"Auto Race", the world's first handheld electronic game, was released in 1976 by which company?

In 1976, Mattel introduced the first handheld electronic game with the release of Auto Race. Auto Race, or so the story goes, was the concept of a Mattel product development engineer who was messing around with other uses for standard calculator hardware. The game was manufactured by Microelectronics Division of Rockwell International and was so successful that it led to creation of a slew of other titles, including the much more famous Mattel Football.

Mattel Football was released in 1977, eventually giving birth to something much broader in nature. These two early handheld electronic games devices were precursors of handheld game consoles capable of playing multiple games.

Handheld game consoles soon exploded in popularity, expanding in shape and form and - most importantly - shaping the face of home consoles as well. Produced by such companies as Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft, Sega, and Atari, hundreds of millions of these units have been sold worldwide.