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Can you believe those little handheld games were once so popular. Bright red battery draining LED's and little piezo squeakers going blip blip. I might be dating myself when I say I can remember when calculators were expensive and big clunky adding machines were normal. It wasn't until I was 12 that I managed to get a pocket calculator as a gift. I remember the dream of owning a watch sized calculator to cheat with in school. And then seeing one for $1000.00 And now we have address books and bibles on watches. Hmm, Back to the handheld games. The best ones were made by Mattel. I remember the football, baseball, and auto racing being the most popular ones. I took some imagination to think of those blips as moving people or cars. Coleco introduced 2 player versions of basically the same sports games. I remember my sister getting a handheld space invaders one year. Little red invaders and a space ship scooting across the top. This thing ran with 8 AA batteries and only lasted for about 5 hours. I used to sneak it away from her and hide under the covers on my bed and play it. That was around the time my parents bought our first Atari. That was also the time when the microvision came out. The first handheld LCD game with cartridges. I don't think they were cartridges they were like overlays. It was also extremely expensive at $200.00 with the extra games at $30.00. Rather steep for breakout and bowling. A few years later I bought one of the dungeon and dragons handheld's. Here you had to wander in a 10x10 grid looking for a dragon. This was the last time I spent Anything over $20 on a handheld. It was a great little diversion and I would still play it if I could find it. The last thing of this type I have gotten has been a Zelda watch. Closeout special with a dead battery for $1.00. Now I'm never bored. Update. That Zelda watch was auctioned off on eBay and brought in $28 :) And then I bought one of those DnD handhelds on auction for $28 And wouldn't you know it I found my original a month later. So I auctioned it right back off with the instructions and was only out $2 in the end :)
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