A battle to the death is raging these days between Sony and Nintendo to see who is going to take control of the handheld market. Of course long before the PSP and DS were conceived, there was another portable console war. Between 1989 and 1991, four handheld videogame systems were released--each had its advantages and disadvantages. Here's my basic impression of the 1st generation of portables:
Game Boy (B&W): The only portable of the time to have any killer apps. Tetris was unsophistocated but more addictive than morphine. Super Mario Land blew me away with stellar platform gameplay.
Lynx: Excellent graphics (with some unparalleled special effects) and several good renditions of arcade classics, but no real lasting value. Lacked the essential support of 3rd party developers.
Game Gear: It might've impressed folks in 1989 with it's backlit color screen, but for a system with such a large catalogue of games, it SUCKED! I own a bunch, and can say quite seriously that very few Game Gear games were anything more than very poor translations of Master System or Genesis titles. They're simply unplayable by today's standards.
Turbo Express: Probably the best all around package of the time, this little baby could've easily competed with the Game Boy Advance SP if it hadn't been for the exhorbitant pricetag! How cool was it that you could play full-fledged TG-16 games on the go AND watch TV?! Way ahead of its time. TE had some great games, but never enough to warrant spending $400 for the unit itself!! Too bad, so sad.
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