Evolution of Nintendo Handhelds | Neander Meander 

I like how all this was started from a calculator of all things

I had the original gameboy when it first came out. It was amazing! Have to underdstand, up to that point we had games like mattel football or baseball or basketball, or a space invaders game to play on the go. They were fun, but they were led blips on a screen. The Gameboy was actual video games. So while it may seem archaic now, back then it was really something. I picked up a GBA SP about the time the DS came out, and played the crap out of it for a couple years then got the DS lite, man I love that thing, still do! Its the perfect size to be really portable, and games like Mariokart DS were just amazing. I got an R4 card for it and had tons of games for it, and also was able to watch movies and tv shows on it, this was before smart phones so again, it was amazing! I have since got the 3ds, New 3DS Xl, and a Switch lite. Love them all, but I still play the older systems to this day, the ds lite, the gba sp, even the Gameboy Color that I picked up years after I had the DS. I like the Gameboy color, but no backlit screen keeps me from playing it very much at all. I like the form factor of the original GBA, but again, without a backlit screen it just is too hard to see to enjoy. I did finally buy a modded GBA with a backlit screen, I know I didnt need it, as I played my gba games on the ds lite, but now I can play them on the original hardware design, and also play my GBC and GB games with a backlit screen. Nintendo sure has been creative, and while its aggravating with the backlit screens, I know they did that for battery life. Because old systems like the Sega Gamegear and Atari lynx failed due to extremely short battery life. I love my Nintendo handhelds, really had alot of fun over the years with these systems, from Mariokart Supercircuit, DS, 7,8 to playing Rocketleague on the Switch lite, sure have come a long way.

This is a masterclass of a retrospective/documentary type video Neander. This, right here, is what I love about RU-vid. And why I've persisted for so long. Different views of my hobby, done using different methods as well as technologies, to do so. Thank you for this. " It is my responsibility to do what inspires me, in order to inspire others to do what inspires them." Take care always. Much kindness and respect to you always. -Marcus

Before: What does Nintendo have against backlit screens? Now: What does Nintendo have against Bluetooth?

This Is a great video! You disserve more subs!

Something of note is how backwards compatibility was handled. In a way, the Gameboy Colour was pretty much just an overclocked Gameboy internally, which is why it could be considered the same generation. The Gameboy Advance on the other hand had a completely different processor, switching from a Sharp processor related to the 8080 and Z80 (yes, that is the granddaddy of the modern x86(_64)) to an ARM chip. While the Gameboy Colour could run Gameboy games natively using the same hardware as Gameboy Colour games, the Gameboy Advance had to essentially embed an entire Gameboy Colour inside it in order to run their games. When the DS released, Nintendo used a similar system where the DS contains an entire Gameboy Advance, but without the Gameboy Colour components, even if this time both of their processors were from the same family. Unlike the GBA however, DS games would actually use both processors in order to run, so when the DSi came out, it was still required to have the GBA processor in order to run DS games even if it lacked the cartridge slot, and same with the 3DS. As a result, the GBA virtual console games from the 3DS Ambassador Program run completely natively with no CPU emulation needed. Despite not having a GBA cartridge slot, the 3DS was still technically backwards compatible with every prior handheld other than the Gameboy and Gameboy Colour (and those both had games released using standard emulation). The Switch is the only Nintendo handheld so far, and only console except for the N64, to not have any related systems in the same family.

Nintendo is a Master class in Handheld consoles, great video, man. Saludos desde México.

This guys videos are so underrated. They’re so high quality and they don’t get as much views as it deserves.

The Gameboy Micro also had the longest battery life of all gameboy's and possibly of all handhelds of all time. With the screen brightness turned down you could get 17 hours on one charge, I seem to remember. The screen also seemed to be very good quality. The perfect destination point of the Gameboy evolution.

I love Nintendo. The gaming world is better with them in it than without.

I always forgot just how quickly the GBA SP 001, DS, GBA SP 101, Game Boy Micro, and DS Lite all came out after each other. 2003-2006 and we got 5 different models of handheld systems

You have quite a collection! Very fun learning the history of these since I lost most of my early childhood collection (namely the Gameboy).

Finally finshed the video! Man it was worth it! I regret not getting a micro when it was cheap. I love seeing how things started up to what Nintendo has out now. Great video man it was well worth the effort you put in

Thank the guy who was playing with his calculator and made nintendo a future and fortune

Dude, I’ve watched this video like 50 times since its release. I really enjoy your longer videos. They’re great to just kick back and relax to after a long day. I’d love to see you make an “Evolution of Nintendo home consoles” video one day. I understand that’s a lot easier said than done but it’d still be awesome to see. I’d probably watch that one 50 times too! You deserve MANY more subs.

This video is actually really well made! I got bored while I was waiting for something to install in the background, so I went looking for something like this and I was pleasantly surprised. Keep up the great work!

So fun fact! There was actually another revision of the GameBoy called the GameBoy Light. This was the first GameBoy and Nintendo Handheld to have a Backlight! Even before the SP! However, this was never released outside of Japan, which is a bummer!

I remember when the first kid in the neighbourhood got a Gameboy more than 30years ago. We all huddled to watch him play but it was so hard because the screen had a very narrow view. Still we didn't know better back then, it was mind blowing. I didn't have money and didn't own one until the Gameboy color. Oh that was fun to play. I still remember the bendable light extension you could plug in that would blind you when reflecting off the screen. We are so privileged these days, in a way I wish I was a kid this generation. Now back to playing my Switch.

I saw that video a while ago but i just came back to tell you how amazing it was, the editing & recording, the effort you put to buy every handheld, everything. I love it so much, keep it up man !

Such a well produced video. I keep coming back to this video and getting some Nintendo history lessons. I also enjoy listening to this while doing my school work.

great video man! I really appreciate the effort on putting your thoughts on each handheld rather than reiterating product descriptions.

Was expecting at least 1 million subs. Was shocked that you only have 1k!! Amazing video 🤌🏼🤌🏼🤌🏼

Awesome video! Nintendo always seem to do an amazing job on design with their revisions, particularly original DS to DS Lite.

Rewatching again. Your production quality is superb, I enjoy watching your content. You have good pacing too.

I have autoplay on RU-vid, this ends up playing and I get drawn in watching the entire thing then go to check the channel only to see barely any subscribers. This is so well done… bravo sir.

This is so thorough, I love it! Love your writing

How can you be this underrated man

Just found your channel and I'm loving it, subscribed!

Exclusively in japan nintendo released a gameboy light, it was a gameboy pocket, but it was frontlit.

Absolutely an amazing video and amazing collection as well! Please do make more content like this!

This video literally professionally done, i even thought that you had 1m subs, you earned a sub man

Here before it blows up because I know it will. Great video 👍

It’s has always been very excited to see the next steps in gaming. How will they improve on the switch and sp5. But the last few months I have been very nostalgic and been playing a lot on my gameboy and 3ds. Seeing this video only increases my nostalgia. GJ ;)

I dont get that this channel has so few subsribers, the videos are all so high quality! great Work = )

you deserve WAAAYYYY more subs!! this video is top notch!!!

yet another amazing video from you. Really enjoyed this

The GBA was my first ever handheld console experiance ever, I remember my grandmother got my sister and I GBA's for Xmas that year, I still have mine.

Your video style is great. Your knowledge is excellent. Well done.

This should be a RU-vid movie from the amount of quality

Dude you made a awesome video you need way more subs!!

The very first Nintendo handheld system that I had was the classic Nintendo Game Boy Color handheld systems alongside with Pokémon Red and Blue versions back in late 1998 as we were kids. It was an amazing experience and amazing ride playing handheld games (mostly console systems) during my childhood years.

this was so professional how do you only have 1k subs😶

Thank you for not stuffing ads in this vid🙂

Amazing vid bro!

This video.is great . I remmeber playing gameboy and gameboy color back.in ealry 90s . It was revolutionary and high tech coming from nes .. the feeling of a new transition on tech.. and now how far we have come.. 🙏

My friend has a 2DS from his grandparents and today I played some Mario Cart 7 on it

Wow, just wow! Hope algorithm picks this up!

Nintendo went all out with the 3ds. (edit) The GBA was the first system I ever played on and the first game I ever played was Mario Kart Super Circuit.

If I could buy one, I'd pick the DSi. Great video!!

You deserve way more subs

The reason the DSI doesn’t have a gameboy advance slot is because they wanted a more sleek look for their console. They might have added it but it most likely took up more space. So it got emitted.

I love my GBA SP, what a great library of games!

I hope you make an updated video which includes the Switch OLED. :)

4:57 and original-shaped gbc games (Black cartridge)

GBA SP is my favorite handheld of all time. The clam shell design, being able to play any gameboy game, and having that back lit screen. I still have one of 3 me and my brothers had as kids. I'm still on the lookout for the other 2, especially because one has Leaf Green in it, and I don't want to spend $80 on an almost 20 year old game. I did get a DS Lite, but I think it was used because the DS prongs were corroded, and games would stop working after a few days. So I continued playing my GBA SP even though kids my age played the DS. I eventually got a 3DS XL in 2014, and I played the few games I have on it, but man, I wished I played it more and used its online features more.

8:59 Lemme explain what bits are (Tldr: the more bits a system has, the more possible variations a byte can have.) Alright, now for a more technical explanation. To understand what I mean, first lemme explain what a bit is in the first place. Bits are literally 1s and 0s. On and off. 8 of them (on older systems at least, I'm talking 80s and early 90s), and you've got a byte. 00000000, 01001010, 10110100, etc. This is 8-bit. The max number you can really get without workarounds in 8-bit is 255, or ff in hexadecimal (hexadecimal is basically a better way to represent byte values easily with values ranging from 0-f (0-9 then a-f being 10-16)). However, the more bits you have, the higher this value is, with the limit for 64-bit maxing out at 9,223,372,036,854,775,807. The way you actually write the values down starting at the 8-bit level is 00000000 (with certain 0s being replaced with 1s obviously), and for every new bit level (16-bit, 32-bit, and 64-bit), you'd double the amount of rows of 00000000s. For example: 8-bit: 00000000 16-bit: 00000000 00000000 32-bit: 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 64-bit: 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 Quite basically, bits are funky things and I like ranting about this crap on the internet to people because it makes the brain go brrrr

The Game Boy Color is a hardware revision of the original Game Boy.

So I don't want to bother you on the exclusion of the Game Boy Light, I can see you made up for that which is awesome, but you also excluded the Pokémon Mini & it's revision called the Nintendo Pocket Pikachu, the Virtual Boy, the Switch V2, & the Switch OLED Model (Even though that last one came out after this video had already released).

I had a ds lite. Loved it. Traded it for a dsi. Loved that one too, but not enough to keep it. Traded it for a 3ds xl. Still have it today. I decided to homebrew it because the e shop shut down. Hard to believe I only had 2 games for the system.

Bits have to do with the architecture of the main processor. Currently, most modern devices use 64-bit (there was a big transition from 32-bit in both the PC and mobile market). Because of how permutations work, 64-bit is about the upper range of what consumer devices will use. Companies did a shit job of explaining what power was at the time. Really, RAM was just as important as any metric of bits.

Interesting looking at the Game and Watch, I didn't know it's like an ancient DS...

Im from mexico, I love your videos so much

I dont blame you for not showing the virtual boy. Idk why they said its a portable . Yeeeeah carry around these weird glasses and a controller that makes sence

To me the GBC was also a real new console. But it was a smart move from Nintendo not to market it that way. But just like the GBA after it, it had it's own games and it had backward compatibility. But I think some people see it as a revision because there where also games that worked on the original and had extra features for the color (the black carts). The GBC was twice as fast as the GB (and the GBA was twice as fast as the GBC).

So the GameBoy Color has it's own games, that can't be played on the older Gameboys, and it's a separate generation... The DSi does the same but it's considered in the same generation as DS? Great video though! Nice work

Though the switch has great graphics I still don’t know if I like my “new” 3ds more! I just has so many memory’s on it especially in the camera!( also I LOVE those 20th anniversary blastoise cover plates I tried to get them on eBay but they are like 40-80 dollar$

I feel like the wii u should have had a honorable mention, it wasn't as portable as the switch but was still a hand held in its own right. :)

just noticed you don't have a video focusing specifically on the ds line. but then again you did say you weren't playing much nintendo during that time period.

My first console was the Nintendo DS Lite. It was the shiny black one and along with it came Super Mario 64 DS, my first game ever. It was a present from my dad for my 5th birthday.

26:52 I know that’s just 2 nes controllers placed on the sides of the switch, but wouldn’t that be cool if they had the attachment rails and could work as the joycons? I’d be fine using a dpad instead of a joystick.

Where's the gameboy light?

I think it’s hard to argue that the New 3DS XL is the best all-in-one Nintendo handheld system these days (especially if you mod it). Having said that, the DS Lite is probably the best designed handheld Nintendo ever made. That thing somehow manages to be slick, comfortable, with a lot of hardware options.

The GBA is really showing off with all of its bits.

This man has commented and hearted on every comment. What an incredible guy

Bits are how many numbers it can calculate

You forgot the Gameboy light 😆 It's a game of that is black and white, but it has a black light!!!

I watched your channel again, cuz i didn't watch your channel for months.

It is amazing that so many of the old Nintendo handhelds have survived to this day. They seem to built with early Nokia quality. 😅

Small correction, the Switch came out early 2017 not 2016. March 3rd 2017 to be precise

My only problem with the gba line is the fact they didn’t have four buttons from the start triggers, not including triggers but all in All I still love them regardless

Didn't you leave out the game boy light?

Just saying that you forgot - Nintendo Pokémon Mini - Nintendo Gameboy Advance SP AGS 001 - Nintendo Gamdboy Advance IPS and now Nintendo Switch OLED Model' (I don't blame you for not including it, it was released when this video wasn't released.)

I feel like new 3ds is actually a good name because it tells you that you have the latest model even if I doesn’t stick forever. The name makes sense to me because new means it’s the newest version.

Bits are just how many 1 and 0 combined are one value. 32-Bit means that each operation can handle 2^32 long numbers. 64-Bit would be 2^64 and so on. That means the Prozessor can crunch bigger numbers at once and the screen can use way more colors (8-Bit screens are limited to 256 colors per pixel for example).

I have gba games but I’m not sure if I’m in the ambassador program how do I check

U forgot gameboy light. Ik its online in japan but its worth metioning as it has a light

Nintendo switch what I love about it that I can play high triple AAA on the go

Do you have a list of what music you use?

I love my switch but I aslo love my new 2ds xl

you forgot about he Gameboy light i know it was only available in japan but you could of still mentioned it

Fun fact: Just by getting a gba, new nintendo 3ds, and a switch, you can play every handheld game

I had the Gameboy advance back in the day. Made a big time mistake selling it

I feel like I need to ask this, for I can't find anyone doig it so... 1: What happened to the Gameboy Light? it was the first gameboy with a front lit screen. Only in Japan though 2: wait... are there games the Switch Lite can't play?

“Calling back to the original Game Boy Advance, which was the last Nintendo portable to feature a non-closable design” GameBoy Micro: am I a joke to you? Also I’m kinda surprise you didn’t mention the Virtual Boy nor the Game Boy Light

Nice video, but.... Where Pokemon Mini!?

Wait, the ds part of the video is literally the video you made about the ds lineup? :/

You forgot the Gameboy light witch had a lit screen and came before the Gameboy color.

Fun fact: The DS almost became the most sold gaming device, missing the PS2 by 1 million sales

I would like to make mention of Gameboy Light, but very nice video though

gotta admit the 3ds is the best handheld console ever