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ISSUE 379|COMPUTERSHOPPER|SEPTEMBER 2019
the Game Pocket Computer,which used
interchangeablegame cartridges,yet only five
titles were released.Morse,Mical and Needle
believed theycould produceashowstopper.
Almostas soon as Morse had raised the
idea, the food, the drink, the sun and the
lagoon filtered intothe background.Mical and
Needle grabbedsome napkinsand began to
sketch the possiblearchitecture of the
machine.This continuedin Mical’shome,a
short stroll away, and before long, ahandheld
called the Handy began to emerge.
The first prototype had ablack-and-white
screen but, on Needle’s and Mical’sinsistence,
the projectswitched to colour,and soon the
designershad astunning16-bit consoleon
their hands. It was certainlymore powerful
than the currentcrop of consoles–the NES
and Sega Master System –and its specs put it
on apar with the arcadesin many respects.
Unfortunately,high developmentcosts
meant Epyx would have struggledto
manufacture and distributethe device itself.
So it decidedto tout it around,and it was
here when things becameatad intriguing.
GOTTAHAND ITTO THEM
And so we go back to Morse walkingover to
Needle,his instructionsclear.“Go home,pack
foraflight to Japan, suit, passport,the flight’s
in three hours from San Franciscoairport,
meet you back here,” Needle recalledof the
approximateconversation.With no additional
explanation,he rushed to comply.
“A short time later,Ifound myself
on the upper deck of arelatively
empty jumbo jet, flying to Japan,”
Needle told me.
“I was with David, our leader,Joe
Horowitz,aboard member,and
someoneelse from Epyx, but Idon’t
rememberwho.Wewere alone in first
class, except fortwo flight attendants
and lots of great snacks,includinglarge trays
of shrimp and cheese.The caviar was good,
but not great. Iguess that when you don’t
have time to plan atrip,you just have to take
what you can get.”
That last sentence sticks in the mind, given
what subsequentlyhappened,but it was on
that trip that Morse began to explainthe
purposeof the flight.
“He told me we were going to meet the
boss at Nintendo,the big man himself,
HiroshiYamauchi,the presidentof Nintendo,”
Needle said.
“Wehad aprivateaudiencewith him at
which we were going to attempt to get him to
buy the Handy from us and put it out as a
Nintendo product.Iwas opposedto this idea
on many grounds,not least of which was the
absenceof aplanned presentation.”
The meetinghad been facilitated by Henk
Rogers, “the guy that went to Moscow,got
the licence to Tetris forNintendo,brought
AlexeyPajitnovand Tetris out of Russia, and,
as it turned out, played regulargames of Go,
aJapaneseboard game,with the presidentof
Nintendo,” Needle said.
“I am not sure who at Epyx knew Henk,
but he was willing to use his connectionat
Nintendo to help us. Henk met us in Japan
and broughtus to the man.”Prior to calling Rogers, Epyx had explored
selling Handy to Sega. Nevertheless,Rogers
spent three sleeplessdays trying to fix up the
requiredmeetingbetweenEpyx and Nintendo
–even though,in an article he wroteforWired
in 2013, Rogers revealed that the first he heard
of the Handy’simpressivespecificationswas
in the limo from Osaka airport.
Rogers informed the Epyx crew that
Yamauchiwouldn’t sign anon-disclosure
agreement,but Epyx had come so far, theyfelt
theyshould attend the meetinganyway.ONTHE PITCH
And so it was that the two sides came face
to face at Nintendo’s headquarters in Kyoto,
and Horowitzbegan to deliver his pitch.
Unfortunately,itdidn’t go particularlywell,
and Nintendo declinedto take up their offer.
Rogers later revealed why: Yamauchihad a
problemwith the Handy’sbattery lifeand the
proposedcost of makingthe console.Hewas
also adamantthat his mind had been made up.
After the pitch ended, however,Nintendo
had asked the Epyx contingentto remain
seated, and suddenlyanotherreason why
Yamauchiwas willing to pass on the Lynx
becameapparent.
“Some people broughtin apair of small
boxes and openedthem. Inside was aset of
handheldvideogamesand acommunications
cable that allowedthem to be connected,”
Needle recalled.
The hearts of those four Epyx
men slumpeddeep intotheir chests.
Theyhad just spied an exclusivelook
at the Game Boy, adevice theydidn’t
know existed until that very moment.
Suddenlytheyrealised that theyhad
competitionfrom an established
videogamename,and that their
opportunityto sell their productto
Nintendo had gone.
As theywere digestingthis
information,anotherrepresentative
forNintendo appearedand handed
Rogers aslip of paper.⬆The Lynx was fitted with two chips named Mikey
and Suzy,and this remainedthe case in both models➡CheckeredFlag was made forthe
Atari Lynx and allowedup to six players
to competeagainst one another