A Handheld History

A Handheld History is a unique celebration of portable platforms and their iconic games.

Forty years ago, businessmen fiddling with calculators inspired Gunpei Yokoi to create the Game & Watch. Ever since then, handheld gaming has been hugely influential, spawning communities who trade Pokémon in the playground and share Miis on the subway. This introspective adventure will delve into decades of gaming memories and reconnect you to that long car journey full of discarded AA batteries before speeding ahead to the contemporary days of blockbusters in your backpack.

Handheld gaming is celebrated loudly, proudly, and across hundreds of beautifully assembled pages of art and essays. Featuring words from many incredible voices, this is an unmissable ode to the gaming device that you keep close to your heart – right in your jacket pocket.

Words and art by:
Alex Olney
Ashens
Bob Wulff
Brandon Saltalamacchia
Brian Crecente
Hannah Kwan Cosselmon
Janet Garcia
Jason Bradbury
Jeff Grubb
Jonathan Traynor
Kevin Kenson
Larry Bundy Jr.
Mike Diver
Raul Higuera
Stephen Maurice Graham
Plus many more!

Made in collaboration with Retro Dodo. This edition published in partnership with Expanse, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers.

About the Author

Lost In Cult is an independent book publisher and design studio based in the United Kingdom dedicated to celebrating video games as a culturally significant art form. Lost In Cult puts the industry's best writers and artists in conversation with the medium's most important works and creators to examine their rich, often-overlooked history. With a dual emphasis on long-form prose and bespoke artwork, Lost In Cult challenges curiously-minded games enthusiasts to consider the field differently, exploring themes and ideas which conceptualise both perennial classics and overlooked gems through contemporary lenses.