Tiger Telematics Gizmondo

"I can do anything."

The Gizmondo handheld was a rather fascinating system, as train wrecks often are.

Produced by Swedish electronics distributor Tiger Telematics (absolutely no relation with Tiger Electronics from USA), it was introduced with a lavish marketing budget, and it was rather powerful for its time. It had some unique features, such as Bluetooth, camera, mobile data, messaging, and GPS — years before smartphones made those popular. However, they made it too expensive, so it was sold at full price or ad-subsidized. Also, its library was very limited, and everyone was hyped for the PSP at the time. Consequently, the Gizmondo sold extremely poorly.

Worst of all, it was found that several of Tiger's executives had connections to the "Uppsala Mafia" crime ring, and the whole operation was designed to swindle money from investors. Soon the company went bankrupt, and the system was left with a paltry library of 14 games.

But hey, they have a game with a prison rape scene. That's unique.

Note: This device is coated in some rubberized, "soft-touch" material which was popular for electronic devices in the early 2000s. It was given this coating to give it that 'premium feel' when brand new. However, over time, this material degrades due to exposure to heat, humidity, UV light, or oils from human skin, causing it to break down chemically. This degradation results in the coating becoming sticky or tacky as the polymer chains break apart, leaving a horrible gummy residue.

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