It was also gigantic compared to the Game Boy. Between that and the fact you needed to carry an AC power brick or 12v cigarette lighter adapter (or both) pretty much all the time unless you were swimming in AA battery money, you ended up carrying the thing around in what was basically a damn purse, like this one (more pictures on linked page):
And that’s the smallest of the several first-party SEGA cases for it!
Needless to say, despite its technological superiority to a Game Boy, I didn’t play mine nearly as often as I would have had a owned a Game Boy instead, just because it was so cumbersome to take places.
They are, that’s true. I think there’s three big differences, besides battery life. First is we already have small phones that can play simple games and provide entertainment, so we don’t need an additional something like the Gameboy. Second is it’s marketed towards adults mostly, which are going to have an easier time bringing it with them wherever they are, unlike kids who would have to take it to school or wherever. Third is the game selection is massive and uses your steam library, which you probably already have a lot of games for.
I would be much more likely to buy one of those tiny retro emulator handhelds. (I haven’t done that either, but that’s for an entirely different reason: decision fatigue.)
It was also gigantic compared to the Game Boy. Between that and the fact you needed to carry an AC power brick or 12v cigarette lighter adapter (or both) pretty much all the time unless you were swimming in AA battery money, you ended up carrying the thing around in what was basically a damn purse, like this one (more pictures on linked page):
And that’s the smallest of the several first-party SEGA cases for it!
Needless to say, despite its technological superiority to a Game Boy, I didn’t play mine nearly as often as I would have had a owned a Game Boy instead, just because it was so cumbersome to take places.
That’s the whole point though. These PC handhelds are also gigantic (as is the switch at this point).
They are, that’s true. I think there’s three big differences, besides battery life. First is we already have small phones that can play simple games and provide entertainment, so we don’t need an additional something like the Gameboy. Second is it’s marketed towards adults mostly, which are going to have an easier time bringing it with them wherever they are, unlike kids who would have to take it to school or wherever. Third is the game selection is massive and uses your steam library, which you probably already have a lot of games for.
And that’s a big reason I don’t own a Steam Deck.
I would be much more likely to buy one of those tiny retro emulator handhelds. (I haven’t done that either, but that’s for an entirely different reason: decision fatigue.)
Some of those retro emulator handhelds run Linux, to boot. I did a playthrough of Stardew Valley on my Anbernic SP.