Mobile Game Platforms

Mattel Auto Race

Mattel Auto Race

The Mattel Auto Race was one of the first handheld game consoles that was entirely digital. Being released in 1977 it was ahead of its time. The game was the first of many Mattel Electrionics games. It is thought mattel football was the first as it out shadowed auto race but auto race was the first. This influenced a lot of handhelds since it set the standard. Since it was released so early compared to others there were a lot of clones of it which sold fairly well.

Microvision

Microvision

The Microvision was the very first handheld game console that used interchangeable cartridges. Released in 1979 it was in the second generation of handhelds. It was very popular having 13 different games relased for it. The lack of support meant it had its demise in 1981. It had some problems which ended up in the handheld being unable to work. The most common ones were screen rot , ESD damage and keypad destruction.

Atari Lynx

Atari Lynx

The Atari Lynx was very important for the handheld consoles. It holds the distinction of being the worlds first handheld with a colour LCD. With a backlit display and networking up to 17 players it couldn't fail but didn't attract enough quality third party developers. With the game boy being released in the same year it had tough competition. People are still releasing games for it today.

Game Boy

Gameboy

The gameboy was released in 1989 and was extremly popular. It sold 118 million units worldwide making it one of the most successful handhelds ever. It was the first handheld in the Game boy line. The Game and Watch series was really popular for the Gameboy.

Game Boy Colour 
Game Boy colour was the second in the Game Boy series. It was released in 1998 and followed the trend of the gameboy. It used colour graphics for games with an 8 bit-processor. With the gameboy colour the franchise Pokemon was released which still is one of the most selling series yet.

WonderSwan

The WonderSwan Colour was released in 2000 in Japan. It was a huge success taking approximately 8% of the market share in Japan since it was so cheap at $65. The Colour version was a sequel to the original like the Game Boy did. It had a bigger screen using colour and had 512kb of ram. It's also compatible with the previous games. The company that made it were called Bandai and they managed to get a deal with Square to port over the Final Fantasy games with improved graphics and controls. This helped greatly with the sales but then was out shadowed by the Gameboy Advanced.

Game Boy Advance , Sp and Micro

In 2001 Nintendo released their 3rd instalment in the Gameboy franchise with the Gameboy Advance (GBA or AGB) This introduced 2 shoulder buttons and more power which lead to more advanced games. 2 years later Nintendo looked at their design and made a redesign with the Game Boy Advance SP which featured a clamshell design , backlit screen and a rechargeable battery. Mainly the rechargeable battery has become normal for handhelds now. After 2 handhelds Nintendo revised their design again and 2 years later came out with the Game Boy Micro in 2005. This dramatically changed the screen size making it a lot smaller with backwards compatibility and brighter backlit.

Nintendo DS

Nintendo were very busy in the 2000's as in 2004 they released the Nintendo DS while they were also working on the Game Boy Micro. This made a massive leap forward in handhelds and featured 2 screens where one was a touchscreen where you use a stylus or your finger to use , wireless connectivity and a microphone port. It copy's the GBA SP design using a clamshell where the screens are on a hinge and close together. This was extremely popular and sold very well. As with the advance Nintendo couldn't make their mind up about the design and later on brought out a DS Lite which was smaller ,DSI which introduced an online store and a camera for multimedia and finally the 3DS which used a 3d feature in some games. One critisism Nintendo got was that the DS was too small for people with larger hands so they released XL versions of the DSI and the 3DS which was larger overall and had a bigger top screen.

PlayStation Portable

In 2004 Sony thought they would enter the handheld market releasing their Playstation Portable or better known as the PSP. This featured a very big screen with a analogue stick which was a first for handhelds. This used a unique UMD disc design which worked well but Sony decided to scrap them with their recent models.  Later on Sony brought out a PSP-2000 which didn't have much changes but a bit smaller and used a microphone, soon after the PSP-3000 which was just more optimised and smaller. The first main change for the PSP was the GO which when the UMD disc was scrapped and went all digital. This used a slide screen to reveal the buttons which made it a lot more portable which gained some interest. Sony still wasn't happy so they released the Playstation Vita in 2011. This was extremely powerful featuring 2 analogue sticks to immatate the PS3 controller but with only 2 shoulder buttons. The main feature of the PSP was to be a multimedia device which it was and could all be used in-junction with the PS3 and could back compatable with Playstation 1 title's which were put on the Playstation Store.

Sources

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mattel_Auto_Race
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microvision
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_Lynx
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Boy_Color
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Boy_Advance
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_DS
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_Portable