From: orb@alchemy.tn.cornell.edu (Randolph Turner)
Newsgroups: rec.games.video,alt.games.lynx
Subject: Re: Next generation handhelds
Date: 3 Jan 93 20:17:15 GMT
Article-I.D.: tc.1993Jan3.201715.450
Organization: Alchemy International

In article <1i78qhINNphg@transfer.stratus.com> savoia@sw.stratus.com (Rick Savoia) writes:
>In article <1993Jan1.075155.27799@tc.cornell.edu>, orb@alchemy.tn.cornell.edu (Randolph Turner) writes:
>> 
>>   1. The Gameboy is trash.  Let it die.
>
>The Gameboy may not be the best technology going these days
>but it does have it's points:
>
>	1.  The Game libraries are more extensive than other
>	    handhelds and alot more inexpensive.  

Quantity does not equal quality as the Nintendo marketing people would have
you believe.

>	2.  Most games I've played have taken me a very long time
>	    to finish.  If I get a game and can finish it in a few
>	    days, it wasn't worth the money I payed for it. (Granted
>	    I prefer RPG's which do take a long time to play).

Then I can see why you would be happy with a Gameboy.  Action games are lame
on it.

>	3.  While it does need light to be played (easily remedied 
>	    by a $10 unit to put on the Gameboy), it is still by 
>	    far one of the easiest games to see.  I've played the
>	    Game Gear in stores and IMHO, it is trash.  The colors
>	    are always washed out, I can never what's going on 
>	    around the central character, and no matter how I hold it
>	    it never gets better.

The Game Gear needs a light to be played as well...the one built into it,
not an extra $10 attachment.  The store displays for the Game Gear keep it
pinned into a box, making it almost impossible to see at a proper viewing
angle.  BTW, you must have one of those "extra special" Gameboys, because
the one my little sister has is as bad or worse when it comes to proper
viewing angles.  It is however amusing to see someone who uses a wishy-washy
black-and-mucas-yellow screen complaining about washed out *color*.

>	4.  The size and battery life of the Gameboy is much better than
>	    that of the other units.  One person I talked to had a Lynx
>	    and told me that he could only get about 2 hours of solid 
>	    playing time before his batteries were too weak to play anymore.
>	    On the same flight from Boston to Florida, he could only play
>	    his Lynx for 45 minutes while I played with my Gameboy for
>	    3 solid hours (2 months later, I'm still using the same 
>	    batteries).  Also, the Lynx was HUGE (not exactly my 
>	    definition of handheld.  The Gamegear is at least about 
>	    the same size as a Gameboy.  Regardless, my Gameboy fits
>	    into any of my coat pockets for play anywhere.

...And, if you bought one of those LCD Game Watches, you could probably play
for a *year* on the same batteries and you could wear it on your wrist!  You
get what you pay for when it comes to battery consumption.  The GameGear has
a real speaker in it that you can crank up loud enough to hear across the
room, while the GB has a meek little piezo beeper.  The GameGear is backlit
while you need an attachment with *it's own power source* on the GB.  My
manual states that with Alkaline batteries, the GameGear should work for 4-5
hours.  My experience with Ni-Cads show it to last about 3hrs, which sounds
about right to me.
  

>> 
>>   2. Unless you want to pay twice as much for your handheld (see Turbo
>>      Express), you will be saddled with a non-active-matrix LCD Screen which
>>      will need to be viewed at a proper angle or you get washout.
>
>	See number 3.

See my reply.

>> 
>>    3. [Stuff about LCD's deleted]
>
>I'm not sure of the point you are trying to make here.  In one sentence
>you are saying that LCD's can't handle what is needed for them to do
>and in another you say that LCD screens are sufficient.
>

What I said, had you taken the time to read and understand it, was that
given the current LCD technology, an 8-bit hardware engine, such as the Sega
Master System's, is more than adequate to drive it.  Nothing I said was
contradictory, and had you not deleted it from your post, you would have
seen that.

>> 
>> didn't seem to be selling as well.  Maybe a pattern developing?
>
>Probably not.  I must admit that I don't see as many Lynxes
>around (Electronics Boutique is the only place around here)
>but I don't see to see alot of GameGear stuff either.  Personally,

I didn't see a lot of GameGears around either...because every place I went
to (including Electronics Boutique) were *SOLD OUT*.

>as much as I like the Gameboy, I can't see it being around
>more than a couple of more years either.  The console markets

With the color hand-helds on the market for practically the same price, I
doubt it shall last even that long.

>are getting all the attention these days so unless Nintendo
>manages to come out with something new in the handheld 
>area, I think they'll eventually just maintain the Gameboy
>division until the next handheld upswing and then bring out 
>something new.

Or not.


Randy