this post was submitted on 27 Jun 2025
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Retro Gaming

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Huh. It should have occurred to me that
"slide-up gamepads" was a patented form factor.

https://retrododo.com/sonys-patent-on-sliding-handhelds-has-ended-paving-the-way-for-a-retro-revival/

"Have you ever wondered why we never saw more sliding handheld technology after the Sony Xperia Play? If you weren't in the handheld or mobile business, then you probably didn't know that Sony filed a patent for the gaming handheld with a slide-up screen back in 2010, a year before the Xperia Play released. "

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

@[email protected] @[email protected] My wife had a Helix Ocean phone right before the iPhone hit the market. Amazing phone with two sliders — one in landscape for a QWERTY keyboard, and one in portrait for a numeric pad. If it were just modernized, with a hi-res touchscreen, it would be amazing today. (Although admittedly the two sliders made it very thick to hold and use.)

I think the phone predated this patent, although I imagine the patent didn’t apply anyway since it was a phone and not a gaming handheld.