A handheld game console, or simply handheld console, is a small, portable self-contained video game console with a built-in screen, game controls and speakers. Handheld game consoles are smaller than home video game consoles and contain the console, screen, speakers, and controls in one unit, allowing players to carry them and play them at any time or place.
Nintendo Co., Ltd. is a Japanese multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes and releases both video games and video game consoles.
A video game console is an electronic device that outputs a video signal or image to display a video game that can be played with a game controller. These may be home consoles, which are generally placed in a permanent location connected to a television or other display devices and controlled with a separate game controller, or handheld consoles, which include their own display unit and controller functions built into the unit and which can be played anywhere. Hybrid consoles combine elements of both home and handheld consoles.
A regional lockout is a class of digital rights management preventing the use of a certain product or service, such as multimedia or a hardware device, outside a certain region or territory. A regional lockout may be enforced through physical means, through technological means such as detecting the user's IP address or using an identifying code, or through unintentional means introduced by devices only supporting certain regional technologies.
In video game parlance, a famiclone is a hardware clone of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), known in Japan as the Family Computer or Famicom. They are designed to replicate the workings of, and play games designed for, the NES and Famicom. Hundreds of unauthorized clones and unlicensed game copies have been made available since the height of the NES popularity in the late 1980s. The technology employed in such clones has evolved over the years: while the earliest clones feature a printed circuit board containing custom or third party integrated circuits (ICs), more recent (post-1996) clones utilize single-chip designs, with a custom ASIC which simulates the functionality of the original hardware, and often includes one or more on-board games. Most devices originate in China and Taiwan, and less commonly South Korea. Outside China and Taiwan, they are mostly widespread across emerging markets of developing countries.
The history of video game consoles, both home and handheld, began in the 1970s. The first console that played games on a television set was the 1972 Magnavox Odyssey, first conceived by Ralph H. Baer in 1966. Handheld consoles originated from electro-mechanical games that used mechanical controls and light-emitting diodes (LED) as visual indicators. Handheld electronic games had replaced the mechanical controls with electronic and digital components, and with the introduction of Liquid-crystal display (LCD) to create video-like screens with programmable pixels, systems like the Microvision and the Game & Watch became the first handheld video game consoles.
1995 saw many sequels and prequels in video games, such as Dragon Quest VI, Mega Man 7, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest, and Tekken 2, along with new titles such as Mario's Picross, Battle Arena Toshinden, Chrono Trigger, Rayman, Twisted Metal, Star Wars: Dark Forces, Destruction Derby, Wipeout and Jumping Flash!
An analog stick, also known as control stick, joystick or thumbstick, is an input device for a controller that is used for two-dimensional input. An analog stick is a variation of a joystick, consisting of a protrusion from the controller; input is based on the position of this protrusion in relation to the default "center" position. While digital sticks rely on single electrical connections for movement, analog sticks use continuous electrical activity running through potentiometers to measure the exact position of the stick within its full range of motion. The analog stick has greatly overtaken the D-pad in both prominence and usage in console video games.
The Cassette Vision is a second generation home video game console made by Epoch Co. and released in Japan on July 30, 1981. A redesigned model called the Cassette Vision Jr. was released afterwards.
A flash cartridge is a homebrew video game cartridge that uses flash memory for storage as well as running applications. These cartridges enable homebrew applications and games to be used and played when they are inserted into an otherwise officially licensed game console. The game storage can be in the form of onboard flash memory on the cartridge, although newer cartridges usually use external memory cards as storage in place of onboard memory, such as Compact Flash or Secure Digital. Recent flash cartridges may also use RAM instead of ROM for flashing games to run on the console as a way to offer faster loading times than what is possible on reprogrammable ROM.
Greatest Hits is a branding used by Sony Interactive Entertainment for discounted reprints of PlayStation video games. The branding is used for reprints of popular, top-selling games for each console in the PlayStation family, which are deliberately sold with a lower MSRP than the original production runs of a game, and feature special branding—colored in red since PlayStation 2—on their box art, as well as red-colored cases on PlayStation Portable, PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 releases.
PlayStation Store is a digital distribution service for users of Sony's PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 game consoles via PlayStation Network.
Söldner-X: Himmelsstürmer is a 2007 scrolling shooter video game developed by German company SideQuest Studios and published by Eastasiasoft. The game was initially released physically for Microsoft Windows on December 14, 2007, before coming to the PlayStation 3 via the PlayStation Network in December 2008.
Since the release of the Nintendo Wii, many aesthetic, ergonomic and functional accessories have been developed by third parties for the console’s controller, the Wii Remote.
The 2010s was the fifth decade in the industry's history. The decade was notable for producing the first truly "3D" games and consoles, introducing cloud gaming and virtual reality to consumers, and the rising influence of tablet-based and mobile casual games, including a boom in freemium titles. The industry remained heavily dominated by the actions of Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft. The eighth generation of video game consoles was released, including the Wii U, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo 3DS, and PlayStation Vita. Notable games released in the decade included Minecraft, Fortnite, PUBG: Battlegrounds,Grand Theft Auto V, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, The Last of Us, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, Red Dead Redemption, Marvel's Spider-Man, Dark Souls, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Batman: Arkham City, BioShock Infinite, Dishonored, Halo: Reach,Mass Effect 2, Disco Elysium, Undertale, Overwatch, Super Mario Odyssey, Red Dead Redemption 2, L.A. Noire,Bloodborne, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Far Cry 3, Destiny, StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, The Walking Dead, Persona 5,Dragon Age: Inquisition, Portal 2, Diablo III, Horizon Zero Dawn, Journey, Shovel Knight, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Super Mario Galaxy 2, Wolfenstein: The New Order, Death Stranding, Titanfall 2, Xenoblade Chronicles,Cuphead, Alien: Isolation, Fallout 4,God of War, and Baldi's Basics in Education and Learning.
The PlayStation Vita is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 17, 2011, then in other international territories on February 22, 2012, and was produced until discontinuation on March 1, 2019. The console is the successor to the PlayStation Portable (PSP), and a part of the PlayStation brand of gaming devices; as part of the eighth generation of video game consoles, it primarily competed with the Nintendo 3DS.
The eighth generation of video game consoles began in 2012, and consists of four home video game consoles: the Wii U released in 2012, the PlayStation 4 family in 2013, the Xbox One family in 2013, and the Nintendo Switch family in 2017.
Eastasiasoft Limited is an independent game developer and video game publisher headquartered in Hong Kong, specializing in indie video games and niche media. Eastasiasoft was founded in 2007 as a digital publisher before branching out to publishing physical games in 2016. The company publishes digital and physical versions of games for Windows, MacOS, SteamOS, PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Series S, and Nintendo Switch.
