The Gizmondo (2005, $ 400 or $ 229 with “Smart Adds”)
The only portable game console of all time – as far as we know –launched by former members of the Swedish mafia, Gizmondo really looks very good on paper. Simultaneously, an MP3 player, GPS (to keep your kids safe, see), text messaging device, and video game console, the weird little digital potato looks smooth enough when you see it spinning. And if that $ 400 price seems exorbitant, well, go ahead and get a “Smart Adds” enabled model for almost half the cost – in exchange for watching a few streaming ads a day, of course. (This may be the most advanced aspect of this whole piece, now that we think about it.)
Launched by Tiger Telematics (unrelated to Tiger Electronics), Gizmondo didn’t even have to wait for Nintendo to come and crush it; Excessive promotion spending, incredibly poor sales and what was alleged to have been some rather dubious financial negotiations led to the bankruptcy of the other Tiger in 2006. The DS may have overreacted on new features, but at least Nintendo did not go out and buy the controlling stake. of a modeling studio just to help promote the damn thing.
digiBLAST (2005, $ 90)
One of several devices on this list that were essentially embryonic tablets – two years before Apple finally had a decent chance of breaking the concept with the original iPhone – Nikko’s digiBLAST is a classic case of trying to do too much with too little. Launched mainly in European markets, the strange little square was both a media player and a gaming device, allowing children to watch (muddy) versions of their favorite TV shows on their (decidedly muddy) screen, before changing cartridges to reproduce blurry versions of Rayman or Tony Hawk Pro Skateboarder 4.
In defense of Nikko, Nintendo tried to address this idea of a video player as well, at the time of the GBA. (We may be interested in a view of the GBA cut of Principle?) But in 2005, the company embraced the idea that its devices were, first of all, and just game machines – perhaps because it had seen so many other competitors out of the race trying to be everything to all children.
Caanoo (2010, $ 150)
We have placed a strong focus throughout this history on the role that Nintendo’s software library played in increasing handheld device sales. Well, we’ve finally come up with a system that can Furthermore benefit from all of Mario’s hard work, through the magic of, uh, stealing. (Or emulation, if you want to specify.) Launched by South Korea’s GamePark Holdings, Caanoo was one of several notebooks that hit the market during the DS era and stood out for being open source, meaning anyone could write software for them, without worrying about getting certified by Nintendo or anyone else. These boxes, which included the Dingoo and later Pandora, were basically small portable computers that anyone could program. And what they usually programmed them to do was play old games of NES, SNES, Game Boy and Genesis, because, honestly, why wouldn’t you play?
Caanoo itself didn’t last long, but portable open-source platforms only increased interest, despite what Nintendo, famous for being intolerant of anyone who messes with its copyright, would probably prefer. (God only knows what they make of Arduboy, an Arduino-equipped riff on Nintendo’s most famous handheld that’s almost the size of a credit card.)