Nintendo may have had its ups and downs when it comes to home consoles, but the Big N's handheld reputation is second to none. From the Gameboy in the 1980s right up to the latest dual screen machine, we take a look at Nintendo's handheld history.

Released: Japan and US, 1989. UK, 1990. The Game Boy was the first Nintendo handheld games device to feature interchangeable games. It used a pea-green and black display and had no back light. A natural progression from the success of the company’s Game & Watch LCD games, the Game Boy tapped into the, by now, legendary status of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) – the home console that sat under the telly. The Game Boy even borrowed the NES’s gamepad design; two red buttons, the control pad and the start and select buttons sitting in between. Along with its little brother, the Game Boy Color, the Game Boy sold over 118 million units worldwide and to this day remains the highest selling handheld console ever. Only the PlayStation 2 has sold more. When an online games shop recently found old stock of the original Game Boy, it placed them online to sell – the whole lot sold out in a few hours. In 1996 Nintendo released a smaller, lighter version of the Game Boy called the Game Boy Pocket. The console had exactly the same graphical kick as the Game Boy and used the same cartridges but its display was slightly sharper and it only required two batteries, which lasted twice as long as the Game Boy’s four batteries.