Handheld electronic games were the big hit at the beginning of the 1980s, when every kid wanted a small portable plastic device for playing video games wherever and whenever he or she wanted. Hundreds of games, created by dozens of manufacturers, swarmed the toy stores, showcasing unique colours, shapes, artworks, displays and designs. And all are the subjects of collectors’ dreams nowadays.
I spotted the beauties featured below — except the last two from my collection — last Saturday at the PixelCon 2 retro gaming event, in Budapest, Hungary, organised by Insert Coin. Here are 13 handheld electronic game portraits isolated on black background for your viewing pleasure.
Do you own any classic handheld game from the Eighties? Show us in the comments! Have fond memories of playing one of these? Tell us about it!
Invader (Gakken, Taiwan, 1983)
UFO Master-Blaster Station (Bambino, Japan, 1979)
PacMan 2. (Entex Electronics, Taiwan, 1980)
Rocket Pinball (Tiger Electronic Toys, Taiwan, 1979)
Pack’n Maze (Hanzawa, Taiwan, 1982)
Hungry Pac II (Actronics/Hanzawa, Taiwan, 1981)
Puck Man (Tomy LSI, Japan, 1982)
Terra-Hit (Tomy, Japan, 1979)
Space Invader (Entex, Taiwan, 1981)
Blastergame (Shinsei, Japan, c1980)
Midway Ms. Pac-Man (Coleco, USA, 1983)
Weltraumspiel (Bandai, Japan, 1980)
UFO Space Chaser (Toybox, Japan, 1979)
Photos, top gif: Attila Nagy/Gizmodo. Many thanks to Kóceráj Poharazó.
Originally posted on Gizmodo.
Comments
6 responses to “Photo Essay: 13 Classic Handheld Game Portraits”
I had Terra-Hit as a kid. Wow, you have no idea the memories that just came flooding back. I’ve played some of the others too.
Thanks for taking me right back to my childhood.
I seem to remember Terra-Hit too. My one either didn’t work or I didn’t know how it worked.
It was also called Hit and Missile.
Oh man! I had a couple of those as a kid.
I had the Puck Man and the Tera Hit and I also a Midway cabinet exactly like the Ms Pac Man one but it was Space Invaders.
The Tera Hit one never worked properly but the others were pretty good. I’d forgotten that the Puck Man wasn’t actually Pac Man.
Yeah, there were a few games with the same case/housing as that Ms Pac Man. I still have my Galaxian one.
I had an old desktop frogger machine i bought at an op shop for 50c.
I also remember a side scrolling helicopter game with missiles and bombs. Pretty sure it had Cobra in the name and had a white casing.
Found it: Super Cobra
http://gamewatch.com.es/wp-content/gallery-bank/gallery-uploads/o_19gb2nm381imkljggirv7211qti.jpg