From: orb@alchemy.tn.cornell.edu (Randolph Turner)
Subject: Re: Next generation handhelds
Organization: Alchemy International
Date: Fri, 1 Jan 1993 07:51:55 GMT



   I've been following this thread and others relating to the Handheld scene
and there's a few things that need to be said.

  First of all, I own a Sega Game Gear and have nothing but good things to
say about it, so I may be a bit biased (but hopefully that will not detract
from the points I am about to make).


  1. The Gameboy is trash.  Let it die.

  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.

  3. LCD screens are typically long persistance.  This means that any
     "speed" increase you would get by adding faster processors would probably
     just blurrrrrr anyway (hell, Sonic2 does it now!).  You would have the
     ability to sling more things around on the screen without slowdowns, but
     given the extremely small screen size and the need for larger players, 
     just how many things can fit on there at once anyway?  Then there is
     the issue (non-issue?) of the GG's resloution.  I may be wrong on this 
     one, but I suspect that given the limited resolution of the LCD panels,
     you could probably crank the res all day with little or no noticable
     improvement in quality. Therefore, I conclude that the SMS engine is 
     suitable for the tasks at hand.

  4. Unlike Atari, SEGA now has a very succesful console line on the market.
     Prospective buyers will most likely buy a product made buy a company
     whom they feel will be around long enough to support it.  I have owned
     every console model made by Atari, and have been dumped after the 10
     or 12 obligatory cartridges.  With the Lynx being Atari's *only*
     product in this market (or perhaps any market) coupled with their past
     reputation, I wouldn't care if it did Gigaflops in Zillions of colors,
     I would still not invest my money in it.  BTW, Electronics Boutique
     seems to be phasing them out as well as other retailers.

  5. The Game Gear is essentially a shrunken Sega Master System with an
     LCD and Stereo sound added.  Some may call this "outdated" technology,
     but when you consider that the SMS was in direct competition with the
     NES (and in my opinion, superior) and that SEGA has succesfully 
     integrated this into a machine that will fit in your coat pocket, I 
     have to ask what people expect!?!  Just like the original NES games
     were crappy, so were some of the early SMS games.  But when you see
     Shooters like Halley Wars and platform games like Sonic II, you can
     see that the hardware has come of age and is being used at a level 
     closer to it's potential.  Outdated?  For a console, yes, but for a
     handheld, it has the advantage of it's predecessor's experience plus
     the ability to use the older carts for the price of a cheap adapter.

  
   Just as a side note, when I bought my GameGear about 1-1/2 weeks before
Christmas, they were sold out just about everywhere I went.  When I did
finally find a store that had them (Wal-Mart) all they had was the CORE
system.  So, I got the GG for $89.99 and Sonic II for around $33 and still
came out good.  But I digress....the point of this last paragraph is that I
saw (and still see) piles of Atari LYNXs, Gameboys and Turbo Expresses that
didn't seem to be selling as well.  Maybe a pattern developing?

Randy