For more than a decade, Nintendo ruled handheld gaming. Challengers, such as the Atari Lynx and the Sega Game Gear appeared, but Nintendo batted them away one by one. Only Sony and its PlayStation Portable could withstand the Nintendo onslaught. And Sony isn't going away anytime soon — launching a new handheld to take on Nintendo's upcoming 3DS: It's 2004 all over again.
That year, lines were drawn in the sand as Sony and Nintendo faced off with brand-new portable gaming hardware, Nintendo with the DS and Sony with its PSP. This year, both are facing off once again with Nintendo touting the 3-D- glasses-free Nintendo 3DS (bottom) and Sony with its new PSP, currently codenamed "Next Generation Portable" or NGP (above right).
While Sony was new to the handheld arena with the PSP in 2004, Nintendo had released its first handheld gaming machines back in the early 1980s. Dubbed "Game & Watch" and designed by Nintendo's Gunpei Yokoi, the portables were capable of only playing one on-board game. The games were simple, featuring equally simple titles such as "Ball" and "Octopus." It wasn't until 1989 that Yokoi's masterwork, the Game Boy, would be released.