It’s been more than four decades since the popularisation of Nintendo’s Game and Watch series, which first allowed commuters across the world to enjoy a round or two of ‘Ball’ on their way home from work. Since then, handheld gaming has undergone a series of revolutions, driven by ever more compact and powerful computer hardware.
Given the scale of the change, it’s easy to forget how far things have come. Let’s take a brief look back at the history of handheld gaming hardware.
Early Years
The Game & Watch series might have gotten the Ball rolling for Nintendo in the 80s, but it wasn’t until the company released the Game Boy toward the end of the decade that the power of handheld gaming was truly realised. By modern standards, the device was bulky enough to barely be considered portable. But the cartridge-based system, which allowed different kinds of games to be played using a single device, gave users access to a much larger library.
Particularly possible was a puzzler, Tetris, developed by a then-unknown Russian mathematician named Alexey Pajitnov.
New Advancements
For the ensuing two decades, advancement in the handheld arena was mostly restricted to new and more powerful variations of the same formula. By the 2000s, the Nintendo 3DS and the Sony PSP had brought 3D visuals onto a portable system for the first time.
But unquestionably, the most notable development of the decade was the introduction of the mobile smartphone, with its internet connectivity and incredibly powerful ‘app’ store.
Mobile Gaming
What distinguished the smartphone from other, more specialised systems, was the fact that just about everyone had one. This vast potential audience allowed for hugely popular games like Candy Crush and Angry Birds to reach millions of people in a short space of time. The ‘free to play’ model helped to draw gamers in, and to make a profit using in-game purchases and other forms of ‘microtransaction.’
The modern library of mobile games is truly gigantic. Whether you’re looking to play a hack-and-slash adventure game or a more traditional jackpot slots casino experience, there’s a game out there for you.
Modern Day
In recent times, the line between the handheld, home console, and desktop PC experiences has become extremely blurry. The Nintendo Switch famously allows a home console to be transported wherever you want to play it and to integrate handheld functionality into couch gaming sessions. The ASUS ROG Ally and the Steam Deck have had a similarly revolutionary effect on the PC gaming scene!
