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Portable gaming wars
By Walt McGraw
(CNN) -- It was nothing less than revolutionary. I'm not talking about Mr. Microphone -- although, rightly or wrongly, in my mind's eye I put them at about the same era. If I think back, I can almost picture the local news stories about "the amazing new device" they said would forever change society. Not all the stories were fawning, though. Behind the admiration, some were colored -- at least where I grew up -- by an anti-Japanese sentiment that had been growing almost as quickly as American automobiles had been shrinking to try and catch up with imports. The device was the Sony Walkman. The must-have device of my youth had a huge impact on me. I can still remember the feel of the buttons -- particularly those of the Sportsman. I can still recall the satisfying click of the tape hatch. With the advent of the Walkman, you could suddenly take your music with you. And suddenly I needed to record my entire album collection onto cassettes. It would still be some years before Compact Discs would lead to a collective sigh at how rapidly a "format" could become obsolete. A couple weeks ago in Los Angeles, California, a Sony executive caused a collective gasp -- as he introduced a new format and a device he referred to as "the Walkman of the 21st century." Forget just taking your music with you, the announcement of the "Playstation Portable" or "PSP" had most of the audience wondering if Sony has plans for us to start walking around with half our living room clipped to our belt. Call it: Home entertainment leaves home. The "PSP" was unveiled as the video game industry's annual shindig -- the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) -- was about to get under way. Gaming, as the "Playstation" name implies, will be a primary focus for the new gizmo. What it will look like is still anyone's guess. No mock-up was shown -- just a slide with "specs" and a peek at the new disc it'll use. Instead of cassette tapes, the 21st century Walkman will use Universal Media Discs. Each 60 millimeters (2.4 inches) in diameter, the UMD will be able to hold 1.8 gigs -- plenty of room for, say, a feature length film or a bundle of PS1 titles. Last year, the big news from E3 was the "console war" between Sony's PS2, Microsoft's Xbox and Nintendo's Gamecube. Several of the analysts CNN Headline News talked to on the show floor this year were ready to whisper that the Gamecube's days could be numbered. But Nintendo's portable Gameboy is still dominant. Still, with Nokia, Sprint and Sony all jumping headlong into portable gaming, it's easy to see why some are now saying the "portable wars" have only just begun.
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