Portable Video Games - An inherent flaw in the system?
Ok, first understand that I've never been much of a portable video game guy. I had an Atari Lynx for about 3 weeks before returning it and getting my cache back.
I didn't own another portable game system till the debut of the original Game Boy Advance. Bought it the same week they came out. I thought that I would all of a sudden get into portable gaming, but I only played the Tony Hawk GBA game that I got and that was it. After a couple of months I never really used it again.
Then I went retro and I got a Game Gear. Never had one originally, but was able to pick one up on the cheap and a couple of games. Haven't really played that much.
Recently I got a GBA SP, and even more recently I got a Flash 2 Advance card, and I've been playing tons of NES roms on my GBA SP with Pocket NES. I've also sampled some general GBA roms that I've never played before.
Anyways, I started thinking that one of the reasons that I could never truly get into portable games is because I feel like there is something missing.....
When it comes down to it, the fact that you are playing games on a tiny screen, just gives me this feeling that I'm missing too much of what is going on in the game. A lot of these screens are just hard to look at. You have to have them in the right lighting, and angled the right way. You can play the games no problem, but it's really hard to see any details, and sometimes it's hard to see the whole field of view of the game.
I've always been used to playing games on TV screens, that going from a 27 inch or larger TV screen to a 2 inch lcd screen has been very difficult for me.
I know that I'm just one guy, but I feel like portable gaming is a hard thing to truly enjoy with the size of screens that portables feature. I think it's inherently impossible for such a small screen to fully display the heart of each game. Sure the games are playable, and you can still have fun, but something is lost in the experience. Especially after playing games that were ported from home systems to portables. On those games, you know where every sprite is located, and on a TV, you see all the details and all the artwork that was crafted by the talented developers. Playing that same game on a 2 inch lcd, is just a situation were, although very enjoyble, is just missing something.
And the something has everything to do with the screen size, and a humans ability to really be able to take in every detail from such a small viewing window. I frankly think that it's pretty much impossible to get the complete experience on such a sized screen in comparison to a TV or computer monitor.
The question is.....At what size does this change? For example, does a portable like the Tapwave Zodiac have a sufficiently large enough screen that these issues are no longer a issue? I'm not sure. I don't have a Zodiac, and I've never seen one in person. I'm sure that with a larger screen, like what the Tapwaves have, it's less a distraction.
But to completely destroy the disparity, I think you have to go to almost like a portable DVD player size LCD. Like the ones they make for the GameCube, to make it like a portable. Those are like 5, 6 inch LCD's right?
I have played games on those size screens, and I when playing on those, I don't think you are missing too much of the experience at all. I would need more time with one of those types of screens. A friend of mine has one, and I only got to play with it for a hour or so. But certainly it is possible that once you get to about 5 inches, the problems inherent in a 2 inch lcd are no longer so huge.
Now again, this is just my own personal take, and I know that millions upon millions of people out there have absolutely no problem with their portable game systems. They love them to death, and wouldn't have the slightest idea about what I'm talking about.
But for me personally, I just think that it's one of the major reasons why I've never really be too fond of portable game systems.
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Originally Posted by NE146
