Love or no Love for handheld systems.

[cybercylon]

The only one I've owned so far is the PSP, and that was recently. The TV out is a big plus, even if it has borders. It was the only way I was going to be able to play Valkyria Chronicles 2. Lot's of rpgs... some of which I know are remakes of older ones that are either to expensive to get in their original form or were never released in the US.

 

Too bad any kind of nintendo emulation stinks.

[Dripfree]

I've got a ton o love for the handheld's. I've been a handheld gamer since I got my first Game Boy and I'm still fairly current with 3ds and psp. I actually gave up on modern consoles after the dreamcast, But I do plan on staying up to date with handhelds far into the future. My handheld collection is getting pretty huge. It dates back to led football (still fun I don't care what anyone says). I got a ton of tiger games. Never paid more then 99 cents for one thats a deal even if you only play it for 5 minutes (most suck but it's still fun to find one and add it to the collection). I love love love my big ole grey Game Boy. I know I've read enough threads on here to know no one really agrees with that and that makes me sad. I did a run through Metroid 2 a few weeks ago. I could have done it on my gba sp, but I like to keep it real!

[Rik]

I have 80's handhelds from Mattel, Coleco, sports titles. Like Coleco Head to Head Football, Head to Head Baseball, Hockey, much the same from Mattel. I even bought an old huge Coleco BOWLATRONIC for like $10.00 not long ago, the thing is almost 16 inches long. I am a fan of the 80's handhelds indeed.

[+atari2600land]

I have a Microvision, N-Gage, every Game Boy, a Game Gear, a DS, a 3DS, and a PSP.

[roland p]

Does it have a backlit screen?

Please let us now how it works and how the screen qaulity is.

I just received the GB Boy Colour!, but I have to work first

[famicommander]

The Wonderswan Color and Neo Geo Pocket Color simply do not get enough love.

 

Most people here appreciate the Lynx (and rightly so) since it's an Atari forum and people who know of the Lynx usually have similar feelings towards Game Gear, but Nintendo's two competitions in the late GBC/early GBA era were really incredible systems.

 

If you like handhelds at all I would highly recommend importing a Wonderswan Color or Swancrystal, as well as tracking down a Neo Geo Pocket Color. Both have incredible battery life, both have good libraries of exclusives, both have unique and awesome features (the arcade style clicky-stick on the NGPC, the double d-pad/system orientation flipping of the Swans).

 

I'd say the PSP is under-appreciated too but that thing sold over 70 million units, so SOMEBODY besides me definitely liked it.

[BydoEmpire]

I've tried many times over the years, but the Nintendo DS is the only handheld system I ever really enjoyed, or spent much time with. I love the DS. Most handhelds' screens are too small for me to really enjoy, but the DS had enough else going for it I could deal.

[goldenegg]

I even bought an old huge Coleco BOWLATRONIC for like $10.00 not long ago,

 

I have one waiting at the post office for me

 

I had one as a kid and absolutely loved it. It took me a while to finally find one in a condition I was happy with. Got it in a bundle with a bunch of Tiger handhelds and a Parker Bros Pinball LED handheld, for ~$40.

[Seob]

I have a NGPC and really love the clicky stick. I recently expanded my NGPC collection with a few games, but i still have to find a sonic. The only downside on the NGPC is the lack of a online site where you can download games manuals.

Most of my NGPC games are loose carts, so not having a option to find online manuals really hurts.

[famicommander]

Sonic the Hedgehog Pocket Adventure is a must-have for NGPC owners and Sonic fans in general.

 

As far as I'm concerned it's the best handheld Sonic title ever made. The only ones that come close are Triple Trouble, Advance 1, and Colors DS but Pocket Adventure stands above them all. I really can't believe it's never been re-released.

[Rik]

I have one waiting at the post office for me

 

I had one as a kid and absolutely loved it. It took me a while to finally find one in a condition I was happy with. Got it in a bundle with a bunch of Tiger handhelds and a Parker Bros Pinball LED handheld, for ~$40.

 

I didn't realize the Bowlatronic was so rare and hard to find. The one I found was close to mint, except for a a slightly worn scratched play field. I polished it with Automotive Carnauba wax, being careful around the little white arrows, looks like new!!!

[goldenegg]

I didn't realize the Bowlatronic was so rare and hard to find. The one I found was close to mint, except for a a slightly worn scratched play field. I polished it with Automotive Carnauba wax, being careful around the little white arrows, looks like new!!!

 

They're not impossible to find, but a lot that come for sale aren't in good shape.

[TheGameCollector]

I like handhelds just for the fact I don't always have to be tethered to a specific room or TV around the house. They can be good for long bus rides too if I'm in the mood and already know the route and my stops. As a kid it was always about playing them in the back yard and making the kids next door curious about what I was playing and vice versa till we ended up trade-borrowing games for a while to check out each others' tastes in games. Ever since the Nintendo DS came out I felt like handhelds have finally reached a sophisticated point where the screens were well lit, came with rechargeable batteries instead of having to buy and use up batteries, and were wide enough to fit anyone's hands comfortably (the one field which keeps the Game Boy Advance SP outside my personal definition of truly sophisticated, even though it is still a good system and is comfortable enough for me to use personally - just not as comfortable as the original DS). To me this type of current gen and last gen sophistication makes the handhelds even easier to use anywhere, play anytime and appeal to a larger audience. The screens are bigger, brighter and easier to look at in any light or darkness. My newest systems are the 3DS and a softmodded PSP Go. In the old Game Boy & Game Gear years I never would have imagined handhelds this nice. I have yet to get my hands on a PS Vita and some RPGs & fighting games for it.

[NE146]

Handheld gaming has always been a part of my primary gaming experience since the friggin 70's. Since my electromechanical games by Tomy & Bandai and Star Wars Electronic Battle Command, up through now with the DS, iphone, etc. I play handheld games constantly.. sometimes moreso than consoles. That said, I play them mostly on the can.

 

I don't much care for handhelds for one big reason -- I usually cannot see the screen! I really like RPG games, and reading the text on such a small screen is very difficult for me; I much prefer to play on a big screen.

 

When the Nintendo 3DS first launched, I tried the demo model in the store (some flight sim game) . With 3D on, it just looked really blurry to my eyes. It was clearer with 3D off, but still nothing really special.

 

I do not (yet) have a smartphone; persumably I can find one with a screen sufficiently large to allow comfortable gaming.

 

Have you considered getting yourself a pair of reading glasses? No seriously.. that's what I need these days for the most part

Edited August 16, 2013 by NE146

[Seob]

One more plus on behalve of the portable devices: the lack of region locks.

So no need to install a mod chip or whatever to be able to play imports.

Most of my ngpc collection is japanese or us imports.

[onthinice]

Handhelds are great! I still have my original Mattel baseball. It is crappy that I have to stock 9-volt batteries. But it is fun. The Coleco tabletops are great. I wore out my Coleco rechargeable battery pack. It had a 9-volt adaptor that plugged into C size batteries.

 

Now, I spend more time with the PSP. Pirates and EA Replay. EA Replay has some really good 16-bit classics, of those, Road Rash 3 and Desert Strike get the most game time. On the DS, my family likes any racing games. The ability to play against four people in one room, since we only have four DS systems. That is time well spent.

[roland p]

Does it have a backlit screen?

Please let us now how it works and how the screen qaulity is.

I've now played a few games on it.

 

It looks stunning.

 

It is a back-lit screen. The screen quality is really good. High contrast and bright, saturated colors. It seems to be responsive too.

In horizontal direction, the screen resolution matches pretty much the gbc's. In vertical direction, there is some scaling going on. This is mostly obvious in diagonal lines, and vertical scrolling.

So I would say it is almost perfect.

The screen itself is placed a bit too high in my gb boy, so some lines are behind the black border on the protective glass.

 

Most gbc games are made with saturated colors, which shows even more on a decent back-lit screen

 

The controls are also very good, the d-pad feels a bit less squishy than the one on the gb-light.

 

For gb classic games I still prefer the gb-light because the screen is a bit bigger and the graphics look less crude, a bit sharper.

The backlit screen uses rgb pixels to make up gb b/w pixels.

[Seob]

Any compatiblity problems? Games that not work

[roland p]

I could not get Toki Tori to work, but I use the 'gb smart card' which has its quirks too, so I don't know which causes the error.

 

Other games that I tested and worked: Resident Evil prototype, gta 1, Prince of Persia (original cart), Fish Files, Cannon Fodder, Super Mario Bros dx, Metal Gear (original cart).

 

It seems that some games have a small glitch with scrolling. Like 'lemmings (& oh no more lemmings)'. On the left side of the screen, there is a column of one pixel wide, which seems to contain the data visible on the right side of the screen. I'll have to investigate this further.