The Gizmondo (2005, $400, or $229 with “Smart Adds”)
The only handheld gaming console ever—to the best of our knowledge—released by former members of the Swedish Mafia, the Gizmondo actually looks pretty good on paper. Simultaneously an MP3 player, GPS (for keeping your kids safe, see), text message device, and game console, the weird little digital potato feels smooth enough when you see it running. And if that $400 price tag seems exorbitant, well, just go ahead and pick up a “Smart Adds”-enabled model, for nearly half the cost—in exchange for watching a few streaming ads per day, of course. (This may be the most ahead-of-its-time aspect of this entire piece, now that we think about.)
Released by Tiger Telematics (no relation to Tiger Electronics), the Gizmondo didn’t even have to wait for Nintendo to come crush it; massive promotional over-spending, incredibly lax…
