Anyone into 80's handheld or tabletop Electronic Games?

[OldSchoolRetroGamer]

Many people are familiar with the Coleco Tabletop Arcade units form the 80's and indeed they are awesome. I had several from back in the day I wish I had kept. Recently from Ebay I picked up an EPOCH ASTRO COMMAND which was also labeled under Tandy among others. I had a lot of fun with it. I find the type of display tech used interesting like old 70's calculators and watches. It is amazing looking at places like the handheldmuseum online just how many of these dedicated units there actually were before we could change games with cartridges etc. If your younger or just have no idea what I am referring to check out my video below. Let me know if you had a favorite type of electronic game, perhaps a Coleco sports handheld or something by Epoch or Mattel?

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwfbncjvNFc

 

ALSO IF ANYONE CAN HELP: I know I referred to this display as LED but I am sure that is not the correct term, since these are bright colorful images on what I can only describe as a electronic mesh grid I would appreciate if someone could give me the proper term for this particular display technology THANKS.

 

UPDATE: Never mind I found it! It is VFD = Vacuum fluorescent display, I found this display tech very interesting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_fluorescent_display

Edited March 23, 2011 by OldSchoolRetroGamer

[mbd30]

That was the first videogame that I ever owned back in the early 80's, before I even had a 2600.

[raskar42]

i own a tomytronic tron that still gets a fair amount of play.

 

EDIT: Tron uses the same kind of display - Vacuum fluorescent

Edited March 23, 2011 by raskar42

[OldSchoolRetroGamer]

i own a tomytronic tron that still gets a fair amount of play.

 

EDIT: Tron uses the same kind of display - Vacuum fluorescent

 

Yes I tracked down the info. I found that display tech had limits in regard to movement and animation but I just loved the vivid color and brightness! Seems to suite TRON.

[NE146]

Oh yeah man, handhelds were my primary form of entertainment for much of my youth. I love em.. although I can't say I collect them. I still got most of the stuff I had back then although a number have since croaked. Being from Guam I was lucky to go to Japan a lot in the early 80's and pick up a bunch of handhelds each time.

 

My favorites were always the VFD games of course since they were usually nice and colorful. But I also had a bunch of LCD's as well. My all time favorite was probably Hyper Olympic Challenge 5 which was a port of the Konami Track & Field/Hyper Olympic track game and you could challenge with 2 people. Good times man.

 

[thevnaguy]

I am into these old games as well. Here is my little collection from my younger days, my favorite is Galaxian and Galaxy II.

 

[NinjaWarrior]

I love the old Coleco Table Tops

[+remowilliams]

I love the old VFD display games, and have a bunch of them. Including a mint boxed Tron.

[raskar42]

I am into these old games as well. Here is my little collection from my younger days, my favorite is Galaxian and Galaxy II.

 

 

Nice - your missing tomytronic caveman though.

also - is that a battlestar galactica space alert i see?

[HatefulGravey]

Those are pretty freaking cool. Maybe I'll get a game room one day so I have room for more stuff. As it is my collection takes up most of the place it seems. One day.

[SRGilbert]

Yeah, those old games are great and I can't pass one up if it's in good shape.

 

I have so far:

 

Donkey Kong

Pac-man

Frogger

Defender

Galaxy II (which is awesome)

 

Plus a number of other LED only games.

 

[Lord Thag]

Oh yeah, I love the old VFD games. They used the now-defunct vacuum florescent display that just had the most vivid color. I have probably in the neighborhood of fifty of them now.

 

My favorites are Kingman (killer donkey kong clone), Alien Attack, Defender, Pacman 2, Donkey Kong Jr, and Dracula. Great games even today!

Edited March 24, 2011 by Lord Thag

[bennybingo]

I remember when I was a kid I loved that game "Blip" by Tomy. One of these I have to pick one up and see if it is as fun as I remember!

[littleman jack]

I had the tabletop Donkey Kong and Pac-Man back in the 1980s. My brother had the Ms. Pac-Man. And we had the Turtle Bridge and Fire Attack Game and Watch games. These days, I have the Epoch-Man handheld, as well as the Donkey Kong dual screen Game and Watch. And my wife has the Donkey Kong Jr. Game and Watch. And we have a modern handheld Frogger that is made in the old-school style, with black LCD characters on a grey screen. I'd like to get a hold of the tabletop games again. Our old ones are long gone. Those were fun. Also, my cousins had the blip football, baseball, and basketball games. Those were fun as well.

[TheGameCollector]

The first video game I ever owned was this Entex Space Invader that my grandpa picked up for me at a yard sale across the street when I was 3 years old (1990). It only cost him $3. I still have it too.

 

 

This is why I loved Atari games even though I grew up in the era where NES was the budget system and Genesis and SNES were the current big thing. I got my first Atari the summer after 5th grade.

Edited March 24, 2011 by TheGameCollector

[Skylark68]

I had Mattel's Auto Race (my first handheld). It was pretty simple, a small red LED dash at the bottom of the screen. You had 3 lanes to choose from and you had to dodge the dashs that were coming at you. I think you even had 4 gears. Kind of like a very basic version of Atari Street Racer. I picked this up at a garage sale sometime in the early '80s.

 

I also had Mattel's Baseball and Football. I played Baseball all the time, it was very addictive. I picked up the re-release a few years ago and still play it every once in awhile.

[Cynicaster]

I remember playing a few of those tabletop games that look like mini arcade cabinets when I was about 5 or 6 years old. I seem to remember playing Pac-Man and some other game where you can play 2 players with a ship at the bottom and one at the top. I don't remember the object of the game or what it was called (hey, it was one summer afternoon circa 1982 and I've never played or seen it since).

 

For pre-Gameboy handheld electronic games that I actually owned, my favorites were Master Merlin and Fabulous Fred (the fact that both names use alliteration is pure coincidence). These things are brilliant; actually, just talking about it makes me want to hunt them down and buy them again.

 

The only other handheld game I had prior to Gameboy was this Tiger Electronics Double Dragon, which I saved up my pennies to buy because I LOVED the arcade game. Too bad the game absolutely sucked knob, even then.

[NE146]

Cool site Kotaku linked to today.. http://www.pica-pic.com/

 

It's only LCD games at the moment and of course just simulators. Still though, looks nice.

[raskar42]

I seem to remember ... some other game where you can play 2 players with a ship at the bottom and one at the top. I don't remember the object of the game or what it was called (hey, it was one summer afternoon circa 1982 and I've never played or seen it since).

 

 

 

own it, love it

 

2 player mode is lot's of fun.

[OldSchoolRetroGamer]

The first video game I ever owned was this Entex Space Invader that my grandpa picked up for me at a yard sale across the street when I was 3 years old (1990). It only cost him $3. I still have it too.

 

 

This is why I loved Atari games even though I grew up in the era where NES was the budget system and Genesis and SNES were the current big thing. I got my first Atari the summer after 5th grade.

 

 

OMG I had that back in the day! I loved it and played the crap out of it!

[Cynicaster]

I seem to remember ... some other game where you can play 2 players with a ship at the bottom and one at the top. I don't remember the object of the game or what it was called (hey, it was one summer afternoon circa 1982 and I've never played or seen it since).

 

 

 

 

 

own it, love it

 

2 player mode is lot's of fun.

 

Galaxian... with the second player's ship at the top?

I was going to say that I thought the game's name started with 'G' so you've probably correctly identified that game I played one time for 10 minutes when I was 5.

 

I'm a bit disappointed in myself that I failed to make the connection with a well-know name like Galaxian; I must not have picked up the 2600 version until some time later.

[NE146]

The first video game I ever owned was this Entex Space Invader that my grandpa picked up for me at a yard sale across the street when I was 3 years old (1990). It only cost him $3. I still have it too.

 

Entex Space Invader is actually one of my all time favorite games as a child.. it actually had a lot of the little tricks from the arcade game (i.e. counting shots) that all other space invader type games totally missed.