Multiple companies throughout the history of video games have tried to enter this industry, since over time it has managed to produce millionaire figures which are very attractive to investors, for example, we can see SONY, who at first tried an alliance with Nintendo, but due to certain circumstances decided to launch its own console, the PlayStation. Other companies have tried to do similar things in order to get their piece of the pie in this industry, one of them was SHARP.

SHARP is one of the most recognized companies worldwide, which is headquartered in Japan. Surely you have been able to observe different appliances of this brand, such as televisions or microwaves, however, several times tried to stand out in the video game industry, starting with a small alliance with one of the oldest companies that exist today, Nintendo.

In the mid-80s, SHARP teamed up with Nintendo to launch televisions in Japan, which had a built-in Famicom, but these were intended for entertainment centers and hotels. For the user to use them they had to introduce some coins, very similar to the credits of the arcades, in this way the player chose the game he wanted to play, this system was called Sharp Nintendo Television.

This same entertainment system was applied in the next Nintendo console, the Super Famicom or known in the West as Super Nintendo, it worked in the same way, but obviously with titles from that console. This was launched in 1990 and was exclusive to Japan, the few units exported were of certain companies that acquired it at a super cheap price, years after its release.

Sharp also launched together with Nintendo a very interesting system, which is currently an attraction for collectors, it is the Twin Famicom. As its name suggests, it is a system consisting of a Famicom and a Famicom Disk System, that is, it completely unified both platforms in a single console, thus forming a complete entertainment system. Unfortunately, at the time it was exclusive to Japan, since the Famicom Disk System was not released in the West.

Sharp lasted several years without introducing something innovative in the video game industry, they continued in their main role of home appliances, as well as other products, however, during the 90s launched a product that left totally surprised the Japanese public, it was a PDA which had a wide range of very useful functions, such as phonebook, reminders, alarms, calculator, among others, this digital assistant was called Sharp Zaurus.

At the beginning, this PDA had nothing to do with video games, but as time went by, Sharp progressively implemented new hardware that allowed the birth of new applications in its future models of this device. It was in the year 2000 when the company came up with the idea of allying with different video game developers to promote retro games on the Zaurus, something that at first sounded crazy, but surprisingly several gave certain retro game licenses under certain agreements, thus the first "portable retro video game console" was born.

The companies that made a deal with Sharp were Taito, Sega, Nintendo and Namco, each of them would give some famous video games of yesteryear, generating certain expectations in the Zaurus, among which we have Pac-man, Galaxian, Space Invaders, Xevious, Clu Clu Land, Ballon Fight and others, however, the companies did not decide to give more support to the Zaurus, so Sharp at a time was diverted from the classics to games from other companies, it was here where it lost some popularity, plus other developers were already launching more powerful hardware for emulation, causing that there were other alternatives and end to the history of this famous PDA.

With this we can see Sharp's attempt to enter a rather complicated world to stand out, however, they did some really relevant things that boosted the sales of other companies, but their goal was always to stand out on their own, something that at one point they did slightly, but eventually remained small, as it was exclusive to Japan, remaining as another company that preferred to leave this market and continue with other projects that generated more income.