Category Archives: Handhelds
Missile Invader and Sub Chase by Mattel – Video Game Consoles as Art
Between 1978 and 1980 Mattel released a popular series of handheld games that featured LED technology, using simple glowing red lights to represent the on-screen characters, pre-dating the more common LCD and VFD formats seen on later portable machines.
By necessity the Mattel handhelds had to augment the game displays to put the simple glowing LEDs … Continue Reading ››
UFO Master Blaster by Bambino: Video Game Consoles as Art
The early 80's were the golden era for handheld electronic games, and Bambino produced some of the most beautifully designed units. UFO Master Blaster was an unremarkable (at least in terms of gameplay) space invader clone, using a similar Vacuum Florescent Display as the more common Galaxy Invader handhelds. What set the game apart was … Continue Reading ››
Galaxian Tabletop Game by Coleco
The holy grail of handheld games?
My retro games collection includes many of the consoles and home computers that I played (or wanted to play) with as a kid, but my favourite games are the handheld and tabletop units from the early 80's. There's something about the look of them, the brightly coloured plastics and … Continue Reading ››Handheld Games – The RolyRetro Collection
One of my earliest video gaming experiences was at the end of term in my primary school, where we all got to bring in a toy and lessons were given over to general playtime. Amongst all of the classic board games like Mouse Trap and Kerplunk, I spotted a small tabletop machine that had a … Continue Reading ››
Grandstand Munchman 80’s handheld review
Anyone who has read my blog before knows I am a big fan of retro handheld games, and Grandstand made some of the best. Many of these games attempted to recreate the big arcade games of the time, which explains the proliferation of space invader clones, including the likes of Galaxy Invader and Continue Reading ››