Handheld Games of the Past

Handheld games have grown over the years to become more advanced and more complex. Let's take a look back on the gold old days of simpler handhelds of the past. Tomy was a company who made electromechanical games back in the day. I can remember playing the Turbo Turnin Dashboard when I was a kid. That is when things were so much easier and less complex. Here are a couple of Tomy toys.

Tomy Turnin' Turbo Dashboard (1983, Lights, 4 D Batteries)





Driving simulator, table-top design. Lights and mechanical parts.

Tomy Blip / Blip-o-Mat (1977, LED/Mechanical, 2 AA Batteries)



Blip... This is a mechanical Pong-type game. All of the game play is mechanical, powered by a wind-up timer mechanism. The batteries are only there to light up the single red LED light that represents the ball. (You can actually play the game with no batteries in a bright enough setting).

Tomy Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Pocket Games (1982, None, None, wind-up)

Wind up games, part of the Pocket Arcade series (also called Technoboy series in Japan). This was a sub-series of 4 games based on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, one game for each of the turtles (they were sold seperately). Donatello's Sewer Seltzer Canon, Leonardo's Pizza Vault, Michaelangelo's Tunnel Trap and Raphael's Sewer Battle.

Tomy Digital Derby (1978, Lights/Mechanical, 2 C Batteries)

Another one of Tomy's electro-mechanical games. The battery does power the mechanism via a small motor. The lights in the game are normal, flash-light style light bulbs. (Foreign release called Black Racer, Demon Driver and Formula 1.) (Check out Drive Yourself Crazy...)

Gary Duke has written a simulator for this game that works on Palm OS PDAs, check it out here.

Wind up game, part of the Pocket Arcade series (also called Technoboy series in Japan).