A Brief History of Handheld Consoles

When video games first rose to popularity in the 1980s, arcades were all the rage. Millions would visit the digital fun houses and pop quarters into big cabinet-sized machines to play titles like Pac-Man and Space Invaders, trying to outdo bad guys and get to the next stage.

Eventually technology advanced, allowing players to enjoy gaming at home, mostly with the groundbreaking and extremely popular Nintendo® Entertainment System (NES®). But when smaller handheld consoles made their appearance, a whole new market opened up.

Here’s the history of those gems.