In 1972, a company called Waco released the first handheld electronic game, called 'OXO' and based on the game Noughts and Crosses. The display consisted of a grid of nine buttons that could turn green or red when pushed.

Mattel also introduced a number of handheld games; the first, Auto Race, was released in 1974, and played on a 7x3 array of LED dots. Other games included sports games such as Mattel Football I, which sold well over one million units and initiated a short golden age of LED handheld games. The games were initially composed of simple arrangements of LEDs, but towards the end of the 70s, games incorporated vacuum fluorescent displays (VFDs) allowing for detailed graphics in bright colours.

The first true handheld game console with interchangeable cartridges was the Microvision, distributed by Milton Bradley in 1979. However, it had a very narrow selection of games (13) and a small, fragile LCD display which often leaked or became dark. The system was consequently discontinued two years later.

In 1980, Nintendo released a line of LCD handhelds called Game & Watch, each one featuring a single game in addition to a clock and an alarm. Popular titles included Donkey Kong, Mario Bros, The Legend of Zelda, Mickey Mouse and Balloon Fight. The success of these LCD handhelds inspired other game and toy companies to develop their own portable games; either with copies of Game & Watch titles or adaptations of popular arcade games. The improved LCD technology meant these new handhelds could be made much smaller than most LED handhelds, and were also more reliable and consumed less battery power than LED or VFD games. Tiger Electronics used this concept of videogaming with cheap, affordable handhelds with such titles as Electronic Bowling, Spiderman, Robocop and terminator.

To learn more about the first and second generation of handheld video games, select a link from below.