Gaming History 101

Given the low price point for both games and hardware, massive amount of ports, and obvious room in the market for clones, portables were not hard to find.  It wasn’t until the late 90s that they actually found their voice, though, starting with weak license translations and resulting in full-blown solid titles developed solely for portable platforms.  At the same time, many developers would revert back to ports now that they could make long RPGs of yesteryear and games from last gen run in your hand.

Game.com – Released: 1997
Pronounced “game com” and not “game dot com”, this newest handheld from Tiger Electronics was a clear attempt to make a cartridge-based handheld version of the games they popularized in the late 80s.  Much like those old school handhelds, the games shared popular licenses of the time and similarities in gameplay, but for the most part were unique creations.  Think of a company that only does book adaptations to film – the concept remains the same and the characters are familiar, but it’s essentially something new.  This sounds like a good idea, but for some reason Tiger always seemed to miss the point of portable games and Game.com is no exception.

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