Sega Nomad

The Sega Nomad, released in 1995, was an attempt by Sega to once again tap the resources of the Sega Genesis's fan base. It was basically a hand-held Genesis; it played all Genesis games, but looked Sega Game Gear-ish. By the time this was released, the Genesis was well on the way out so it didn't last long.

The Nomad suffered from minor incompatibilities with some Genesis games. The Active Matrix LCD screen was higher resolution than other handhelds at the time, and was also backlit. Unlike passive matrix LCDs, the Nomad screen was very sharp and did not suffer from blurring as the Gameboy and Game Gear handhelds did. Although this LCD provided excellent visual quality, it contributed to its short battery life. Also, game text designed to be readable on a TV was of course much smaller and potentially difficult to read. The poor battery life, combined with a high price tag, ensured the Nomad would not become widespread. However, it was a revolutionary handheld in that it took previous generation console games and made them portable.

Specs
Processor: Motorola M68000 16 bit processor running at 7.67Mhz
Co-processor: Z80 8-bit at 4 MHz
Memory: 64 Kb RAM, 20 Kb ROM
Display Palette: 512
Onscreen colours: 64 (Some games more with Hold and Modify technique)
Maximum onscreen sprites: 80
Resolution: 320 x 224
Sound: Yamaha YM2612 6 channel FM, additional 4 channel PSG. Stereo sound.
Memory: 136 KB RAM
Display: Integrated LCD display at 320*224