I grew up in a country area of Australia in the 80’s and had most of my videogaming education during the 90’s, when I was in high school and myself and various friends had pretty much every gaming console that you could find.

Note that this was in the country, where gaming consoles that you could find were limited to what you could get in Target and the one independent gaming store in the district, so you’d be fed on a diet of Nintendo and Sega.  A friend nearby had a NES, I got a Game Boy, we both graduated to the SNES and it went from there.  Friends and relatives had the Sega consoles and so our gaming educations were complete (in the teenage console-warish model of that generation, decrying the opposite faction but appreciating a good game when it came along)

Then something interesting came along: the Gamate.

Note the situation.  I was living in the country, some 400-odd kilometers from the nearest major city.  I also come from Australia, which is the last port of call for pretty much every game and console after it had travelled through Japan, the US and the UK/Europe.  A lot of games and consoles don’t even make it down under.

And yet, here was one of my highschool friends toting a black and white handheld gaming console that WASN’T the Game Boy.  Insanity.

Also, his parents got it from Target, where the consoles themselves and the games were freely available.  Even more unbelievable.

For those of you who aren’t in tune with obscure consoles and their collectability, I’ll provide a bit of background.  The Gamate was made by a Taiwanese (not Korean) firm called Bit Corp during a period where a large number of companies were attempting to cash in on the success of the Game Boy with their own clones and clone games.  In almost all cases, the consoles lacked the Game Boy build quality and the games were poor facsimilies of the real thing.  Other examples include the Watara SuperVision, Hartung GameMaster and the Mega Duck/Cougar Boy ( by various companies).  All rather dodgy and all doomed to never see the light of day in country Australia.

Except the Gamate.  Why is this?  Why of all the dubious things that could be stocked by your local Target did this particular console get picked up and stocked widely (albeit briefly, about a year).

I have no idea and it seems neither does anyone else.

Unfortunately, the internets have failed me.  In fact, if you google for “Gamate”, my own site comes up as the third result, and that barely contains any information that can’t be found elsewhere.

What I really want to know is how and why.  Why did Target pick up the Gamate for wide distribution and how did they managed to get talked into such a fruitless exercise.

Please, I need info!