Tiger Game.com

Game.com is a handheld console released in August of 1997 by Tiger Electronics with $69.95 as a retail price. Game.com has features that are quite unique, since it was the first console that allowed internet connectivity with the modems of its time, it can receive two cartridges and it has a touchscreen. There is also another version of this console, Game.com Pocket Pro released in 1999 with $29.99 as a retail price.

Game.com Review

The Game.com, as is stated above, tried to do things ahead of its time. The idea of having two cartridges that the player can carry and peak through the touchscreen was brilliant, years before Nintendo DS released. The game titles are also quite famous with Resident Evil, Mortal Combat and Sonic to be games that even not hard core gamers know. The Game.com has also other features than games such as a calculator and a calendar. Game.com was also the first console with internal memory since the user can store contact information inside a phone directory and keep them in digital form. It also gives the ability to store the player's high scores in each game and a very nice built-in solitaire game. However, the screen combined with the graphics of some games made them very difficult to play with.

The prices of the games for the original Game.com were between $19 - $29 and in 1999 when Pocket Pro version released were $14 - $30. The total number of games released for the console is twenty. Giving more details about the console, Game.com is bigger than the Game Boy console and has a bigger screen also. It uses four AAA batteries as a power source with an AC adapter also available as an option. One of the most interesting accessories was compete.com serial cable which gave the ability to multiplayer gaming. There is also a modem cartridge that could be inserted with a game cartridge and give online features. However, none of the released games made use of the internet feature.

Game.com Pocket Pro

Game.com Pocket Pro was released in June of 1999 with $29.99 as a retail price in an effort to give a boost to the sales of the console. The updated version can be found in green, orange, pink, purple, and teal colors. The console itself was quite smaller, having the same size as Game Boy pocket which released one year earlier. The screen became also smaller and a backlit was added, but it was still colorless. The Pocket Pro version also uses only two AA batteries instead of four but didn't have internet connection capabilities and has only one cartridge input instead of two.

Game.com was the only handheld console released in 1997. However, it was one of the least successful. It was quite difficult to compete with Game Boy, Game Boy Pocket and Game Boy Color. It's audience was also adults gamers but with sales less than 300,000 it discontinued in 2000.