Handhelds

[game4gaming]

I wanted to open a 'handhelds' thread coz there wasn't one. There's something that's been bugging me for a while and I wondered if anyone had any thoughts on it.

Who remembers the Sega Gamegear? If not, let me refresh. It was colour handheld - console quality of the time. The question is, why did it fail? It was yards heads of competitor offerings ...the Nintendo Gameboy (green and black screen!) came out way after it, yet was so much more successful. While the GBA is great (small and fair quality graphics) - 10 years on from the Gamegear, it's not improved much by comparision has it?

There's now a host of mobile phones which carry colour games as well - what does anyone think of those?

 

[legendario]

Jesus, the gamegear was nothing compared to the Atari Lynx . California games and slime world owned.

I still have my lynx somewhere but the screen is cracked due to my sisters stupidity.

The games for the GBA however make it worthwhile , but I had to sell mine when the layer of dust got thicker than an inch.

 

[Scooba Da Bass]

Gameboy = reasonable battery life

Gamegear and Lynx = insanely short battery life

Somewhere above lies part of the reason!

 

[wolfeeh]

erm

the gameboy came out well before the gamegear? gameboy's have been out since like 1989.

as scooba says:

battery life.

but also; nintendo games.

 

[game4gaming]

hmmm

guess so, Nintendo games are by far superior. speaking of sega, i've heard they're developing games for a new games handheld from Nokia. Bit weird as Nokia make phones but I suppose the market's open for more competition.

 

[Wij]

Got 2 GBs, 1 GB color, 1 GG, 1 GBA and 1 NGPC. The latter is the best

 

[wolfeeh]

well

nokia are releasing their first gaming handheld soon, it takes something like SD memory cards... which figures, as you can fit up to half a gig on them...

it's called the N-Gage.

yes gage not game.

don't ask, i don't know why.

 

[Embattle]

I've never found handhelds that good, always a compromise some where....although Tetris was brill and just perfect for the GB.

 

[PR.]

I have a game gear, I tried it recently but found the speaker had gone in it

I had the TV tuner as well

 

[game4gaming]

hmmm N-gage, sounds interesting - but am still not convinced it will be any good?

For example, won't the screen size itself be limited by the size of the phone / handheld?

Secondly - won't it be rather large by phones of today's standards? Does anyone know when it's coming out in the shops tho as I'd like to take look?

By the way, the unhappy sign is due to the fact that I'm back at work...

 

[whipped]

I knew I'd seen some concept art of this N-Gage somewhere.

The only drawback I can see is getting a phone call in the middle of the last level of your favorite shoot-em-up

 

[old.Kez]

Re: well

Originally posted by wolfeeh
it's called the N-Gage.
yes gage not game.
don't ask, i don't know why.

Because engame isn't a real word, while engage is. See?

 

[wolfeeh]

cough

i meant in the sense of avoiding flames for typographical errors... i know about the n-gage/engage thing :> ta for that tho mrs kez

 

[]SK[]

I still have my gamegear. It has the TV tuner but thats got a broken arial

 

[Wij]

Mine works

 

[]SK[]

Yeah still works, just looks untidy.

 

[game4gaming]

Yes but

online and wireless multiplayer must be tempting...I hear the n-gage will have both. I've gotta give Nokia the thumbs up for merely coming up with the idea. I've seen some pics of it now, and it certainly looks cool plus they've teamed up with Eidos, Sega, etc - Tomb Raider, Space Invaders, Super Monkey Ball to mention a few. I reckon it will appeal to all sorts of people, especially older gamers looking for retro games. I reckon it will also appeal more to females than GBA does as it will have more of a gadetly, cutting edge image. What do you reckon?

 

[sheepsteak]

But the GBA SP has the orange womens' vote.

 

[Sar]

Originally posted by game4gaming
the Nintendo Gameboy (green and black screen!) came out way after it, yet was so much more successful.

I'll have a clue for 10 please Bob...