• he/him, xe/xem

we all got that one friend who isnt gonna make it

yaoi and yuri support on the web. open your mind/open your heart



AgentOtter
@AgentOtter

Released October 16, 2000 this virtual pet is a sequel to Pokemon Pikachu, which was released in 1998, as covered in Part 2 of this series. (https://cohost.org/AgentOtter/post/5584876-a-brief-history-of-h)

This time around it had a full color screen and can communicate with Pokemon Gold, Silver, and Crystal via the Game Boy Color's infrared port.

Using those games' Mystery Gift function, the player can send Watts accumulated by walking, which are then converted into items.

alt text
A full color follow up to the Neo Geo Pocket from 1998 was released in 2000 for $70. After a good start in both the US and Japan with 14 launch titles (a record at the time), low retail support in the States, lack of communication with 3rd party devs by SNK's US management, the popularity of the Pokemon franchise and anticipation of the GBA, and strong competition from Bandai's WonderSwan in Japan, led to a sales decline in both regions.

Despite its financial failure, the Neo Geo Pocket Color has been regarded as an influential system. It featured an arcade-style microswitched 'clicky stick' joystick, which was praised for its accuracy and being well-suited for fighting games.

Many highly acclaimed games were released for the system, such as SNK vs. Capcom: The Match of the Millennium, King of Fighters R-2, and other quality arcade titles derived from SNK's MVS and AES.

The system had non-backlit display & 40-hour battery on 2 AAs.

SNK went bankrupt later that same year, leading to a halt in all hardware sales.

alt text
A follow up to the WonderSwan released a year prior. This full color version ran all of the previously released games. The only drawback to the WSC was the color display halved the battery life to about 20 hours on 2 AAA batteries.

Before the WonderSwan Color could be released, however, Nintendo announced the Game Boy Advance, which featured superior hardware. The WonderSwan Color still retailed at a lower price point at ¥6,800 compared to the Advance at ¥9,800, but despite peaking at 8% of the handheld market share in Japan, the WonderSwan's sales never recovered after the Game Boy Advance reached store shelves in March 2001.

It sold 1.1 million units before being discontinued in 2003.

alt text
Nintendo released its 3rd handheld juggernaut in March of 2001 in Japan and June 2001 in the US and EU for $100. Instead of keeping their tried and true form factor from the original and Color versions of the Game Boy, the GBA used a wider form factor similar to the Game Gear and Lynx.

Over 1500 games were developed for the system world wide. Notable titles include: Pokemon Ruby/Saphire/Emerald, The Legend of Zelda: Minish Cap, WarioWare: Twisted, Drill Dozer, Megaman Zero 1-4, multiple entries in the Castlevania series, and many, many more....

The first 32-bit handheld system, fully backwards compatible with all Game Boy and Game Boy Color titles. It would go on to sell over 81 million units. It continued the trend of the link cable port for multiplayer games as well as a special cable to connect to a controller port on the Gamecube, which featured gameplay elements for several cube games such as The Legend of Zelda Wind Waker, Four Swords Adventures, and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicals.

It could run for up to 15 hours on 2 AA batteries.

alt text
Despite having a similar form factor as the the Pokemon Pikachu systems, the Pokemon mini is the world's smallest cartridge based handheld. Released in 2001 for $40 it measured in at 74mm × 58mm 23 mm (0.91 in x 2.28in x 0.91 in).

10 separate Pokemon mini games were released for the system between 2001 and 2002 before being discontinued.

Recently a rather active homebrew community has been supporting the system with unofficial games, including a full port of The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening.

it could run for up to 60 hours on 1 AAA battery.

alt text
The GP32 (GamePark 32) was developed by the South Korean company Game Park. It was released on November 23, 2001, in South Korea and distributed in some parts of the EU as a competitor to the GBA for €200.

Unlike other handheld systems, which tended to use proprietary cartridge designs, the GP32 used Toshiba's SmartMedia cards (a precursor to SD cards) for storing programs and data, making it accessible for amateur developers as no further development hardware is required.

Game Park wanted users to be able to create homebrew software. They could register the unit on the official website and get a free suite of development tools to create their own programs. Game Park also allowed (with some restrictions) the publishing of such homebrew games on their website. The GP32's original firmware only supported running encrypted games and tools.

Alternative firmware removed the necessity of using the "Free Launcher" software and provided many extra functions that were lacking in the original firmware.

Through this strategy, the GP32 was the host of multiple homebrew applications and games. The various applications made for it ranged from alternative firmware, file managers, games, emulators, game generators (such as RPG Maker), a DivX player and image slideshows.

It sold around 32,000 units. It ran for 6-12 hours on 2 AA batteries.

alt text
It should also be noted around this that cell phones were becoming more affordable to the US market, thus an explosion of games existed on various platforms from several major manufacturers.

alt text
In 2002 Bandai released the final iteration of the WonderSwan in order to compete with the GBA, the WonderSwan Crystal. Launched at ¥7,800, ¥1,000 less than the GBA.

Despite its low price and an improved LCD screen, the SwanCrystal was unable to compete, so Bandai discontinued the WonderSwan line in 2003 due to low demand and backed out of producing video game hardware altogether.

alt text
Nokia in the early 2000s dominated the cell phone market with their nearly indestructible phones. In 2003 they decided to release the first fully gaming oriented cell phone. The N-Gage. In many ways it was ahead of its time and had many of the same features of PDAs and MP3 players of the time.

Launching in late October for $300 (not bad for a cell phone at the time) it tried its hand at competing with the GBA. Running on Symbian OS 6.1, many cell phone games would run natively on the unit.

64 games were developed with notable titles such as: Bomberman, Civilization, Crash Nitro Kart, Tomb Raider, Sonic N, Super Monkey Ball, and The Elder Scrolls Travels: Shadowkey. 25 other games were in development at one point but were canceled for various reasons.

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 criticism was "sidetalking" due to the placement of the speaker and microphone being on the side edge of the device, causing the user to appear as if they are speaking into a taco.

Despite Nokia giving the device a redesign that addressed the issues of the original it would be discontinued in 2005 after meeting only half of the projected sales goals.

It sold around 3 million units.

alt text
Earlier in 2003 Nintendo released the infamous clamshell redesign of the GBA for $100. The Game Boy Advance SP aside from being nearly half the size of the original, also had a front lit display and a built in rechargeable battery (F U C K I N G F I N A L L Y). It also removed the headphone jack. You could still use headphones but it required an adapter cable that plugged into the proprietary charging port of the SP.

In 2005 Nintendo would release a new variant of the system that featured a backlit screen, making it much easier to see.

The battery lasted around 10 hours with the screen light or about 18 hours with it off.

It sold 43.5 million units.

alt text
The Tapwave Zodiac was released in late 2003 for the price of $300-400 depending on storage size, 32MB or 128MB. It was marketed as a premium handheld device meant for more mature gamers. Running a modified version of Palm OS, it could play fully 3D games. The Zodiac boasted power closer to what home consoles at the time had, a taste of where handheld gaming was quickly advancing towards.

43 games were made for the system with notable titles including: Tony Hawk 4, Doom 2, Golden Axe 3, and SpyHunter. Several other titles were being worked on but were canceled due Tapwave discontinuing the system in 2005, including a port of Neverwinter Nights.

Its rechargeable lithium ion battery lasted for 3-6 hours depending on activity.
Sales figures were never released by the company.


You must log in to comment.