Nintendo Handheld History Trivia Quiz

The Game & Watch was a series of handheld consoles which was first released in 1980. In North America the device was originally named the Time-Out. Each device had a single game that could be played along with a digital clock function. The original design featured a single screen but later editions featured two screens.

The Game Boy was first released in 1989. It was the first of Nintendo's hand held consoles to use game cartridges enabling users to play many different games on the one device. The device featured a 2.5 inch LCD screen which displayed games in four shades of green however the lack of a backlight made it difficult to play in low light levels.

The Game Boy Pocket was a smaller version of the Game Boy released in 1996. The main difference was that the console was smaller in size and lighter than the original Game Boy but it also featured a better screen which rendered games in shades of grey rather than green thereby improving the contrast.

The device had significantly lower battery life as it used AAA batteries to better fit with the smaller unit size rather than the AA batteries used by the original.

The Game Boy Color was released in 1998 and was a significant upgrade on the original Game Boy as it featured a full-colour screen. The Game Boy Color used the same size cartridges as the original and so Game Boy games could be played on a Game Boy Color, albeit without coloured graphics.

The Pokemon Mini was a small handheld console released by Nintendo in 2001, the device measured 74 by 58 by 23 mm and weighed just 70g. 10 games were made for the Pokemon Mini all themed around the Pokemon franchise but only 4 of these were relased in North America with the rest only available in Japan.

The Game Boy Micro was released in 2005 and was a smaller version of the Game Boy Advance which had been released in its original format in 2001. The Game Boy Micro was a very small unit measuring 50 by 101 by 17.2 mm and weighing 80g. Unlike other models of the Game Boy Advance the Micro is unable to play cartridges for the Game Boy or Game Boy Color and is instead only compatible with Game Boy Advance games.

The Nintendo DSi was released in North American markets in 2009. This console was an upgraded version of the Nintendo DS which was first released in 2004. The DSi was thinner and lighter than the DS and featured larger, brighter screens. Features wise the DSi added digital cameras to the device but removed the backwards compatibility afforded by the inclusion of a slot for playing games from Game Boy Advance cartridges.

The original Nintendo 3DS was released in 2011. The console kept the clamshell, dual screen design of the DS but included the ability to display stereoscopic 3D graphics. The depth of the 3D graphics could be adjusted or switched off altogether by using a physical slider on the console.

The Nintendo 2DS was released in 2013, it was designed as a cheaper option for consumers who wanted to play 3DS games and was also marketed for younger children who had been advised not to use the 3D graphics due to concerns about eye health. The 2DS was a dual screen console but did not feature a clamshell design and neither screen was capable of displaying 3D graphics.

The Switch Lite was released in 2019 and was a handheld only version of the Nintendo Switch. While the Switch has removable controllers (called Joy-Cons) and can be used as a handheld or docked to a larger screen the Switch Lite has fixed controls and cannot be used through an external screen.

The console does include support for Joy-Cons however and users can connect them wirelessly to the unit if they wish but they do not dock with the unit itself.