1 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:07,800 Speaker 1: Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 2 00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:14,720 Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 3 00:00:14,840 --> 00:00:17,560 Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio 4 00:00:17,600 --> 00:00:20,200 Speaker 1: and I love all things tech. And it is a Friday. 5 00:00:20,239 --> 00:00:23,960 Speaker 1: It's time for a classic episode. This episode originally published 6 00:00:23,960 --> 00:00:27,520 Speaker 1: back on March third, two thousand fourteen. It is titled 7 00:00:27,720 --> 00:00:30,880 Speaker 1: The History of Handheld Gaming, Part One. I bet you 8 00:00:30,880 --> 00:00:33,040 Speaker 1: can already guess what the classic episode for next week 9 00:00:33,120 --> 00:00:36,840 Speaker 1: is gonna be. But don't get ahead. I'm looking at you. 10 00:00:37,680 --> 00:00:41,760 Speaker 1: Yeah you, yeah, you wait for it. All right, let's 11 00:00:41,840 --> 00:00:44,879 Speaker 1: let's listen to this classic episode. This is definitely going 12 00:00:44,920 --> 00:00:47,279 Speaker 1: to be a two parter. But in the interests of 13 00:00:47,320 --> 00:00:52,319 Speaker 1: not going into exhaustive detail about too many things, we're 14 00:00:52,479 --> 00:00:55,080 Speaker 1: gonna we're gonna try to keep it snappy. Yeah, and 15 00:00:55,120 --> 00:00:58,640 Speaker 1: also we've we're not going to mention every single handheld 16 00:00:58,680 --> 00:01:01,680 Speaker 1: device that's ever been made, certainly not that would be 17 00:01:01,800 --> 00:01:05,840 Speaker 1: very boring. It would also take like twenty episodes. Yeah, 18 00:01:05,840 --> 00:01:07,280 Speaker 1: and we're going to try to do like like a 19 00:01:07,319 --> 00:01:10,080 Speaker 1: bird's eye view of some of the technology that was involved. 20 00:01:10,160 --> 00:01:12,520 Speaker 1: But um, but we might branch a little bit of 21 00:01:12,560 --> 00:01:15,040 Speaker 1: the more in depth information about that kind of stuff 22 00:01:15,080 --> 00:01:17,360 Speaker 1: off into a different episode in the future, right right. 23 00:01:17,440 --> 00:01:20,360 Speaker 1: Some of these, like friends instance, the I'm sure you've 24 00:01:20,400 --> 00:01:23,840 Speaker 1: heard of a little obscure handheld device called the game Boy. 25 00:01:23,880 --> 00:01:26,679 Speaker 1: Some of these could be their own episode from start 26 00:01:26,720 --> 00:01:29,320 Speaker 1: to finish, so easily a two part our episode all 27 00:01:29,360 --> 00:01:31,720 Speaker 1: on its own. So we are really kind of giving 28 00:01:31,760 --> 00:01:35,839 Speaker 1: an idea of how the whole how the whole industry developed, 29 00:01:35,840 --> 00:01:39,160 Speaker 1: how it evolved over time. We'll we'll give some technical 30 00:01:39,200 --> 00:01:41,319 Speaker 1: specs here and there, but really this is more of 31 00:01:41,520 --> 00:01:44,920 Speaker 1: a history lesson than anything else. And also, we're going 32 00:01:44,959 --> 00:01:48,760 Speaker 1: to go ahead and skip any of the gaming devices 33 00:01:48,800 --> 00:01:52,280 Speaker 1: out there that were specifically made as unlicensed clones of 34 00:01:52,400 --> 00:01:55,440 Speaker 1: other gaming devices, right, that I think would make an 35 00:01:55,440 --> 00:01:59,720 Speaker 1: interesting sub topic, separate topic. But no, we're not going 36 00:01:59,800 --> 00:02:02,240 Speaker 1: to go into every single thing that has come out 37 00:02:02,240 --> 00:02:06,000 Speaker 1: of China illegally past thirty years, right. And we have 38 00:02:06,160 --> 00:02:08,120 Speaker 1: talked a little bit about these sort of things, like 39 00:02:08,160 --> 00:02:10,919 Speaker 1: in our our episode about smart watches and digital watches, 40 00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:14,359 Speaker 1: we mentioned a couple that were able to play games. 41 00:02:14,360 --> 00:02:17,040 Speaker 1: One of those will pop up in this discussion, so 42 00:02:17,160 --> 00:02:20,480 Speaker 1: spoiler alert. Yeah, And and if you would like to 43 00:02:20,560 --> 00:02:23,160 Speaker 1: check out that episode, about digital watches. It was a 44 00:02:23,200 --> 00:02:27,360 Speaker 1: two parter that we recorded back in July called Time 45 00:02:27,400 --> 00:02:30,800 Speaker 1: for Smart Watches. You can tell that Jonathan titles these episodes. 46 00:02:31,520 --> 00:02:34,200 Speaker 1: I got a lot of time on my hands, so 47 00:02:34,280 --> 00:02:37,680 Speaker 1: that's what I do. Also, we are going to uh 48 00:02:38,000 --> 00:02:41,360 Speaker 1: have to address one other fact, which is that in 49 00:02:41,440 --> 00:02:46,160 Speaker 1: the beginning, these things were primitive, right. I mean, these 50 00:02:46,200 --> 00:02:50,000 Speaker 1: were not like the kind of advanced graphics you would 51 00:02:50,040 --> 00:02:53,640 Speaker 1: expect with a handheld gaming device back in the day, 52 00:02:53,760 --> 00:02:58,120 Speaker 1: which was back in the late seventies. We're talking about 53 00:02:58,600 --> 00:03:03,360 Speaker 1: a blip that you in control to get around or 54 00:03:03,520 --> 00:03:08,840 Speaker 1: fight or otherwise compete against other blips. Absolutely, I mean, 55 00:03:08,880 --> 00:03:13,280 Speaker 1: this is the digital equivalent of monkeys banging bones on 56 00:03:13,320 --> 00:03:15,600 Speaker 1: the car. Yeah, it's pretty much like just kind of 57 00:03:15,600 --> 00:03:18,680 Speaker 1: the you know, everyone has to start somewhere, right, So 58 00:03:18,800 --> 00:03:21,119 Speaker 1: if you want to be specific and say, well, what 59 00:03:21,200 --> 00:03:23,760 Speaker 1: was the first handheld game? And keep in mind these 60 00:03:23,800 --> 00:03:27,360 Speaker 1: games were coming into prominence around the same time as 61 00:03:27,600 --> 00:03:32,840 Speaker 1: arcades becoming popular and also home video game consoles becoming popular. 62 00:03:32,880 --> 00:03:35,320 Speaker 1: But here's the thing about a home video game console, Lauren, 63 00:03:35,880 --> 00:03:38,920 Speaker 1: It's not easy to carry around with you. No, especially 64 00:03:38,960 --> 00:03:43,200 Speaker 1: not in that day when miniaturization was not so much 65 00:03:43,200 --> 00:03:46,080 Speaker 1: a thing yet. Yeah, especially since uh, I mean, you 66 00:03:46,120 --> 00:03:49,120 Speaker 1: don't want to carry a TV, especially in nineteen seventies 67 00:03:49,200 --> 00:03:51,640 Speaker 1: TV around with you wherever you go, so you can 68 00:03:51,640 --> 00:03:53,800 Speaker 1: play this game. So these were these were a good 69 00:03:53,840 --> 00:03:57,000 Speaker 1: alternative for people who wanted to have something on the go, 70 00:03:57,240 --> 00:03:59,800 Speaker 1: especially I'll tell you the best use case. I know, 71 00:04:00,400 --> 00:04:02,560 Speaker 1: parents who want to get their kids to shut up 72 00:04:02,560 --> 00:04:04,960 Speaker 1: on long road trips. That's exactly what I was about 73 00:04:05,000 --> 00:04:10,200 Speaker 1: to say. Yes, so what was the very first handheld 74 00:04:10,240 --> 00:04:14,640 Speaker 1: electronic game that we know of? Uh? It was actually 75 00:04:14,680 --> 00:04:17,479 Speaker 1: by Mattel, which is crazy to me. And and it 76 00:04:17,600 --> 00:04:20,960 Speaker 1: was MATEL Electronics Auto Race yep. And in fact, there 77 00:04:21,000 --> 00:04:23,920 Speaker 1: are several different games that came out from Mattel. We'll 78 00:04:23,920 --> 00:04:26,400 Speaker 1: talk about another one in just a second. Uh. And 79 00:04:26,640 --> 00:04:29,159 Speaker 1: some people get the order a little mixed up. But 80 00:04:29,279 --> 00:04:31,760 Speaker 1: if you were to get hold of one of these 81 00:04:31,800 --> 00:04:35,360 Speaker 1: original handheld devices, and there are still some out there 82 00:04:35,400 --> 00:04:38,120 Speaker 1: on eBay, and you know, collectors love these things. On 83 00:04:38,160 --> 00:04:43,800 Speaker 1: the back copyright nine, and it packed a wallop. It 84 00:04:43,920 --> 00:04:48,560 Speaker 1: had five hundred and twelve bytes of memory. That's a 85 00:04:48,600 --> 00:04:52,640 Speaker 1: whole half. Yeah, that's that's what it had to work with. 86 00:04:53,120 --> 00:04:55,520 Speaker 1: If you were to look at a model of these. 87 00:04:55,520 --> 00:04:57,279 Speaker 1: We'll try and get some pictures together so that we 88 00:04:57,279 --> 00:04:59,280 Speaker 1: can share them on social at some point. But this 89 00:04:59,320 --> 00:05:01,479 Speaker 1: one in particular, er it looks kind of like a 90 00:05:01,480 --> 00:05:04,919 Speaker 1: big plastic brick that has, you know, some switches and 91 00:05:05,040 --> 00:05:07,680 Speaker 1: a little slider control on it. And if you were 92 00:05:07,680 --> 00:05:09,360 Speaker 1: to look at the brick and look at the the 93 00:05:09,480 --> 00:05:12,440 Speaker 1: say the upper right hand side of the brick, there's 94 00:05:12,440 --> 00:05:15,960 Speaker 1: a vertical strip that goes down that side. That would 95 00:05:16,000 --> 00:05:20,720 Speaker 1: be three quote unquote lanes of traffic. And so you 96 00:05:20,760 --> 00:05:23,240 Speaker 1: were your job was to drive a car, which in 97 00:05:23,240 --> 00:05:26,239 Speaker 1: this case was a little red blip, and that car 98 00:05:26,279 --> 00:05:29,840 Speaker 1: would gradually move up this vertical strip on that right 99 00:05:29,880 --> 00:05:32,800 Speaker 1: side of the game console um and then these other 100 00:05:33,040 --> 00:05:36,520 Speaker 1: smaller red blips would be coming down the lanes. Those 101 00:05:36,600 --> 00:05:40,560 Speaker 1: represented oncoming traffic, and your job was to steer between 102 00:05:40,640 --> 00:05:42,800 Speaker 1: those blips to try and get to the top of 103 00:05:42,880 --> 00:05:46,200 Speaker 1: your that little thin strip on the right side, and 104 00:05:46,240 --> 00:05:48,159 Speaker 1: then you would reappear at the bottom. And you had 105 00:05:48,200 --> 00:05:49,960 Speaker 1: to do this four times. If you could get all 106 00:05:49,960 --> 00:05:52,240 Speaker 1: the way to the top four times, you made four 107 00:05:52,320 --> 00:05:56,640 Speaker 1: quote unquote laps, and your score was how many seconds 108 00:05:56,680 --> 00:05:58,599 Speaker 1: it took you to get there. So a lower score 109 00:05:58,680 --> 00:06:02,719 Speaker 1: was better, and in fact it had some other sophisticated controls. 110 00:06:02,720 --> 00:06:05,000 Speaker 1: It hadn't start and reset, but it was really on 111 00:06:05,120 --> 00:06:07,559 Speaker 1: and off. And then I had a gear switch, which 112 00:06:07,640 --> 00:06:10,560 Speaker 1: was gears one through four, which really just meant that's 113 00:06:10,560 --> 00:06:13,520 Speaker 1: how fast the oncoming blips would come at you. You know, 114 00:06:13,680 --> 00:06:16,880 Speaker 1: the higher the gear, the faster they would approach. And 115 00:06:16,960 --> 00:06:19,080 Speaker 1: I actually watched the video of a guy saying, here's 116 00:06:19,120 --> 00:06:22,640 Speaker 1: the strategy to this game. You position your thumb so 117 00:06:22,680 --> 00:06:25,839 Speaker 1: that you do an upward motion that hits on and 118 00:06:25,880 --> 00:06:29,000 Speaker 1: then immediately switches the gears from one to four because 119 00:06:29,000 --> 00:06:30,760 Speaker 1: you couldn't just start in four, you had to start 120 00:06:30,760 --> 00:06:33,640 Speaker 1: in one. So if you could do it at one 121 00:06:33,720 --> 00:06:37,080 Speaker 1: smooth motion, then you would immediately be in that fourth 122 00:06:37,160 --> 00:06:39,800 Speaker 1: gear going as fast as you possibly can. And that's 123 00:06:39,839 --> 00:06:42,240 Speaker 1: how you would cut down on your on your time. 124 00:06:42,640 --> 00:06:45,080 Speaker 1: And they were making like times of thirty five or 125 00:06:45,080 --> 00:06:47,919 Speaker 1: forty seconds and saying, I'm really bad at this game. 126 00:06:47,960 --> 00:06:52,080 Speaker 1: And I'm thinking, you know, it's a simple premise, but 127 00:06:52,240 --> 00:06:55,520 Speaker 1: I don't think I don't have the reflexes. Oh sure, 128 00:06:55,560 --> 00:06:58,720 Speaker 1: sure that sounds like like my horror version of Frogger. 129 00:06:58,960 --> 00:07:04,279 Speaker 1: Um uh, this the entire display was just red led um. 130 00:07:04,320 --> 00:07:07,240 Speaker 1: And if you're thinking that this sounds like, well, that's 131 00:07:07,240 --> 00:07:11,120 Speaker 1: only one game. How is this a a portable gaming system? 132 00:07:11,160 --> 00:07:14,240 Speaker 1: A lot of these early ones were a single game 133 00:07:14,440 --> 00:07:18,119 Speaker 1: per system. Yeah. Yeah. And just like the earliest game 134 00:07:18,160 --> 00:07:21,600 Speaker 1: consoles for your home television set, like the Odyssey that 135 00:07:21,640 --> 00:07:25,520 Speaker 1: was essentially Pong. Might it might be like ten different 136 00:07:25,640 --> 00:07:28,920 Speaker 1: versions of Pong, but they're all ultimately Pong. Yeah. And 137 00:07:28,800 --> 00:07:32,080 Speaker 1: it was just hard coded directly onto the computer system. 138 00:07:32,280 --> 00:07:34,720 Speaker 1: So and that was all it would ever do. Now 139 00:07:34,800 --> 00:07:40,600 Speaker 1: nine marks the debut of a second game from Mattel Electronics. 140 00:07:40,680 --> 00:07:44,400 Speaker 1: And this is one that I've actually played. I don't 141 00:07:44,560 --> 00:07:47,320 Speaker 1: know if I owned it or not, because you're talking 142 00:07:47,360 --> 00:07:49,239 Speaker 1: about a time in my childhood when I was quite 143 00:07:49,280 --> 00:07:52,480 Speaker 1: young and Lauren didn't exist yet I did not. So 144 00:07:52,720 --> 00:07:57,280 Speaker 1: this is Mattel Electronics Football, one of the really popular games. 145 00:07:57,280 --> 00:07:59,800 Speaker 1: Effects so popular that they made a sequel called wait 146 00:07:59,840 --> 00:08:03,960 Speaker 1: for it, Football Too, and uh it had six control 147 00:08:04,040 --> 00:08:06,880 Speaker 1: buttons and again you would control a little red dot 148 00:08:07,000 --> 00:08:09,680 Speaker 1: that represented a football player and you had to try 149 00:08:09,720 --> 00:08:13,520 Speaker 1: and work your way across the yardage the massive amount 150 00:08:13,520 --> 00:08:16,760 Speaker 1: of yardage by that, I mean nine yards to try 151 00:08:16,800 --> 00:08:20,360 Speaker 1: and score against the other team, and um it was 152 00:08:20,440 --> 00:08:23,800 Speaker 1: interesting because there was a great interview with one of 153 00:08:23,840 --> 00:08:26,680 Speaker 1: the guys who was behind the building of these things 154 00:08:26,720 --> 00:08:29,360 Speaker 1: that I ran across, and he was talking about why 155 00:08:29,520 --> 00:08:33,120 Speaker 1: the football players like little bitty red dashes. Everything in 156 00:08:33,160 --> 00:08:35,439 Speaker 1: that day looked like little bitty red dashes. It's because 157 00:08:35,440 --> 00:08:39,760 Speaker 1: they were using calculator microprocessors, and in fact, those processors 158 00:08:39,800 --> 00:08:42,840 Speaker 1: are designed to show things like little digital numbers, right, 159 00:08:43,240 --> 00:08:46,920 Speaker 1: So so those dots were like the segment of a number. Yeah, 160 00:08:47,000 --> 00:08:50,680 Speaker 1: specifically the number eight. So yes, you were actually playing 161 00:08:50,720 --> 00:08:54,000 Speaker 1: as a segment of the number eight and you were 162 00:08:54,000 --> 00:08:56,960 Speaker 1: going up against other segments of the number eight, and 163 00:08:57,240 --> 00:09:01,800 Speaker 1: uh yeah. Eventually, uh Tell would end up contracting with 164 00:09:01,920 --> 00:09:05,000 Speaker 1: a company called National Semiconductor, which have you've been listening 165 00:09:05,000 --> 00:09:06,520 Speaker 1: to tech stuff for a long time, you've heard us 166 00:09:06,520 --> 00:09:09,320 Speaker 1: talk about that company, and it was to get sea 167 00:09:09,360 --> 00:09:12,559 Speaker 1: moss chips rather than old calculator chips. And then they 168 00:09:12,559 --> 00:09:15,480 Speaker 1: contracted with another company called Rockwell International to do the 169 00:09:15,559 --> 00:09:20,000 Speaker 1: actual hard coding programming onto those chips. So that's where 170 00:09:20,040 --> 00:09:24,439 Speaker 1: they started to uh kind of make more advanced versions 171 00:09:24,480 --> 00:09:29,000 Speaker 1: of these early games. Now these games were not exactly 172 00:09:29,440 --> 00:09:33,480 Speaker 1: um well, they had some trouble early on. See the 173 00:09:34,000 --> 00:09:38,719 Speaker 1: agreement here was between Mattel and the department store Sears, right, 174 00:09:38,800 --> 00:09:41,280 Speaker 1: and Sears completely doubted that they were going to be 175 00:09:41,360 --> 00:09:45,600 Speaker 1: popular and therefore halted production at only a hundred thousand units. Yep. 176 00:09:45,760 --> 00:09:50,200 Speaker 1: But it turned out that Sears had grossly underestimated the 177 00:09:50,320 --> 00:09:55,360 Speaker 1: demand for home you know, portable electronic games, and they 178 00:09:55,840 --> 00:09:59,400 Speaker 1: were so popular. Series immediately realized they had made the 179 00:09:59,440 --> 00:10:03,280 Speaker 1: wrongest vision. So by mid January of nineteen seventy eight, 180 00:10:03,280 --> 00:10:06,000 Speaker 1: Now keep in mind Football came out in ninety seven, 181 00:10:06,320 --> 00:10:07,880 Speaker 1: so these things have been on the market for a 182 00:10:07,880 --> 00:10:10,360 Speaker 1: couple of years. Yeah, yeah, just kind of stagnating exactly. 183 00:10:10,400 --> 00:10:12,199 Speaker 1: And it wasn't really It's one of those things where 184 00:10:12,280 --> 00:10:14,400 Speaker 1: no one was really sure how to market them, and 185 00:10:14,679 --> 00:10:16,959 Speaker 1: but now they were taking off. So by mid January 186 00:10:17,040 --> 00:10:21,240 Speaker 1: night Sears said they wanted two hundred thousand units per week, 187 00:10:22,200 --> 00:10:25,120 Speaker 1: not not a hundred thousand total, two hundred thousand every week. 188 00:10:25,320 --> 00:10:28,319 Speaker 1: And then by February they said, you know, we were wrong, 189 00:10:28,440 --> 00:10:33,640 Speaker 1: five hundred thousand per week. So Mattel said, huh, I 190 00:10:33,679 --> 00:10:36,000 Speaker 1: think we know how to make money now. Yeah, that's 191 00:10:36,000 --> 00:10:39,000 Speaker 1: when they started producing a whole bunch of different games. 192 00:10:39,040 --> 00:10:43,520 Speaker 1: That's sequel football to UM and also like Armor Attack, Subchase, 193 00:10:43,640 --> 00:10:45,640 Speaker 1: Missile Attack. UM. I think there was a Dungeons and 194 00:10:45,720 --> 00:10:48,160 Speaker 1: Dragons game there was. I took a look at it. 195 00:10:48,160 --> 00:10:51,440 Speaker 1: It was um, you know, again, fairly primitive. Now now, 196 00:10:51,679 --> 00:10:54,320 Speaker 1: at this point they were starting to work not just 197 00:10:54,480 --> 00:10:58,480 Speaker 1: with l E ED displays, but also l c D displays, 198 00:10:58,520 --> 00:11:01,720 Speaker 1: liquid crystal displays. So this is what a lot of 199 00:11:01,760 --> 00:11:04,400 Speaker 1: you if you've ever had one of those um little 200 00:11:04,440 --> 00:11:08,120 Speaker 1: handheld games, maybe it was licensed after an existing arcade 201 00:11:08,120 --> 00:11:11,080 Speaker 1: game or a cartoon or movie or something you're probably 202 00:11:11,080 --> 00:11:12,760 Speaker 1: familiar with. These are also the ones that you would 203 00:11:12,760 --> 00:11:15,880 Speaker 1: see on watches a lot of times. Uh, super cheap 204 00:11:15,960 --> 00:11:20,320 Speaker 1: to produce, very limited in their animation, very limited in 205 00:11:20,360 --> 00:11:23,720 Speaker 1: what they could actually display, but still compared to a 206 00:11:23,760 --> 00:11:26,160 Speaker 1: little blip on an l e ED screen, just a 207 00:11:26,160 --> 00:11:32,120 Speaker 1: little dot, incredibly sophisticated and much less eye bleedy. LED 208 00:11:32,240 --> 00:11:36,360 Speaker 1: displays tend to give me terrible headache. Yeah I can't 209 00:11:36,400 --> 00:11:40,000 Speaker 1: at that rate. I also just have nightmares. Remember remembering 210 00:11:40,040 --> 00:11:44,200 Speaker 1: the sound effects from football and football too, and yeah, 211 00:11:44,360 --> 00:11:48,240 Speaker 1: they're they're they're not all pleasant memories. But yeah, ninety nine, 212 00:11:48,280 --> 00:11:50,920 Speaker 1: that's when we see the first like Mate looks. I 213 00:11:51,040 --> 00:11:55,520 Speaker 1: was amazed to learn that this particular technology goes all 214 00:11:55,559 --> 00:11:59,600 Speaker 1: the way back to nine, right, and we're talking now 215 00:11:59,640 --> 00:12:03,680 Speaker 1: about rom cartridges. Yeah, so keep in mind those games 216 00:12:03,679 --> 00:12:07,000 Speaker 1: we just talked about, like Laurence said, they were hard coded. 217 00:12:07,040 --> 00:12:09,559 Speaker 1: You could not change those games out. What you bought 218 00:12:09,679 --> 00:12:12,679 Speaker 1: was what you bought. But that was not the way 219 00:12:12,679 --> 00:12:15,960 Speaker 1: of the future. Milton Bradley Company, Yeah, one of the 220 00:12:16,280 --> 00:12:18,920 Speaker 1: one of the competitors of Mattel, especially at the time 221 00:12:19,000 --> 00:12:23,440 Speaker 1: and in the gaming or not gaming but well board industry, right, 222 00:12:24,280 --> 00:12:27,600 Speaker 1: produced this thing called the Microvision. Right, So they decided 223 00:12:27,679 --> 00:12:30,199 Speaker 1: we're gonna do something similar to what some of the 224 00:12:30,280 --> 00:12:32,560 Speaker 1: home video game consoles were starting to do, like the 225 00:12:32,600 --> 00:12:37,160 Speaker 1: Atari system was was doing this creating a system that 226 00:12:37,160 --> 00:12:40,680 Speaker 1: could play cartridges, so you could switch out what game 227 00:12:40,760 --> 00:12:44,040 Speaker 1: you were playing. So now you weren't buying a single game, 228 00:12:44,080 --> 00:12:47,079 Speaker 1: you were buying a platform upon which to play games, 229 00:12:47,080 --> 00:12:49,160 Speaker 1: which is the way most of us are familiar with 230 00:12:49,200 --> 00:12:51,440 Speaker 1: games today, right. I mean, when I go out and 231 00:12:51,440 --> 00:12:53,800 Speaker 1: buy a game system, I expect I'm going to play 232 00:12:53,840 --> 00:12:56,440 Speaker 1: more than just one game, more than just the Xbox 233 00:12:56,559 --> 00:13:00,200 Speaker 1: at any rate. So this Microvision had a monoch from 234 00:13:00,320 --> 00:13:03,880 Speaker 1: l c D, which was a a screaming big sixteen 235 00:13:03,880 --> 00:13:07,640 Speaker 1: by sixteen pixel yeah resolution. Yeah, I mean at that resolution, 236 00:13:07,679 --> 00:13:10,240 Speaker 1: you just you could pick out every single detail on 237 00:13:10,280 --> 00:13:15,160 Speaker 1: that block that was yeah. Um. Also it had a 238 00:13:15,200 --> 00:13:19,000 Speaker 1: pad on it that had nine sections of interactivity on it, 239 00:13:19,240 --> 00:13:22,840 Speaker 1: which was which you didn't you didn't actually just use 240 00:13:22,920 --> 00:13:25,959 Speaker 1: the naked pad. That's not how this game worked, right, 241 00:13:26,000 --> 00:13:28,080 Speaker 1: That the cartridges that snapped in and out of the 242 00:13:28,080 --> 00:13:31,320 Speaker 1: game would include their own buttons to overlay on top 243 00:13:31,360 --> 00:13:33,760 Speaker 1: of that path exactly. So you can think of the 244 00:13:33,800 --> 00:13:37,280 Speaker 1: cartridges as being half cartridge half case, and then you 245 00:13:37,320 --> 00:13:39,800 Speaker 1: would pop the case open and put a new case 246 00:13:39,880 --> 00:13:41,199 Speaker 1: on it in order to play a new game. That 247 00:13:41,240 --> 00:13:44,199 Speaker 1: would also include overlays, which were a big thing back 248 00:13:44,240 --> 00:13:48,600 Speaker 1: in the seventies and eighties, which would increase the playability 249 00:13:48,640 --> 00:13:53,280 Speaker 1: by giving you would have a different, um superficial layer 250 00:13:53,360 --> 00:13:56,120 Speaker 1: on top of the game. So it's permanent because it's 251 00:13:56,120 --> 00:13:58,880 Speaker 1: an overlay, it's doesn't change at all, but it gives 252 00:13:58,920 --> 00:14:02,840 Speaker 1: the games a certain uh personality. Yeah, and also would 253 00:14:02,880 --> 00:14:05,200 Speaker 1: cut down on the work that the processor would have 254 00:14:05,240 --> 00:14:08,160 Speaker 1: to do. You know, you give you more space to 255 00:14:08,160 --> 00:14:12,360 Speaker 1: to play with your little blips and blobs exactly, and 256 00:14:12,679 --> 00:14:15,480 Speaker 1: the system itself did have a little built in analog 257 00:14:15,679 --> 00:14:18,280 Speaker 1: control knobs so that you could have some some basic 258 00:14:18,360 --> 00:14:21,080 Speaker 1: functionality without using the other buttons, or in addition to 259 00:14:21,120 --> 00:14:23,400 Speaker 1: the other buttons that any particular game would come with. 260 00:14:24,080 --> 00:14:27,120 Speaker 1: We have more to say about handheld gaming systems in 261 00:14:27,160 --> 00:14:29,400 Speaker 1: just a moment, but first let's take a quick right. 262 00:14:36,840 --> 00:14:39,600 Speaker 1: I love the site this this Little this Little caveat 263 00:14:40,080 --> 00:14:43,320 Speaker 1: about how it had serious electronics problems, including a lack 264 00:14:43,360 --> 00:14:46,960 Speaker 1: of proper Faraday installation, which means that aesthetic charge could 265 00:14:47,080 --> 00:14:50,920 Speaker 1: render your microvision inoperable, basically useless, or or at least 266 00:14:50,920 --> 00:14:53,320 Speaker 1: permanently damaged in a way that it would never come 267 00:14:53,360 --> 00:14:55,600 Speaker 1: back from. Same same sort of idea that when you're 268 00:14:55,600 --> 00:14:57,800 Speaker 1: putting together a computer, you want to make sure that 269 00:14:57,840 --> 00:15:01,760 Speaker 1: you discharge you yeah, yeah, the same, which makes sense 270 00:15:01,800 --> 00:15:04,400 Speaker 1: because when you took the cartridge off, then you have 271 00:15:04,440 --> 00:15:09,000 Speaker 1: a naked Yeah, so that would be um, yeah, good 272 00:15:09,400 --> 00:15:12,960 Speaker 1: good tip, thanks Lauren. Yeah, And that's that is probably 273 00:15:13,000 --> 00:15:15,200 Speaker 1: one of the reasons why even though the system where 274 00:15:15,200 --> 00:15:18,400 Speaker 1: it was moderately popular, Milton Bradley did stop producing it 275 00:15:18,520 --> 00:15:22,960 Speaker 1: only two or three years later. One furthermore, only thirteen 276 00:15:23,000 --> 00:15:26,760 Speaker 1: games were ever produced for the Microvision. Wait a minute, 277 00:15:26,800 --> 00:15:30,520 Speaker 1: I only could find twelve games that my oht one 278 00:15:30,560 --> 00:15:33,920 Speaker 1: was only available in European markets, correct, which is a 279 00:15:33,920 --> 00:15:37,720 Speaker 1: pretty common weird wiggie thing that happens, especially in these 280 00:15:37,720 --> 00:15:41,000 Speaker 1: early days, although although still modernly like like, different games 281 00:15:41,000 --> 00:15:43,960 Speaker 1: and different systems will only be available in Europe, or 282 00:15:44,040 --> 00:15:49,040 Speaker 1: in the US or in Japan. Really frequently only in Japan. Yeah, yeah, 283 00:15:49,120 --> 00:15:51,640 Speaker 1: you'll get You'll get entire systems that are available only 284 00:15:51,680 --> 00:15:54,120 Speaker 1: in a single region. But even within the ones that 285 00:15:54,320 --> 00:15:57,680 Speaker 1: span multiple regions. There are some titles. Sometimes game publishers 286 00:15:57,720 --> 00:15:59,880 Speaker 1: say this title is never going to do well in 287 00:16:00,120 --> 00:16:04,600 Speaker 1: ex country for why reasons, right, and until basically these days, 288 00:16:04,600 --> 00:16:06,920 Speaker 1: the Internet proves the wrong and someone actually spends the 289 00:16:06,920 --> 00:16:10,280 Speaker 1: money to port it over, yeah, or pirate it more 290 00:16:10,360 --> 00:16:14,040 Speaker 1: likely that right. So by by now we're getting right 291 00:16:14,080 --> 00:16:17,280 Speaker 1: into the very beginning of the eighties, and that's when 292 00:16:17,320 --> 00:16:20,000 Speaker 1: we start seeing l c D technology becoming so cheap 293 00:16:20,080 --> 00:16:23,120 Speaker 1: that uh that LED displays become kind of a thing 294 00:16:23,160 --> 00:16:25,720 Speaker 1: in the past. So you know, company has already been 295 00:16:25,760 --> 00:16:29,840 Speaker 1: kind of experimenting with it, but now it was something 296 00:16:29,840 --> 00:16:33,200 Speaker 1: that they could do without having to charge huge amounts 297 00:16:33,200 --> 00:16:37,600 Speaker 1: of money for relatively limited devices. So we start seeing 298 00:16:38,120 --> 00:16:42,160 Speaker 1: better displays and fewer of those little blip ones, which, 299 00:16:42,160 --> 00:16:46,600 Speaker 1: by the way, we're still treasured by collectors. Absolutely, miniaturization 300 00:16:46,680 --> 00:16:50,520 Speaker 1: was also reaching the point that we were seeing, I mean, 301 00:16:50,600 --> 00:16:54,560 Speaker 1: it was a lot cheaper to produce things, and uh yeah, 302 00:16:54,720 --> 00:16:56,840 Speaker 1: and and it also meant that we can make smaller 303 00:16:56,840 --> 00:16:59,640 Speaker 1: and smaller things, so you no longer had this giant, 304 00:16:59,680 --> 00:17:02,720 Speaker 1: bulky brick for everything, at least not anything that was basic. 305 00:17:03,120 --> 00:17:05,919 Speaker 1: And it even led to one of the things we're 306 00:17:05,960 --> 00:17:09,040 Speaker 1: gonna talk about in just a second, the the infamous 307 00:17:09,359 --> 00:17:12,840 Speaker 1: digital watch games. So something that you've got to keep 308 00:17:12,880 --> 00:17:14,600 Speaker 1: in mind is that this is the this is the 309 00:17:14,640 --> 00:17:18,160 Speaker 1: era where everybody got into this. Mattel had shown they 310 00:17:18,160 --> 00:17:22,320 Speaker 1: had struck gold with this idea. Also, consoles, home consoles 311 00:17:22,520 --> 00:17:25,359 Speaker 1: were very popular at times, so so it was a 312 00:17:25,440 --> 00:17:27,760 Speaker 1: huge industry. Everyone was saying, we got to get in 313 00:17:27,840 --> 00:17:30,520 Speaker 1: on this. So here's just a quick list and not 314 00:17:30,600 --> 00:17:33,360 Speaker 1: even an exhaustive list, but a quick list of some 315 00:17:33,359 --> 00:17:37,760 Speaker 1: some game companies that got really famous for the handheld 316 00:17:37,760 --> 00:17:40,159 Speaker 1: devices they produced. And you're probably gonna recognize some of 317 00:17:40,200 --> 00:17:47,320 Speaker 1: these names. Acclaim, Atari, Bondai, Cassio, Colico, Galube, Kinner, Konami, Namco, 318 00:17:47,440 --> 00:17:50,560 Speaker 1: Parker Brothers, Tandy, Texas Instruments, Tiger, and many many more. 319 00:17:50,920 --> 00:17:53,399 Speaker 1: I like that was alphabetized. Yeah, well I took it 320 00:17:53,400 --> 00:17:55,359 Speaker 1: from an alphabetized list, and I was too wazy to 321 00:17:55,400 --> 00:17:59,000 Speaker 1: mix them up. Uh. In nineteen eighty, that's when we 322 00:17:59,040 --> 00:18:02,000 Speaker 1: get the Casio game ten, which was one of the 323 00:18:02,040 --> 00:18:05,000 Speaker 1: watches we mentioned I believe in our Digital Watch smart 324 00:18:05,000 --> 00:18:08,719 Speaker 1: Watch episodes. Yeah, it was the first video game watch. 325 00:18:09,160 --> 00:18:11,640 Speaker 1: It had a version of space invaders, yes, and it 326 00:18:11,680 --> 00:18:13,920 Speaker 1: was like three lines of dashes that you could shoot 327 00:18:13,960 --> 00:18:16,879 Speaker 1: with your little dot. But again you use buttons on 328 00:18:16,880 --> 00:18:20,000 Speaker 1: the side of the watch to control your your little 329 00:18:20,200 --> 00:18:23,199 Speaker 1: your little ship and fight off against these space invaders, 330 00:18:23,240 --> 00:18:25,480 Speaker 1: which again were just sort of dashes. Oh and also 331 00:18:25,640 --> 00:18:29,720 Speaker 1: very important it also told the time. Yes, important side 332 00:18:29,760 --> 00:18:35,680 Speaker 1: note about this watch. Um. Also in Nintendo started releasing 333 00:18:35,720 --> 00:18:40,400 Speaker 1: this entire series of hard coded handheld video games called 334 00:18:40,680 --> 00:18:43,919 Speaker 1: called Game and Watch, and the very first one was 335 00:18:44,359 --> 00:18:48,680 Speaker 1: Ball Yeah really fancy. Yeah. You played as a juggler, 336 00:18:48,720 --> 00:18:52,760 Speaker 1: which I appreciate being a juggler myself. Um. And the object, 337 00:18:52,760 --> 00:18:55,480 Speaker 1: of course was to keep multiple objects in the air 338 00:18:55,560 --> 00:18:57,520 Speaker 1: and not let any of them drop. And you had 339 00:18:57,760 --> 00:19:01,639 Speaker 1: two controls which essentially controlled the juggler arms arms. Okay, 340 00:19:01,760 --> 00:19:03,399 Speaker 1: and that's one other thing I was going to mention 341 00:19:03,440 --> 00:19:06,359 Speaker 1: also was that these hard coded games. You may wonder 342 00:19:06,560 --> 00:19:09,480 Speaker 1: how did they stick around long after we started getting 343 00:19:09,520 --> 00:19:12,040 Speaker 1: these cartridge based systems. One of the ways they stuck 344 00:19:12,080 --> 00:19:15,560 Speaker 1: around is that they could have specific controls for that 345 00:19:15,680 --> 00:19:19,000 Speaker 1: game that are unique, you know, not just your little 346 00:19:19,040 --> 00:19:21,879 Speaker 1: direction pad and buttons. Sure you and you don't have 347 00:19:21,920 --> 00:19:24,359 Speaker 1: to recode the buttons for it every time that you 348 00:19:24,400 --> 00:19:26,120 Speaker 1: want to play a different game or learn a new 349 00:19:26,160 --> 00:19:31,240 Speaker 1: controller schematic. It's just that thing specialized. So it's very specific. Yeah. 350 00:19:31,280 --> 00:19:33,159 Speaker 1: So that way it ended up filling a niche that 351 00:19:33,359 --> 00:19:36,879 Speaker 1: your generic, you know, cartridge based systems couldn't because the 352 00:19:36,960 --> 00:19:39,480 Speaker 1: game control is always going to be the same unless 353 00:19:39,480 --> 00:19:42,080 Speaker 1: you build buy some sort of crazy peripheral that can 354 00:19:42,119 --> 00:19:45,320 Speaker 1: also plug into it. Anyway, the Game and Watch series 355 00:19:45,359 --> 00:19:49,840 Speaker 1: was incredibly popular. They produced sixty different games under that brand. 356 00:19:50,640 --> 00:19:53,000 Speaker 1: Only one of those was one you could not buy. 357 00:19:53,080 --> 00:19:54,639 Speaker 1: It was actually a prize. You had to win it 358 00:19:54,640 --> 00:19:57,240 Speaker 1: in a in a contest type thing, uh and um. 359 00:19:57,280 --> 00:20:00,320 Speaker 1: And they would release several different models of the over 360 00:20:00,320 --> 00:20:05,360 Speaker 1: the years. Eventually, starting in nine two, they started releasing 361 00:20:05,400 --> 00:20:08,679 Speaker 1: games that had two screens set up in this clamshell 362 00:20:08,800 --> 00:20:12,480 Speaker 1: kind of thing that looks bloody exactly like the Nintendo DS. 363 00:20:12,480 --> 00:20:14,040 Speaker 1: It really does. And you know, you look at this 364 00:20:14,080 --> 00:20:16,920 Speaker 1: and you're like, huh. All the way back in two 365 00:20:16,960 --> 00:20:19,879 Speaker 1: they had this idea and uh, and it was you know, 366 00:20:19,960 --> 00:20:22,040 Speaker 1: it was one of those that ended up really paying 367 00:20:22,040 --> 00:20:24,040 Speaker 1: off down the line. So they had a lot of 368 00:20:24,040 --> 00:20:27,479 Speaker 1: different models, a lot of different designs. Um they also 369 00:20:27,880 --> 00:20:31,280 Speaker 1: they're under different names, like you have the Silver, uh, 370 00:20:31,040 --> 00:20:34,080 Speaker 1: you have the Gold, Uh, you had the multi screen, 371 00:20:34,520 --> 00:20:37,440 Speaker 1: et cetera. And then he had tabletop and the tabletop. 372 00:20:37,520 --> 00:20:41,040 Speaker 1: They introduced those in three. They look like teeny tiny 373 00:20:41,359 --> 00:20:45,480 Speaker 1: arcade machines. So I had a friend who had Pac Man. 374 00:20:45,520 --> 00:20:47,720 Speaker 1: I think it was either pac Man or Donkey Kong, 375 00:20:48,240 --> 00:20:50,000 Speaker 1: one of the two. But it looks like a little 376 00:20:50,040 --> 00:20:54,160 Speaker 1: mature arcade. It's probably Donkey Kong now I think about 377 00:20:54,160 --> 00:20:56,520 Speaker 1: because it's a Nintendo. So yeah, a little like tiny 378 00:20:56,560 --> 00:20:59,159 Speaker 1: little arcade machines. So it's really a tabletop, not so 379 00:20:59,240 --> 00:21:02,359 Speaker 1: much a handheld, but you could have held it in 380 00:21:02,359 --> 00:21:04,120 Speaker 1: your hands. You just wouldn't be able to control both 381 00:21:04,200 --> 00:21:07,720 Speaker 1: the joystick and the buttons very easily. But um but 382 00:21:07,800 --> 00:21:09,760 Speaker 1: it was you know again one of those they only 383 00:21:09,800 --> 00:21:12,320 Speaker 1: produced four, So Donkey Kong Jr. That's the one I 384 00:21:12,400 --> 00:21:14,960 Speaker 1: was because they didn't do Pacman. It was Donkey Kong Jr. Snoopy, 385 00:21:15,000 --> 00:21:21,480 Speaker 1: Mario's Cement Factory, and Popeye. So um yeah, mostly notable 386 00:21:21,480 --> 00:21:26,600 Speaker 1: because they had this very evocative form factor. Unfortunately, ine 387 00:21:26,960 --> 00:21:29,040 Speaker 1: that that was also the year that the video game 388 00:21:29,320 --> 00:21:33,399 Speaker 1: console industry crashed. Yeah, we all know the story. You know. 389 00:21:34,160 --> 00:21:37,560 Speaker 1: The market was flooded with with game games and game 390 00:21:37,680 --> 00:21:41,000 Speaker 1: systems that ranged in quality from pretty good to abysmal. 391 00:21:41,440 --> 00:21:46,040 Speaker 1: And unfortunately, there were a lot of the abysmal category, uh, 392 00:21:46,080 --> 00:21:49,760 Speaker 1: including the infamous pac Man Atari Port and the e 393 00:21:49,960 --> 00:21:54,480 Speaker 1: T the Extraterrestrial Game. So it ended up crashing that 394 00:21:54,480 --> 00:21:59,199 Speaker 1: that whole industry. However, handheld games fared better than the 395 00:21:59,280 --> 00:22:02,119 Speaker 1: video game cons did one because they're less expensive and 396 00:22:02,160 --> 00:22:06,560 Speaker 1: too they fulfill a different need than the home video 397 00:22:06,600 --> 00:22:11,400 Speaker 1: game console. So very interesting. And then we also saw 398 00:22:11,440 --> 00:22:15,399 Speaker 1: at this time some experimentation with cartridge based systems similar 399 00:22:15,440 --> 00:22:19,399 Speaker 1: to what Microvision had tried. They included game systems like 400 00:22:19,440 --> 00:22:22,400 Speaker 1: the Intexts select a game, which I think only had 401 00:22:22,480 --> 00:22:25,080 Speaker 1: five or six game titles ever come out, the v 402 00:22:25,160 --> 00:22:30,040 Speaker 1: Tech Variety, Palm Text, super Micro, and the Epoch game 403 00:22:30,240 --> 00:22:33,560 Speaker 1: pocket Computer. And if you haven't heard of any of these, 404 00:22:34,600 --> 00:22:37,119 Speaker 1: I guess that kind of indicates what happened. Yeah, that's 405 00:22:37,160 --> 00:22:40,960 Speaker 1: that's pretty indicative. Yeah. So still they knew that this 406 00:22:41,000 --> 00:22:42,800 Speaker 1: was going to be a thing, like people were going 407 00:22:42,840 --> 00:22:44,760 Speaker 1: to want to have a system where they could play 408 00:22:44,840 --> 00:22:48,040 Speaker 1: multiple games, not just a single game hardcoded onto it. 409 00:22:48,080 --> 00:22:52,080 Speaker 1: But no one had cracked that code yet. Guys, have 410 00:22:52,160 --> 00:22:55,600 Speaker 1: gotta hand it to you. This classic episodes pretty awesome. 411 00:22:55,800 --> 00:23:05,719 Speaker 1: We're gonna take a quick break, Okay, So, Lauren, I 412 00:23:05,760 --> 00:23:10,159 Speaker 1: had hinted that the next system we're going to talk 413 00:23:10,200 --> 00:23:13,960 Speaker 1: about really cracks the whole problem of building a cartridge 414 00:23:13,960 --> 00:23:18,199 Speaker 1: based system that that resonates. What was I talking about? 415 00:23:18,440 --> 00:23:23,280 Speaker 1: You were probably talking about Nintendo's game Boy. Whole boy. 416 00:23:23,480 --> 00:23:25,920 Speaker 1: What you know, if you want to talk about cracking 417 00:23:25,960 --> 00:23:29,800 Speaker 1: the code, game Boy remains one of the top selling 418 00:23:29,880 --> 00:23:33,960 Speaker 1: consoles of all time period, doesn't matter if you're talking handheld. 419 00:23:34,000 --> 00:23:37,119 Speaker 1: I mean, if you're talking handheld, it is, but I 420 00:23:37,160 --> 00:23:39,399 Speaker 1: mean in just video game consoles, it's still one of 421 00:23:39,440 --> 00:23:42,439 Speaker 1: the Top. Oh yeah, yeah, and this came out, So 422 00:23:42,440 --> 00:23:45,480 Speaker 1: we're skipping ahead a few years. There wasn't much development 423 00:23:45,520 --> 00:23:47,320 Speaker 1: on the scene. Yeah, a lot of more of those 424 00:23:47,359 --> 00:23:51,120 Speaker 1: hard coded games. We had talked about um and it 425 00:23:51,160 --> 00:23:55,000 Speaker 1: was developed by gun Pay. Yes, and gun Pay. We 426 00:23:55,040 --> 00:23:58,760 Speaker 1: talked about him in an episode when I when I 427 00:23:58,840 --> 00:24:02,160 Speaker 1: did an episode about the history of Nintendo, we talked 428 00:24:02,160 --> 00:24:06,000 Speaker 1: about gun pay okoy because he was very, very influential 429 00:24:06,359 --> 00:24:11,080 Speaker 1: at Nintendo, both for some things that were incredibly popular 430 00:24:11,600 --> 00:24:15,240 Speaker 1: and and one thing in particular that was a notable flop. 431 00:24:15,520 --> 00:24:17,960 Speaker 1: So among the popular ones, where the game Boy, which 432 00:24:18,000 --> 00:24:21,280 Speaker 1: again one of the most popular game consoles of all time, 433 00:24:21,840 --> 00:24:25,840 Speaker 1: also Metroid of one of the most successful video game franchises, 434 00:24:26,040 --> 00:24:29,480 Speaker 1: and then hey, the Virtual Boy, which totally not successful. 435 00:24:29,840 --> 00:24:33,040 Speaker 1: A Virtual Boy technically kind of falls into the handheld category, 436 00:24:33,119 --> 00:24:35,200 Speaker 1: depending upon whom you ask. I didn't add it into 437 00:24:35,240 --> 00:24:38,240 Speaker 1: our notes because I was like, I don't really think 438 00:24:38,280 --> 00:24:40,200 Speaker 1: that there's a handheld. I mean, I think that was 439 00:24:40,240 --> 00:24:43,440 Speaker 1: definitely a desktop. Anything where you're wearing it and it's 440 00:24:43,480 --> 00:24:47,400 Speaker 1: blocking your vision. I can't imagine that being, you know, handheld. 441 00:24:47,480 --> 00:24:50,359 Speaker 1: Plus that thing would make you sick when you're just 442 00:24:50,440 --> 00:24:53,000 Speaker 1: sitting still. Can you imagine how you would feel after 443 00:24:53,080 --> 00:24:54,640 Speaker 1: five minutes of playing one of those in the back 444 00:24:54,680 --> 00:24:56,800 Speaker 1: of a car. I would certainly not want to wear 445 00:24:56,840 --> 00:24:58,119 Speaker 1: it around like I kind of want to wear the 446 00:24:58,160 --> 00:25:01,240 Speaker 1: Oculus Rift around everywhere. I would be acting like crazy, y'all. 447 00:25:01,400 --> 00:25:04,560 Speaker 1: So anyway, the Nintendo game Boy ended up using four 448 00:25:04,760 --> 00:25:08,600 Speaker 1: double A batteries, and it was actually a pretty good 449 00:25:08,640 --> 00:25:12,399 Speaker 1: about not gobbling them up immediately, right. I think that 450 00:25:12,400 --> 00:25:15,800 Speaker 1: that like, like colloquially, most people got about twenty hours 451 00:25:15,800 --> 00:25:17,879 Speaker 1: and can play out of it. Nintendo claimed that you 452 00:25:17,880 --> 00:25:19,439 Speaker 1: could go up to thirty five. I'm not sure that 453 00:25:19,480 --> 00:25:21,920 Speaker 1: I ever did that personal right, well, but part of 454 00:25:21,960 --> 00:25:23,879 Speaker 1: the reason why it was so efficient was that it 455 00:25:23,920 --> 00:25:27,120 Speaker 1: was a monochromatic screen and it was not back lit. 456 00:25:27,560 --> 00:25:29,320 Speaker 1: So in other words, if you were in a dark 457 00:25:29,400 --> 00:25:31,400 Speaker 1: room and you turned your game Boy on, you wouldn't 458 00:25:31,440 --> 00:25:33,640 Speaker 1: though you have to turn the light on. In fact, 459 00:25:33,680 --> 00:25:35,560 Speaker 1: there were there were accessories that were sold where it 460 00:25:35,600 --> 00:25:38,240 Speaker 1: was that little is like a book light exactly. Yeah. 461 00:25:38,280 --> 00:25:40,879 Speaker 1: So uh, but that meant that you didn't have to 462 00:25:41,400 --> 00:25:44,600 Speaker 1: spend extra power to keep a light lit, so that 463 00:25:44,800 --> 00:25:48,280 Speaker 1: helped conserve battery life. Sure, despite that, the resolution was 464 00:25:48,320 --> 00:25:52,200 Speaker 1: pretty good. It was one way better than that sixteen 465 00:25:52,200 --> 00:25:54,680 Speaker 1: by sixteen panel we talked about from a few years back. 466 00:25:54,840 --> 00:25:57,320 Speaker 1: All right, for the time it was it was pretty shiny, yeah, 467 00:25:57,320 --> 00:26:00,760 Speaker 1: and it had four different shades of gray. Well by 468 00:26:00,840 --> 00:26:03,320 Speaker 1: bye gray, you mean like green to black, but yeah, 469 00:26:03,760 --> 00:26:05,560 Speaker 1: they called it gray, but yes, it really was green 470 00:26:05,600 --> 00:26:08,680 Speaker 1: to black gray. And you could actually have the reports 471 00:26:08,720 --> 00:26:11,399 Speaker 1: where you could link game boys together. That was, I 472 00:26:11,400 --> 00:26:15,000 Speaker 1: mean incredibly forward thinking at the time. You're talking about 473 00:26:15,000 --> 00:26:18,280 Speaker 1: allowing multiple play, and it's not just I'm going to 474 00:26:18,359 --> 00:26:20,439 Speaker 1: take a turn. Oh my turn is over. Now I 475 00:26:20,600 --> 00:26:22,840 Speaker 1: hand this device to you and you take a turn. 476 00:26:22,920 --> 00:26:25,639 Speaker 1: That's the way the old systems were. So to have 477 00:26:25,760 --> 00:26:28,560 Speaker 1: something like this as a dense is this where you 478 00:26:28,560 --> 00:26:32,199 Speaker 1: could potentially linked together two different systems and play the 479 00:26:32,240 --> 00:26:37,120 Speaker 1: same game, was pretty phenomenal. Now, the original game Boy today, 480 00:26:37,200 --> 00:26:39,600 Speaker 1: a lot of players call it the brick. It was 481 00:26:39,640 --> 00:26:42,280 Speaker 1: pretty large, yeah, and it the way it was laid out, 482 00:26:42,320 --> 00:26:44,840 Speaker 1: if you have never seen an original game Boy, imagined 483 00:26:44,880 --> 00:26:47,639 Speaker 1: a rectangle and at the top of the rectangle is 484 00:26:47,760 --> 00:26:50,760 Speaker 1: kind of a squarish screen, and below the screen is 485 00:26:50,800 --> 00:26:53,280 Speaker 1: where you would find the directional pad and the two 486 00:26:53,400 --> 00:26:57,520 Speaker 1: years to be and the A and so there was 487 00:26:57,680 --> 00:26:59,720 Speaker 1: there were some problems with people playing for a long 488 00:26:59,720 --> 00:27:01,679 Speaker 1: time in game their hands kind of cramped up because 489 00:27:01,800 --> 00:27:03,959 Speaker 1: the controls were right there below the screen and not 490 00:27:04,040 --> 00:27:06,520 Speaker 1: to either side the way we're used to now. But 491 00:27:06,920 --> 00:27:11,000 Speaker 1: still very innovative. And I think I think it was 492 00:27:11,520 --> 00:27:15,680 Speaker 1: the perfect storm in that there was a game paired 493 00:27:15,720 --> 00:27:20,240 Speaker 1: with game Boy that together it was an unstoppable force. 494 00:27:20,880 --> 00:27:23,280 Speaker 1: Do do do do Do Do Do Do Do Do 495 00:27:23,280 --> 00:27:27,240 Speaker 1: Do do do do do do do do do do. Yeah, 496 00:27:27,359 --> 00:27:29,920 Speaker 1: Jonathan of course is talking about Tetris or singing about 497 00:27:29,920 --> 00:27:32,960 Speaker 1: Tetris the case maybe singing is very generous. I think 498 00:27:32,960 --> 00:27:37,439 Speaker 1: you for it. But yes, Tetris one of the most 499 00:27:37,600 --> 00:27:41,440 Speaker 1: popular titles in video game history. And uh, I mean, 500 00:27:41,520 --> 00:27:44,000 Speaker 1: we should do a podcast just about Tetris. At some 501 00:27:44,000 --> 00:27:46,359 Speaker 1: point I talked about that you have not already? Yeah, 502 00:27:46,359 --> 00:27:50,160 Speaker 1: well we could never fitted in. Oh no, at any rate. 503 00:27:50,320 --> 00:27:53,400 Speaker 1: Uh I even looked off like what would have been 504 00:27:53,560 --> 00:27:56,760 Speaker 1: off camera for that? That's how bad that pun was. 505 00:27:57,280 --> 00:28:00,720 Speaker 1: Um At any rate, the fact that Tetris was so 506 00:28:00,760 --> 00:28:03,080 Speaker 1: popular and that the Game Boy was such a great 507 00:28:03,160 --> 00:28:05,359 Speaker 1: form factor in the sense you could take it anywhere 508 00:28:05,800 --> 00:28:11,000 Speaker 1: you have this incredibly addictive puzzle game, this incredibly portable platform. 509 00:28:11,040 --> 00:28:13,960 Speaker 1: It was a perfect match. I mean when I think 510 00:28:14,000 --> 00:28:17,399 Speaker 1: game Boy, that's the first game I think of. You know, 511 00:28:17,440 --> 00:28:19,160 Speaker 1: I also think of some of the Mario games, because 512 00:28:19,160 --> 00:28:21,920 Speaker 1: those were really popular too, but but Tetris is the one. 513 00:28:21,960 --> 00:28:24,560 Speaker 1: I mean, anyone I knew who had a game Boy 514 00:28:24,680 --> 00:28:27,440 Speaker 1: that was in heavy rotation, no matter what other games 515 00:28:27,440 --> 00:28:32,320 Speaker 1: they owned, so incredibly forward thinking on that part too. 516 00:28:32,600 --> 00:28:36,080 Speaker 1: It was also relatively inexpensive. It retailed for a D 517 00:28:36,320 --> 00:28:40,160 Speaker 1: nine dollars, so you know, not not chump change. But 518 00:28:40,320 --> 00:28:44,480 Speaker 1: still we're going to talk about some game systems that 519 00:28:44,560 --> 00:28:46,920 Speaker 1: came out, you know, either around this time or shortly 520 00:28:46,960 --> 00:28:50,760 Speaker 1: thereafter that. We're much more expensive and not nearly as 521 00:28:50,760 --> 00:28:52,880 Speaker 1: popular for multiple reasons, but one of them is that 522 00:28:52,960 --> 00:28:56,280 Speaker 1: you know, they cost more. So uh yeah, game Boy 523 00:28:56,400 --> 00:28:59,360 Speaker 1: ends up being a huge hit. It's it's, you know, 524 00:29:00,000 --> 00:29:03,760 Speaker 1: compared to today's systems, not the most powerful one, but uh, 525 00:29:03,920 --> 00:29:06,720 Speaker 1: you know, they made some great decisions. They they went 526 00:29:06,760 --> 00:29:11,240 Speaker 1: with the cartridge based game systems, which load instantly so 527 00:29:11,280 --> 00:29:12,719 Speaker 1: you don't have to worry about you know, if you're 528 00:29:12,760 --> 00:29:14,640 Speaker 1: used to an optical drive and you have to wait 529 00:29:14,640 --> 00:29:17,280 Speaker 1: for a game to load spin up. Yeah, that's one thing, 530 00:29:17,320 --> 00:29:19,480 Speaker 1: but if you're used to cartridge based systems, you don't 531 00:29:19,520 --> 00:29:22,840 Speaker 1: even know what load time means. So it was really 532 00:29:22,840 --> 00:29:27,360 Speaker 1: really fast, and um yeah, it got a couple of updates, actually, 533 00:29:27,840 --> 00:29:30,640 Speaker 1: probably half a dozen or so updates before we get 534 00:29:30,680 --> 00:29:33,360 Speaker 1: to the next true version of the game Boy. Right. 535 00:29:33,400 --> 00:29:35,760 Speaker 1: Over the next several years, there would be a slimmer 536 00:29:35,880 --> 00:29:38,720 Speaker 1: version that had a true gray scale screen called the 537 00:29:38,720 --> 00:29:42,080 Speaker 1: game Boy Pocket, and in Japan there was a version 538 00:29:42,320 --> 00:29:45,240 Speaker 1: called the game Boy Light that had a backlit screen. Yeah, 539 00:29:45,240 --> 00:29:47,520 Speaker 1: so its l I g h T not l I 540 00:29:47,600 --> 00:29:51,600 Speaker 1: T right, but yeah, we um. We wouldn't see a 541 00:29:51,680 --> 00:29:55,040 Speaker 1: color screen update to the game Boy for almost a decade, 542 00:29:55,080 --> 00:29:57,840 Speaker 1: which gave a bunch of its competitors a really good 543 00:29:57,840 --> 00:30:01,120 Speaker 1: into the market. Yeah, or at least appeared that way 544 00:30:01,200 --> 00:30:03,760 Speaker 1: for some of them. They did a pretty good job. Others, 545 00:30:03,880 --> 00:30:05,920 Speaker 1: like the one we're about to talk about, had a 546 00:30:06,000 --> 00:30:09,000 Speaker 1: rougher start. So that same year that the Game Boy 547 00:30:09,040 --> 00:30:13,640 Speaker 1: comes out for Nintendo, Atari releases their first handheld gaming system, 548 00:30:13,640 --> 00:30:17,040 Speaker 1: their first like handheld cartridge based gaming system, the links 549 00:30:17,200 --> 00:30:20,560 Speaker 1: Ye L Y n X, And so it's the first 550 00:30:20,800 --> 00:30:25,000 Speaker 1: color handheld portable video games system, and it also had 551 00:30:25,120 --> 00:30:28,120 Speaker 1: multiplayer functionality. Now, this thing, if you looked at it 552 00:30:28,160 --> 00:30:30,680 Speaker 1: was very wide, the screen was in the center, the 553 00:30:30,680 --> 00:30:34,120 Speaker 1: controls were off to either side. Um. It was originally 554 00:30:34,200 --> 00:30:37,400 Speaker 1: actually called the Handy or sometimes called the Handy Boy, 555 00:30:37,480 --> 00:30:40,560 Speaker 1: depending upon who you ask, were the Handy Pack. That's 556 00:30:40,560 --> 00:30:43,800 Speaker 1: because it was developed by this other company called Epics. Yeah, 557 00:30:43,880 --> 00:30:46,560 Speaker 1: and Epics started shopping it around. They went to ce 558 00:30:46,920 --> 00:30:50,400 Speaker 1: S way back in nine and started to uh to 559 00:30:50,560 --> 00:30:53,400 Speaker 1: meet with other companies and say, look, we've developed this hardware. 560 00:30:53,480 --> 00:30:55,960 Speaker 1: Are you interested. Nintendo said, you know, we've got our 561 00:30:56,000 --> 00:30:59,120 Speaker 1: own thing. We're gonna pass. But Atari said, you know, 562 00:30:59,160 --> 00:31:01,680 Speaker 1: we really wanted it back into this market, and this 563 00:31:01,760 --> 00:31:03,720 Speaker 1: is this looks like it's a great way of doing it. 564 00:31:04,040 --> 00:31:07,719 Speaker 1: So they partnered together and they launched this. Now they 565 00:31:07,760 --> 00:31:10,840 Speaker 1: were billing it as being much more powerful than the 566 00:31:10,880 --> 00:31:13,360 Speaker 1: Game Boy. It had had that color screen, so that 567 00:31:13,440 --> 00:31:16,600 Speaker 1: alone made it appear, at least on the surface, to 568 00:31:16,680 --> 00:31:19,520 Speaker 1: be a better system. But there were a couple of 569 00:31:19,520 --> 00:31:22,520 Speaker 1: things against it. Yeah, it was it was heavier, it 570 00:31:22,600 --> 00:31:26,000 Speaker 1: was more clunky. Um, it was almost twice as expensive. Yeah, 571 00:31:26,080 --> 00:31:28,280 Speaker 1: that was a big one. And also they had a 572 00:31:28,320 --> 00:31:32,280 Speaker 1: real hard time getting developers to make games for it 573 00:31:32,320 --> 00:31:35,800 Speaker 1: that really took advantage of the Links's abilities, which is 574 00:31:35,800 --> 00:31:39,120 Speaker 1: a story we've heard time and time again with various systems. 575 00:31:39,240 --> 00:31:41,720 Speaker 1: Oh sure, I mean, you know, the specs on this 576 00:31:41,760 --> 00:31:44,120 Speaker 1: thing were pretty spectacular. It was on par with some 577 00:31:44,160 --> 00:31:46,080 Speaker 1: of the consoles that were coming out at the time, 578 00:31:47,640 --> 00:31:50,520 Speaker 1: but without the developers to make the games. Yeah, then 579 00:31:50,680 --> 00:31:54,640 Speaker 1: eventually they would end up offering a basic links system, 580 00:31:54,680 --> 00:31:57,200 Speaker 1: which meant they didn't include all the connection cables you 581 00:31:57,280 --> 00:32:02,320 Speaker 1: could have UM and that is about ARS. But that 582 00:32:02,400 --> 00:32:04,480 Speaker 1: was too little, too late because the game Boy had 583 00:32:04,680 --> 00:32:07,040 Speaker 1: had such a trounced it. Yeah, they had already had 584 00:32:07,080 --> 00:32:11,120 Speaker 1: such a big initial push, they were ahead of the game, 585 00:32:11,360 --> 00:32:13,600 Speaker 1: and literally they would try one more time with the 586 00:32:13,680 --> 00:32:18,200 Speaker 1: with the links to UM which which was more compact, 587 00:32:18,680 --> 00:32:21,080 Speaker 1: but but still didn't really ever make any headway and 588 00:32:21,120 --> 00:32:23,400 Speaker 1: would eventually fade out of production over the next couple 589 00:32:23,400 --> 00:32:28,920 Speaker 1: of years. Uh. Now, this was one of my favorite systems, 590 00:32:28,960 --> 00:32:32,040 Speaker 1: just for what it could do. I didn't own one, 591 00:32:32,040 --> 00:32:33,320 Speaker 1: I had a friend who owned one. I had a 592 00:32:33,320 --> 00:32:35,520 Speaker 1: lot of friends who owned games. I got a lot 593 00:32:35,520 --> 00:32:38,880 Speaker 1: of vicurious joy out of the friends who lived in 594 00:32:38,920 --> 00:32:43,600 Speaker 1: my neighborhood. But this one was the ANYC Turbo Express. 595 00:32:43,720 --> 00:32:45,840 Speaker 1: So if you've ever heard of the video game called Soul, 596 00:32:45,920 --> 00:32:50,640 Speaker 1: called the Turbo Graphics sixteen, this thing was a handheld 597 00:32:50,680 --> 00:32:53,360 Speaker 1: gaming device that could play those games. Like you could 598 00:32:53,360 --> 00:32:56,640 Speaker 1: get the Turbo Graphics sixteen cartridge plug it into this thing, 599 00:32:56,640 --> 00:32:59,800 Speaker 1: which I guess you can make imagine. Was that was 600 00:32:59,840 --> 00:33:03,080 Speaker 1: a little clunky, you know, and also drained batteries like 601 00:33:03,200 --> 00:33:06,720 Speaker 1: nothing comments. Yeah, okay, so batteries were expensive back then. 602 00:33:07,040 --> 00:33:09,840 Speaker 1: They're still not cheap, so it would drain batteries really fast. 603 00:33:09,880 --> 00:33:13,440 Speaker 1: But but but at least the Turbo Express itself was 604 00:33:13,560 --> 00:33:17,600 Speaker 1: modestly priced at a oh two dollars never mind, I 605 00:33:17,640 --> 00:33:19,440 Speaker 1: don't know where I was going with that. Yeah, speaking 606 00:33:19,480 --> 00:33:23,720 Speaker 1: of expensive, but but but it did have a color display, um, 607 00:33:23,760 --> 00:33:27,360 Speaker 1: it had a similar to the Nintendo model, the directional pad, 608 00:33:27,400 --> 00:33:32,160 Speaker 1: and two very very much the standard game control. And also, 609 00:33:32,240 --> 00:33:34,880 Speaker 1: for an additional price, if you wanted to spend more 610 00:33:34,880 --> 00:33:37,600 Speaker 1: than the two dollars plus the hundred dollars or so 611 00:33:37,680 --> 00:33:40,680 Speaker 1: in batteries to keep it going, you could get a 612 00:33:40,840 --> 00:33:44,400 Speaker 1: optional television tuner and turn it into a portable TV. 613 00:33:45,080 --> 00:33:47,120 Speaker 1: So I mean it was it was interesting to me, 614 00:33:47,160 --> 00:33:50,240 Speaker 1: and that this was the first attempt to build a 615 00:33:50,480 --> 00:33:55,240 Speaker 1: handheld video game system that could play video game consoles 616 00:33:55,280 --> 00:33:59,600 Speaker 1: like a television console games and and not a port. 617 00:34:00,040 --> 00:34:02,280 Speaker 1: I mean, I'm talking about the exact same game that 618 00:34:02,360 --> 00:34:06,760 Speaker 1: to me was really phenomenal. Was also the year that 619 00:34:06,880 --> 00:34:09,839 Speaker 1: the first serious competitor to the Game Boy came out. 620 00:34:09,960 --> 00:34:12,839 Speaker 1: And by serious competitor, I mean they did a decent job. 621 00:34:12,920 --> 00:34:15,400 Speaker 1: They didn't it wasn't the game Boy was in danger. 622 00:34:15,880 --> 00:34:19,000 Speaker 1: But they didn't just appear and then disappear, certainly not. 623 00:34:19,120 --> 00:34:22,200 Speaker 1: This is the Sega Game Gear, and at the time, 624 00:34:22,280 --> 00:34:25,160 Speaker 1: the second Genesis was the leading console, so so it 625 00:34:25,480 --> 00:34:28,759 Speaker 1: had some serious firepower behind it. Now, originally it was 626 00:34:29,400 --> 00:34:31,200 Speaker 1: it was when it was top secret, it was still 627 00:34:31,200 --> 00:34:33,759 Speaker 1: in development. It was not called the game Gear. I know, 628 00:34:33,800 --> 00:34:36,239 Speaker 1: it was called the Project Mercury. Yeah. At the time, 629 00:34:36,280 --> 00:34:39,880 Speaker 1: Sega was naming all of its different projects after planets, 630 00:34:40,080 --> 00:34:42,160 Speaker 1: which shouldn't come as a surprise if you owned a 631 00:34:42,160 --> 00:34:47,239 Speaker 1: Sega Saturn. Oh right, yeah, so at a lot of Yeah, yeah, 632 00:34:47,280 --> 00:34:48,879 Speaker 1: it's kind of cool. I mean it's I love finding 633 00:34:48,920 --> 00:34:53,920 Speaker 1: out like Apple calls all their stuff after cats. But okay, 634 00:34:53,920 --> 00:34:58,080 Speaker 1: so this one cost less than the Turbo Express. It 635 00:34:58,200 --> 00:35:00,480 Speaker 1: was not trying to They were trying really hard to 636 00:35:00,560 --> 00:35:03,480 Speaker 1: kind of be competitive in that same space as the 637 00:35:03,760 --> 00:35:06,200 Speaker 1: as the Game Boy. It was more expensive than a 638 00:35:06,239 --> 00:35:09,040 Speaker 1: game Boy because it was at a d when it launched. 639 00:35:09,440 --> 00:35:14,400 Speaker 1: But but that's but that's not as as much. Hundred 640 00:35:14,440 --> 00:35:17,680 Speaker 1: dollars less than the Turbo Express. Yeah, it had that 641 00:35:17,760 --> 00:35:21,520 Speaker 1: color screen, it was cartridge based. It came with a 642 00:35:21,560 --> 00:35:27,239 Speaker 1: single game kind of replicant of of Tetris columns if 643 00:35:27,239 --> 00:35:29,359 Speaker 1: you remember that it was. It was a puzzle based game. 644 00:35:29,440 --> 00:35:31,919 Speaker 1: So it was clear they they saw a game Boy 645 00:35:31,920 --> 00:35:34,319 Speaker 1: and its success with Tetris and said, let's make sure 646 00:35:34,360 --> 00:35:36,480 Speaker 1: we pair this with a puzzle game so we can 647 00:35:36,480 --> 00:35:39,480 Speaker 1: get all those casual gamers hooked and then we'll be 648 00:35:39,560 --> 00:35:42,280 Speaker 1: we have a license to print money. Uh. And actually 649 00:35:42,280 --> 00:35:44,520 Speaker 1: it did, like I said, pretty well. They ended up 650 00:35:44,520 --> 00:35:48,319 Speaker 1: producing more than two hundred fifty games over the lifetime 651 00:35:48,520 --> 00:35:53,000 Speaker 1: of the Game Gear, which was up until now just 652 00:35:53,080 --> 00:35:54,719 Speaker 1: like the Game Boy. We didn't mention this, but the 653 00:35:54,719 --> 00:35:57,680 Speaker 1: game Boy and the Game Gear both could produce stereo sound, 654 00:35:57,719 --> 00:36:00,200 Speaker 1: but only if you plugged in headphones because had a 655 00:36:00,280 --> 00:36:04,719 Speaker 1: single single so very similar in some ways to the 656 00:36:04,719 --> 00:36:07,680 Speaker 1: game Boy, and it was a good competitor against the 657 00:36:07,719 --> 00:36:11,560 Speaker 1: Game Boy. However, the game Boy eventually just wins out 658 00:36:11,600 --> 00:36:14,360 Speaker 1: over the fact that it had an incredible library of 659 00:36:14,400 --> 00:36:17,640 Speaker 1: games that just grew year over year, and just again 660 00:36:17,640 --> 00:36:20,600 Speaker 1: that price point seemed to be a magic spot that 661 00:36:20,640 --> 00:36:23,600 Speaker 1: wraps up this classic episode. Obviously, next week we are 662 00:36:23,640 --> 00:36:26,840 Speaker 1: going to listen to part two of this series to 663 00:36:26,960 --> 00:36:30,040 Speaker 1: learn more about handheld gaming systems. This is one that 664 00:36:30,080 --> 00:36:32,759 Speaker 1: I could clearly do a an update on since this 665 00:36:32,840 --> 00:36:37,560 Speaker 1: episode originally published, So if you would be interested in that, 666 00:36:37,800 --> 00:36:40,000 Speaker 1: or perhaps there's some other topic you would like me 667 00:36:40,080 --> 00:36:43,239 Speaker 1: to cover, reach out on Twitter. The handle is text 668 00:36:43,280 --> 00:36:47,840 Speaker 1: stuff HSW and I'll talk to you again really soon. Y. 669 00:36:52,080 --> 00:36:55,120 Speaker 1: Text Stuff is an I Heart Radio production. For more 670 00:36:55,200 --> 00:36:58,600 Speaker 1: podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the i Heart Radio app, 671 00:36:58,719 --> 00:37:01,880 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.