The Switch is one of the most unique game consoles Nintendo has ever designed. It bridges the gap between consoles and portables in one of the most successful combinations possible. It was a huge hit right out of the gate thanks to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The Switch still continues to sell like gangbusters even with the PS5 and Xbox Series X out.
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As innovative as the system hybrid is, it wasn’t the first attempt by Nintendo or any other video game company. There were ways in the past for gamers to play their portable games on the TV in other words. This is not counting any third-part peripherals like Hyperkin’s RetroN 5 3-in-1 either. These five accessories are all official. The Wii U could also count, as it had a portable device that synced up to a TV, like the Switch, but the tablet couldn't go that far away from the actual console making it less like a portable device.
5 Super Game Boy
The Game Boy was a huge success when it launched in 1989. Portable systems had existed before that but not in the power and capacity that Nintendo showcased. There was also the lineup of games it launched with and continued to gain throughout its lifecycle. It was only natural for Nintendo to want to merge both its handheld dominance with its strength in the console market with the SNES.
The Super Game Boy then was an accessory that plugged into the SNES and then Game Boy cartridges could be loaded into that. It released in 1994 and in Japan they even got a sequel via the Super Game Boy 2 in 1998. The big functionality support that added was link access so that two players could link between the TV and an actual Game Boy. This would also allow for players to trade with themselves, in the case of Pokemon as one example, which was a popular cheat at the time.
4 Wide-Boy64
The Wide-Boy64 is a very rare accessory for the N64. It functions like the Super Game Boy in that cartridges load into another cartridge that then loads into the N64. This also added the support of Game Boy Color games but that functionality was specific to a certain version of the device.
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One played Game Boy games and the other Game Boy Color but they were both called the same thing. What makes it so rare is the fact that it was never sold to the common public. It was instead given to the press so that they could capture footage easier along with developers that could use it for the development process.
3 Game Boy Player
The Game Boy Player was made for the GameCube and released in 2003. This was both two years after the GBA and GameCube release, which were in 2001. This was distributed everywhere and it played Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and GBA games all in one package.
While having a Wide-Boy 64 in one’s collection would be cool for bragging rights, there is no need to absolutely have one because of this. Tracking down it and a GameCube console shouldn’t be that hard either. The device screwed onto the bottom of the GameCube and cartridges loaded into it somewhat awkwardly depending on how one’s entertainment system was set up.
2 PSP AV/Component Cables
Unlike Nintendo’s line of Game Boy handhelds, Sony did not strike gold with either of their portable systems. They did find success in Japan with many, many games releasing over there that remain untranslated. That’s partially the reason why they even tried a successor with the PS Vita. One of the ways Sony tried to enthuse people to buy a PSP was with the sleeker and more affordable PSP 2000 model.
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Alongside that we're two sets of cables. One was for AV output and the other was for component output. Once these cables were plugged into the TV, the PSP handheld’s screen would appear on the TV and the handheld itself would become a controller. It was easy to set up and worked well even though the ratio size was off. These accessories even worked with the final PSP 3000 model. Small screens aside, it was a great way to play exclusive PSP games on a TV.
1 PlayStation TV
The PlayStation TV, or PS TV, released in 2013 in Japan and a year later here. This was only a couple years off of the PS Vita’s launch in 2011 in Japan which also released a year later in North America. This wasn’t an accessory like the other examples so much as it was an actual console but a tiny one at that.
It functioned exactly like a PS Vita in that cartridges could be loaded into it to play on a TV. It commonly used a PS3 controller for playing these games. This might have also been done so that players could play PS3 games easier via PS Now since this was a capable device. It wasn’t perfect as there were some PS Vita games touch heavy titles that could not be played on the system like Uncharted: Golden Abyss. Like the PS Vita, it also supported Remote Play. One of the more popular uses of the system was using it as a second PS4 to stream into other rooms with this functionality.