From Game & Watch to Steam Deck - the evolution of portable consoles - review addiction

The path to the “PC in your pocket” was long and thorny.

In the last month in the gaming community, there was only talk about Steam Deck… Have Valve already had a bad experience with game consoles: the infamous Steam Machinethat didn’t even sell a million copies. But in the case of the portable version, the situation may well turn out differently: now there is only one device on the market from a famous brand, and moreover with not the most advanced hardware. Hopes that Nintendo will introduce a more powerful version Switch, did not come true – instead of it, the players were slipped a slightly modified version with a slightly larger OLED screen and doubled the amount of internal memory. It is also interesting that in nature there have long been PCs of Chinese brands in the portable form factor, offering plus or minus the same thing as the Steam Deck. That’s just messing around with a full-fledged Windows 10 Not everyone will want it, because the main advantage of the consoles lies precisely in the ease of use. And, apparently, the platform from Valve with its SteamOS will function exactly according to the “push the button and play” principle.

Since we are waiting for a new big player in the market of portable gaming devices, we decided to recall how portable gaming was born in general and what stages of evolution it went through over the past decades.

Origins

Perhaps many will be surprised, but the history of portable consoles does not begin with Game & Watch from Nintendo, well known in the post-Soviet space thanks to clones from “Electronics”… The first pocket consoles were created back in the 70s – mostly one-game systems, which could hardly be called pocket consoles. The turning point was the release Microvision from Milton bradleywhich used replaceable cartridges. The console got by with a tiny screen, a battery slot, a control wheel, and 12 unsigned buttons. The context of the buttons was given by the cartridges themselves, which were comparable in size to the console; each included a processor not found in Microvision itself.

Microvision

Because of the screen with “cubes”, one may get the impression that we have a distant ancestor in front of us “Tetris”, but the primitiveness of Microvision’s graphics was compensated for by individual image elements applied to a special overlay that was installed over the display. But the dimensions of the device itself did not correspond to the microscopic screen in any way – to carry the console with you, you needed not a pocket, but at least a lady’s handbag. However, the lack of competition did the trick and Microvision became commercially successful.

Interestingly, Milton Bradley consoles are credited with another important innovation – the D-Pad or, more simply, the D-pad as a control element. Later, the concept will be finalized by Gunpei Yokoi, one of the most talented engineers at Nintendo and, concurrently, the creator Game & Watch and Game boy… The four-way key, familiar to any gamer, largely determined the appearance of not only subsequent portable devices, but also gamepads for stationary consoles and PCs. D-Pad in its traditional sense was used in Game & Watch Donkey Kong II along with two displays to boot. This is where engineers will subsequently find inspiration when creating Nintendo ds!

Game & Watch

For context: controllers for gaming systems that were relevant at that time, as a rule, were either an unsightly semblance of a telephone receiver, or a long stick with a couple of buttons. Youkoi was the first to realize that portable is portable in order to remain as compact as possible. Of course, there were also some compromises: all graphic elements were pre-drawn on the display and activated at the right time, so there was virtually no animation in the usual sense. But on the other hand, the image was no longer a set of cubes, but quite legible drawings. And conceptually, the games were much more diverse. This, coupled with affordability and ease of use, has made the Game & Watch an incredibly successful device that has drawn the attention of the entire industry to portable gaming.

Game Boy I take with me

True, the next revolution had to wait a long time. There were, of course, separate and rather strange experiments like Tomytronic 3D from Takara (consoles in the form of a helmet showing a stereoscopic picture) or Bandai LCD Solarpower (solar powered handhelds), but they were not successful. The crisis in the gaming industry almost buried a promising direction, but then Nintendo came to the rescue with Famicom, or Nintendo Entertainment System, as they called it in the West. Super Mario Bros., The legend of zelda and a number of hit franchises that originated on this platform turned the idea of gaming, which (at least on consoles) at that time mainly consisted of ports from arcades. And a new wave of hits showed that the trivial entertainment of conquering the leaderboards could be turned into an exciting and long-lasting adventure.

Game boy

Youkoi said that he was pushed to create Game & Watch by a businessman who rode with him in the same carriage and, having nothing to do, began to entertain himself by pressing the keys of the calculator. With the Game Boy arriving in the late 80s, it became clear that the border between portable and stationary gaming could be erased, albeit with an adjustment for graphics and a simplified multi-platform. Now go explore the vast world in Zelda, or Final Fantasy it was possible without a TV at all. Competitors took up the initiative, but technical superiority and unusual accessories (for example, a TV tuner for Game gear from Sega) did not help them topple the Nintendo console.

TurboExpress

By the way, the first portable, in every sense, blurred the line between home and pocket systems, was TurboExpress, known in its native Japan as PC Engine GT… And all because NEC rammed iron original PC Engine into a tiny body, ensuring full compatibility with original media. In the early 90s, being able to play the same games on the road as at home seemed incredible. But there were very few games that were really worthy of attention on the platform, and the hardware, powerful by the standards of those years, devoured 6 AA batteries in just 3 hours. Of course, it was possible to purchase a power supply for the console, but such an accessory automatically transferred the console to the stationary category. And the bulk of the players, as usual, preferred to play in between classes or while traveling by public transport.

To summarize, the nineties from the point of view of the portable entirely passed under the banner of Nintendo and Game Boy. However, innovations were not brought by either new versions of the console, or competitors, who only did what they died one after another, without having time to really declare themselves. Except perhaps one.

Not by games alone

With the advent of mobile phones with built-in games, the question arose: do portable consoles have to remain just gaming devices? Think back to how things were on platforms that used CD as a medium back in the 90s. Play music CDs first, and then VideoCDs using additional modules. There were even attempts to make stationary consoles friends with the Internet, but the first platform that achieved success in this field was only Sega dreamcast, released under the sunset of the millennium. But what about the portable?

Game.com

Leaving aside the previously mentioned TV tuners, they tried to turn the pocket console into something more. Tiger in the second half of the 90s. The console was called Game.com, had a touch screen with a stylus and had a set of simple but useful software in the field: a calculator, a calendar and a phone book. And she even knew how to go online, but only when connected to a stationary modem. Unfortunately, the ideas of the engineers ran counter to the available technology. Because of the touch screen (and even working with poor responsiveness), I had to save a lot on the quality of the picture – it was black and white and gave out “loops” in the animation. Few of the developers wanted to create games for such an incomprehensible device, and even versions known in narrow circles Resident evil 2 and Mortal kombat trilogy were unplayable. Now Game.com is in demand among collectors, but then it was just another financial failure, albeit one that offered some interesting ideas.

Game boy advance

The beginning of the XXI century, Nintendo decided to celebrate the release of the next generation Game Boy. But if you approach Game boy advance from the standpoint of innovation, the portable device had nothing to boast about. The main merit of the console is rather that it did not allow many popular series to wither away. It is now in the order of things to reissue classics and pixel indie, but then the attention of players completely switched to home consoles of the sixth generation, and the GBA with graphics at the level of “slightly better than 16-cue ball” from the very beginning of sales did not look as impressive as it did at the time. his ancestor. On the other hand, sales were supported by the total lack of worthy competitors. Nevertheless, there was a Nintendo alternative to the console, and ironically, it was exactly the one that flashed innovative ideas.

GP32

Korean company Game parkthat released the console GP32 shortly after the release of the Game Boy Advance, made a bet on custom software. Anyone could register on the official website and download a software package for free, allowing them to cook up any program of their choice: even a media player, even an e-book reader, even emulators. Alas, the situation with commercial games is not so rosy. And the explanation for this is simple: with such open source software, expect trouble in the form of downloaders for pirated copies – so there is nothing surprising in the fact that none of the venerable developers wanted to cooperate with the Koreans.

The infamous N-gage from Nokia… A smartphone with advanced gaming functions or a console with a dialer function – then let everyone decide for himself. The important thing is that the device worked on Symbian, which opened up access to a huge number of applications far from games. With the latter, however, everything was also not as bad as the competitor from Korea. Let’s say there were quite good versions here. Tomb raider and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, not much inferior to the options for PS1 in terms of graphics. But that wasn’t enough to persuade gamers to spend $ 300. In addition, as a game console, the N-Gage was far from ideal due to the inconvenient placement of the buttons, coupled with a large number of them. In general, there was another (albeit less loud) commercial failure.

N-gage

The best of both worlds

Making friends the functionality of smartphones and game consoles so that none of the parties felt infringed, they could only Sony… For the end of 2004 PlayStation Portable was a real miracle: polygonal graphics, not lagging a whole generation behind the current stationary platforms, a pocket media player, and even a web surfing tool to boot. Support for SIM cards, alas, was not delivered, but in developed countries even then there were no problems with accessing the Internet via Wi-Fi, say, at a train station or in a cafe. One cannot fail to note the contribution of enthusiasts who riveted a lot of emulators, self-made ports of DOS classics and various applications. True, to launch them, it was required either to sit on an ancient firmware with a loophole, or to install a custom one.

PSP

That being said, the PSP couldn’t be said to offer an experience that was barely distinguishable from playing on stationary consoles. Yes, by the standards of a portable system, Sony’s system has made a giant technological leap, but most of the multiplatform games have been greatly simplified compared to older versions. For example, the mega-successful Need for Speed Most Wanted on PSP has lost all its charm and individuality: not a trace remained of the open world and driving chases. And there are plenty of such examples. At the same time, there were not very many high-quality exclusives, but on the other hand, there was simply no end to them on the platform from a competitor.

Nintendo ds could not play multimedia content without amateur applications and was much weaker technically, but offered a unique experience with two displays and a touchscreen. As practice has shown, the opportunity to take a fresh look at the controls in games and a large selection of hits that were not available on other consoles attracted much more than “PS2 in your pocket”. Hardware compatibility with the successful GBA has become an important component of DS’s success. Sony also implemented software support for PS1 games, but later. Unfortunately, the list of compatible titles turned out to be not very long, apart from custom software.

Nintendo ds

When the time came for the change of generations, the blow came from where it was unlikely that even experienced analysts expected it. Android smartphones, due to open software and a convenient touch screen, offered users hundreds of casual and, most importantly, cheap (and sometimes completely free) games. As technology grew, the quality of graphics improved, and emulators, which until recently were boasted by portable and expensive devices on Symbian, became commonplace. Of course, one should not forget about the audience of hardcore gamers who did not disappear at all and still craved serious games, and not simple runners and clickers. And here Sony had every chance to tip the scales in its favor, because games with graphics and gameplay of the level Uncharted: Golden Abyss at that time it was not even on flagship smartphones. But alas: about a sad fate Playstation vita we have already told in a separate article, so we will not repeat ourselves.

Luckily for Nintendo, Sony dropped the white flag pretty quickly, and on 3DS enough projects for a hardcore audience. Well, in general, from the 3DS example, as well as the one that followed it Switch, it can be concluded that multimedia functions are no longer important for consoles in the 2010s. Now even the most budgetary Android smartphone can serve as a multimedia player, a tool for accessing the Internet, a replacement for an e-book and a navigator. Therefore, Nintendo did the right thing and released, in general, about what Vita was supposed to be: a very powerful console by the standards of a portable, which does not look like a very poor relative against the background of stationary platforms. At the same time, the Switch library is not replete with only exclusives and reprints with a failed Wii U – most of the games are just a multi-platform, sometimes almost indistinguishable from versions for other consoles. And for those who wanted to play AAA on the road, the console was a dream come true.

Switch

Not a single smartphone with a gamepad attached to it will offer you either furious battles with the participation of Doomgay, or a trip to Toussaint with Geralt. In addition, Switch can be used as a stationary system – although to be honest, a similar function was implemented in later revisions of the PSP and in Chinese consoles on Android.

As for the Steam Deck, everything is still ambiguous with it. Many journalists who had time to test the prototype were mostly satisfied – there are only questions about the performance of, to put it mildly, not the cheapest device. For example, Andrew Friedman from Tom’s Hardware claims that since it was released two years ago Control the console can handle only the minimum graphics settings – and this is at 30 fps. One had only to jump to a higher preset, as the performance sagged significantly. With this arrangement, Valve has every chance of getting a blow in the gut from Nintendo if it rolls out the successor Switch with much more powerful hardware in a year or two.

Steam Deck

On the other hand, there is still hope for optimization – plus the Steam Deck has a solid library of games under its belt, many of which are not available on a competing platform. And if you consider that Valve promised not to interfere with the installation of launchers from third-party companies, gamers have every chance of getting the same “PC in your pocket” that they dreamed of for several decades, albeit with a compromise in the form of simplified graphics. The lack of exclusives in this situation is no longer so important – after all, we are talking primarily about the ability to play outside the home.

What portable consoles have you played on? What are the memories left? Share in the comments. Also, tell us what you think of the Steam Deck: does the console have a chance to be at least half as successful as the Switch?

From Game & Watch to Steam Deck – the evolution of portable consoles – review addiction

Origins

Game Boy I take with me

Not by games alone

The best of both worlds

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