Gameboy: Wow, when did this thing stop being portable?

[godslabrat]

I got my first Gameboy shortly after the initial launch of the Big White Brick. With it, I got the Nuby hard case that was so popular at the time (at least in the Northeast). It was a plastic case, about the size of a Genesis 2, that carried the system and four games with cases. You could also keep a game in the system, and slide two uncased games into the cavity in the top, making it theoretically capable of carrying seven games.

 

I thought this was awesome. It was a truly portable game system. One case, and I had a system and seven games at my fingertips! Then I eventually had more than seven games, so I upgraded to a fanny-pack-style case that could hold up to 13 games. It still wasn't that hard to keep everything in one spot. Eventually I was using both the fanny pack and the Nuby case. By now, I've upgraded to the GBA and DS, and since the DS isn't fully backwards compatible, I still carry around my GBA on occasion.

 

My "tiny little game system" now takes up almost as much shelf space as any other console I have. Granted, that's not much of a complaint, as it really just means I LOVE my Gameboy/DS But really, whereas I used to grab one case and run out the door, now I have to pick and choose which games I want to take with me-- or carry around a veritable suitcase of Gameboy stuff. Amazing.

 

Anyone else in the same boat?

[Atari5200]

Yes with my PSP. I have the Pelican hard case and with a game in the system I can double up the one side and have 7 games. so i have to pick and choose and that doesn't even count UMD movies. When I went out of the state last, I took a back pack and just took my PSP and DS stuff in that. That's probably what I'll do again when I go to the Outer Banks in September.

 

As a kid, it was the gameGear I had with the larger carrying case, a few games, ac adapter, and car adapter.

Edited July 31, 2008 by Atari5200

[Warriorisabouttodie]

I got my first Gameboy shortly after the initial launch of the Big White Brick. With it, I got the Nuby hard case that was so popular at the time (at least in the Northeast). It was a plastic case, about the size of a Genesis 2, that carried the system and four games with cases. You could also keep a game in the system, and slide two uncased games into the cavity in the top, making it theoretically capable of carrying seven games.

 

I thought this was awesome. It was a truly portable game system. One case, and I had a system and seven games at my fingertips! Then I eventually had more than seven games, so I upgraded to a fanny-pack-style case that could hold up to 13 games. It still wasn't that hard to keep everything in one spot. Eventually I was using both the fanny pack and the Nuby case. By now, I've upgraded to the GBA and DS, and since the DS isn't fully backwards compatible, I still carry around my GBA on occasion.

 

My "tiny little game system" now takes up almost as much shelf space as any other console I have. Granted, that's not much of a complaint, as it really just means I LOVE my Gameboy/DS But really, whereas I used to grab one case and run out the door, now I have to pick and choose which games I want to take with me-- or carry around a veritable suitcase of Gameboy stuff. Amazing.

 

Anyone else in the same boat?

 

I collect Gameboy games and I have a Gameboy color, GBA SP2, and DS. I got sick and tired of carrying around a ton of carts/cards or going someplace and wishing I had the game I felt like playing. I bought a flashcard. It works both in my DS and my Gameboy. 2 things I love about it. I keep all my favorite GBA games, every single original GB game, every NES and SMS game all on one 2gb SD card which I can play with my GBA (I love the DS but I find it is too bulky too carry around sometimes). When I do take the DS out over a hundred DS games fit on 3 2gb SD cards, which easily fit in my little case.

 

I know these things have a bad rap because of piracy, but I think Nintendo seriously needs to consider a new form of game distribution for future handhelds. Something where you could download the games from Nintendo's wifi network and then keep them all stored on flash disk would be great.

[godslabrat]

Yes with my PSP. I have the Pelican hard case and with a game in the system I can double up the one side and have 7 games. so i have to pick and choose and that doesn't even count UMD movies. When I went out of the state last, I took a back pack and just took my PSP and DS stuff in that. That's probably what I'll do again when I go to the Outer Banks in September.

 

Yeah, backpacks do help a lot. :-) I've always got at least a DS, iPod, digicam, and paperback book in mine. And if I ever talk myself into a PSP, I just know my problems will double almost overnight.

 

BTW- Which part of the Outer Banks are you headed to? If it's your first time, and you have any interest in history, be sure to see the Wright Bros. Memorial at Kitty Hawk.

[ComputerSpaceFan]

You're right, the original brick is almost as big as a Wii!

http://www.joystiq.com/media/2006/06/wiimo...comparison6.jpg

[monzamess]

I bought a flashcard. It works both in my DS and my Gameboy. 2 things I love about it. I keep all my favorite GBA games, every single original GB game, every NES and SMS game all on one 2gb SD card which I can play with my GBA (I love the DS but I find it is too bulky too carry around sometimes). When I do take the DS out over a hundred DS games fit on 3 2gb SD cards, which easily fit in my little case.

 

I second this. I got a Datel "Games N Music" card for my DS, $20 at Wal-mart (might have stopped selling them). With a 2GB MicroSD, I have a ton of NES, GB/GBC, and SMS games on it. It's not a "hardcore" flash card, and (last I checked) it doesn't play commercial GBA or DS roms, but it works for homebrew (including emulators). The whole thing fits in the DS (nothing sticks out) so when I want to take games somewhere, it's usually just my DS and the flash card.

 

Also, consider NOT taking tons and tons of games places! Are you going someplace so boring that you will really be able to play your whole collection? Or do you need to take so many games to avoid the psychological effect of not having immediate access to a certain game? Suggestion: next time, just grab a couple of "neglected" games (unless you KNOW they're crap) and spend some time playing one or two games you'd might otherwise lug around, but ignore.

 

(does my second suggestion contradict my first? I guess so; one is a technical solution, the other social)

[godslabrat]

Also, consider NOT taking tons and tons of games places! Are you going someplace so boring that you will really be able to play your whole collection? Or do you need to take so many games to avoid the psychological effect of not having immediate access to a certain game? Suggestion: next time, just grab a couple of "neglected" games (unless you KNOW they're crap) and spend some time playing one or two games you'd might otherwise lug around, but ignore.

 

That's a fair point to make. When I go long distances, I might be away from home for 5 days or more, and the GBA/DS will be my only source of gaming. I like to have a variety (I'm good for 4 or more games per gaming session) and having all my games reduces the odds that I'll want a game I didn't bring. Could I reasonably say that I probably won't want to play those early 90s TH*Q games? Sure, but most games aren't that cut-and-dried. Over the course of 5 days, it's perfectly reasonable I might go through 20 games or more. My last few trips, I only took 5 or 6 games, and I kept wishing I brought more.

 

Truth be told, a lot of the games I've beaten on the road were some seldom played games that I threw in on a whim and said "I'm gonna beat this come hell or high water!"

 

At least the DS is a step in the right direction, letting me carry 2 games inside the system itself. I like that feature... almost makes up for dropping pre-GBA compatibility. Almost.

[Atari5200]

Yes with my PSP. I have the Pelican hard case and with a game in the system I can double up the one side and have 7 games. so i have to pick and choose and that doesn't even count UMD movies. When I went out of the state last, I took a back pack and just took my PSP and DS stuff in that. That's probably what I'll do again when I go to the Outer Banks in September.

 

Yeah, backpacks do help a lot. :-) I've always got at least a DS, iPod, digicam, and paperback book in mine. And if I ever talk myself into a PSP, I just know my problems will double almost overnight.

 

BTW- Which part of the Outer Banks are you headed to? If it's your first time, and you have any interest in history, be sure to see the Wright Bros. Memorial at Kitty Hawk.

 

haven't had the chance to go there yet. I might make a point this year. We gone every year for the past few years now, we go about 25 minutes south of Kitty Hawk. A little town called Sligo, just north of Avon.

[Vic George 2K3]

I thought the Game Gear was the worst when it came to losing its portability with having to port around Sega Master System games with a Master Gear converter, a Game Genie, some battery packs and what-not in a small camera bag.

[shadow460]

Yes, I have this problem. I have more portable games than you can shake a Memory Stick at. It occurs a LOT when I decide to have a marathon session of Poker Face Paul's Solitaire or Shining Force: The Sword of Hajya. I've yet to lug Master System games around with me yet...

 

I always have a PSP with me wherever I go. I've got a number of Memory Sticks (I think I have two 2GB and a 1 GB stick) all loaded with games and their expansion packs. The sad part is that I cannot tell you what all the games are! I think one has wipEout purE, Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee, Lumines, Smart Bomb, Coded Arms, and wipEout pulsE on it, and another has Monster Kingdom Jewel Summoner. The third has more music and videos than you can shake a mem-- ... you get the idea. I don't carry any UMDs in the Pelican case, but I do have a separate hard case that holds eight of them. It's usually full of movies, but I rarely take it out of the house.

 

As for the Game Boy, I usually carry one of my Color units or my Pocket. I have a belt pack that holds four to six games and the snake light. It's small, and I can throw in quickies like Solar Striker and R-Type along with Sa Ga 3 or something, and that'll keep me busy. The Game Gear has a case about the size of a 2 liter soda bottle, and it has a shoulder strap. It holds two systems and eight or ten games max. I can choose to carry a Game Boy as the second system and mix up the games if I want. That case would also hold extra batteries or a power adapter, but my unit runs 12 hours on a single charge so it's not necessary. When I had a Supervision, I usually carried it in a large pocket with the game cards.

 

Whew, all that junk and I haven't even figured out where I'm going to carry my PocketStation yet! Maybe it'll fit somewhere in one of my gigantic seabags.

[jbanes]

The Atari Lynx is the worst. Here it is at 1/100th scale:

 

 

I think Colonel Mustard did it, in the Jagfest Room, with the Atari Lynx!

 

The second worst offender was the original revision of the Game.com. While not as hefty as, say, a Game Gear, it made up for its low weight with a fairly large footprint. Even with a pair of cargo pants capable of hiding a surface to air missile launcher, you still couldn't fit the Game.com in your pocket!

 

What's really odd is the fact that the system came with two cartridge slots. The cartridges were tiny (here's a photo of one, highly magnified: [.]), but it didn't matter since you needed a backpack to haul your Game.com anyway. Ostensibly, the second port was required so that you could use the modem with a program cartridge. (Thus the horribly mispronounced ".com" at the end of the name.) Personally, I don't think Tiger understood that modem == tethered while portable game system == untethered. That idea had all the legs of a turkey kept in an undersized cage to fatten it up for the Thanksgiving celebration.

 

 

In hindsight the Game Gear was too large of a design for true portability, but (as you can see) it was far from the worst offender. And you have to give Sega credit for at least trying to make it portable while cramming in a massive number of features.

[shadow460]

You mean a Game.com is bigger than a bendy Supervision? Wow!

[jbanes]

You mean a Game.com is bigger than a bendy Supervision? Wow!

That's a bit tough to call as I don't have dimensions for the Supervision, but I'd have to say "yes" based on both the screen sizes and eyeballing the units. For comparison, the Game.com had a 3.5x3.5in screen while the Supervision had a 2.37x2.37in screen. That right there tells you something about the units.

[akator]

The Atari Lynx is the worst. Here it is at 1/100th scale:

I think Colonel Mustard did it, in the Jagfest Room, with the Atari Lynx!

 

 

While not as much of a beast as the Lynx I, the Sega Nomad was pretty awkward. It is uncomfortable to hold, thick, and heavy. The Genesis carts stick out a mile and the attachable battery pack just makes everything worse. Don't even think about trying to play with an extra Genesis controller and the video out/TV cable attached. The Game Gear is dainty next to the Nomad...

[christianscott27]

You should see me lugging around my microvision and 5 games, along with my back-up nine volts. Its a beast but sometimes you gotta have some Cosmic Hunter on the bus ya know?

 

[jukingeo]

You're right, the original brick is almost as big as a Wii!

http://www.joystiq.com/media/2006/06/wiimo...comparison6.jpg

 

 

Huh? You call THAT little Game Boy a brick???

 

 

Then this must be a cinder block:

 

http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp...ynx-1-1000.jpeg

 

 

Upping the ante yet again:

 

http://vectrex.classicgaming.gamespy.com/manu-vec.jpg

 

Yes, believe it or not that brochure states that "it is portable".

 

So...in the line of building material...this would be an arch keystone .

 

Geo

Edited August 6, 2008 by jukingeo

[systemcat]

I got my first Gameboy shortly after the initial launch of the Big White Brick. With it, I got the Nuby hard case that was so popular at the time (at least in the Northeast). It was a plastic case, about the size of a Genesis 2, that carried the system and four games with cases. You could also keep a game in the system, and slide two uncased games into the cavity in the top, making it theoretically capable of carrying seven games.

 

I thought this was awesome. It was a truly portable game system. One case, and I had a system and seven games at my fingertips! Then I eventually had more than seven games, so I upgraded to a fanny-pack-style case that could hold up to 13 games. It still wasn't that hard to keep everything in one spot. Eventually I was using both the fanny pack and the Nuby case. By now, I've upgraded to the GBA and DS, and since the DS isn't fully backwards compatible, I still carry around my GBA on occasion.

 

My "tiny little game system" now takes up almost as much shelf space as any other console I have. Granted, that's not much of a complaint, as it really just means I LOVE my Gameboy/DS But really, whereas I used to grab one case and run out the door, now I have to pick and choose which games I want to take with me-- or carry around a veritable suitcase of Gameboy stuff. Amazing.

 

Anyone else in the same boat?

 

Got the gray brick in Christmas of '90. It came with Tetris but not the black plastic carrying case. I remember seeing them for sale but by the time I was considering buying one my collection went beyond what it would hold. I have over 30 GameBoy games of various GB eras ( meaning old school, color, advance and DS ), accessories ranging from HandyBoy, GameGenie, GameShark, the Card-Reader, to the camera and TV. The Pocket Cheatbook, hardcovers to fit over the Color GameBoy and oh yah the printer. This bundle fits way too snugly inside a 24 audio tape carrying bag that long ago in the 90's I took the plastic out of.