WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.520
remember when it seemed like dedicated handheld gaming consoles were everywhere

00:00:04.880 --> 00:00:11.759
like who didn't have a game boy me actually i had a game gear but the

00:00:09.599 --> 00:00:15.920
point is now our choices for mobile gaming seem to be either

00:00:13.440 --> 00:00:20.720
playing on your smartphone or buying a nintendo switch which honestly is more

00:00:18.240 --> 00:00:26.160
of a hybrid console than a true handheld anyway so how did we get to this

00:00:23.519 --> 00:00:31.039
paradoxical situation where mobile gaming is more popular than ever before

00:00:29.279 --> 00:00:35.840
and yet we're super limited in our choice of platform it helps to look at

00:00:33.440 --> 00:00:40.640
some relevant history which is actually mostly the story of how nintendo pushed

00:00:38.239 --> 00:00:44.000
its rivals more or less completely out of the market

00:00:41.920 --> 00:00:48.559
nintendo initially recognized that there was a real market for mobile gaming not

00:00:46.320 --> 00:00:52.640
long after the success of early handheld games from companies like mattel

00:00:50.719 --> 00:00:58.399
these took the form of single game handheld toys that weren't true consoles

00:00:56.160 --> 00:01:02.719
instead you had to buy a new unit for each game you wanted to play nintendo's

00:01:00.800 --> 00:01:07.280
first foray into gaming on the go was with a lineup of toys called game and

00:01:04.720 --> 00:01:11.280
watch which creator gunpei yokoi thought up while watching a board businessman

00:01:09.040 --> 00:01:15.680
playing with a calculator on the train the game watch series was wildly popular

00:01:13.760 --> 00:01:19.759
and helped the market for handheld games surge not to mention that it helped

00:01:17.680 --> 00:01:24.000
establish nintendo as a handheld gaming brand in the minds of consumers ahead of

00:01:22.159 --> 00:01:28.080
the launch of the original game boy in 1989.

00:01:25.520 --> 00:01:32.640
now the game boy wasn't even the first console with interchangeable cartridges

00:01:30.560 --> 00:01:36.560
that title went to milton bradley's micro vision that had actually come out

00:01:34.560 --> 00:01:40.799
10 years prior even though it was actually a dumb terminal with all the

00:01:38.720 --> 00:01:46.880
processing handled inside the cartridge itself but unlike the microvision 16x16

00:01:44.400 --> 00:01:54.640
resolution display the gameboy could handle detailed 160 by 102 pixel images

00:01:51.840 --> 00:01:59.200
and perhaps even more importantly it was accessible you see there were actually

00:01:56.960 --> 00:02:05.600
some cool portable contraptions that came out before the game boy the vtec

00:02:02.320 --> 00:02:08.399
game mate from 1983 actually had 3d

00:02:05.600 --> 00:02:13.360
complete with binocular-like eye cups but the game boy had long battery life

00:02:10.959 --> 00:02:17.280
and was relatively affordable these characteristics along with a solid

00:02:15.440 --> 00:02:22.400
library of games helped the game boy fend off technologically superior rivals

00:02:19.920 --> 00:02:26.800
like the sega game gear for instance it had a color screen and even an

00:02:24.400 --> 00:02:31.920
optional tv tuner which you might think would help justify its higher price of

00:02:28.720 --> 00:02:34.400
150 dollars compared to the gameboy's 90

00:02:31.920 --> 00:02:39.040
but the battery life was terrible and that was a big deal before built-in

00:02:36.800 --> 00:02:44.319
rechargeable batteries became common there also just weren't many killer apps

00:02:42.000 --> 00:02:49.920
partly because nintendo got the lockdown on third-party game developers early on

00:02:47.360 --> 00:02:55.120
you see nintendo often made third party devs sign agreements not to release the

00:02:52.640 --> 00:03:00.560
same game for a competing platform for some period of time so the game gear

00:02:57.920 --> 00:03:05.120
ended up just porting over lots of games from the master system the home console

00:03:02.800 --> 00:03:09.440
that preceded the genesis which wasn't enough to make the game gear a serious

00:03:07.040 --> 00:03:14.480
threat to nintendo's dominance other systems like the atari lynx and turbo

00:03:12.080 --> 00:03:18.959
express faced similar issues and were even more expensive than the game gear

00:03:16.640 --> 00:03:22.680
then other competitors cut costs but were based around unappealing gimmicks

00:03:21.280 --> 00:03:28.720
for example tigersgame.com from 1997 was cheap and

00:03:26.159 --> 00:03:34.000
touted internet capability but this was limited to a text-based service over a

00:03:30.959 --> 00:03:36.959
14 4 kilobit connection that no games

00:03:34.000 --> 00:03:42.720
even used aside from those issues bad timing also doomed other would-be

00:03:39.280 --> 00:03:44.959
nintendo rivals in 1995 sega tried

00:03:42.720 --> 00:03:49.519
releasing a portable genesis called the nomad but with more interesting home

00:03:47.599 --> 00:03:54.080
consoles around the corner including sega's own saturn people weren't

00:03:51.599 --> 00:03:57.840
terribly interested in a rehash of an aging platform i guess it just hadn't

00:03:56.159 --> 00:04:02.239
been enough time yet then there was the neo geopocket color

00:04:00.080 --> 00:04:06.560
from 1998 which was released at the height of pokemon mania between that and

00:04:04.959 --> 00:04:11.280
the fact that the game boy advance was on its way in 2001 nintendo already had

00:04:09.439 --> 00:04:16.959
the market cornered the company brought us the innovative ds in 2004 and it was

00:04:14.640 --> 00:04:21.519
around this time that sony tried to become a major competitor with its

00:04:18.560 --> 00:04:26.560
playstation portable or psp which actually became a relative success due

00:04:23.680 --> 00:04:30.880
to its powerful internals lovely screen and solid lineup of games but a big

00:04:28.800 --> 00:04:35.680
reason for the psp's ultimate undoing was that it was trying to replicate the

00:04:33.520 --> 00:04:40.479
full playstation experience rather than building something completely with

00:04:37.759 --> 00:04:44.800
mobile gaming in mind the nintendo ds's dual screen design for example

00:04:42.400 --> 00:04:49.040
would be awkward on a home console looking at you wii u but made a ton of

00:04:47.040 --> 00:04:53.759
sense in a handheld form factor the psp's successor the ps vita ended up

00:04:51.759 --> 00:04:57.919
making the same mistakes but unfortunately with an even worse game

00:04:55.680 --> 00:05:02.240
library as sony was far more concerned with its upcoming playstation 4 meaning

00:05:00.320 --> 00:05:06.160
that the 3ds became the dominant handheld until the switch was released

00:05:04.479 --> 00:05:10.479
in 2017. then when you consider how powerful

00:05:08.080 --> 00:05:15.280
smartphones were getting all that time opening up more possibilities for gaming

00:05:12.560 --> 00:05:19.600
on what was already a do it all platform that you had in your pocket anyway it's

00:05:17.520 --> 00:05:23.440
not surprising that dedicated gaming gadgets from companies not named

00:05:21.440 --> 00:05:26.720
nintendo have mostly been squeezed out of the market to the point where we

00:05:24.960 --> 00:05:30.160
might not even be able to place snake on our graphing calculators anymore

00:05:28.960 --> 00:05:35.039
come on and come on and check out our sponsor

00:05:32.080 --> 00:05:39.360
private internet access pia is the vpn that masks your ip address and encrypts

00:05:37.039 --> 00:05:43.280
your internet traffic pia has reliable service with thousands of servers in

00:05:41.360 --> 00:05:48.080
dozens of countries and no bandwidth caps it offers configurable

00:05:46.320 --> 00:05:51.520
encryption with an internet kill switch to keep you in control of your

00:05:49.520 --> 00:05:55.199
connection and privacy and when you combine it with private browsing you can

00:05:53.280 --> 00:05:59.280
make websites and online services think you're in a different country with pia

00:05:57.440 --> 00:06:04.160
you can connect up to 10 devices at once with clients for Windows mac Android iOS

00:06:01.440 --> 00:06:08.319
and Linux and you can use mace they're built in malware and tracking blocker as

00:06:06.240 --> 00:06:11.840
well so don't wait try it risk free for 30 days by going to

00:06:09.440 --> 00:06:16.560
privateinternetaccess.com techwiki thanks for watching guys like

00:06:14.080 --> 00:06:20.400
dislike check out our other videos and leave a comment if you have a suggestion

00:06:18.000 --> 00:06:24.160
for a future video if you don't subscribe by the way guys your

00:06:21.840 --> 00:06:27.280
fingernails will all fall off all of them