Handheld gaming is still popular as it’s ever been. The ability to play console quality games, especially retro games, on the mini-computer in my pocket, is totally insane. I can grind through dungeons in Final Fantasy; or zoom across Sonic’s digital landscape collecting enough rings for a chance at the bonus stage in order to get those elusive chaos emeralds in the Hedgehog’s Mega Drive/Genesis classic.
Playing these games on my smartphone got me thinking about portable gaming. When I was younger, I used to spend countless hours on my Nintendo Game Boy and later, my Sega handhelds. Nowadays, I love my Nintendo 3DS, PSP and the PS Vita, but I look back to my favourite handhelds of the past, and the one that sticks out most in my mind, is the Sega Genesis Nomad.
This thing was a portable Sega Genesis system that nearly played every game cartridge that I had. There were only a couple that wouldn’t work, but this was long before you could download a software patch to fix such a problem. For those unfamiliar with the Nomad, this thing was a pocket sized Sega Genesis – as long as you had large pockets, it could go with you anywhere! Oh yeah, and as long as you had a handy supply of AA batteries (the unit was powered by six AA batteries). The battery pack that attached to the back of the machine was quite bulky. The batteries drained rather quickly, so, unless you had a part-time job to keep buying them, they were quite difficult to obtain. This wasn’t much of a deterrent, as you could play Sonic and Mortal Kombat on the go!
Luckily, there was an adapter that made it possible to plug directly into mains power and even the cigarette lighter in your parents car – and with the headphone jack, you could be gaming without bothering the passengers. You could literally take it anywhere with the vast library of Genesis games – you were never short on playing awesome titles. The Nomad even had interfaces to connect to a regular TV, just like a home console, and also a second player controller connection for some 2P action!
There were some attempts at bringing home console games to the portable realm, with NEC having a similar unit (Ed: the TurboExpress), but with Sega, you had their extensive library of games to draw from which the others could never compete with (Ed: except for NEC’s PC Engine GT). Sega had a massive hardware push through the 90’s, which ultimately didn’t work out for that side of their business. But it sure was a lot of fun while it lasted, and their Nomad was truly a remarkable device.
It pains me to this day to think that I traded it when the Playstation 2 hit the shelves and I just had to have one. I learned my lesson at that point and I have never traded away any of my old consoles since; portable or otherwise.
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Matt Thames
Blogger and Brand Manager at Selby Acoustics.
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