The fascinating history of handheld video games
The fascinating history of handheld video games
The fascinating history of handheld video games
By Zachary Petit
October 16, 2023
Summary
Video games have long been maligned as mindless media-shallow entertainment for kids.
After Kickstarting a video game journal called Lock-On and selling a few hundred copies, things snowballed, and today the journal has sold more than 50,000 copies.
Along the way his book-publishing plans came to fruition-and today HarperCollins is releasing A Handheld History: A Celebration of Portable Gaming, which Lost in Cult created in partnership with Retro Dodo.
As for the early game system that helped change the game, the story goes that legendary Nintendo creative Gunpei Yokoi was in the doldrums of a train ride and was inspired by a businessman fidgeting with a calculator; in another telling, Gunpei took notice of an oversaturated calculator market rife with cheap LCDs and other components, and figured out how to thrive within it.
Doyle says Nintendo's goal was to expand its reach to nontraditional gamers, and it did just that with the DS thanks to games like the pet simulator Nintendogs, the "Personal Trainer" series, and offerings like Brain Age.
"These dragged a whole new audience into the medium, and they kind of really helped set handheld gaming as more of a cultural thing," Doyle says.
Say, the Game Boy Advance game Boktai, the cartridge of which contained a solar sensor that users had to charge so they could go back inside and kill vampires with a sun gun.
Reference
Petit, Z. (2023, October 16). Handheld video games have a fascinating history - fast company. Fast Company. https://www.fastcompany.com/90965740/the-fascinating-history-of-handheld-video-games