Editing Handheld game console (section)

=== Origins ===
{{Main|Handheld electronic game}}
The origins of handheld game consoles are found in handheld and tabletop electronic game devices of the 1970s and early 1980s. These electronic devices are capable of playing only a single game,<ref name="nintendo popular"/> they fit in the palm of the hand or on a tabletop, and they may make use of a variety of video displays such as [[Light-emitting diode|LED]], [[Vacuum fluorescent display|VFD]], or [[Liquid crystal display|LCD]].<ref name="electronic handheld definition">{{cite book| last = Demaria| first = Rusel|author2=Johnny L. Wilson| title = High Score! The Illustrated History of Video games| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=HJNvZLvpCEQC&q=High+Score!+The+Illustrated+History+of+Video+games| publisher = [[McGraw-Hill]]| year = 2002| page = 30| isbn = 978-0-07-222428-3}}</ref> In 1978, handheld electronic games were described by ''[[Popular Electronics]]'' magazine as "nonvideo electronic games" and "non-TV games" as distinct from devices that required use of a television screen.<ref name="nonvideogame">{{Cite journal| last = Jensen| first = Kris| title = New 1978 Electronic Games| journal = [[Popular Electronics]]|date=January 1978| pages = 33–43| url = http://www.handheldmuseum.com/BooksMagazines/Mag-PE_0178/PE0178_2.htm| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110628172513/http://www.handheldmuseum.com/BooksMagazines/Mag-PE_0178/PE0178_2.htm| archive-date=June 28, 2011| access-date = July 17, 2016}}</ref> Handheld electronic games, in turn, find their origins in the synthesis{{Citation needed|date=January 2009}} of previous handheld and tabletop [[Electromechanics|electro-mechanical]] devices such as [[Waco (toymaker)|Waco]]'s ''Electronic Tic-Tac-Toe'' (1972)<ref name="electronic handheld definition"/> Cragstan's ''Periscope-Firing Range'' (1951),<ref name="handheldmuseum">{{cite web| last = Morgan| first = Rik| title = Cragstan Periscope-Firing Range| publisher = Handheld Museum| date = August 5, 2008| url = http://www.handheldmuseum.com/Misc/CragstanPeriscope.htm| access-date = December 27, 2008}}</ref> and the emerging [[Optoelectronics|optoelectronic]]-display-driven calculator market of the early 1970s.<ref name="LED Calculators">{{Cite magazine| title = Optoelectronics Arrives| magazine = [[Time (magazine)|Time]]| volume = 99| issue = 14| date = April 3, 1972| url = http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,903443,00.html| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20101022172145/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,903443,00.html| url-status = dead| archive-date = October 22, 2010}}</ref><ref name="Cohen Interview">{{cite web| last = Morgan| first = Rik| title = Interview with Howard Cohen.| publisher = Handheld Museum| date = August 5, 2008| url = http://www.handheldmuseum.com/Mattel/Trivia.htm| access-date = October 1, 2009}}</ref> This synthesis happened in 1976, when "Mattel began work on a line of calculator-sized sports games that became the world's first handheld electronic games. The project began when Michael Katz, Mattel's new product category marketing director, told the engineers in the electronics group to design a game the size of a calculator, using LED (light-emitting diode) technology."<ref name="ultimate history">{{cite book| last = Kent| first = Steven| title = The Ultimate History of Video Games| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=C2MH05ogU9oC&q=%22The+Ultimate+History+of+Video+Games%22| publisher = Prima Publishing| year = 2001| page = 200| isbn = 978-0-7615-3643-7}}</ref>

::our big success was something that I conceptualized—the first handheld game. I asked the design group to see if they could come up with a game that was electronic that was the same size as a calculator.
:::—Michael Katz, former marketing director, Mattel Toys.<ref name="ultimate history"/>

[[File:Game & Watch Ball.jpg|thumb|[[Game & Watch Ball]]]]
The result was the 1976 release of ''Auto Race''.<ref name="1up">{{cite web| last = Parish| first = Jeremy| title = PSPredecessors| publisher = 1up| date = March 28, 2005| url = http://www.1up.com/features/pspredecessors| access-date = January 10, 2008| url-status = dead| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160721193503/http://www.1up.com/features/pspredecessors| archive-date = July 21, 2016| df = mdy-all}}</ref> Followed by ''Football'' later in 1977,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.handheldmuseum.com/Mattel/FB.htm|title=Mattel's Football (I) (1977, LED, 9 Volt, Model# 2024)|work=handheldmuseum.com|access-date=July 16, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.retroland.com/mattel-electronics-football/|title=Mattel Electronics Football|work=Retroland|access-date=July 16, 2016|archive-date=July 10, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200710014145/http://www.retroland.com/mattel-electronics-football/|url-status=dead}}</ref> the two games were so successful that according to Katz, "these simple electronic handheld games turned into a '$400 million category.'"<ref name="electronic handheld definition"/> Mattel would later win the honor of being recognized by the industry for innovation in handheld game device displays.<ref name="Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards">{{cite web| title = Winners of 59th Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards Announced by National Television Academy at Consumer Electronics Show| work = National Television Academy of Television Arts and Sciences| date = January 8, 2008| url = http://www.emmyonline.org/mediacenter/_pdf/tech_2k7_winners.pdf| access-date = July 16, 2016| url-status = dead| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160721193614/http://www.emmyonline.org/mediacenter/_pdf/tech_2k7_winners.pdf| archive-date = July 21, 2016| df = mdy-all}}</ref> Soon, other manufacturers including [[Coleco]], [[Parker Brothers]], [[Milton Bradley Company|Milton Bradley]], [[Entex Industries|Entex]], and [[Bandai]]<ref name="competitors"/> began following up with their own tabletop and handheld electronic games.

In 1979 the LCD-based [[Microvision]], designed by Smith Engineering and distributed by Milton-Bradley,<ref name="phoenix">{{cite book| last = Herman| first = Leonard| title = Phoenix: The Rise and Fall Of Video Games| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=JHOAAAAACAAJ&q=%22Phoenix%22+video+games| publisher = Rolenta Press| year = 2001| page = 42| isbn = 0-9643848-5-X}}</ref> became the first handheld game console and the first to use interchangeable game cartridges.<ref name="Microvision ONM"/> The Microvision game ''Cosmic Hunter'' (1981) also introduced the concept of a [[D-pad|directional pad]] on handheld gaming devices,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://psp.about.com/od/hardwarefirmware/a/psphistorymicrovision.htm|title=Sony's PlayStation Portable and Milton Bradley's Microvision - The PSP and the History of Handheld Video Gaming, Part 2|author=Niko Silvester|work=about.com|access-date=July 16, 2016|archive-date=August 6, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200806162245/https://www.lifewire.com/retro-collector-beginnings-4040018|url-status=dead}}</ref> and is operated by using the thumb to manipulate the on-screen character in any of four directions.<ref name="handheldmuseum2">{{cite web| last = Morgan| first = Rik| title = CosmiHunter| publisher = Handheld Museum| date = August 5, 2008| url = http://www.handheldmuseum.com/MB/MVCosmicHunter.htm| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110628172547/http://www.handheldmuseum.com/MB/MVCosmicHunter.htm| archive-date = June 28, 2011| access-date = June 25, 2009}}</ref>

In 1979, [[Gunpei Yokoi]], traveling on a [[Shinkansen|bullet train]], saw a bored businessman playing with an [[LCD]] [[calculator]] by pressing the buttons. Yokoi then thought of an idea for a watch that doubled as a miniature game machine for killing time.<ref>{{cite web |last=Crigger |first=Lara |url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_87/490-Searching-for-Gunpei-Yokoi |title=The Escapist: Searching for Gunpei Yokoi |publisher=Escapistmagazine.com |date=March 3, 2007 |access-date=July 17, 2016 |archive-date=February 13, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140213213725/http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_87/490-Searching-for-Gunpei-Yokoi |url-status=dead }}</ref> Starting in 1980, [[Nintendo]] began to release a series of electronic games designed by Yokoi called the [[Game & Watch]] games.<ref name="game and watch">{{cite news| last = Pollack| first = Andrew| title = Gunpei Yokoi, Chief Designer Of Game Boy, Is Dead at 56| newspaper =The New York Times| date = October 9, 1997| url = https://www.nytimes.com/1997/10/09/business/gunpei-yokoi-chief-designer-of-game-boy-is-dead-at-56.html?n=Top%2FReference%2FTimes%20Topics%2FSubjects%2FD%2FDeaths%20(Obituaries)}}</ref> 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.<ref name="game over">{{cite book| last = Sheff| first = David| author-link = David Sheff| title = Game Over: Press Start to Continue| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=0dK2AAAAIAAJ&q=Game+Over:+Press+Start+to+Continue| publisher = GamePress| year = 1999| page = 28| isbn = 978-0-9669617-0-6}}</ref> For later, more complicated Game & Watch games, Yokoi invented a cross shaped directional pad or "D-pad" for control of on-screen characters.<ref name="IGN">{{cite web| last = Buchanan| first = Levi| title = From Janitor to Superstar Gunpei Yokoi, inventor of the Game Boy, would have been 67 this week.| website = IGN| date = September 8, 2008| url = http://retro.ign.com/articles/908/908569p1.html| access-date = December 28, 2008}}</ref> Yokoi also included his directional pad on the [[Nintendo Entertainment System|NES]] controllers, and the cross-shaped thumb controller soon became standard on game console controllers and ubiquitous across the video game industry since.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.brown.edu/Departments/Joukowsky_Institute/courses/13things/7643.html|title=The Game Controller: From the Beginning|publisher=Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World. Brown University|work=13 Things|year=2008|first=Jeffrey|last=Pfau|access-date=July 16, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Natapov|first1=D.|last2=MacKenzie|first2=I. S.|year=2010|title=The trackball controller: Improving the analog stick|journal=Proceedings of the 2010 Conference on FuturePlay|pages=175–182|location=New York|publisher=ACM|url=http://www.yorku.ca/mack/FuturePlay2010-1.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160411142350/http://www.yorku.ca/mack/FuturePlay2010-1.pdf|archive-date=April 11, 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> When Yokoi began designing Nintendo's first handheld game console, he came up with a device that married the elements of his Game & Watch devices and the Famicom console,<ref name="game over2">{{cite book| last = Sheff| first = David| author-link = David Sheff| title = Game Over: Press Start to Continue| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=0dK2AAAAIAAJ&q=Game+Over:+Press+Start+to+Continue| publisher = GamePress| year = 1999| page = 294| isbn = 978-0-9669617-0-6}}</ref> including both items' D-pad controller. The result was the Nintendo Game Boy.

In 1982, the [[Bandai LCD Solarpower]] was the first [[solar energy|solar-powered]] gaming device. Some of its games, such as the [[Survival horror|horror]]-themed game ''Terror House'', features two [[LCD panel]]s, one stacked on the other, for an early [[Stereoscopy|3D effect]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pcpro.co.uk/features/361591/the-top-ten-retro-gaming-secrets/3|title=The top ten retro gaming secrets|work=PC Pro|access-date=January 26, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120123220944/http://www.pcpro.co.uk/features/361591/the-top-ten-retro-gaming-secrets/3|archive-date=January 23, 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref> In 1983, [[Takara Tomy]]'s [[Tomytronic 3D]] simulates [[3D computer graphics|3D]] by having two [[LCD]] panels that were lit by external light through a window on top of the device, making it the first dedicated home video 3D hardware.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pcpro.co.uk/features/361591/the-top-ten-retro-gaming-secrets|title=The top ten retro gaming secrets|work=PC Pro|access-date=January 26, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120115123926/http://www.pcpro.co.uk/features/361591/the-top-ten-retro-gaming-secrets|archive-date=January 15, 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref>