VG Pocket systems

[Student Driver]

Anyone familiar with these devices? They look a little intriguing, as they have color LCD screens as well as being plug-and-play. A few online retailers carry them, and they seem to usually come in 75-game and 50-game varieties that have a miniaturized GBA/Game Gear-type layout. Wal-Mart has a 30-game variety that looks completely awkward to use- slightly larger than a Tamagotchi, with a screen smaller than the 75/50 game versions, thumb stick directly below the screen and shoulder buttons at the top corners.

 

One interesting note; on examining the packaging of the 30-game unit at WM, there's fine print on the back that states something to the effect that "all of the games contained on the unit were programmed specifically for the VG Pocket." While not a ringing endorsement of quality, it at least implies that these aren't the exact same generic titles that appear on all of the knock-off units around... they're *new* generic titles.

 

[Jess Ragan]

Not entirely. Some of the games are slightly altered versions of Hong Kong releases, particularly Brush Roller and Columns. There are even a few titles that were lifted from events in Konami's Track 'n Field, with almost nothing changed.

 

I own the VG Pocket Max, and it's a pretty good deal for twenty five dollars. Most of the games won't keep you entertained for long, and the screen, while bright and easy to see, has this diagonal crosshatching effect that makes the graphics less clear than they could be.

 

Still, it's a pocket-sized game system with lots of built-in software and a COLOR SCREEN, for the price of a toy. Who'd have thought that this would be possible ten years ago? Heck, in another ten years, we might be finding stuff like this at the bottom of a box of cereal!

 

JR

[SteveW]

I've got a 75-in-1, and it's just okay. The games won't hold your attention for more than a few milliseconds each, a large amount of the titles are the exact same game except with altered graphics (like nearly all the racing games). And my D-pad doesn't always go left, so it's kind of hard to play. Interesting idea, just badly implemented.

[onmode-ky]

I've actually mentioned the VG Pocket devices before, in the Comprehensive Plug-and-Play Listing thread (in the attached, now-outdated text file that lists all the plug-and-play units I know, or rather knew, of), and also in the Jungletac thread, both under Dedicated Systems. Basically, the VG Pocket products are OEM devices supplied by Jungletac (i.e., they made the games and make the hardware) and sold under PDP's VG Pocket brand name (PDP = Performance Designed Products, under which the Pelican game accessories company is a part). If you go to Jungletac's website, assuming it hasn't drastically changed in the past two months, you should see products which look exactly like the VG Pocket line.

 

The games aren't so much "programmed specifically for the VG Pocket" as they are programmed specifically for Jungletac's hardware. I believe they're a mix of Jungletac's older 8-bit games and newer 16-bit projects. However, judging by how craptastic their games used to be, I don't hold out hope for significant improvements in the newer ones.

 

I had been told by a PDP representative around the holidays that most of their stock had been sold to Wal-Mart and GameStop. However, I've never seen one at Wal-Mart, but I've seen Best Buy stores, in addition to a few GameStops, carrying them. I've only seen the Mini and normal variations, though, not the Max one.

 

onmode-ky

[Curt Vendel]

I ordered two of them, want to discete the little bugger and have a look at it, looks nice... most likely it is running a Winbond TVgame chip in it, given the cost and capability, it would be a good choice of chip to implement on as the WG series chips have both composite and lcd driver support built in, can do 320x200 graphics and have good sound.

 

 

 

Curt

 

I've got a 75-in-1, and it's just okay. The games won't hold your attention for more than a few milliseconds each, a large amount of the titles are the exact same game except with altered graphics (like nearly all the racing games). And my D-pad doesn't always go left, so it's kind of hard to play. Interesting idea, just badly implemented.

1022565[/snapback]

[yuppicide]

We already have a discussion going elsewhere on this unit for awhile now. I have the smaller unit and only like one game in it. It's a game I used to have on a Famicom multicart.. it's like dodgeball kind of.

 

There was a nice puzzle game, but it only had like 20 or 25 levels before it was over. I beat it in about 10-15 mins while on the toilet lol.

 

People over at the Ben Heck forums have hacked the screen for use in other portable projects.

 

I'd love to see a hack to allow homebrews on this somehow.

[Curt Vendel]

Hardware wize, this is a very nice product. Its well built, and I like the fact it could also connect to a TV set, I haven't tried it yet on a TV. The LCD is an impressive TFT 2.5" display which is bright, crisp and colorful. Audio comes from a little piezo-type speaker, its very tin-sounding, but it is loud. There is a plug for headphones.

 

It comes with a wristband and even included batteries and an AV cable all for the price. Tactile feel is solid on the fire buttons, the joypad feels a little too loose.

 

My only gripe visually is the cheapish chromed joypad/buttons finish. Everything else, even the blister-package is nicely put together.

 

Games are cute, a little overly simple and campy, good for very young kids or for older gamers looking for simplistic diversions. This is a great product to put into a younger gamers hands to keep their little mits off of your Nintendo DS or GP2X or especially the slightly more delicate PSP which makes one shutter to see it being handled by a 6-7 year old

 

Next is a visit inside the case to see what makes this little buggy tick :-)

 

 

 

Curt

[jboypacman]

gamecrazy carries these too.

[DrLove0378]

I should have listened to the guy at GameStop when he told me the VGPocket was "trash." Against my better judgment, I picked up the 50-game unit for $30. The backlit 2" LCD display was kind of nice... but the games are PISS-POOR! Much like the ill-fated "Action 52" for NES, the best part of the internal program, was the title screen.

 

"Performance Designed Products" says that they, themselves, developed the games for use on their console. I disagree. Here's an exhaustive list of the things I've seen/heard before in other games...

 

 

-- The "Bull's Eye" AND "Target Shoot" games are ripped directly from Hyper Sports (Konami)

-- The fish-catching AND egg-catching games are ripped directly from Panic Restaurant (Taito)

-- A "losers bracket" screen in one of the games is from Palamedes (Hot-B)

-- The "extra life" sound effect from Super C (Konami) was used in several of the games

-- The game "Quick Shot" had the in-game font from Willow (Capcom CPS-1 arcade game)

-- "Space Shooter" is a VERY stripped-down variant of Quarth (Konami)

-- "Matching Diamonds" = Puzznic (Taito)

-- "Paint" = Make Trax/Crush Roller (Williams)

-- "Pool Pro" = Side Pocket (Data East/Sega)

-- "Sky Mission" = Astro Robo Sasa (ASCII)

-- "Smart Monkey" = Pooyan (Konami)

 

You're welcome, PDP.

 

I actually went so far as to take the unit apart and look inside, and I found out that it contains a processor similar to the NES-on-a-chip. Like a hand-held Famiclone, there is a chip (presumably containing the games,) covered by a VERY TOUGH blob of epoxy. It would be very hard, if not impossible, to convert this to anything meaningful, as there are no "Start" and "Select" buttons -- just two action buttons and two turbo buttons.

 

The Famiclones you find in shady Japanese shops, often have Contra, along with a bunch of unhacked or minimally-hacked NES games, that will hold your attention for more than a few minutes. (Some even have Famicom cartridge slots and wireless capability.) The unit looks neat on the outside, but there's nothing in there worth seeing. If Atari had re-released some of their old games on a unit like this, I might have been interested.

 

The only thing in this unit that has any sort of value, is the 2" LCD panel (which, itself, is worth nowhere near $30)... but the rest is a joke. I ended up boxing mine back up and returning it to Gamestop -- they couldn't give me the refund in cash, but I applied it to my Kingdom Hearts II reservation. So I came out even after all. So basically, what I'm saying is, don't waste your time on the VG Pockets.

[jboypacman]

Our local Game Crazy has "Crome"ver.of these for about $30 last i check.

[yuppicide]

The best use for these: cheap 2.5" LCD's! Rip them and make other portable systems out of them.

[Sweater Fish Deluxe]

-- The "Bull's Eye" AND "Target Shoot" games are ripped directly from Hyper Sports (Konami)

 

Agreed, but did you notice that they managed to ruin Target Shoot (called "Target Shop" on my unit)? It's like the game randomly makes you miss the targets, so you're never able to do well in the game. It's a damn shame because Target Shoot is incredibly fun in the original version.

 

-- The fish-catching AND egg-catching games are ripped directly from Panic Restaurant (Taito)

 

I noticed that the two games had similar aesthetics, so Iassumed they were written to be a pair, but I didn't know they were stolen from Taito. Cool weird games, though.

 

-- A "losers bracket" screen in one of the games is from Palamedes (Hot-B)

-- The "extra life" sound effect from Super C (Konami) was used in several of the games

-- The game "Quick Shot" had the in-game font from Willow (Capcom CPS-1 arcade game)

 

Yeah, lots and lots of graphic and audio bits are ripped from other games. Worm Catcher--which is the same game I've played on many a pirate Famicom cart as Bird Week--has background graphics taken from Super Mario Bros and Contra.

 

-- "Space Shooter" is a VERY stripped-down variant of Quarth (Konami)

 

Aw man, mine doesn't have Space Shooter. I love Quarth, I'd probably even love a VERY stripped-down version of it. You must have the 50 game version, eh? Mine's a 75. I also heard that the 30 game version has games not on either of the other two. That's the worst thing about these damn JungleTac systems...there's never a clearly superior version of any of their different types of hardware since they all have different games.

 

-- "Matching Diamonds" = Puzznic (Taito)

-- "Paint" = Make Trax/Crush Roller (Williams)

-- "Pool Pro" = Side Pocket (Data East/Sega)

-- "Sky Mission" = Astro Robo Sasa (ASCII)

-- "Smart Monkey" = Pooyan (Konami)

 

While these are all indeed clones of the games you mentioned, they seem to be original clones, even of the games that were on the NES originally anyway. Except for Paint which has been around for a while as a Hong Kong original, same with Jewels, which is a Columns clone that someone in Hong Kong wrote many years ago.

 

One other non-original game on my system is Smash Ball, which is Penguin-kun Wars with the penguin sprite replaced with some other bird (a tern or a seagull or something).

 

I actually went so far as to take the unit apart and look inside, and I found out that it contains a processor similar to the NES-on-a-chip. Like a hand-held Famiclone, there is a chip (presumably containing the games,) covered by a VERY TOUGH blob of epoxy. It would be very hard, if not impossible, to convert this to anything meaningful, as there are no "Start" and "Select" buttons -- just two action buttons and two turbo buttons.

 

Almost certainly an Famicom-on-a-chip. Though there's some chance that it's a Winbond architecture as Curt was speculating since I think there's a Winbond architecture that's 6502-based and very much like the Famicom-on-a-chip, so it might be using that architecture with Famicom games hacked to work on it. It's hard to say. If you turn the system on while holding down the two action buttons, you get a controller test screen where the controllers pictured look like Famicom controllers (including Start and Select buttons). That may not mean anything much, though. I lean towards the Famicom-on-a-chip since I assume the Winbond architecture would have to be licensed, while the Famicom-on-a-chip seems to be legal and free these days.

 

My unit has an actual flash chip holding the games, not just a glop-top. It's part number m5m29kb641avp-70, which is a 64Kbit NOR flash chip. It'd be nice to try to get a replacement flashed with some NES games (mapper 0 only, I assume) and try putting it in there. You'd have to have a menu of some sort, but certainly that could be whipped up if one doesn't already exist. I have nowhere near the soldering skill to handle all those tiny contacts, though, unfortunately. It'd be pretty great, though, especially since the system has the TV out option, too. The missing Start and Select buttons could be worked around, many games don't even need them or it might be possible to find a line on the PCB and maybe reqire the reset button as Start. Select always seemed totally useless to me anyway.

 

I'll have to download the datasheet for that chip and see if there's maybe some way that it can be re-written on the board or somehting.

 

The only thing in this unit that has any sort of value, is the 2" LCD panel (which, itself, is worth nowhere near $30)... but the rest is a joke. I ended up boxing mine back up and returning it to Gamestop -- they couldn't give me the refund in cash, but I applied it to my Kingdom Hearts II reservation. So I came out even after all. So basically, what I'm saying is, don't waste your time on the VG Pockets.

 

Personally, I'm quite happy with mine. I got it for $20 and I think it's easily worth that. The dpad was cranky at first as other's have reoprted but I made some adjustments to it when I took the system apart and now it's fine. That was my only hardware complaint. As for the software, yeah it's a lot of shit, but depending on my mood I can enjoy about half of the games on the unit and that's pretty good, I'd say, for $20.

 

Here's some of the game I like that haven't been mentioned:

 

Sea Voyage - a clone of Cave/Copter, which is a brilliant game concept and while this is by no means the best interpretation of it that I've played, it's fun.

 

Leap - incredibly simple, just jump down from platform to platform as the screen scrolls up, but it's quite addictive (it's partner game, Jump, where you have to jump up from platform to platform is considerably less fun because of the odd mechanics and the fact that if you fall to the bottom of the screen you die instead of having the screen scroll until you land somewhere below).

 

Drop & Stock - an original puzzle game concept where you have to pick up boxes as they're dropped by cranes and line them up along the floor to make them disappear Tetris-style. I can think if a number of ways it could have easily been improved, but it's fun enough as it is.

 

Fire Fight - Like Megumi Rescue on the Master System, you control a trampoline at the bottom of the screen and bounce a firefighter up to a burning building to put out the flames and rescue trapped tenants. This game is really great, whoever wrote it obviously put much more work into it than was put into most of the other games on the system. There's lots of great little details.

 

Fun Moves - simplified version of ZooKeeper or Bejeweled. Again, not nearly the best version of the game I've played, but it holds my attention for a good while.

 

Ricochet - Pretty good Breakout...or pretty bad Arkanoid, depending on how you look at it. Fun, though.

 

The, I like some of the shooters, too, like Starcraft Attack, Air War (essentially a 1942 clone) and Quick Shot (a Space Invaders clone, though not as good as the Space Invaders clone I have on another JungleTac system and actually that other one is the one that's shown on the back of the VG Pocket Max package...another game called Doggy is also shown on the package, but isn't on my system, it looks to be a Frogger clone).

 

What's really frustrating about a lot of the games that aren't good, though, like Marble Max (Puzzloop clone), Puzzle Box (Sokoban clone), the aforementioned Jump or some of the racing games is that they have incredibly simple problems, that could easily have been fixed with just a little bit of playtesting and re-working if JungleTac or whoever wrote the games gave a damn.

 

As it is, though, I'm happy enough with the system. I'd still really love it if some way could be worked out to play NES games on it. Someone who knows how to do things like that needs to be contacted--and sent a free system if needs be.

 

 

...word is bondage...

Edited July 26, 2006 by Sweater Fish Deluxe

[onmode-ky]

PDP is active again. They are set to release at least four new products in the plug-and-play category (there was a fifth also shown on their website before the most recent site redesign):

 

- Disney GAMEiT! Classic Pals (12 games, by Buena Vista Games)

- Disney GAMEiT! Princess Pals (12 (other) games, by Buena Vista Games)

- VG Pocket Tablet (25 games, including Frogger)

- VG Pocket Caplet (35 games, including Space Invaders, Bust-A-Move, and Burger Time)

- (the fifth model was called "Gel," in keeping with the "pill" motif, and it advertised a much higher number of games, which I've forgotten)

 

These are, like the original VG Pocket devices and Takara-Tomy's Pocket Dream Console, handhelds which also have plug-and-play (i.e., to a TV) capability; however, in the case of these new products, to get the plug-and-play feature, you have to buy a separate accessory pack that has the A/V cables. The MSRPs range from $30 to $40, and the accessory packs range from $10-$15.

 

Press releases for the Disney and Tablet units have come out in the past week, but I didn't notice any for the Caplet. IGN.com, in their Gear subsection, has reviews for the Tablet and Caplet. GameStop.com has the Tablet and Caplet available for pre-ordering already.

 

The Tablet and Caplet include licensed headliner games from Konami and Taito, respectively, but the remainder are generic games. I didn't recognize most of the names mentioned in the IGN.com reviews, but "Star Alley" sounded familiar; I think the non-licensed games are Jungletac drivel, still, which suggests that Jungletac is again doing the manufacturing for these PDP handhelds.

 

The physical case designs look fairly slick, but I do wonder if the Tablet (flat cylinder) is a cramp waiting to happen. At least PDP is being a little more innovative than Senario, Dreamgear, etc. were.

 

onmode-ky

 

P.S. This should go in a different thread, but I'm too lazy at this hour to reply to that one: I have now seen the Capcom TV Game in the US, specifically at a Toys 'R Us store. Naturally, it differs from the Canadian release that I have in that it has no French on the box.

[Flojomojo]

Those IGN reviews of the Tablet and Caplet are very positive.

 

8.7 Performance

Another dose of classic gaming goodness. 35 games, including 2 AAA classics, make it a winner.

8 Build Quality

Like the Tablet, well made housing, good buttons, very bright screen.

8.5 Ease of Use

35 games easily selectable from scrolling menu.

9.6 Value

35 Games, including two classic hits, makes it Caplet an even stronger value than the Tablet.

9.0 OVERALL

(out of 10 / not an average)

I like the look of the bright orange Caplet and will probably pick one up someday. I appreciate the fact that they don't bundle all the extra crap (strap, case, screen protector) with it, which should keep the price down.

[Jacob Rose]

The best use for these: cheap 2.5" LCD's! Rip them and make other portable systems out of them.

 

That's what I was thinking about - has anyone done this? Since the device has an AV out, I would suspect it uses the same signal on its internal display, but I'm not really eager to be the first to try it.

[Sweater Fish Deluxe]

The screens actually take RGB not composite (which means that JungleTac have an NES-on-a-chip that outputs RGB).

 

The screen son the VG Pocket systems are okay, but not that great. The screens on the OneStation and probably also these newer systems are absolutely great, though. They have a much higher resolution, so you can't se individual pixels like you could on the VG Pocket screens and they have their RGB pixels set up more like a CRT screen than a regular LCD which means they can stretch things full screen without distorting them like emulators on the DS or GP2X do. They're also very low poer consumption form what I've observed.

 

So if the system you want to portablize outputs RGB, these screens would be a great option. Though the OneStation is alread sort of a super portable anyway or could be if only JungleTac would move to support the other syetms that they could (SMS, 2600 and GBC that I know of) and maybe even release cartridges that just SD card slots instead of built in games.

 

 

...word is bondage...

[onmode-ky]

I saw one of the VG Pocket Tablet units on a shelf today at the local Best Buy (although the official release date is later this month, I believe). I couldn't believe it: the Tablet is even smaller than I had thought it was! I think it was maybe 4" in diameter. Combine the small size with the fact that the D-pad and buttons are very close to the edge on the flat cylinder's face, and the end result is that I think it must be a real pain to play. Even the cramp-city GB and GBA SP at least had/have the pad/buttons away from the lower corners so that you could hold and play at the same time. Unless you hold the Tablet upside-down, I don't see how you could keep a good grip on it while mashing the buttons.

 

What a great combination, Frogger and difficult controls. . . .

 

onmode-ky

 

Edit: I was at the Best Buy again today to return something and checked the plug-and-play area again. I was wrong; the Tablet is actually about 3" in diameter, not 4". Maybe you really are supposed to ingest it.

Edited October 7, 2006 by onmode-ky

[onmode-ky]

I recently saw both the Tablet and Caplet models for sale at an EB Games store ($30 and $40, respectively), so both are out on the market now. The Caplet is less of an ergonomic train wreck than the Tablet, it appears; you actually could conceivably hold and play it at the same time. It's odd, though, that the box advertises that it's a 16-bit system (the Tablet is 8-bit), but its non-generic, headliner games are classics from the 8-bit era. Its Space Invaders predates the Tablet's 25th-anniversary Frogger, even.

 

I wonder how well these products will sell this holiday season. I have no idea how well the previous VG Pockets sold last year, though I note that a few still populate shelves at Best Buy and Radio Shack stores I have seen (but maybe they're restocks, not leftovers). Of course, last year's models were purely generic, while this year's, though having fewer games, have a few classic names mixed in and have slicker presentation. This year, there is also competition on the retail shelves, in the form of those new Coleco-branded handhelds, which, like the VG Pockets, also plug into TVs. Then again, the Coleco ones may have priced themselves right out of competition, at $30 for the generic 10-game models and $50 for the 20-game Sega SMS/GG model (of course, Coleco's units include the A/V cable in the package, whereas it's something like another $10 for the VG Pocket cables).

 

onmode-ky

[DreamTR]

onmode: The Caplet is 16-bit in terms of the graphical capabilities of the system. The Space Invaders is based off of Space Invaders II, the Bust-A-Move game can not be done on 8-bit, it's based off the Neo Geo arcade game, and the other games all have much brighter colors and better sound effects than the Tablet games, hence the 16-bit moniker. Space Invaders was merely the "headliner" title for the system over the other two licensed games. The Caplet has a slightly bigger screen than Tablet, and both are shaped to be similar to a "pill" and "tablet" and "caplet", in the pharmaceutical sense.

 

I have not really had any problems playing the Tablet when I hold it, but the Caplet is a much better value for the buck.

[Sweater Fish Deluxe]

The graphics of JungleTac's 16-bit games are really very nice. Quite lush and well shaded. It really makes what are essentially the same sort of games as seen on their previous Nintendo-on-a-chip based systems a whole lot more enjoyable. The audio is a huge improvement over their NOAC systems.

 

I haven't played the Caplet, but I've noticed that the non-headline games on it are the same as some of the games on JungleTac's 16-bit OneStation cartridges. Just like the bonus games on the Tablet have been seen on some of their previous NOAC systems.

 

It's funny to me that JungleTac has the Tablet and Caplet systems out which contain licensed (I assume...) franchises from Taito and Konami at the same time that they're including those companies' games on some of the pirate NES and Mega Drive carts the sell for the OneStation overseas.

 

 

...word is bondage...

[Flojomojo]

Snagged a Caplet today. It's a little bulkier than the Coleco/Sega unit, but otherwise looks very similar, down to the bright, sharp screen, the AV out capabilities, and the 3 AAA batteries needed to run it. Space Invaders is an improved arcade classic. Bust-A-Move seems to be a port of something with SNES-like resolution. Burgertime is a remake, definitely not an emulation of something we've seen before. The original games, which I've only tasted, are bright, colorful, and easy to control. There is a decent mix of puzzle, breakout-style, 2D and 3D racing, maze games, and platformesque run-n-jumps. Not a bad little toy for $40 if you appreciate the retro style -- just over a dollar per game.

[Curt Vendel]

Finally took an evening to tinker with one of these little buggers, its got a sunchip 260 in it, its a nice little CPU - can do 320x240 at 16bit, stereo output, has a basic UART on it and what appears to be 8 digital inputs, tft lcd, decent speaker for the size and great battery longivity - overall, nice system - just needs a cart slot so it could add more games to it, and it would be great.

 

 

 

Curt

 

I ordered two of them, want to discete the little bugger and have a look at it, looks nice... most likely it is running a Winbond TVgame chip in it, given the cost and capability, it would be a good choice of chip to implement on as the WG series chips have both composite and lcd driver support built in, can do 320x200 graphics and have good sound.

 

 

 

Curt

 

I've got a 75-in-1, and it's just okay. The games won't hold your attention for more than a few milliseconds each, a large amount of the titles are the exact same game except with altered graphics (like nearly all the racing games). And my D-pad doesn't always go left, so it's kind of hard to play. Interesting idea, just badly implemented.

1022565[/snapback]

[in the dark]

Snagged a Caplet today. It's a little bulkier than the Coleco/Sega unit, but otherwise looks very similar, down to the bright, sharp screen, the AV out capabilities, and the 3 AAA batteries needed to run it. Space Invaders is an improved arcade classic. Bust-A-Move seems to be a port of something with SNES-like resolution. Burgertime is a remake, definitely not an emulation of something we've seen before. The original games, which I've only tasted, are bright, colorful, and easy to control. There is a decent mix of puzzle, breakout-style, 2D and 3D racing, maze games, and platformesque run-n-jumps. Not a bad little toy for $40 if you appreciate the retro style -- just over a dollar per game.

 

Are you saying that you have less than 50 games on yours? Mine has 50 games. I got a Caplet through the Holidays. I thought that it was a great improvement over the Pocket Max. I love retro and I love collecting portable handheld video game things.

[Student Driver]

A heads-up for anyone who's wanted a Tablet or Caplet for a little cheaper. I watched over the holidays as seemingly none of the Jungletacs (Caplet, Tablet, or Disney Princess GameIT) sold in my local Wal-Mart's electronics section. It looks like a home-office clearance came down, and all three are now reduced to a little over $20. Chances are, it'll be on clearance at other chains as well, so it might be worthwhile to price compare.

 

Me, I'm still waiting for a little more of a discount-- if they hit $15 or less, I'll probably pick up both the Caplet and Tablet.

[+bcombee]

A heads-up for anyone who's wanted a Tablet or Caplet for a little cheaper. I watched over the holidays as seemingly none of the Jungletacs (Caplet, Tablet, or Disney Princess GameIT) sold in my local Wal-Mart's electronics section. It looks like a home-office clearance came down, and all three are now reduced to a little over $20. Chances are, it'll be on clearance at other chains as well, so it might be worthwhile to price compare.

 

Me, I'm still waiting for a little more of a discount-- if they hit $15 or less, I'll probably pick up both the Caplet and Tablet.

 

I just picked up both a Caplet and a Tablet at my local Walmart for $15 each last night.

 

I like the Captlet a lot. The screen is very nice, and many of the games are fairly playable. I like the Buster Brother's clone, and there was also a Bubble Bobble-ish game using a hammer instead of bubbles that was fun. The gamepad isn't great, and the battery life seemed pretty short.

 

The Tablet I got had a hardware problem -- the screen wasn't in full color, but just green and purple and had lots of glitches. I disassembled it and wasn't able to see any problems with the flat connector, so I expect it's in the LCD hardware. I might try to exchange it tonight. The games I tried on that unit weren't as well done as the Caplet, but it has Frogger, so I'd like to have a working unit.