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The Gizmondo (2005, $ 400 or $ 229 with “Smart Adds”)
The only portable game console ever – to the best of our knowledge –freed by former members of the Swedish mafia, the Gizmondo looks pretty good on paper. Simultaneously an MP3 player, a GPS (to ensure the safety of your children, see), a text messaging device, and game console, the weird little digital potato is pretty sweet when you see it working. And if that $ 400 price tag seems outrageous, well, go ahead and pick a “Smart Adds” compatible model, for almost half the cost – in exchange for streaming a few ads a day, of course. (This is perhaps the most ahead of its time aspect of this entire room, now that we think about it.)
Released by Tiger Telematics (unrelated to Tiger Electronics), the Gizmondo didn’t even have to wait for Nintendo to crush it; Massive promotional spending, incredibly lax sales, and what would have been pretty shady financial transactions led to the other Tiger’s quick bankruptcy in 2006. The DS might have gone overboard on the new features, but at least Nintendo didn’t. didn’t go out and buy a controlling stake in a modeling studio just to help promote the damn thing.
digiBLAST (2005, $ 90)
One of the many devices on this list that were essentially embryonic tablets – two years before Apple finally managed to break through the concept with the original iPhone – Nikko’s digiBLAST is a classic case of trying to overdoing it with far too little. Released primarily in European markets, the Weird Little Square was as much a media player as it was a gaming device, allowing kids to watch (muddy) versions of their favorite TV shows on its (decidedly muddy) screen, before setting off. change cartridge to read blurry renderings. of Rayman or Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4.
In Nikko’s defense, Nintendo also tried to tackle this idea of a video player during the GBA era. (May we interest you a presentation of the GBA cup of Principle?But by 2005, the company had embraced the idea that its devices were gaming machines first and foremost, and only – perhaps because it had seen so many other competitors pull out of the race trying to be everything. for all children.
Caanoo (2010, $ 150)
We have focused throughout this story on the role Nintendo’s software library has played in growing their handheld sales. Well, we’ve finally come to a system that can also enjoy all of Mario’s hard work, thanks to the magic of flight. (Or an emulation, if you want to be more specific.) Launched by GamePark Holdings in South Korea, the Caanoo was one of the few notebooks that hit the market in the DS era that stood out for being open-source. , that is, anyone could write software for them, without worrying about getting certified from Nintendo or anyone else. These boxes, which included the Dingoo and the latest Pandora, were essentially little laptops that anyone could program. And what they usually programmed them to do was play old NES, SNES, Game Boy, and Genesis games, because, honestly, why not you?
The Caanoo itself didn’t last long, but open-source portable platforms only accelerated in the interest, despite what Nintendo, notoriously intolerant of anyone who gave a damn. its copyright, would probably prefer. (God only knows what they’re doing with Arduboy, an Arduino-powered riff on Nintendo’s most famous handheld, which is roughly the size of a credit card.)
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