmtop pc pocket computer pda electronic organizer mobile phone feature phone smartphone phablet pmp ereader handheld game console portablemobile data terminal calculator scientific programmable graphing wearable digital wristwatch calculator watch smartwatch smartglasses smart ring midrange server minicomputer supermini large super mainframe minisuper others microcontroller nanocomputer singleboard computer smartdust wireless sensor network 