Koei Once Created A $250 Handheld Console, And You're Forgiven For Not Knowing About It 1
Image: James Channel

Back in 1996, Koei—a company famous for its historical strategy games—released the PasoGo in Japan.

Boasting a massive monochrome display and giving you 20 hours of play from six AA batteries, the PasoGo—a combination of "Pasocon" (personal computer) and the strategy board game Go—was much bigger than the Game Boy Pocket, which, coincidentally, launched in the same year.

When you consider that the Game Boy Pocket cost 6,800 Yen ($43), the 39,800 Yen ($250) asking price of the PasoGo is pretty incredible—although it's worth noting that Koei wouldn't have been expecting it to sell in the same volume, given that it was aimed solely at Go players.

Only eleven games were ever produced for the PasoGo, all of which were focused on Go. According to James Channel (yes, the same guy who created that crazy SNES PlayStation), these releases were split between educational, competitive and "historic" Go matches.

James Channel's latest video delves into this mysterious machine more deeply, however, as he has to repair a faulty display on his unit.

[source youtube.com]