Computer Shopper – September 2019

124

RETRO

124 SEPTEMBER 2019 |COMPUTERSHOPPER|ISSUE 379

“It was apparentlyinstructionsforus

written in Japanese.Wewere taken to alarge

limo and told it would take us to the airport

after aquick tour of the area since it was many

hours until the flight home,” Needle said.

“I found the tour idea most graciousof our

host, and we were taken to some simple places

of interest, so it was no big deal. But then we

were taken to alarge temple that had alarge

wall aroundit and anotice that no cars would

be allowedentry.The driver said somethingto

the guard, and the large gates were pushed

aside forus. Or,rather,for Nintendo.Wewere

being shown Nintendo’s power and presence.”

GAME OVER.CONTINUE?

By the time the Epyx crew got back to the

airport,theywere tired.

“The flight back was quiet. It was still an

empty first-class cabin, but not any fun.

David and Joe were not talking and Iwent to

sleep,” Needle told me.There was, however,

much to consider.

Nintendo had just passed on ahandheld

consolethat was technicallysuperiorto the

one theyhad plannedthemselves.But why

wasn’t it even tempted? The hunch is that it

better understood the conceptof ‘whole

product’than its rival, and that Nintendo

realisedahandheldconsoleneededto do

much more than simply impressthe eyes.

Yamauchihad alreadyfiguredthat a

successfuldevice in this marketnot only

neededto be portable,but to run foraslong as

possibleon aset of batteries. He also knew the

importanceof awell-supported product

available at aprice people were willing to pay.

TheGameBoywasaperfect‘wholeproduct’

–awell-troddenmarketingterm describingan

item as being more than the productitself.

Nintendo knew ahandheldconsolewould be

of less value to acustomer if it didn’t have a

numberof easily available,quality games, along

with great first-and third-partysupport.It also

realisedahandheldhad to avoid being too

bulkytocarry aroundin abag or apocket.

Up to that point, Nintendo had

developedamazingand exclusive

first -party games, which it knew it could

rely on. It was also workingon getting

Tetris, agame that didn’t need amazing

power to be attractiveto play.

Rather than revise what it had, however,

Ep yx decidedto turn to Atari. It was rather

ironic, in some senses,becauseNintendo

had hoped to work more closely with Atari

earlier in the decade(it wanted Atari to

distributethe NES in the USA but it passed

on the opportunity,only to see Nintendo

successfullydo so itself and becomethe

topconsole manufacturer).

Spying an opportunityto displacethe

Japanesegiant, Atari took on the Handy and

renamedit the Lynx. In doing so,itretained

the keyparts of the handheld,includingits

hardwarescrolling,spriterenderingand

high-speedscaling,altered the internal speaker

and removed the thumb-stickon the control

panel. But in introducingJack Tramiel, the

dynamicsof the projectchanged.

Tramiel, who owned Atari, saw business

as awar,and he would be tough with his

suppliers.He once said it was crucial to know

who your competitors were,and he treated

such rivals as the enemy.“Youhavetohave

better tanks. Youhavetohavebetter

equipmentto be able to win,”heonce said.

Former colleagueGreg Pratt was quoted as

calling him “a benevolent dictator”.

BASIC LANGUAGE

REVITALISEDFOR

SWITCH

The programminglanguage

Basic helped coding to become

apopular pursuitamong

computer users of the 1980s

thanks,in part, to the operating

system bootingto aReady

prompt,allowingcode to be

typed immediately (10PRINT

"Computer Shopperis ace" 20

GOTO 10). Such accessibility

declinedfollowingthe move to

graphicaluser interfaces and

consoles,but anew coding

platform forthe Nintendo Switch

hopes to rectify that.

Fuze4 has echoesof Basic –

the focus is on text-based

coding –but it has been

redesignedto align itself with

modernprogramminglanguages

such as Python.Attach aUSB

keyboard,and Fuze Technologies’

managingdirector

Jon Silvera tells us

you can switch on,

code and run.

“Sittingin front

of amonitor with a

Nintendo Switch

and Fuze4 is very

reminiscentof the

originalhome

computer environment.Once

again, bedroomcoding is to

becomeathing,”hesays.

NINTENDO

AUTHORISESTHE

RELEASEOFA

RETROWATCH

Awatch that simply gives you

the time and date, and lets you

set an alarm? Actually,that’s not

abad idea and, when it looks as

wonderfullyretro as this Game

BoyColor watch, you maywant

to take some time to take alook.

In some ways, it remindsus

of the Casio calculator watch of

old (which,incidentally,remains

on sale). The buttons on the

front are just as tiny and

pressable,but while you can

use them to set the wearable’s

functions,you can’t actually

load or playany games.

It also looks atad plasticky,

right down to the strap,and it

appearsto come in only asingle

shade of blue.Yet it still feels

desirable,perhaps becauseit’s

an officially licensedNintendo

productand costs just £25.

There’s also achance you might

actuallyuse it more often than a

smartwatch, if only to cement

your geek credentials.Check it

out atwww.merchoid.com.

fi

rel

Te

pow

Epy

⬅Atari made the Lynx II smallerand lighter,

and gave it apower-save option that would

turn off the LCD’s backlighting.Games such as

Toki (shownonscreen),releasedin 1992, were

praisedforbeing as tough as the arcade version