Tiger Electronics Game.com
Years ago, Tiger Electronics was a name as synonymous with handheld gaming as Apple is to smartphones, with an extensive line of portable gaming systems featuring basic gameplay and simple segmented LCD displays. In 1997, Tiger tried to move past those simpler systems with the Game.com, which had a literal URL for its name (a website the company didn’t own) and basic online functionality when physically connected to a 14.4 kbit/s modem.
Its stylus driven touchscreen was still black and white like the Game Boy, but offered more resolution and functionality, with basic PDA features too. The Game.com also used cartridges like the Game Boy, with popular franchises like Sonic and Duke Nukem 3D available to play, but in the end there were only about 20 games released for the system, and it survived about three years before being discontinued. The games themselves didn’t really live up to their names, so it’s not hard to imagine why this console failed.
