Remember the days before the Nintendo Game Boy, when Hand Held Electronic games were really basic?

http://www.handheldmuseum.com/


In the late 70s, alot of them, such as Coleco's 'Electronic Quarterback' utilized red lights as the movement of the players
http://www.edbrill.com/ebrill/edbrill.nsf/dx/Coleco-ElectronicQuarterback.jpg/$file/Coleco-ElectronicQuarterback.jpg

Into the early 80s, when Coleco unveiled the super awesome Mini-Arcade games in the forms of games like 'Donkey Kong', 'Frogger' and 'Pac-Man' that featured neon style lights, similar to an advanced calculator
http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/3161/mspacmanis8.png http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/380/mspacmanscreenshotnx6.jpg

Then Nintendo unveiled the 'Game and Watch' and Acclaim released a similar line based on Arcade games
http://www.flytip.com/blogs/gaming/images/zelda.jpg http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/503/acclaimnarcmi0.jpg



I always wanted one of the Mini-Arcades cause they were just awesome!  I used to have 'Electronic Quarterback', but it got lost over the years :(  Around the same time (late 70s), Mattel released a similar version, simply titled 'Mattel Football'.  In 2001, Mattel released keychain versions of it, and I just had to get one 8)

http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/9224/mattellfootballqg6.png

I've still got the Pac-Man game.  Do you remember Little Professor??

I've still got the Pac-Man game.  Do you remember Little Professor??


Was that the yellow calculator thing with an old man's face on the top?  Those were cool

Was that the yellow calculator thing with an old man's face on the top?  Those were cool


Yep, I loved that.  AND Mama Spaceace happened to have kept my Merlin game. ;D

dude, electronic quarterback ruled my universe. i had a friend who had one, i was never able to pick one up myself.

i actually priced a few on ebay a little while back, they're totally on sale there. but i didn't get one... i think i realized that no matter how nostalgic we get for videogames of the late 70s and early 80s, if you actually get them and try to play them, you quickly realize... by today's standards they actually DO suck. ;D

I think this is the one my brother had.  It was certainly a pinball machine with devil in the title.  It has red leds for the display.  I found the best way to play it was sitting on the stairs with the lights out.  you could totally focus on the game that way.

While I never cared for the football game, I loved Merlin and pocket Simon. The other cool game I had was Defender. That game was the coolest.

We had loads of Game N Watch's - all bought in either 1980 or 81. I had Octopus, my bro had Popeye and my sister had Egg. We also had some other weird and wonderful ones but not sure who made them. Pacman was one of them.

http://www.gameandwatch.no/Bilder/EG-26%20Egg%2002.jpg

My brother and  I both had the pac-man games. He had a flat one and mine was the one that looked like a mini-arcade game. My father had the football one and Space Invaders. I also had an awesome one called Fabulous Fred that had about 9 different skill games on it. Unfortunately it fried one day when I was in my teens :(

I was pac-man for Halloween one year :) I think I may still have the photo...

I had an Electronic Quarterback.  I remember many many nights staying up late playing that thing under the covers so my parents wouldn't catch me.

I had Merlin.  I thought it was one of the best Christmas presents I had ever received.  I mean.. it had six games!  And to this day, the jingle is still stuck in my head... "Where's Merlin now, where did he go?  He's with sis playing tic-tac-toe.  Where's Merlin now, you better come clean.  In the kitchen with Mom playing Music Machine!"

hahaa...I so totally had that mini ardcade Ms. Packman game...I loved that thing. One of my old friends ended up breaking it..I was so mad!!

I remember my uncles always used to play that Electronic Quarterback game...that was the coolest.

I had Mattel Electronic Basketball, I used to play it for hours.

http://www.gasolinealleyantiques.com/images/Potpourri%20Page/mattel-basketball2.JPG

My brother used to have Mattel Electronic Baseball - I never figured out how to play it.

We got a football one last year in a lot at an auction (I can't remember what we paid for the lot- $5? $10) we sold the game on ebay for about $15.



Cat

I had the Mattel Electronics Soccer game and a Merlin.  I composed my first techno song on that thing back in 1981. :D

Interesting. That second one, the blue multi-colored one it looks really bulky!

I'm sure they were fun  :)  The keychain type one is cute looking. Was that the smallest one?

Can everyone imagine having one of those bulky ones thrown out at you now suddenly..  yikes  :o

:-X

I had hand-held

Space Invaders
Galaxian
Pac-Man
Donkey Kong

and another really primitive one the name of which escapes me...

http://www.retrogames.co.uk/stock/assets/images/HH_-_Entex_Galaxian_2.jpg

The hand-held Pac-Man I had seemed to have a more complex maze than the arcade version, and it was more difficult to play because the buttons were less facile than a joystick for movents in directions x4.

  Here's the one I had.  Christmas '80, I think...

  http://www.handheldmuseum.com/Tandy/Tandy-Football.jpg

  I bought one, new in box, on ebay a couple of years ago and play it well...

  Oh, the joy..!  Fun, fun, fun..! :)