The Portable Video game system. Page 3
Other Players
The
TurboExpress was a portable version of the TurboGrafx, released in 1990 for
$249.99 (the price was briefly raised to $299.99, soon dropped back to $249.99,
and by 1992 it was $199.99). Its Japanese equivalent was the PC Engine GT.
TurboExpress handheld, TV tuner, and gamesIt was the most advanced handheld
of its time and could play all the TurboGrafx-16's games(which were on a small,
credit-card sized media called HuCards).
The optional "TurboVision" TV tuner included RCA audio/video input, allowing you to use TurboExpress as a video monitor. The "TurboLink" allowed two-player play. Falcon, a flight simulator, included a "head-to-head" dogfight mode that could only be accessed via TurboLink. However, very few TG-16 games offered co-op play modes especially designed with the TurboExpress in mind.
Stability and marketing issues killed this unit fast, not to mention the $300.00 price tag to start. Even though it played original Turbografx games, the 64bit revolution had begun making many of these units seem obsolete. Amazingly this hindered, but did not kill the Nintendo which never tried to compete with itself or other systems directly and stayed in a affordable range. Look how much the Turbografx tired to look like a Gameboy.
Another
portable of note is the Neo-Geo which lasted less than 1 year. It was released
in 1998 as a monochrome unit but by this time Gameboy held 90% of the market
and was discontinued as a color version was released. The color version lasted
about a years as well and dies as soon as the Game Boy color was released.
The New Millennium
2000
saw the release of the Nokia Ngage a combo MP3, Cell Phone and Video Game
System as well as the SWAN but neither unit took primarily due to high price,
limited game supply and Gameboy still holding the total market with the release
of the Gameboy Advance system.
Recently the two new portables have pushed the boundaries of Video Game Systems.