Japan actually stopped doing games for the NES (Famicom) in fall 2003, and they stopped actually still peddling left overs and doing repairs in 2007. That's well into the long life of the PS1 and on their own to the death of the Gamecube and the Gameboy line do with DS replacing the GB Advance. That thing hung in there a LONG time. The SNES (Super Famicom) was put to bed the same year, would not be surprised if they lined up the support side too in 2007 in Japan. They knew they had a good thing going and kept it up.

You're also right about the Neo-Geo. It arrived in 1990, and died in 2004 with Samurai Shodown 5 Special. Tell me you can't see a huge difference in quality from NAM 1975 (game #1) to the last and the sliding scale of increased quality year by year in that 14 year stretch. It too may have lasted longer than anyone would have ever figured but it did and still does age like a fine wine as the games still stand out fantastically for effectively what was at the time an overkill 2D console hiding in an arcade cabinet. I should know, I own one.


I think though on a handheld side the Gameboy wins hands down. You've got mid-late 80s tech brought out in 1989, and in 1998 it only gets a modern boost in existing parts and color added which had it last into 2003. That like Neo Geo had a 14 year life span of which the last 2 shared space with a 32bit replacement. Even in its life you could see how non-advanced that was against the battery sucking color try hards that came along and got taken out one by one. Lynx, Turbo Express, Game Gear, NGP, NGPC, Wonderswam and WS Color, other earlier junk like the Supervision too. That thing just took all sorts of stuff down and stayed alive well beyond a reasonable expiration date with old old hardware.