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Meh. I like it because of how unique the thing is, just like the Vectrex. Also the controller is really nice.
Thats why the GB Pocket exists.
What do you think is the WORST handheld ever released?
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Meh. I like it because of how unique the thing is, just like the Vectrex. Also the controller is really nice.
Thats why the GB Pocket exists.
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You are clearly a contrarian, sir!
The technology just wasn't there to make a decent color handheld at the time. My Game Gear had dead pixels and the battery life that would barely get me through one session.
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I love me some Virtual Boy too. It has fun games and the console itself is so ridiculously weird. The red graphics have no effect on me, I can play it for hours. In fact they look pretty nice. The LED screens are better than typical internet screenshots.
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And so does the Gameboy Color, which came out at about the same time as the NGPC.
On a single AA battery, no less!
________________
Approx. battery life:
Original B&W Wonderswan: 30 - 40 hours
Wonderswan Color: 20 hours
Wonderswan Crystal: 15 hours
Ninjainspandex
Sakura's Bank Manager
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I find it rather disturbing that 9 people voted the Gameboy and Gameboy Color and 6 people voted the Gameboy Advance, I hope they were just being sassy
I actually owned a game gear growing up as a kid and played it alot and have alot of fond memories playing it. I used to think the screen looked awesome and far better than the Game Boy. I recently bought another Game Gear and oh man does the screen look like a blurry smeary piece of crap. It has been recapped and had the tube swapped with LEDs and the screen is still hard to see what is going on. I have to be in a pretty dark room to clearly see the screen. Really wish someone would figure out how to put a modern LCD into a Game Gear and have the picture not look like a postage stamp on it, such a shame because the system actually has a lot of really fun and underrated games on it.
I actually owned a game gear growing up as a kid and played it alot and have alot of fond memories playing it. I used to think the screen looked awesome and far better than the Game Boy. I recently bought another Game Gear and oh man does the screen look like a blurry smeary piece of crap. It has been recapped and had the tube swapped with LEDs and the screen is still hard to see what is going on. I have to be in a pretty dark room to clearly see the screen. Really wish someone would figure out how to put a modern LCD into a Game Gear and have the picture not look like a postage stamp on it, such a shame because the system actually has a lot of really fun and underrated games on it.
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robert-gamble
Armored Scrum Object
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Have to say the N-Gage wasn't so bad. The first version was a bit daft with the sidetalking but I liked it and even upgraded to the QD. The portrait screen is a bit daft but it's ok.
The thing is functional and playable unlike stuff like Game.com and Supervision, is quite a bit more comfortable to play than a Lynx and has a better library for English speakers than a Wonderswan..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N-Gage_(device)#Demos_and_games I maybe 2/3 of those games and enjoyed most of them and thought some were excellent for the time.
The thing is functional and playable unlike stuff like Game.com and Supervision, is quite a bit more comfortable to play than a Lynx and has a better library for English speakers than a Wonderswan..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N-Gage_(device)#Demos_and_games I maybe 2/3 of those games and enjoyed most of them and thought some were excellent for the time.
robert-gamble
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I also really liked the Virtual Boy. I got one for $25 new when I was on holiday in florida a long time ago. Ended up selling it years later and a few more years later buying another one (for quite a bit more than $25) because I missed it.
Yeah it does make your eyes feel funny after a while but so what. Man up. It's got some great games and offers a unique, and very red, experience.
Yeah it does make your eyes feel funny after a while but so what. Man up. It's got some great games and offers a unique, and very red, experience.
robert-gamble
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On the surface the Game.com has a decent library.. I think it had Sonic Jam, Fighters Megamix, Resident Evil 2, Duke Nukem, Mortal Kombat. It had some big name games coming that were cancelled, I think I remember seeing screenshots of Metal Gear Solid.
My brother (a huge Resi fan) bought a Game.com Pocket Pro to play its version of Resident Evil 2. Such an awful system. The screen was worse than the original Gameboys.. Considering it came out quite a while after the GB they must've made a real effort to find screens that terrible. The games ran at some abysmal framerate with the worse motion blur (not the modern "cinematic" kind, the shit LCD kind) imaginable. Completely unplayable.
A couple of interesting handhelds I've not seen mentioned here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybiko , kinda strange wireless thing that they provided a dev environment for. I had one and it was pretty awful but kinda charming.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microvision , this is actually the absolute worst handheld ever made and completely unplayable but it was released in 1979 so fair enough.
My brother (a huge Resi fan) bought a Game.com Pocket Pro to play its version of Resident Evil 2. Such an awful system. The screen was worse than the original Gameboys.. Considering it came out quite a while after the GB they must've made a real effort to find screens that terrible. The games ran at some abysmal framerate with the worse motion blur (not the modern "cinematic" kind, the shit LCD kind) imaginable. Completely unplayable.
A couple of interesting handhelds I've not seen mentioned here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybiko , kinda strange wireless thing that they provided a dev environment for. I had one and it was pretty awful but kinda charming.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microvision , this is actually the absolute worst handheld ever made and completely unplayable but it was released in 1979 so fair enough.
This is true.
The 16x16 screen was rather lo-res to say the least, but even worse was it's lag in displaying motion.
The most playable game was Sea Duel, because it didn't depend on reacting to quick motion like the pack-in game Block Buster.
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Ninjainspandex
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the N-gage was actually playable though with graphics on par with the GBA, unlike the Game.com which had a screen that made games completely unplayable.
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True, I solely judged on the ones I actually got to play.
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I've now played a Neo Geo Pocket, Color and Color Slim. Yes I will seriously mention them in a thread like this.
The original Neo Geo Pocket has a horribly shitty screen, very blurry and the monochrome makes the games very difficult to perceive. No wonder it had maybe 8 games of its own. It's so bad it made games like Samurai Shodown 2 and Metal Slug 1st mission seem awful. If NGP was a separate option, I'd consider voting for it here.
The Color and Slim are both absolutely amazing, zero blur and very accepting of nearby light. The added color makes all the games easy to look at too. They're the total opposite of the original, very playable and loads of fun.
I haven't had the dishonor of playing a Game.com, but going by the various videos and hearsay, it's probably the worst of all.
WonderSwan any good? Or is it like playing the Japanese-y games on NGPC? (aka a culturally acquired taste)
The original Neo Geo Pocket has a horribly shitty screen, very blurry and the monochrome makes the games very difficult to perceive. No wonder it had maybe 8 games of its own. It's so bad it made games like Samurai Shodown 2 and Metal Slug 1st mission seem awful. If NGP was a separate option, I'd consider voting for it here.
The Color and Slim are both absolutely amazing, zero blur and very accepting of nearby light. The added color makes all the games easy to look at too. They're the total opposite of the original, very playable and loads of fun.
I haven't had the dishonor of playing a Game.com, but going by the various videos and hearsay, it's probably the worst of all.
WonderSwan any good? Or is it like playing the Japanese-y games on NGPC? (aka a culturally acquired taste)
MattBlah
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I had a Game.com when I was a kid and I loved it at the time (kids are stupid), I also had an N-gage QD when I was a teenager and it was one of the best phones I have ever had and had some great online multiplayer games at the time like Worms and Pocket Kingdom.
From the list I have owned every one listed apart from the Turbo Express and Virtua Boy (so I can't comment on those) and the worst by far has to be the Gamegear. I could just never get on with that horrible blurry screen, it is certainly not portable and buying batteries or trying to not make the AC adaptor stay connected when playing was always a pain.
Just a note, I was a Sega kid all my childhood. I love the SMS, Megadrive, Saturn and Dreamcast, I could just never get on with their attempt at a handheld.
From the list I have owned every one listed apart from the Turbo Express and Virtua Boy (so I can't comment on those) and the worst by far has to be the Gamegear. I could just never get on with that horrible blurry screen, it is certainly not portable and buying batteries or trying to not make the AC adaptor stay connected when playing was always a pain.
Just a note, I was a Sega kid all my childhood. I love the SMS, Megadrive, Saturn and Dreamcast, I could just never get on with their attempt at a handheld.
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I prefer the NGPC over the Wonderswan, but the WS does have better hardware.
There's probably only a handful of english-friendly games on the WS. It's great machine, but the games are a struggle if you have no Jp background.
The difference between a WS color v cyrstal is very minor. Crystal is better screen, but you wont notice it without a side by side comparison.
XeroShinobi
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You are clearly a contrarian, sir!
The technology just wasn't there to make a decent color handheld at the time. My Game Gear had dead pixels and the battery life that would barely get me through one session.
Nah, I agree with him. The Game Gear makes the original Gameboy look like unplayable garbage by comparison. And it's not like the Gameboy came out much earlier. Less than a year and a half difference between the systems. You're complaining about washed out colour in favour of a handheld with absolutely no colour or lighting at all. You can have all the battery life in the world, it doesn't change the fact that the handheld is literally unplayable in a plethora of different lighting conditions, and looks like crap even when you can see it. I've never understood the battery life complaint. When are you going to be out and about and need more than 3 straight hours of play time? Air travel, and maybe a cross country train ride. If you're playing in-doors, the Game Gear has a power adapter. Sure, more play time on the batteries would have been nice, but it's hardly a deal breaker.
The graphical and performance difference between the Gameboy and Game Gear is huge, so much so that it directly affects gameplay. There are a lot more Gameboy games out there, but I'll take quality over quantity any day.
The only legitimate complaint about the Game Gear today is that the system itself lacks longevity. Picking up a system without a recap is not a good idea.