Thanks to the success of the Game Boy, handheld video games took off in a huge way in the 1990s. Many other companies attempted to compete with the success Nintendo was enjoying, though few ever came close. One such system that entered the fray was the Neo Geo Pocket, which debuted in Japan in October 1998.

The system actually never made a transition to other markets outside of Japan, largely due to how the Neo Geo Pocket was a monochrome system, and other major handhelds (the Game Boy line especially) were making the transition to full-color by the time the Pocket released. The Neo Geo Pocket marked the first time that SNK and the Neo Geo lineup of systems released a handheld edition, and despite the cult following that the other Neo Geo systems had established, it failed to make much of a splash.

Only nine games were ever released for the Neo Geo Pocket: Baseball Stars, King of Fighters R-1, Melon-Chan’s Growth Diary, Neo Cherry Master, Neo Geo Cup 98, Neo Geo Cup 98 Plus, Pocket Tennis, Puzzle Link, and Samurai Showdown. Both King of Fighters R-1 and Samurai Showdown proved to be pretty popular due to how they were a part of already-established franchises, but neither of them was able to push sales of the system.

The Neo Geo Pocket was discontinued within its first year, and was quickly replaced by the Neo Geo Pocket Color, which arrived on March 16, 1999 in Japan before making its way to North America and Europe later that year. All nine of the original Neo Geo Pocket games were able to be played on the Color edition.

Both the Pocket and the Pocket Color have remained popular items for collectors, due to how a small game library means getting a complete collection is comparatively easy. However, due to competition in the market, the consoles themselves still often draw prices of several hundred dollars.