Hey everyone, it's Colin, how's it going?
Nintendo's Game Boy series dominated the handheld game console scene,
but that doesn't mean other companies didn't try to steal some market share.
This time, we're gonna take a look at one of these: the Neo Geo Pocket Color.
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SNK launched the Pocket Color in 1999 and eventually built up a catalog of 83 games.
It's a 16-bit console and features a 2.7 inch reflective color LCD.
The aspect ratio of the display is unique in that it's almost square,
with a resolution of a 160x152 pixels.
It's decently sharp and has vibrant colors, but being a reflective display, glare can be a problem.
Considering the era it was released in, the controls are very simple:
Just a pair of action buttons, A and B.
But in keeping with SNK tradition where there would normally be a boring D-pad,
it went with an 8-way thumbstick.
It's very satisfying to use, with a clicky, tactile response,
though it does have its downsides.
While it's fantastic for fighters, some other game genres,
like platformers, can feel a little clunky to play.
The Pocket Color's layout is similar to that of a Game Gear or Game Boy Advance,
with the controls on either side of the display.
And while its design is rather boxy and somewhat uninspiring,
it's decently comfortable to hold.
That's a real plus, because this thing offers incredible battery life:
Forty hours on a pair of double-As.
Marathon gaming sessions are no problem.
Another unique aspect to the handheld is that it actually has some code in its ROM.
If you power it on without a game inserted,
it'll take you to a menu that offers a built-in clock, calendar, horoscope, and more.
This was a bit ahead of its time, in that the first majorly successful handheld
to offer something similar was the Nintendo DS from 2004.
From a technical perspective, the Pocket Color was a solid product, so why didn't it take off?
There's a few reasons.
First, it saw a pretty weak launch in some markets, with limited availability.
It didn't see a wider retail release until later on.
Second, it had almost nonexistent third-party support.
The vast majority of games were first-party titles,
with the most prominent exception being Sonic the Hedgehog Pocket Adventure by SEGA.
[♪ Commercial ♪]
Commercial VO: "A 146 color display!"
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"Six cool styles!"
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"The graphics will blow you away!"
[♪ Commercial ♪]
"Neo Geo Pocket! Way ahead of the game!"
But there's a much bigger reason why it never made a larger impact: the Game Boy Color.
Demand for a color Nintendo handheld was high,
and despite the fact it was still an 8-bit system,
it flew off the shelves when it debuted in late 1998.
The NGPC sold less than 80,000 units between its US launch in August 1999 and April 2000.
During that same time, the Game Boy Color sold over 5 million.
Demand for the Game Boy was so high, that even though word had leaked out about the Game Boy Advance,
retailers convinced Nintendo to delay the upcoming console's release until 2001.
SNK was a sinking ship.
It was already having financial troubles when the Pocket Color launched, and despite the console being profitable,
it just wasn't enough to sustain the company.
The handheld was only on the market in Japan for two years,
and on shelves at stores in North America and Europe for just ten months.
It would be the last console that SNK would release before being bought out by pachinko manufacturer Aruze
and abandoning all markets outside Asia.
Despite SNK's struggles, it didn't cut corners when designing the Pocket Color.
The system's pretty easy to take apart and work on.
Everything's held together with Phillips screws, except for one pesky tri-wing.
There's a separate compartment for the coin cell battery, which runs the real-time clock function.
Inside, the circuit board layout is very clean and straightforward,
with the only two chips being the processor and LCD driver.
That processor is 16-bit made by Toshiba, and runs about 6 megahertz, with sound, RAM, and ROM all built in.
Something I'm sure you're already wondering is what the options are for illuminating the screen.
The bad news is the screen uses the same technology as in the Game Boy Color and Advance.
In fact, it's from the same product line as those displays, just a different size and shape.
So... backlighting is out.
The good news is that front-lighting is definitely an option and should be pretty easy,
since there's plenty of extra space inside the case.
The catch being at the time I'm filming this...
There aren't any commercially-made front-lights for the Pocket Color.
You'd have to make one yourself.
What might deter you from modding your Pocket Color at all is the difficulty of finding replacement parts.
This speaks to the general availability of the console these days.
While they're common to find on eBay, there just aren't that many of them compared to Nintendo handhelds,
and I haven't seen any that were being sold inexpensively for parts.
That said, if you're looking to pick one up for the first time,
a good deal can be had by looking for bundles including a bunch of games.
Outside of online auctions, I've seen very few Pocket Color consoles or games in retro game stores,
though this may, of course, be different where you live.
The Neo Geo Pocket Color is a fun system, though I can understand why it just didn't sell.
On it's own, it offers a solid package.
But in the context of when it was released at the turn of the century,
with the looming giant of the Game Boy Advance on the horizon,
it simply seemed to be too little, too late.
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