DS Daily: The move to portability

by Alisha Karabinus { Apr 15th 2007 at 10:00AM }

Are you a longtime lover of handhelds, or new to the party? Personally, this blogger wasn't much of a handheld gamer until the PSP and the DS rolled around, because handhelds just weren't comfortable. With this generation, however, handheld gaming seemed to take a huge step up in everything from ergonomics to gameplay and graphics. Others, of course, are lifelong handheld devotees; to them, a gaming collection just isn't complete without some sort of portable device. How would you classify yourself?

Tags: DS, dsd, handheld, Nintendo, portable, PSP, Sony

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

hvnlysoldr @ Apr 15th 2007 10:14AM

Gameboy Pocket for Pokemon and Link's Awakening, Gameboy Color, busted GBA only good for FFCC and color games, used DS, and impulsively bought a DS Lite. Yeah so lifelong I've been into handhelds.

baronjon @ Apr 15th 2007 11:49AM

never really liked handhelds. i still get some ache in my hands when i use my pretty new ds for too long so i dont give much for the ergonomics..

what i love about my ds is that i can pick it up any time and play for a little while. i cant do that with my wii.

Sarah @ Apr 15th 2007 11:53AM

Lifelong handhelder here, all the way from Original Gameboy, to Gameboy pocket, Sega Gamegear, Gameboy Advance SP, DS (ok so I skipped Gameboy color and Original Gameboy Advance, but that was late highschool/college so I was poor) I still play my original gameboy games on my SP on a regular basis, can't get enough of that Solitaire ;).

pixelator @ Apr 15th 2007 12:00PM

I'd say the GBA SP was certainly 'comfortable' and to date still has price/value down better than either the DS or PSP, plus the platform has the most AAA titles (of course the DS can run GBA games).

Over the years, several handhelds have really excelled in style and form while failing to capture the market. The Neo*Geo Pocket Color was one of those, with a decent library of titles at launch and fairly long shelf life for a system that never really caught on. Anyway, the NGPC was light, had solid intuitive control pad and buttons and came in lots of great colors (especially the JP editions that didn't make it over here, like Crystal Blue and Yellow). Another fairly svelte and streamlined system was the Bandai Wonderswan and Wonderswan Crystal, neither of which really reached these shores.

Back in the Early Days, I found the Lynx 2 and TurboExpress to be my favorites, with lighted color screens and, in the case of the Turbo, a HUGE library of excellent console games from the TG16/PC Engine system. They weren't svelte and their battery life wasn't great, but they were awfully cool back then.

Shapewise, there were certainly some clunkers over the years, of course. The original Gameboy, Atari Lynx 1 and Sega Nomad were boxy, and although the GameGear wasn't terribly huge, it never captured my interest like the Lynx, TE and NGPC.

Will @ Apr 15th 2007 12:15PM

I've been at it a while. The Game Boy Pocket got me going, then I got the Turbo Express, Game Gear, Nomad, Lynx 2, Neo Geo Pocket Color, etc. Agreed with #4 about how good the Turbo Express was. The fact that it ate something like 8 AAs in three hours was due to it's active matrix screen, which was utterly beautiful compared to the Lynx/Game Gear passive colors, and obviously the Game Boy's pasive B&W. But with an AC adapter - what a console!

Service_Games @ Apr 15th 2007 12:45PM

Been a handheld gamer since the original Game Boy...the brick.

SG

Big AL @ Apr 15th 2007 1:34PM

What? No one had a Microvision? Just me and about a dozen other people I suppose! LOL Thats real old school. The cartridges were half the mass of the device. I know thet pre dated gameboys, but I don't know if Microvision was the first portable cartridge based system.

So let's see, I had the Microvision in 1980 and the next handheld system I bought for myself was a DS in Early 2007. Is 27 years much of a lapse?

Shawn Wheatley @ Apr 15th 2007 1:57PM

Portable "lifer" for all intents and purposes. Played 2nd hand GB titles on the Super Gameboy, bought a Pocket Color solely for Tetris DX, and every iteration since (although the original DS still pisses me off... I will *definitely* wait until the second rev on any future Nintendo handheld). I also purchased a PSP 2nd hand from a friend not too long ago when I found out Metal Slug Anthology was coming out for it (and playing PSX titles is a nice plus ;)

Being married with a 10 month old daughter, I find I am able to play more frequently if I have my "console" with me at all times. My "traditional" consoles have been languishing on the sidelines for a while now.

Narcosynthesis @ Apr 15th 2007 1:57PM

Lifelong, owned a gameboy since the days of the Gameboy Pocket (which I still have). The idea of being able to take the Gameboy with me on car journeys and on holiday with me to keep me entertained is fantastic without the need to be shackled to the tv or monitor. Fast forwards a few year and my DS Lite still does the same job on the bus journeys to university and sitting in bed.

Portables don't really compare to consoles on a like for like basis, but they do a job that a console cannot do

van @ Apr 15th 2007 2:07PM

Portable's for life. Used to carry around two or three Tiger Electronic games. Then original gameboy. There were a few years that I was without, but currently in my collection I own a DS, PSP, and Game Gear (thrift store find!) I've been trying to find a neo geo pocket color too.

Aerfall @ Apr 15th 2007 3:35PM

I've been playing handheld games way back with the original gameboy. Small screen, monochrome, four batteries at a time to run. I remember my gameboy was black. Pretty cool.

Although the last one of my two brothers to get a gameboy (they had a green and red ones, ah Christmas colors), I was the only one to get a Gameboy Color. I think it was a birthday present or something. The color was blue.

Regardless, the Gameboy Color quickly became everybody's, though officially mine, and all was well and good until my brother in 2001 got himself a Gameboy Advance. Purple see-through, it was. It was on my next birthday that I got myself a silver Gameboy Advance. I loved that machine to death, and overused it so much that it became so bruised from constant fallings-out-of-my-pocket and such that nobody would touch it except me.

My Advance got washed in the washing machine, and it died and rose again three days later. This was nice.

On Christmas '05, I earned the newest edition: a red DS. I've been playing this ever since.

So I'm a handheld gamer for life. The last console I got was a N64 (although my brothers did buy the consoles so I played on them that way).

Anyways, the only times I play video games anymore are when they are on the DS or the PC, although the PC is only ever used for BFME games (I own all of them).

Last DS Purchase: Hotel Dusk: Room 215
Next DS Purchase: Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords

As you can see, I get onto the gaming bandwagon at late intervals. :p

Ibrahim @ Apr 15th 2007 4:52PM

I've been more of a PC gamer, although my first game system was a GBC with pokemon, I later swore off handhelds because the screens were too small. After gaming exclusively on PC for a couple years (I was playing my GBC up until about 2001) I got a gamecube in 2005, mainly for Super Smash Bros. so I would have something for when people were over. This past October I got a DS lite because I'm really busy this year with school work and never play my gamecube, but a DS seemed nice and has online play. Of course, I still play PC primarily, but now that I've got Mario Kart I wish I could play it more but I'm always playing dota (technically not a game, just a custom map for WC3 which is incredibly popular) with my friends on the weekend. DS gets played more during the week or just when I feel like picking it up, so I guess actually I play my DS more overall.

Chii @ Apr 15th 2007 4:54PM

Always been a portable gamer. Console gaming, that's HARD for me. I travel a lot, so I need a portable to flights, car rides, air port waits... Console gaming is actually harder for me to do. I like it, but it's more effort, to get out the controllers, to start it up... Once I start, it's fine, the console gaming, but ... Portable gaming is much handier.

Jimmijam @ Apr 15th 2007 4:59PM

Now that I'm in my late 30's, married, and a father to my wonderful daughter, I barely have time to game at home. While gaming gave me lots of entertainment, the emphasis in my life has changed over the last 4 years quite a bit. Not complaining, not one bit.

I get my gaming on the go, when I commute or when I go on business trips. It's about the only time I'm willing to give up for gaming, and these portables deliver. I mean c'mon. Ratchet & Clank on the go!?! So awesome.

Charles @ Apr 15th 2007 5:09PM

Prior to the GBA I used to consider portable games quite inferior to their console brethren. It wasn't until SNES games were being ported over to GBA that my nostalgia gave me a desire for some portable gaming.

With the DS, now it's like two portable N64's duct taped together, only better. Yoshi's Island is great and I can't wait to have the time for Final Fantasy III.

ross @ Apr 15th 2007 5:14PM

well i do "portable" because i have to.i was new to it until recently. i travel quite frequently on by train and plane so a handheld console is basically essential to my existence. I'm sorry to say (for all those ds fanboys) but the psp gives a way better entertaining experience on the go. I got the nintendo ds a few days after launch coz a friend of mine was going crazy for it i did as well for a while. if its not enough that the games are sometimes near impossible to control in a moving vehicle the sub standard graphics just took the cake and it was on ebay the week after i got the psp in the american launch while travelling. simply the psp won me over and i'm still crazy about it a year and a bit later