“Taking a $2600 machine and selling it for $20.”
March 24, 2018 9:00 PM Subscribe
Some Very Entertaining Plastic [Internet Archive Blog] “It’s been a little over 4 years since the Internet Archive started providing emulation in the browser from our software collection; millions of plays of games, utilities, and everything else that shows up on a screen have happened since then. While we continue to refine the technology (including adding Webassembly as an option for running the emulations), we also have tried to expand out to various platforms, computers, and anything else that we can, based on the work of the emulation community, especially the MAME Development Team. For a number of years, the MAME team has been moving towards emulating a class of hardware and software that, for some, stretches the bounds of what emulation can do, and we have now put up a collection of some of their efforts here at archive.org. Introducing the Handheld History Collection.” [via: Rock Paper Shotgun]
This is pretty amazing - especially since many of those Tiger Electronics style LCD handheld games had to be physically taken apart to scan in both their LCD displays and the backgrounds.
Archival work like this is so very, very important and I'm so glad they're doing it.
Now whole new generations will get to experience how absolutely terrible these games actually were.
posted by thecjm at 9:08 PM on March 24, 2018 [23 favorites]
Archival work like this is so very, very important and I'm so glad they're doing it.
Now whole new generations will get to experience how absolutely terrible these games actually were.
posted by thecjm at 9:08 PM on March 24, 2018 [23 favorites]
I got that Coleco Donkey Kong for Christmas in 1983 and this year, my parents unearthed it and regifted it to me. It still works! All the charm is in the plastic casing, the little springy joystick, and the tinny sounds. That machine may not look like much but it’s why I’m a giant ape who throws flaming barrels at plumbers today.
posted by roger ackroyd at 9:10 PM on March 24, 2018 [19 favorites]
posted by roger ackroyd at 9:10 PM on March 24, 2018 [19 favorites]
Now whole new generations will get to experience how absolutely terrible these games actually were.
And yet the Ninja Turtles handheld game my parents gifted me the one Christmas entertained me for years and years. Clicking through the archive, I can see that there were a number of games that were grafted onto this particular form of plastic.
And now I'm second-guessing myself, maybe it was Contra and not Ninja Turtles, hmm....
posted by Fizz at 9:11 PM on March 24, 2018
And yet the Ninja Turtles handheld game my parents gifted me the one Christmas entertained me for years and years. Clicking through the archive, I can see that there were a number of games that were grafted onto this particular form of plastic.
And now I'm second-guessing myself, maybe it was Contra and not Ninja Turtles, hmm....
posted by Fizz at 9:11 PM on March 24, 2018
I impressed the hell out of my friend when we rented Mega Man II for the NES for the first time and I already knew which order to beat the bosses in because I had the Tiger Electronics version.
posted by Space Coyote at 9:11 PM on March 24, 2018 [5 favorites]
posted by Space Coyote at 9:11 PM on March 24, 2018 [5 favorites]
And now I'm second-guessing myself, maybe it was Contra and not Ninja Turtles, hmm....
Nope, I was right, it was Ninja Turtles. I found a video of someone playing it online.
posted by Fizz at 9:18 PM on March 24, 2018 [1 favorite]
Nope, I was right, it was Ninja Turtles. I found a video of someone playing it online.
posted by Fizz at 9:18 PM on March 24, 2018 [1 favorite]
Now whole new generations will get to experience how absolutely terrible these games actually were.
Fuck that noise, the Handheld History Collection is amazing. Our bougie friends had Speak & Spell and Simon and those were the toys we always wanted to play with when going over there. Computers are the future. And not to brag, but I got the handheld LCD Donkey Kong for my birthday when I was in the 5th grade. It was mind-blowingly cool. I took it to school one day against my dad's explicit prohibition and it got stolen. But for one glorious recess I was cock of the walk.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 9:25 PM on March 24, 2018 [5 favorites]
Fuck that noise, the Handheld History Collection is amazing. Our bougie friends had Speak & Spell and Simon and those were the toys we always wanted to play with when going over there. Computers are the future. And not to brag, but I got the handheld LCD Donkey Kong for my birthday when I was in the 5th grade. It was mind-blowingly cool. I took it to school one day against my dad's explicit prohibition and it got stolen. But for one glorious recess I was cock of the walk.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 9:25 PM on March 24, 2018 [5 favorites]
I had the Tomy Pac-Man and yes, it sucked, but as a kid in the 80s it was sufficient to shove it full of 4 C batteries and meditate on the glowing vacuum fluorescent display and think about the next time you'd be able to visit the arcade and stuff quarters in something.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 9:41 PM on March 24, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 9:41 PM on March 24, 2018 [1 favorite]
Oh man. I forgot all about Merlin but that thing was the absolute best when I was a kid.
posted by davejay at 10:25 PM on March 24, 2018 [7 favorites]
posted by davejay at 10:25 PM on March 24, 2018 [7 favorites]
If you told 13 year old me that some day I'd have a computer, and and that computer could have all the games I ever heard of on it, well I'd just think you were crazy.
posted by rhizome at 11:19 PM on March 24, 2018 [6 favorites]
posted by rhizome at 11:19 PM on March 24, 2018 [6 favorites]
The fact that the programming can be made visible feels very resourceful and old-school. It's similar to how the memory for the Apollo moon capsule was assembled by hand.
posted by Pronoiac at 11:30 PM on March 24, 2018
posted by Pronoiac at 11:30 PM on March 24, 2018
If you told 13 year old me that some day I'd have a computer, and and that computer could have all the games I ever heard of on it, well I'd just think you were crazy.
And you don't even need to wait in line to insert your quarter. And there are nine Star Wars movies, with Solo on the way. Still no jetpacks though.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 11:34 PM on March 24, 2018 [3 favorites]
And you don't even need to wait in line to insert your quarter. And there are nine Star Wars movies, with Solo on the way. Still no jetpacks though.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 11:34 PM on March 24, 2018 [3 favorites]
Ok, if you told me I'd eventually be able to play Merlin again, in MAME, in a browser, from the Internet Archive I wouldn't have believed you.
That game and those noises are probably one of the reasons why I like weird electronic music and sounds so much. Not only because Merlin had such cool noises or because it had that cool built in step sequencer, but because I used to do weird stuff to mine like letting it run low on batteries and opening it up to probe at the innards to do circuit bending and to make it make new noises.
I barely even remember any of the other games in that weird toy. I was mainly into it for the noises it made and how fast it reacted to input on it's cool light up membrane switches. It was like some kind of movie prop toy from an SF movie that never existed.
posted by loquacious at 12:08 AM on March 25, 2018 [10 favorites]
That game and those noises are probably one of the reasons why I like weird electronic music and sounds so much. Not only because Merlin had such cool noises or because it had that cool built in step sequencer, but because I used to do weird stuff to mine like letting it run low on batteries and opening it up to probe at the innards to do circuit bending and to make it make new noises.
I barely even remember any of the other games in that weird toy. I was mainly into it for the noises it made and how fast it reacted to input on it's cool light up membrane switches. It was like some kind of movie prop toy from an SF movie that never existed.
posted by loquacious at 12:08 AM on March 25, 2018 [10 favorites]
In terms of coding, is it thinkable that this kind of archival emulation could/will eventually be extended to cover later generations of handheld gaming... such as early iOS games that are now defunct due to system version updates? Technically, mobile phones meet their definition of “a small, portable self-contained video game console with a built-in screen, game controls, and speakers“, and there definitely are some singular early creations that really deserve not to be lost (to planned obsolescence, or whatever you might choose to call it).
posted by progosk at 12:26 AM on March 25, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by progosk at 12:26 AM on March 25, 2018 [1 favorite]
Now whole new generations will get to experience how absolutely terrible these games actually were.
When you're in the back of a minivan with one for five hours, you can get really good at it, though
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 3:29 AM on March 25, 2018 [4 favorites]
When you're in the back of a minivan with one for five hours, you can get really good at it, though
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 3:29 AM on March 25, 2018 [4 favorites]
I had a space Invaders handheld when I was 9 or 10 that I played the hell out of. Sometimes when the batteries started to go the scorekeeping would glitch in interesting ways.
posted by sevenyearlurk at 4:36 AM on March 25, 2018
posted by sevenyearlurk at 4:36 AM on March 25, 2018
Follow up comment: found it! Those bleeps really take me back.
posted by sevenyearlurk at 4:40 AM on March 25, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by sevenyearlurk at 4:40 AM on March 25, 2018 [1 favorite]
Mattel Electronic Football was the one that didn't even have passing in it right? And once you figured out the pattern you could pretty much run for a touchdown on every play. Seems like it shouldn't have been fun, but we kwpt playing it.
posted by COD at 6:52 AM on March 25, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by COD at 6:52 AM on March 25, 2018 [4 favorites]
Please have Mattel Electronic Baseball
Please have Mattel Electronic Baseball
Please have Mattel Electronic Baseball
*clicks link*
Fuck.
posted by chavenet at 6:56 AM on March 25, 2018 [2 favorites]
Please have Mattel Electronic Baseball
Please have Mattel Electronic Baseball
*clicks link*
Fuck.
posted by chavenet at 6:56 AM on March 25, 2018 [2 favorites]
We had a few LCD games, but only four made a lasting impression: Nintendo's Fire , Casio Cosmo Fighter and Epoch's Jack & The Beanstalk, which I'm almost sure were brought to my older brother from Macao, and later a generic Tetris handheld (before they got too fancy and had breakout and pong and whatever).
I'm glad this is being done, because older stuff that can be dumped from tapes, roms and discs is already mostly taken care of and can be emulated, and with modern-ish systems it's a matter of time and power.
posted by lmfsilva at 7:28 AM on March 25, 2018
I'm glad this is being done, because older stuff that can be dumped from tapes, roms and discs is already mostly taken care of and can be emulated, and with modern-ish systems it's a matter of time and power.
posted by lmfsilva at 7:28 AM on March 25, 2018
Please have Mattel Electronic Baseball
Nor to worry, chavenet. For under ten bucks, you can have the magic back!
posted by mwhybark at 9:07 AM on March 25, 2018 [2 favorites]
Nor to worry, chavenet. For under ten bucks, you can have the magic back!
posted by mwhybark at 9:07 AM on March 25, 2018 [2 favorites]
And you don't even need to wait in line to insert your quarter
The Nintendo Game and Watches were displayed next to Stereos and TVs, in the calculator section, at the Emporium-Capwells of my local mall. So were the Casio things of the day, like the VL-Tone. The mall itself was a new and exciting thing by itself, so after school every day we'd go to the mall and play with the electronic things at all the stores. So besides Nintendo games, Intellivision was at Liberty House, ColecoVision at Macy's, Texas Instruments Ti 99/4A at JC Penneys. Casio was everywhere. We'd just do a circuit, get some candy, loop back, then it was dinner time.
Quarters were a whole other thing: Saturdays at the bowling alley.
I loved Merlin. Seeing that almost made me want to get in touch for the first time in like 35 years with the guy I was friends with who had it.
posted by rhizome at 10:05 AM on March 25, 2018 [4 favorites]
The Nintendo Game and Watches were displayed next to Stereos and TVs, in the calculator section, at the Emporium-Capwells of my local mall. So were the Casio things of the day, like the VL-Tone. The mall itself was a new and exciting thing by itself, so after school every day we'd go to the mall and play with the electronic things at all the stores. So besides Nintendo games, Intellivision was at Liberty House, ColecoVision at Macy's, Texas Instruments Ti 99/4A at JC Penneys. Casio was everywhere. We'd just do a circuit, get some candy, loop back, then it was dinner time.
Quarters were a whole other thing: Saturdays at the bowling alley.
I loved Merlin. Seeing that almost made me want to get in touch for the first time in like 35 years with the guy I was friends with who had it.
posted by rhizome at 10:05 AM on March 25, 2018 [4 favorites]
We didn't have a mall and we had a ColecoVision at home, but that sounds like a good circuit. Summertime Saturdays were for riding the bus across town to play cabinet arcade games at Silver Ball Gardens.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 10:52 AM on March 25, 2018
posted by ActingTheGoat at 10:52 AM on March 25, 2018
My mother said she would ground me for life if she ever caught me in Silver Ball Gardens. She never did!
posted by chavenet at 11:10 AM on March 25, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by chavenet at 11:10 AM on March 25, 2018 [2 favorites]
No CGL Galaxy Invader (aka Tandy's Fire Away), either. Not that it was a good game, but it was the game I had. The cluck-click! missile fire sound, the dee-doot! as you lost the first life, and the doodley-doodley-doodley-deeeet! as you ended the game at the colossal fixed high-score of 199 … I could use that right now.
I'd play mine until the batteries went so flat you couldn't see anything on the VFD even playing under a blanket. You could jam the speed selector at 2½ and get this almost-playable mutant game that ended very quickly when an alien would appear right on top of you. Good times. I bet my parents were happy when it broke, though.
posted by scruss at 12:20 PM on March 25, 2018 [1 favorite]
I'd play mine until the batteries went so flat you couldn't see anything on the VFD even playing under a blanket. You could jam the speed selector at 2½ and get this almost-playable mutant game that ended very quickly when an alien would appear right on top of you. Good times. I bet my parents were happy when it broke, though.
posted by scruss at 12:20 PM on March 25, 2018 [1 favorite]
I didn't have a Speak & Spell as a kid. I had a Speak & Math.
Sadly, I can't relive my Number Stumper days just yet.
posted by Katemonkey at 1:02 PM on March 25, 2018 [2 favorites]
Sadly, I can't relive my Number Stumper days just yet.
posted by Katemonkey at 1:02 PM on March 25, 2018 [2 favorites]
Wow, what a project. Clicking through a few brings a lot of half remembered memories back, especially the sheer confusion most of the games generated. The tamagotchi though, waiting five minutes for it to hatch! The mysterious hidden character!
posted by lucidium at 2:21 PM on March 25, 2018
posted by lucidium at 2:21 PM on March 25, 2018
The original Farmville.
posted by rhizome at 5:15 PM on March 25, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by rhizome at 5:15 PM on March 25, 2018 [1 favorite]
Wow. For those lost in the plethora, maybe see Handheld Games Museum.
... who even knew ...
posted by Twang at 5:28 PM on March 25, 2018 [1 favorite]
... who even knew ...
posted by Twang at 5:28 PM on March 25, 2018 [1 favorite]
Oh god. @ COD
My brothers had Mattel Electronic Football. And once I figured out that if you played fast enough you could always out-run/out-maneuver the computer I never lost. And it should have become boring. But somehow there was still a thrill to punching the buttons to guide my red dot around their red dots.
For hours. I don't actually get 7-year-old me, but I salute her dedication.
posted by allium cepa at 5:52 AM on March 26, 2018
My brothers had Mattel Electronic Football. And once I figured out that if you played fast enough you could always out-run/out-maneuver the computer I never lost. And it should have become boring. But somehow there was still a thrill to punching the buttons to guide my red dot around their red dots.
For hours. I don't actually get 7-year-old me, but I salute her dedication.
posted by allium cepa at 5:52 AM on March 26, 2018
I used to play what I've been sure all these years was an LCD Spy Hunter, but I can't find it in any of these sites, and now I'm not sure it even existed.
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 7:36 AM on March 26, 2018
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 7:36 AM on March 26, 2018
Sadly, missing the Battlestar Galactica tie-in Space Alert, which was the handheld game I chose to buy when all my friends wanted Electronic Football.
posted by hanov3r at 1:50 PM on March 26, 2018
posted by hanov3r at 1:50 PM on March 26, 2018
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posted by RobotVoodooPower at 9:08 PM on March 24, 2018 [8 favorites]