At 10:57 PM 8/20/01 -0700, Glenn Saunders wrote:
>>Then again, you couldn't get away from those $5 LCD dot games that were
>>like a Microvision without cartridges a couple years ago.
>Don't know if we're talking about the same thing, but to keep it somewhat
>2600-specific...
No, the ones I was talking about were like 256 games in 1, had no
distinctive brand name or title, called the games things like "blocks" for
Tetris or "frog" for Frogger, and were rendered on a 10x20 or thereabouts
array of square elements with an outline and an interior that served as a
crude Microvision-like bitmap. It's the sort of thing I would have killed
for in 1979.
I'm sure someone made the chipset available really cheap and all the Hong
Kong toy distributors made versions of it, which is why they were showing
up in bargain bins and flea markets. Mine has really beefy Gameboyesque
sound for $7 (from the Toys R Us bargain bin) and here's the one link to it
Google finds, displaying a "racing game":
http://www.angelsales.com/products/ToysGames/ToysGamesProducts/ProJr.html
You see what I mean about similar marketing to the Toymax. All they lack
is the brand name but otherwise the spiel's kinda similar. This is what
makes me afraid that the Toymax will end up in bargain bins before long,
though at least it's licensed.
>I bought two Kaboom keychains, one to play and one to keep. Also got a
>Pong. I think those and the others of that flavor were good considering
>the technology used. Some of the others had fatal game design flaws. The
>invaders port featured a SCROLLING display. Sucked. Asteroids was more of
>a vertical scroller.
I saw Asteroids in Wal-Mart last year, picked it up, put it back down. I
would have grabbed Kaboom if I'd ever seen one. That seems like one of the
few 2600 originals that's especially well suited to the G&W format. I
bought my old boss a Frogger keychain once for Chanukah 2 years ago since
that what he used MAME for and Radio Shack had them for $5.
>I really do miss the old LED games, though. Those were so much more
>fun. Entex Space Invaders and Galaxian were so cool. They were the
>Gameboys of their day. Any kid who came to school with one was bugged like
>crazy for a chance to play them. What a way to slack of in school.
I still have Entex Galaxian2 in working condition, although the player 1
fire button is extremely worn. If I ever get around to taking it out of my
parents' attic, I might do a Java simulation of it sometime. I think it
was the second-best arcade knockoff available in that format at the time,
the best being "Galaxy 2" by Epoch which was basically Moon Cresta (not
Galaxian or Galaga as people frequently list it.)
Rob
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