I'd argue that this thing is still the best portable gaming system out there in terms of technology. This is a hell of a lot better than the original Nintendo Game Boy and beats the socks off the current Game Boy in terms of technical specs.

This unit is, essentially, a portable Sega Genesis. When this showed up, it was more technologically advanced than the black and white Game Boy and had a huge number of titles available for it. Oh, and it was in color. This all sounds great, right? So, why did it fail? That takes a bit of historical analysis, so here we go.

This was released in 1995 to a portable gaming market that was crowded. By crowded, I mean that Nintendo dominated it and wasn't too keen on competition. Atari, for one, learned how hard it was to break into the portable market with even a system that was way, way ahead of the Game Boy. Such an effort takes a hell of a lot of clever and expensive marketing and very competitive pricing.

So, what did Sega do? It released the Nomad and then pretty much ignored it in favor of supporting the 32-bit Saturn. To make matters worse, Sega slapped a $150 price tag on the Nomad, and that was at least $50 more than the cost of a Game Boy. The end result was that Sega didn't just drop the ball when it came to the Nomad -- it fumbled in the end-zone and allowed Nintendo to score a safety.

With almost no support from Sega and a high price tag, what did Sega expect. I mean, competing in the portable market was rough and tumble stuff back then (hell, it still is), and Sega's strategy was to simply ignore Nintendo. That's sad because the Nomad had the Game Boy beat, and it's still a more advanced machine.

Sound like a ridiculous claim? Well, let's look at the facts. The Nomad was in color while the Game Boy was in black and white (yes, I know the Color Game Boy showed up a year later, but still). The Nomad could be hooked up to a television set, while the Game Boy couldn't. The Nomad had stereo sound, while the Game Boy was in mono. And, last but not least, the Nomad was a 16-bit machine, while the Game Boy remains an eight-bit (it still has that ol' Z80-based CPU that powered the ColecoVision and a lot of old CP/M computers under the hood).

Is this saying the Game Boy is a bad machine? No, that's not the case at all. It's a fine little portable gaming system, but I just believe the Nomad is superior. That doesn't matter much, though, when you consider that the Game Boy is still thriving, but the Nomad is on the "museum" shelf. Nintendo just knew how to promote that Game Boy and grab an impressive share of the portable gaming market. So, I'm not crying over spilled milk here -- it's just too bad that Sega never got behind the Nomad like it should have.

What's funny to me is that I've actually seen some comparisons between the Game Boy Advance (due out in June of this year, of course) and the Nomad. I've read things from a number of Game Boy fans who proudly claim that the 32-bit Advance is superior to the Nomad when it comes to performance. Hell, folks. It should be! The Nomad was released six years ago, and it was based on the Genesis Hardware which was issued in 1988. I'd damn sure hope a gaming system released in 2001 can outperform a portable based on technology that's 13-years-old. Give me a break.

Now, let me mention some of the features of the Nomad. It takes six(!!!) batteries, but an AC adapter for it is cheap enough. The screen is actually quite good on the unit, but it's blurry -- I still believe the backlit LCD screen in the Nomad doesn't suffer from the "washed-out color" that's become a part of life in the Game Boy Color.

As for control, the Nomad has a directional pad and three action buttons built into the unit. And, owners can attach their favorite Genesis controllers into the unit so that two people might play. If you want to hook this up to a television, the system can be connected through RCA jacks or the RF modulator for the Genesis.

Tons of games are available for cheap, too. I've seen the old Genesis carts at the local Game Exchange going for as low as a $1.00, but expect to pay around $5.00 for most titles.

It all sounds great, huh? Well, there are some problems. First and foremost is the fact that this isn't the system for you if you want new titles because there aren't any. Also, this eats batteries like crazy -- expect about two hours of game life out of a set of batteries with this thing. Finally, it's expensive. Video Game Liquidators (they sell through a "zShop" at Amazon.com) sells two Nomad packages for $109 or $149 -- each comes with the unit, 15 games and some accessories. It's not unusual to see one of these things go for $75 - $100, either. If you want one of these, that's just great, but it's probably going to cost you.

So, these sound great and all, but why not just get a Genesis for around $20 and still have all those old Genesis games available? If you want something portable, grab the new Game Boy Advance later this year for $100. That will be able to run all those Game Boy and Game Boy Color games, as well as the new titles that will be developed for Nintendo's newest portable system?

Sadly, the Nomad just beat the hell out of the Game Boy, but was marketed so poorly and was too expensive to ever really threaten Nintendo's domination of the portable market.

This is, simply, a great system that wasn't marketed or supported by Sega. That's too bad, really.

Recommended: Yes