History of video games/Platforms/Game Gadget

History
"Go Anywhere - Play Everything"

The Game Gadget was a product of Blaze Europe, and spearheaded by Jason Cooper. The system was envisioned as an easy way for game developers to legally sell and distribute discontinued ROMs from back catalogues. Development on the system began in 2010.

The Game Gadget launched on April 5th of 2012 at a cost of 99 British pounds following a delayed launch. 30 Sega games were available at launch. By April 27th, 2012 the price dropped to 59.99 British pounds. It was announced that customers who had previously paid the old price would receive a refund for the difference. The system was primarily aimed at the UK, with the system being avalible to customers in the United States of America the rest of the European Union for a fee of 9.99 British pounds.

By October 30th, 2012 only 20,000 Game Gadget handhelds had been sold. By December 2012 some were calling the console an abandoned product.

By December 2014 the Game Gadget website had gone offline.

Some have suggested that the Game Gadget was succeeded by the Evercade, though this is unclear, as Blaze Entertainment and the now defunct Blaze Europe are different entities.

Compute
The Game Gadget has a Ingenic JZ4750 processor clocked at 433 megahertz. This processor was based on the MIPS32 architecture using the Xburst microarchitecture, and fabricated on a 180nm process. The system was marketed as being dual core, a claim which is in dispute as the listed processor contains only a single primary processor core. The system had no 3D acceleration hardware.

The system has 64 megabytes of RAM.

The Game Gadget has 2 gigabytes of onboard flash storage. Up to 32 gigabytes of removable storage could be added through use of an SDHC card.

Hardware
The Game Gadget uses a 16-bit 3.5" Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) with a resolution of 320 by 240 pixels. The system was shipped with an AV output cable.

The console is powered by a 5V DC rechargeable lithium ion chemistry battery with a capacity of 500mAh.

The console contained holes for attaching a wriststrap.

Software
The system ran an operating system based on Linux. Unusually for a handheld game console at the time, the Game Gadget required online registration to operate. Materials suggest registration was also required to download its software development kit. The system used Digital Rights Management (DRM).

The marketing for the device extensively referred to it as "Open Source". However exact nature of what made the console "Open Source" is unclear. Materials suggest that this was a mode for the console, distinct from its normal operating state. The system did make use of a number of open source software libraries, as well as SDL and popular open languages.

Other
The console was packaged in a fold out box protected by a sleeve.

Developers were recommended to use an X86 based Linux desktop and SDL.

Games
Individual games retailed for 2.99 British pounds.

The Game Gadget was primarily used to play licensed Sega Genesis games. However the system is noted to have severe issues playing certain Genesis games, reportedly to causing the device to become bricked.

External Resources

 * Official website - Archived in 2012.