Fourth Generation Handheld Consoles

The 4th generation of handheld video game consoles began in 1989, with the release of the Nintendo Game Boy , a monochrome system that sold nearly 70 million units around the world. Other units include the Atari Lynx , which was the first portable gaming system to feature a colour LCD screen, the Sega Game Gear which was able to play all the games from the Sega Master System, and the Sega Nomad , which could use the games designed for the Mega Drive.

Other handhelds that were compatible with home console games included the NEC TurboExpress , which shared the library of games with the TurboGrafx-16.

To find out more about the handheld consoles that were released during this era, including the Nintendo Game Boy Pocket and Game Boy Light , select an item from the menu below.

Atari Lynx

Released in 1989, the Lynx was the first handheld portable console to feature a colour LCD display ...

Nintendo Game Boy

The second handheld game released by Nintendo as successor to the Game & Watch series ...

Nintendo Game Boy Light

A compact version of the Game Boy released only in Japan ...

Nintendo Game Boy Pocket

A smaller version of the Game Boy, released in 1996 ...

Sega Game Gear

A portable handheld version of the Sega Master System, released in 1990 ...

Sega Nomad

A handheld version of the Sega Mega Drive, released only in North America and Japan ...

Supervision

A budget handheld console originating from Hong Kong and released in 1992 ...

TurboExpress

Also known as the PC Engine GT, this handheld released in 1990 was a portable version of NEC's home video console ...