Tiger Electronics "From The Vault"

[oldmanwinters]

What in the world?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...720_em_1p_1_lm


https://www.amazon.com/Hasbro-Games-...d-games&sr=1-3


https://www.amazon.com/Hasbro-Games-...d-games&sr=1-4


https://www.amazon.com/Hasbro-Games-...d-games&sr=1-5

[ZariusTwo]

I never realised how hated they were...or did James Rolfe decide one day to say they sucked and knew everyone would agree with him because he's popular?


I loved these things.

[Leo656]

They were always objectively terrible, James had nothing to do with it.

Generally they were impulse-buys that kids regretted asking their parents for by the time they got home, once they realized that for the same price they could have gotten a couple of action figures or something. Or something a well-meaning Grandma would buy because they heard little Jimmy "Loved that Mortal Kombat or whatever" and didn't know what else to get them for under $20.

I, personally, never owned any of them, but a lot of my friends did, and that's where this anecdotal evidence comes from. They'd usually be like, sticking out of a "random crap" bin full of broken toys or stuff they'd outgrown. I'd ask to try one out of curiosity and they'd be all "Eh, sure, it sucks though, I haven't even looked at it since I got it," and within two minutes it'd be like "Wow, man, yeah... don't you have Super Nintendo?"

Not to be mean, but around here they were generally dismissed as "Poor Kids' Toys". Like, if your parents had enough money for an NES or even a Game Boy, you knew better than to pick these up. If you actually had one and played them, you didn't play them where people could see ya. It was like hanging a sign around your neck that said "My Dad lost his job" or something. You just didn't do it.

Maybe they were more popular in different regions. I don't know. Around here they were generally dismissed.

I can't believe the Nostalgia Business is so booming that we're even bringing back the stuff we openly disdained and ignored as kids. WOW. Eh, whatever.

[neatoman]

I hate LCD games. Some Game and Watch titles are OK but the reason they're kind of forgivable is because:

1. Nearly all of them predate the Gameboy and serious handhelds by years.
2. Most of them are carefully designed according to the limits.

The way LCD game graphics work is not pleasing to the eye and it can easily become hard to tell what you're meant to do, it has to be the easiest type of hardware to **** up both the UX and UI. Once the Gameboy was invented, what's even the point? Sure, they're way cheaper than a Gameboy, but a Gameboy loaded with Tetris will always be more worth your time and money than a hundred LCD games.

[Leo656]

Well that's the thing; as I said, at least around here, it was an open secret that they were "poor kids toys". If you could get something better, you didn't bother with these. But, even poor kids know better than to advertise, so very few of the ones I knew would ever ask for or be caught dead with them. Social Suicide.

I do kinda jones for some Game and Watch stuff, but then I'm a total Retro fetishist.

[Jester]

I had a Talking TMNT one....lets see if I can dig up an image on the ole Google-box....

Thanks tOkKa. I knew I could count on you...

Mildly amusing tidbit: I only have parts of the card back of this game as a reminder, because I used them and my POG maker to make TMNT POGs at the time.

[Leo656]

Everything about those games seemed so random and arbitrary, that's what I really didn't like about 'em. Like, you'd push buttons, and maybe it would react accordingly or maybe not. Maybe you'd jump over that incoming enemy, and maybe you'd get hit. But it never really felt like you had any control over it. It felt exactly as accurate as "playing" the demo screen on an arcade game by wiggling the joystick around before you even stuck a quarter in.

Even back then I just always felt like if I was gonna waste two minutes on something pointless I could just go masturbate again.

[Jester]

Yeah, with a fixed number of "sprites" I'm not sure if I ever enjoyed playing those or knew what I was even doing. Heck, I had TMNT games for the Game Boy, so this probably was trashed not long after opening and "recycling" the card back. Part of me wonders if it was a gift from a relative that knew I like the Turtles.

EDIT: The wife and I wonder if it would have been too much to make them a bit more high tech and just put an NES rom of the franchise in question on the handheld...well....except Sonic...but licensing might be mush

[Coola Yagami]

I mean, I was one of those poor kids, lmao. They held me over until my folks finally broke down and got us an NES.

[oldmanwinters]

I'm curious if the new retro-releases might have clearer, higher-quality screens or if the LCD technology is essentially the same as it was back around 1993.

I'm actually a big fan of the original Konami handheld TMNT game:

TMNT Konami Handheld card (front) by oldmanwinters, on Flickr


TMNT Konami Handheld card (rear) by oldmanwinters, on Flickr


TMNT LCD Konami Handheld sprite art by oldmanwinters, on Flickr

[Leo656]

What's funny, Jester, is that I was doing a podcast with Coola and the gang last night, and Pogs came up and I mentioned how the Pog-Maker kits were really the one big thing to come out of that very short-lived fad. And now here you are mentioning it. Serendipity!

But yeah, most kids I knew got those games as stocking stuffers or report card gifts from Grandma. I always preferred to get action figures, but that's me. You could get two for $10 back then!

[oldmanwinters]

Originally Posted by Leo656

What's funny, Jester, is that I was doing a podcast with Coola and the gang last night, and Pogs came up and I mentioned how the Pog-Maker kits were really the one big thing to come out of that very short-lived fad. And now here you are mentioning it. Serendipity!

But yeah, most kids I knew got those games as stocking stuffers or report card gifts from Grandma. I always preferred to get action figures, but that's me. You could get two for $10 back then!

Heh, I think the Nerd might be right on how bizarre it is that random POGS aren't scattered around every 2nd-hand thrift store in the nation by town.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CawIjpm6okY

I guess if you really want them, you have to intentionally seek them out through online sellers.

[Jester]

Mine, including the home made ones, are in an old Spider-man Special Edition DVD box....
Yeah...this one...

[oldmanwinters]

Originally Posted by Jester

Mine, including the home made ones, are in an old Spider-man Special Edition DVD box....
Yeah...this one...
https://a1.amlimg.com/OGM1NDQxZjRhNz...sucG5nfHx8.jpg

Haha, I remember when that Spider-man set came out, I thought it was the most coveted DVD release ever. Glad to see someone still appreciates it's over-sized grandeur!

[Leo656]

I have Pogs, but never cared about Pogs. Within a year of the boom, every kid in my little town was selling them off in their front yard for 10-25 cents apiece. I took pity on a friend of mine and bought a couple bucks' worth just so he didn't turn up Zero. Mostly just anything with skulls or yin-yangs on 'em. They're in a box somewhere, haven't really seen 'em since.

Ahhhh, the '90s.

[Galactus]

Are we talking about all LCD games sucking or just the Tiger ones? I mean the better Game & Watch ones are pretty addictive when you get into them and have plenty of old school charm.

Beyond that I never bothered much with LCD games once I had a Game Boy other than the first two Konami TMNT games and a Simpsons (more accurately a Bartman) one which were pretty neat.

I never owned any Tiger ones but the ones that I played that belonged to friends were admittedly pretty crappy. The beauty of the ones I owned is that they knew they couldn't replicate console game play and instead did their own thing within the limitations of what they could do. Why on earth would anyone want to try and replicate Mortal Kombat game play on an LCD screen? Nintendo were also guilty of this with some of their later Game & Watches based on their console hits.

I was never hugely into Pogs although I had some. I think other kids stopped playing with me when I came into school one day with a metal kini that was shaped like a shuriken that not only nearly unfailingly win for me everytime but cut the top pog.

[oldmanwinters]

Originally Posted by Galactus

Are we talking about all LCD games sucking or just the Tiger ones?

I started the thread to simply express my astonishment that these things are being re-released again.

[sdp]

I don't understand these releases, they're like full price and only have one crappy LCD game. I do think there's a market for nostalgic value but it should've been some type of handheld emulator device with a bunch of these crappy LCD games. You could've sold something like that for $50 perhaps if you get some cool licenses and hit the right nostalgia. I know archive.org has a bunch of LCD games emulated, it's cool since to emulate them they need to actually break the LCD display, they can't just rip ROMs like with normal games.

I had a Tiger R-Zone, because I thought the headset looked like a Scouter of DBZ back when DBZ was not really a thing in the US yet so this was the closest thing to merchandise I could get. I had it with a bunch of games, they all sucked, especially the fighting games. I love game and watch games though, the difference is Nintendo always understood the limitations of the games so they had basic games which are addicting, when you try something more it just becomes a crappy game. But yeah, I had a game boy and my memories of it are things that no tiger electronic could ever replicate. I gotta admit, it was cool to see all these shows and movies have their own video games on the shelves, it was tempting despite knowing they were crappy but it was mostly for people without game boys I think.

Originally Posted by oldmanwinters

I'm curious if the new retro-releases might have clearer, higher-quality screens or if the LCD technology is essentially the same as it was back around 1993.

I saw a review on youtube, apparently it's exactly the same, the plastic is apparently not as white and the sticker/image border not being as bright as the original but other than that exactly the same, so in a way an inferor version but it's likely the best way to get a new version of these LCDs if you have nostalgia and want a new one.

[Galactus]

Originally Posted by oldmanwinters

I started the thread to simply express my astonishment that these things are being re-released again.

Oh...why?

I actually think Nintendo could make some decent money out of remaking their Game & Watches since like I said they are actually well made and retain a cult following. Although you have to wonder if they'd redo the one were Mario is a soldier in Viet Nam?

But these??? I know some people are desperate to play Sonic 3 but surely no one wants to play it on a Tiger hand held.

This is as good as excuse as any to post a clip of the late lamented British show Go 8 Bit were they made their own Game & Watch inspired LCD game. With apoligies to all Irish people.

[sdp]

I'd love a modern Game & Watch collection of all the handhelds in one, Nintendo released like 7 different collections with remakes on the game boy/DS and the DSi had a virtual console for Game & Watch but we only got a few games out of it. I'd love to see them all preserved

Originally Posted by Galactus

This is as good as excuse as any to post a clip of the late lamented British show Go 8 Bit were they made their own Game & Watch inspired LCD game. With apoligies to all Irish people.

[FOrOAMfSh4[/]

ah, cool, worth searching episodes from this show?