Wii U as Portable Console: Lessons from Sega's Nomad

The Wii U has launched and Nintendo loyalists are busy testing out the console with their non-gaming loved ones. One of the big selling points of the system is its ability to play full games on the Gamepad controller's built-in touchscreen, without the need to turn on the TV. According to the marketing pitch, this feature frees up the TV for other members of the household and makes it possible to play Wii U games in otherwise TV-less rooms. Word on the street is that the Gamepad can be taken about 20 feet away from the console and still hold a strong enough connection to function. So, within a moderate range of the Wii U game box, the system has the ability to act as a portable home console video game system.

This is an exciting revelation, but not the first time something like this has been attempted. Sega's Nomad was a fully functional portable Genesis, released toward the end of the 16-bit era in 1995. The Nomad was short-lived, but it's easy to see some lessons that Nintendo could have taken from the system, and surprisingly, some missteps they failed to avoid.

Console and portable games have traditionally felt very distinct from one another, with portable games usually falling into one of two camps: those built uniquely for the on-the-go experience, focusing on short bursts of play, and games that act as little siblings or sidestories to their canonical console relatives. The Nomad's promise of portability for standard console titles brought a different pedigree of games to this market. I owned one, and often used it to play Sonic the Hedgehog 2 at my brother's basketball games. While there had been some decent portable Sonic games on the Game Gear, those titles never held a candle to to the mainline series on the Genesis.

The Wii U Gamepad allows portable gaming of full console games around the house, designed with an active, social household in mind. Had the Nomad been more successful, it could have set the precedent for this kind of family oriented gaming platform. The Nomad could be plugged into a TV for big-screen viewing, and had an on-board controller port for a second player to join in. Though if the Nomad was not attached to a TV a second player would have to look over the shoulder of whoever was holding the 3 inch screen (the original asynchronous multiplayer?), at least the there was the option. The Wii U Gamepad only offers a solo experience, at least for the time being.

One feature where the Wii U definitely has an advantage over the Nomad is in ergonomic design. Comparing the two is like putting an iPad next to one of those old, bulky cellphones from the 80s. The Nomad was shaped like a brick with a battery block containing 6 AAs stuck on its back, making the system kind of weigh like a brick too. The Wii U Gamepad is surprisingly light and features all manner of contours that make you feel like it was designed to be held by human hands. The Wii U's touchscreen is large and prominent in its design, while the Nomad's LCD monitor is a bit dwarfed by the rest of the machine.

The reports of short Wii U battery life are a bit troubling, but anything was likely to be an improvement over the Nomad's power storage woes. It seems the Wii U Gamepad can last anywhere from 3-5 hours depending on screen brightness, whereas you couldn't expect to last much more than 2 hours using the Nomad's rechargeable pack. However, considering that the Nomad was a full-on game system in handheld form as opposed to the Wii U's mere video relay, the Gamepad's stunted battery life is pretty underwhelming. That said, since the Wii U isn't expected to leave the house, Nintendo seems to be anticipating that AC power will be reasonably accessible if the situation calls for it.

The Nomad's failure was a product of circumstance as much as anything else. It was released at the tail end of the Genesis' lifespan as consumers rallied excitement for the upcoming 32-bit machines. The Genesis hardware was also widely recognized and often derided for its glut of unsupported add-ons like the Sega-CD and the 32X. The Nomad debuted behind these other peripherals and likely suffered from the resulting market fatigue and loss of credibility in Sega's ability to release competent supplemental hardware for their 16-bit machine. Additionally, if you had a 32X, you couldn't even hook it up to the Nomad because it blocked the AC output port.

The Wii U's Gamepad is poised for a greater chance of success. It's a necessary part of the standard Wii U experience, bundled in with the console's launch. The Gamepad is also multifunctional, making its ability to be a portable console not the sole make-or-break feature of the device. Since the Gamepad is billed as an at-home device, it's not up against the iPad in terms of portability. The Wii U Gamepad may not reach true portable console status since it can't leave the house, but it seems to recognize its limits and owns them. With the 3DS and Vita struggling to gain substantial market presence in the face of iOS and Android games, Nintendo certainly doesn't need to make a go at a true Nomad successor. Instead, Nintendo has wisely incorporated Nomad-like features into their Wii U Gamepad to make that controller incredibly versatile and adaptive to a plethora of home gaming situations.

Originally posted on Low Cutoff

The Wii U has launched and Nintendo loyalists are busy testing out the console with their non-gaming loved ones. One of the big selling points of the system is its ability to play full games on the Gamepad controller's built-in touchscreen, without the need to turn on the TV. According to the marketing pitch, this feature frees up the TV for other members of the household and makes it possible to play Wii U games in otherwise TV-less rooms. Word on the street is that the Gamepad can be taken about 20 feet away from the console and still hold a strong enough connection to function. So, within a moderate range of the Wii U game box, the system has the ability to act as a portable home console video game system.

This is an exciting revelation, but not the first time something like this has been attempted. Sega's Nomad was a fully functional portable Genesis, released toward the end of the 16-bit era in 1995. The Nomad was short-lived, but it's easy to see some lessons that Nintendo could have taken from the system, and surprisingly, some missteps they failed to avoid.

Console and portable games have traditionally felt very distinct from one another, with portable games usually falling into one of two camps: those built uniquely for the on-the-go experience, focusing on short bursts of play, and games that act as little siblings or sidestories to their canonical console relatives. The Nomad's promise of portability for standard console titles brought a different pedigree of games to this market. I owned one, and often used it to play Sonic the Hedgehog 2 at my brother's basketball games. While there had been some decent portable Sonic games on the Game Gear, those titles never held a candle to to the mainline series on the Genesis.

The Wii U Gamepad allows portable gaming of full console games around the house, designed with an active, social household in mind. Had the Nomad been more successful, it could have set the precedent for this kind of family oriented gaming platform. The Nomad could be plugged into a TV for big-screen viewing, and had an on-board controller port for a second player to join in. Though if the Nomad was not attached to a TV a second player would have to look over the shoulder of whoever was holding the 3 inch screen (the original asynchronous multiplayer?), at least the there was the option. The Wii U Gamepad only offers a solo experience, at least for the time being.

One feature where the Wii U definitely has an advantage over the Nomad is in ergonomic design. Comparing the two is like putting an iPad next to one of those old, bulky cellphones from the 80s. The Nomad was shaped like a brick with a battery block containing 6 AAs stuck on its back, making the system kind of weigh like a brick too. The Wii U Gamepad is surprisingly light and features all manner of contours that make you feel like it was designed to be held by human hands. The Wii U's touchscreen is large and prominent in its design, while the Nomad's LCD monitor is a bit dwarfed by the rest of the machine.

The reports of short Wii U battery life are a bit troubling, but anything was likely to be an improvement over the Nomad's power storage woes. It seems the Wii U Gamepad can last anywhere from 3-5 hours depending on screen brightness, whereas you couldn't expect to last much more than 2 hours using the Nomad's rechargeable pack. However, considering that the Nomad was a full-on game system in handheld form as opposed to the Wii U's mere video relay, the Gamepad's stunted battery life is pretty underwhelming. That said, since the Wii U isn't expected to leave the house, Nintendo seems to be anticipating that AC power will be reasonably accessible if the situation calls for it.

The Nomad's failure was a product of circumstance as much as anything else. It was released at the tail end of the Genesis' lifespan as consumers rallied excitement for the upcoming 32-bit machines. The Genesis hardware was also widely recognized and often derided for its glut of unsupported add-ons like the Sega-CD and the 32X. The Nomad debuted behind these other peripherals and likely suffered from the resulting market fatigue and loss of credibility in Sega's ability to release competent supplemental hardware for their 16-bit machine. Additionally, if you had a 32X, you couldn't even hook it up to the Nomad because it blocked the AC output port.

The Wii U's Gamepad is poised for a greater chance of success. It's a necessary part of the standard Wii U experience, bundled in with the console's launch. The Gamepad is also multifunctional, making its ability to be a portable console not the sole make-or-break feature of the device. Since the Gamepad is billed as an at-home device, it's not up against the iPad in terms of portability. The Wii U Gamepad may not reach true portable console status since it can't leave the house, but it seems to recognize its limits and owns them. With the 3DS and Vita struggling to gain substantial market presence in the face of iOS and Android games, Nintendo certainly doesn't need to make a go at a true Nomad successor. Instead, Nintendo has wisely incorporated Nomad-like features into their Wii U Gamepad to make that controller incredibly versatile and adaptive to a plethora of home gaming situations.

Originally posted on Low Cutoff

I would compare the Vita to the Nomad since that embraces the console games on the go in a way very similar to the Nomad.

@musclerider: Only recently with games like PlayStation All Stars have we come to have real console games on the Vita (I'd include SoundShapes, but that port went the other way). The Vita (and for that matter, the PSP) has always had games that mimic their console franchise entries, but in a second fiddle way. Just look at Vita/PSP versions of Uncharted, Resistance, and Call of Duty. Even though the portable God of War games are well regarded, they're still prequel or inbetween games. I suspect the next PlayStation may use the Vita as more of a PS4 Nomad, but we'll see.

(Just as an aside, the TurboExpress predated the Nomad by a few years as a fully functioning portable version of a home game console)

As to the topic itself, the Wii Us gamepad isn't exactly analogous to a fully portable game console due to it's 20 foot wireless tether. It's more like a sort of local are network thin client and it'll remain local since there's no way a 4G connection would provide enough throughput for its streaming. So I'm not certain if you can use the arguments about the reasons the Nomad or the TurboExpress failed and apply them here.

@Nonapod: I had no idea about the TurboExpress, very interesting, and thanks for sharing. As far as the Wii U Gamepad and the Nomad being perfectly analogous, they're not, clearly. I see the Gamepad in a new category though, where this one particular feature is most relatable to devices that previously allowed you to take your console games away from the TV and play them on a handheld screen. In some ways, the tethering addresses issues people have with portable games that try to mimic their big console brothers: that those aren't the types of games the majority of on-the-go players want. That's where I see the lessons learned here by Nintendo thanks to the failures of systems like the Nomad and, now that I'm aware of it, the TurboExpress too.

Would like to see some sort of battery pack so I can take it to work. I work at a donation trailer It's fairly new so there isn't a lot of traffic I get as little as 1 person to as much as 12 a day in a 7 and a half period usually it's somewhere in between. My Boss is completely fine with stuff like this so it would be great. Would love to at least see Ben Heck or someone else portablize it into a handheld

As a person who owns both a WiiU and a Sega Nomad, I don't see the comparison at all. The difference is that the Sega Nomad was designed to be a portable and played away from the home. This means that the plethora of batteries and the minimum battery life is a hindrance to play, not to mention its size. You can't exactly plug in an AC adapter while playing on the bus or sitting on a bench waiting for your ride. With the Nintendo WiiU gamepad you are always going to be in the home when playing and it was designed as such. Being near an outlet if you have, somehow, managed to exhaust the batteries isn't exactly a crazy idea. Also, the reach of the AC adapter is pretty far and I've never been out of reach of an outlet when playing.

I saw someone else mention taking their WiiU into work and wishing it would work better. This is, as much as I hate to use this phrase, a "first world problem" and not something that I would actually say is a ding against the quality of the system. I have frequently gotten over 5 hours of battery life my from WiiU controller and if I somehow have found the amount of time to play longer then it is not out of the question for me to need to charge the controller while I play. This is not a flaw. I have a Google Nexus 7 tablet which rocks but if I play a graphics intensive apps or games on the thing then it lasts just as long.

Gamers need to understand the limitations of the battery technology that they use.