Electronic Plastic
February 28, 2021 4:02 PM Subscribe
These pictures smell like Christmas morning
posted by Atom Eyes at 4:31 PM on February 28, 2021 [5 favorites]
posted by Atom Eyes at 4:31 PM on February 28, 2021 [5 favorites]
Ah, Football 2. Everyone loved you so much back in elementary school...
posted by hippybear at 4:44 PM on February 28, 2021 [5 favorites]
posted by hippybear at 4:44 PM on February 28, 2021 [5 favorites]
Wait, no TI-85? I remember hours of playing snake on that thing.
posted by heyitsgogi at 5:10 PM on February 28, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by heyitsgogi at 5:10 PM on February 28, 2021 [1 favorite]
Bloody hell - Space Attack ! I remember going to visit some distant but incredibly wealthy relatives c.1979 (who we never visited again, ever) and they had a kid about my age who'd got this - somehow - via his dad's business contact in Japan. It was big and clunky and electromechanical and actually quite bad, but I was in awe.
posted by scruss at 5:35 PM on February 28, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by scruss at 5:35 PM on February 28, 2021 [2 favorites]
I remember Blip -- a weird, mechanical, completely deterministic version of Pong. I suspect my parents got it for me for when they were watching TV so I couldn't play the real Pong console.
I had Space Attack too -- it must not have been that rare or expensive :)
posted by Foosnark at 5:44 PM on February 28, 2021 [1 favorite]
I had Space Attack too -- it must not have been that rare or expensive :)
posted by Foosnark at 5:44 PM on February 28, 2021 [1 favorite]
Merlin 4lyfe.
No doubt! I cherished mine as well. Seemed like the future in my small kid hands.
And now a Merlin is in an exhibit at the Henry Ford Museum, among other electronic toys of this era. Kind of makes you stop and think for a moment.
posted by JoeZydeco at 6:02 PM on February 28, 2021
No doubt! I cherished mine as well. Seemed like the future in my small kid hands.
And now a Merlin is in an exhibit at the Henry Ford Museum, among other electronic toys of this era. Kind of makes you stop and think for a moment.
posted by JoeZydeco at 6:02 PM on February 28, 2021
Still think that the 3d Gamate was the coolest concept.
posted by phooky at 6:10 PM on February 28, 2021
posted by phooky at 6:10 PM on February 28, 2021
I had at least these four: Merlin, Coleco Head to Head Baseball, Mattel Soccer, and Entex Galaxian2.
And it is completely unsurprising that in Avengers: Infinity War, teen Groot is playing an actual game: Entex Defender.
posted by AbnerRavenwood at 6:36 PM on February 28, 2021
And it is completely unsurprising that in Avengers: Infinity War, teen Groot is playing an actual game: Entex Defender.
posted by AbnerRavenwood at 6:36 PM on February 28, 2021
They have Entex Baseball and Baseball 3 on the site, but not the game I had, Baseball 2. It had a white case and kept us busy for large chunks of the 5 hour drives to see grandparents.
posted by rikschell at 7:10 PM on February 28, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by rikschell at 7:10 PM on February 28, 2021 [1 favorite]
Electronic Quarterback. First run, 0000 serial number and you carried extra batteries like gandalf carries weed. Found one for a buck 4 years ago... ironically, sold it for 70$ and 1/8 of gorilla glue.
dee-do-ta-do-do-doot.
posted by clavdivs at 10:13 PM on February 28, 2021 [4 favorites]
dee-do-ta-do-do-doot.
posted by clavdivs at 10:13 PM on February 28, 2021 [4 favorites]
Wasn't there a head-to-head football? I seem to recall having one of these in about 1979 or 1980. But maybe another football game?
posted by maxwelton at 11:08 PM on February 28, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by maxwelton at 11:08 PM on February 28, 2021 [1 favorite]
These pictures smell like Christmas morning
we got to open ours before Christmas in the hope that it would keep us shut up & gently beeping on the drive to Grandma's
I had... I am pretty sure it was a watch? that played an LCD version of Mario Bros & I was always conflicted about it because it was clearly a less interesting game than the full-fledged Super Mario Bros on my friends' Nintendos but it was also a game I could play on a watch & at that point in my life I could be entertained by playing with a stapler, so
later in life my mom would purchase a 1995 Hasbro handheld Yahtzee which would live in a ceramic basket in her bathroom for decades as toilet entertainment (kinda telling on my mom here); she has since replaced it with sudoku books & a pencil which makes me suspect it finally stopped working, rest in peace toilet Yahtzee
posted by taquito sunrise at 11:14 PM on February 28, 2021 [8 favorites]
we got to open ours before Christmas in the hope that it would keep us shut up & gently beeping on the drive to Grandma's
I had... I am pretty sure it was a watch? that played an LCD version of Mario Bros & I was always conflicted about it because it was clearly a less interesting game than the full-fledged Super Mario Bros on my friends' Nintendos but it was also a game I could play on a watch & at that point in my life I could be entertained by playing with a stapler, so
later in life my mom would purchase a 1995 Hasbro handheld Yahtzee which would live in a ceramic basket in her bathroom for decades as toilet entertainment (kinda telling on my mom here); she has since replaced it with sudoku books & a pencil which makes me suspect it finally stopped working, rest in peace toilet Yahtzee
posted by taquito sunrise at 11:14 PM on February 28, 2021 [8 favorites]
Needs mobile friendly version.
posted by GallonOfAlan at 12:36 AM on March 1, 2021
posted by GallonOfAlan at 12:36 AM on March 1, 2021
Mattel's Baseball was the one I wanted. I wanted it bad. I asked grandpa for it, for Christmas. Grandpa lived far away, he would always send us gifts. That year the box arrived, in it was a hand-sized rectangular gift for me. I was excited, I mean, man, really excited. That was it! It went under the tree. We all waited, the endless wait of (probably a maximum of 5 days) to Christmas. Then it came, then we opened our presents, then I opened THAT ONE.
And of course it was a little white transistor AM/FM radio. Bah. Boo. Never did get that game. In the spring after that I found some money in the street and my mom let my buy whatever I wanted with it and I bought Tomy's Digital Diamond. That one blew chunks. The Mattel game was so simple and elegant, sort of baseball distilled, while the Tomy game was all bells and whistles and not much fun to play.
Did like that radio though, gave me much more pleasure than the digital baseball games. You could listen to music on there, under the covers! And Giants Baseball, on KNBR!
Grandpas, they know.
Go Giants!
posted by chavenet at 3:00 AM on March 1, 2021 [3 favorites]
And of course it was a little white transistor AM/FM radio. Bah. Boo. Never did get that game. In the spring after that I found some money in the street and my mom let my buy whatever I wanted with it and I bought Tomy's Digital Diamond. That one blew chunks. The Mattel game was so simple and elegant, sort of baseball distilled, while the Tomy game was all bells and whistles and not much fun to play.
Did like that radio though, gave me much more pleasure than the digital baseball games. You could listen to music on there, under the covers! And Giants Baseball, on KNBR!
Grandpas, they know.
Go Giants!
posted by chavenet at 3:00 AM on March 1, 2021 [3 favorites]
[A-also, you can still play a bunch of these online, only not Mattel Baseball...]
posted by chavenet at 3:08 AM on March 1, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by chavenet at 3:08 AM on March 1, 2021 [4 favorites]
metafilter: rest in peace, toilet Yahtzee
posted by Sauce Trough at 3:17 AM on March 1, 2021 [5 favorites]
posted by Sauce Trough at 3:17 AM on March 1, 2021 [5 favorites]
and mobile friendliness aside, there's some astonishing good search UX on this. took me two minutes to zero in on on some mystery toys my grandma's neighbor's kids had in the 70s that I'd been curious about since.
posted by Sauce Trough at 3:19 AM on March 1, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Sauce Trough at 3:19 AM on March 1, 2021 [1 favorite]
I need to thank my parents for not throwing Merlin out the car window during that road trip from Chicago to Tennessee. Nine hours of beep would have justified it, but at least it shut me up?
posted by Sweetie Darling at 4:40 AM on March 1, 2021
posted by Sweetie Darling at 4:40 AM on March 1, 2021
I had a half-dozen of these scattered across my childhood, each one long forgotten. Each one brought back places and times. Epoch's "Invader from Space," in my bedroom in my mother's duplex; "Head-to-Head Baseball," in the living room of my father's small rental house; Tomy's "Caveman," in the townhouse where ugly drama came into our lives for a time. Whole years and lives come rushing back.
Like Proust's madeleine, with beeping.
posted by Harvey Jerkwater at 6:40 AM on March 1, 2021
Like Proust's madeleine, with beeping.
posted by Harvey Jerkwater at 6:40 AM on March 1, 2021
i definitely had a couple COLECO units and remember playing them in the back of a station wagon on family vacations...
Then many years later I went to a museum in Conneticutt and learned that COLECO stands for COnneticutt LEather COmpany and their first product was a do it yourself mocassin kit. What a pivot.
posted by danjo at 7:15 AM on March 1, 2021 [4 favorites]
Then many years later I went to a museum in Conneticutt and learned that COLECO stands for COnneticutt LEather COmpany and their first product was a do it yourself mocassin kit. What a pivot.
posted by danjo at 7:15 AM on March 1, 2021 [4 favorites]
A friend and I played that Yahtzee game on a trip to a lake-cottage in Michigan. You'd hand it over when you beat the top score. Man, she killed me. Just killed me. She was upset that I had the game in my possession for so long but I...just...could...not...beat...her...score! Flash forward a few years later, she and I took a road trip from San Francisco south to San Simeon. We bought a Yahtzee handheld for our amusement. Again, she killed me. It was decided to continue the game, long distance, via the Post Office. It took me a while (read: a couple of months) to top her score. I mailed it back, with a taunting note. It was returned to me a couple of weeks later with a similar note. As I tried to beat her score: days turned into months, 9/11 happened, I moved, I moved again, I lost track of it somewhere. She's still the champion and will remind me of the fact.
I need to find a Yahtzee handheld and re-ignite the rivalry.
Thanks for the post!
posted by zerobyproxy at 7:24 AM on March 1, 2021
I need to find a Yahtzee handheld and re-ignite the rivalry.
Thanks for the post!
posted by zerobyproxy at 7:24 AM on March 1, 2021
This must be curated by a retired elementary school teacher
posted by thelonius at 7:43 AM on March 1, 2021 [6 favorites]
posted by thelonius at 7:43 AM on March 1, 2021 [6 favorites]
Most of these are pretty janky, but Pair Match looks like you should be able to use it to jack into cyberspace.
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:50 AM on March 1, 2021
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:50 AM on March 1, 2021
The Star Trek nerd in me wonders why there's no listing for the tabletop Star Trek Phaser Battle game from MEGO.
But, they do have listings for the games I remember having: Simon, Coleco Head-to-Head Baseball, and Battlestar Galactica-themed Space Battle.
posted by hanov3r at 8:37 AM on March 1, 2021 [1 favorite]
But, they do have listings for the games I remember having: Simon, Coleco Head-to-Head Baseball, and Battlestar Galactica-themed Space Battle.
posted by hanov3r at 8:37 AM on March 1, 2021 [1 favorite]
That archive.org link is awesome, thank you chavenet!! How long can adult me last at Alien Attack?
posted by riverlife at 8:38 AM on March 1, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by riverlife at 8:38 AM on March 1, 2021 [1 favorite]
That site has a pretty neat search system. I was able to find the games I had pretty quickly, despite not remembering their names.
posted by Robin Kestrel at 8:46 AM on March 1, 2021
posted by Robin Kestrel at 8:46 AM on March 1, 2021
late 70s early 80s, I wanted a Merlin handheld so so so sososo bad. Kids would bring them out at recess and I would beg for my drug of choice, a game of Magic Square.
My mom got me a Dataman. (not on this site as far as I can tell). classic parental "let's make this educational" bait and switch. I said thank you and played with it because it was there to be played with but maaaan, it was no merlin.
a couple of years later I somehow managed to convince them to give me a Fabulous Fred I think on the strength of it having more games, colours and different sounds and was therefore less limited than a Merlin. I got in trouble at school for using the roulette wheel with kids real money (pennies and nickels but still.
_____________
was all set to tee up "metafilter: rest in peace, toilet Yahtzee", but experience dictated that I check first, and of course, there it was.
At my house we didn't have toilet yahtzee but instead a series of large and small Wonderful Waterfuls untill they started to break and leak,
posted by hearthpig at 8:48 AM on March 1, 2021
My mom got me a Dataman. (not on this site as far as I can tell). classic parental "let's make this educational" bait and switch. I said thank you and played with it because it was there to be played with but maaaan, it was no merlin.
a couple of years later I somehow managed to convince them to give me a Fabulous Fred I think on the strength of it having more games, colours and different sounds and was therefore less limited than a Merlin. I got in trouble at school for using the roulette wheel with kids real money (pennies and nickels but still.
_____________
was all set to tee up "metafilter: rest in peace, toilet Yahtzee", but experience dictated that I check first, and of course, there it was.
At my house we didn't have toilet yahtzee but instead a series of large and small Wonderful Waterfuls untill they started to break and leak,
posted by hearthpig at 8:48 AM on March 1, 2021
I had the Entex Hockey, which was a lot of fun until I got a soldering iron and disassembled it into all its component parts -- dozens of red LEDs!
They are, however, missing a crazy game I had as a kid: it was a bowling game, however instead of buttons or switches the entire game was covered in a large clear box and there was a little plastic man inside, and you played by using the spring-loaded plastic bowler to roll a big ball bearing (sort of like pinball), and the ball somehow triggered whichever LEDs representing pins you hit. It was a ludicrous hybrid of physical game and video game and I played the heck out of it. (Edit: on further review they have two similar ones, Fotoelectronic Bowling and ProBowler but neither are the one I had)
posted by AzraelBrown at 8:54 AM on March 1, 2021
They are, however, missing a crazy game I had as a kid: it was a bowling game, however instead of buttons or switches the entire game was covered in a large clear box and there was a little plastic man inside, and you played by using the spring-loaded plastic bowler to roll a big ball bearing (sort of like pinball), and the ball somehow triggered whichever LEDs representing pins you hit. It was a ludicrous hybrid of physical game and video game and I played the heck out of it. (Edit: on further review they have two similar ones, Fotoelectronic Bowling and ProBowler but neither are the one I had)
posted by AzraelBrown at 8:54 AM on March 1, 2021
My grandparents got me wildfire when i was 6 or 7 and we drove to visit them in cleveland (from pittsburgh)
Even after 40 years i still remember that game. They died pretty soon afterwards. My hope is that they realize how much that game impacted my life, career and me as a person.
Sure i probably gave the compulsory thank you, but it’s unusual to get a gift from someone that is just the right thing at just the right time.
That was one of them.
END OLD NOSTALGIE
posted by Lord_Pall at 9:24 AM on March 1, 2021
Even after 40 years i still remember that game. They died pretty soon afterwards. My hope is that they realize how much that game impacted my life, career and me as a person.
Sure i probably gave the compulsory thank you, but it’s unusual to get a gift from someone that is just the right thing at just the right time.
That was one of them.
END OLD NOSTALGIE
posted by Lord_Pall at 9:24 AM on March 1, 2021
TIL that most of the Grandstand games that us UK kids looked hungrily at in early-80s Argos catalogues were rebranded and renamed versions of toys from other territories:
- Munchman was a rebranded Tomy Pac-Man
- Scramble was Epoch's Space Defender
- Astro Wars -- which I got for Christmas in maybe 1982 and which I remember mostly as eating batteries like crazy -- was Epoch's Galaxy 2
- Invader From Space was another Epoch rebrand
- Caveman was a rebrand -- and looks like also a remould -- of Tomy's Caveman
I loved my Merlin. Merlin was my God. I carried it everywhere. I got amazing at that game where you have to press the buttons until all of them are lit. We were inseparable. I thought nothing could ever be better.
And then . . .
posted by The Bellman at 12:59 PM on March 1, 2021 [2 favorites]
And then . . .
posted by The Bellman at 12:59 PM on March 1, 2021 [2 favorites]
Bloody hell - Space Attack ! I remember going to visit some distant but incredibly wealthy relatives c.1979 (who we never visited again, ever) and they had a kid about my age who'd got this - somehow - via his dad's business contact in Japan. It was big and clunky and electromechanical and actually quite bad, but I was in awe.
I don't know if it was Space Attack exactly or a similar clone (probably the latter), but my parents bought my brother and I one for Christmas from Radio Shack. It wasn't very reliable, and my Dad would get upset if we broke our toys. I remember spending many a night in our bedroom with a screwdriver fixing that game. I got quite good at it, actually. It's one of the main things I attribute to becoming a mechanical engineer.
posted by Quonab at 1:15 PM on March 1, 2021 [2 favorites]
I don't know if it was Space Attack exactly or a similar clone (probably the latter), but my parents bought my brother and I one for Christmas from Radio Shack. It wasn't very reliable, and my Dad would get upset if we broke our toys. I remember spending many a night in our bedroom with a screwdriver fixing that game. I got quite good at it, actually. It's one of the main things I attribute to becoming a mechanical engineer.
posted by Quonab at 1:15 PM on March 1, 2021 [2 favorites]
Wasn't there a head-to-head football? I seem to recall having one of these in about 1979 or 1980. But maybe another football game?
Absolutely! Looked much like the one clavdivs linked above as Electronic Quarterback, but with second set of controls on the opposite side. I had one in the mid to late 70s.
posted by bcd at 4:32 PM on March 1, 2021
Absolutely! Looked much like the one clavdivs linked above as Electronic Quarterback, but with second set of controls on the opposite side. I had one in the mid to late 70s.
posted by bcd at 4:32 PM on March 1, 2021
Wasn't there a head-to-head football?
Yes, and it's missing from the site. It was made by Coleco, who also made Head-to-Head Baseball, Soccer, and Hockey (all of which ARE represented on the site). Here's one that needs a little repair work.
posted by hanov3r at 8:11 AM on March 2, 2021 [1 favorite]
Yes, and it's missing from the site. It was made by Coleco, who also made Head-to-Head Baseball, Soccer, and Hockey (all of which ARE represented on the site). Here's one that needs a little repair work.
posted by hanov3r at 8:11 AM on March 2, 2021 [1 favorite]
hanov3r, that is absolutely it. I can still hear the touchdown "song" in my head.
posted by maxwelton at 8:32 AM on March 2, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by maxwelton at 8:32 AM on March 2, 2021 [1 favorite]
Wow Coleco had an outsize footprint on my youth.
posted by mazola at 8:37 AM on March 2, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by mazola at 8:37 AM on March 2, 2021 [1 favorite]
Ah, Amazone, I can hear your two toned beeps now! And feel the exact thumb movements on your tiny joystick that were required on both your screens, climbing the waterfall and zapping the bat in the cave. Such complexity!
posted by penguin pie at 10:25 AM on March 6, 2021
posted by penguin pie at 10:25 AM on March 6, 2021
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