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Handheld electronic games are interactiveelectronic games, often miniaturized versions ofvideo games, that are played on portablehandheld devices, known ashandheld game consoles, whose controls, display and speakers are all part of a single unit. Rather than a general-purpose screen made up of a grid of smallpixels, they usually have custom displays designed to play one game. This simplicity means they can be made as small as asmartwatch, and sometimes are. The visual output of these games can range from a few small light bulbs orLED lights to calculator-like alphanumerical screens; later these were mostly displaced byliquid crystal andvacuum fluorescent display screens with detailed images and in the case of VFD games, color. Handhelds' popularity was at its peak from the late 1970s into the early 1990s before declining. They are the precursors to thehandheld game console.
Early handheld games used simple mechanisms to interact with players, often limited to illuminated buttons and sound effects. Early handheld games includeMattel Auto Race (1976) andMattel Electronic Football (1977),[1] which have simple red-LED displays; gameplay involves pressing buttons to move a car or quarterback icon (represented by a bright dot) to avoid obstacles (represented by less bright dots).
In 1978 theMilton Bradley Company entered the handheld market withSimon, a simple color-and-sound-matching game. Simon had no dedicated display, but featured four colored, lighted buttons; the original version was large enough to be used as a tabletop game or a handheld; later versions became increasingly smaller. The same year, Parker Brothers also releasedMerlin, a more sophisticated handheld which could play six different games using an array of 11 buttons with integrated LEDs. Despite their relative simplicity, each of these early games was highly successful.
The initial success of Mattel and Parker Brothers' entries spawned a wave of similar handheld devices which were released through the early 1980s. Notable among these were a series of popular 2-player "head-to-head" games fromColeco. Other games were miniaturized versions of popular arcade video games.
In 1979,Gunpei Yokoi, traveling on abullet train, saw a bored businessman playing with anLCDcalculator by pressing the buttons. Yokoi then thought of an idea for awatch that doubled as a miniature game machine for killing time, agame watch.[2] Starting in 1980,Nintendo began to release a series of electronic games designed by Yokoi called theGame & Watch games.[3] Taking advantage of the technology used in the credit-card-sized calculators that had appeared on the market, Yokoi designed the series of LCD-based games to include a digital time display in the corner of the screen.[4] For later, more complicated Game & Watch games, Yokoi invented a cross shaped directional pad or "D-pad" for control of on-screen characters.[5] Yokoi also included his directional pad on theFamicom game console's controllers, and the cross-shaped thumb controller soon became standard on game console controllers and ubiquitous across the video game industry as a replacement for the joystick.[citation needed]
During the 1980s,LCDs became inexpensive and largely replaced LED displays in handheld games. The use of custom images in LCD and VFD games allows for greater detail and eliminates the blocky, pixelated look of console screens, but not without drawbacks. All graphics are fixed in place, requiring every possible location and state of game objects to be preset—often visible when resetting a game—with no overlap. Theillusion of movement is created by sequentially flashing objects between their possible states. Backgrounds for these games are static drawings, layered behind the "moving" graphics, which are transparent when not in use. Due to these limitations, the gameplay of early LCD games was often even cruder than that of their LED predecessors.
Some of the more well-known handheld games of the LCD era are theGame & Watch series by Nintendo and the games byTiger Electronics, and many titles from other companies were also popular, especially conversions ofarcade games. New games are still being made, but most are based on relatively simplecard andboard games.
In 1982, the Bandai LCD Solarpower series were the firstsolar-powered gaming devices. Some of its games, such as thehorror-themed gameTerror House, featured twoLCD panels, one stacked on the other, for an early3D effect.[6] This also allows them to feature different stages more easily which would have been difficult or impossible to implement on a single panel. In 1983,Takara Tomy'sTomytronic 3D series simulated3D by having twoLED panels that were lit by external light through a window on top of the device, making it the first dedicated home video 3D hardware.[7]
TheLCD Solarpower series are handheld electronic games powered bysolar energy made byBandai in 1982. The games in the Double Panel series feature two LCD panels[8] stacked on top of each other. This allows these games to progress in 2 stages for more variation in gameplay.
It comprises the following games:
First series:
Second series (Double Panel):
Other handheld games were built as flipcases and had two or even three LCDs with different foreground and background scenes, offering some variety in the gameplay.
Despite the increasing sophistication of handheld consoles such as theNintendo Switch, dedicated handhelds continue to find a niche. Amongtechnophilic gamer subcultures likeAkiba-kei, unique control schemes like that of the 2008Tuttuki Bako have been proven salable due to novelty, but dedicated handhelds such as this are uncommon. Adult fads such asblackjack,poker, andSudoku also spawn dozens of original and knockoff handheld games.
TheBrick Game, originated in China and Russia in the early 1990s, includes games using a 10 × 20 block grid as a crude, low resolutiondot matrix screen. Such devices often have many variations ofTetris andSnake, sometimes even other kinds of games likeracing,Breakout or evenshoot 'em up, such as those resemblingGalaga orBattle City, where one block projects blocks at the "enemy" blocks. The most advanced of these designs usually have 26 distinct games sorted inalphabetical letters and feature multi-channel sound, voice synthesis or digital sounds samples, and internalCMOS memory which can save the current game progress and high scores when the system is turned off. Many of these handhelds with a dozen such games are marketed as having hundreds or even thousands of games (e.g. "9999 in 1"), though the vast majority are just different speed and difficulty settings. The most basic can now be sold as low as $1. Brick Games are mostly popular in Brazil[9] and otherdeveloping countries.
At the lowest end of handheld game sophistication, there is also the "avoid/catch the falling objects" game. These games are controlled with 2 movement buttons, and sport a screen with a column of player positions, and rows of projectiles to animate towards the player. The player and projectiles could be any picture, from tanks dodging missiles to a dog catching sausages.
Additionally, while generally regards as a virtual pet,Tamagotchi or similar handheld digital pets are still fall in within the Handheld electronic games. Which still continue to release into the consumer market.
