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Retronauts Episode 289: Miscellaneous Handhelds (Patreon)

Published:
2020-03-27 22:15:49
Edited:
2020-05-23 23:09:42
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

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Sorry about the slightly belated post today! I ran afoul of a technical error. But here we are, with this week's patron-exclusive podcast—and it's a fun one. We dive into the handheld consoles no one else cares about, the ones that can't support their own full episode. 

And it's all worth it, if only to wonder what in God's name "Snake Roy" is supposed to be.

Description: Jeremy Parish, Bob Mackey, and Steve Lin talk about the handheld consoles that don't deserve their own episodes, from the criminally bad (R-Zone) to the just plain criminal (Gizmondo). Art by Amanda Pruitt.

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Comments

teezz

Hell yea. Thanks for keeping me entertained while I'm quarantined

KottonKandy

I got a R-zone for xmas, MK3 was surprisingly playable.. i dont think i actually owned any other game now that i think about it. Probably for the best.

Jacob Grizly

True story: After ten years of wearing down my anti-video game parents, I finally convinced them to get me my first console for Christmas in 1997... A Tiger Game.com.

J

Great They Might Be Giants reference at the opening. Also, speaking of Amish toys, when I was little we visited an Amish basement shop where I found, “Tricky Dogs,” Scottish terrier figures glued to magnets which “chased” and “ran towards” one another. Such simple joy in that Amish Paradise.

Andrew O.

Clarification: Steve mentioned the QD, the smaller, newer model. That version had a game slot. It's the original model, more commonly known as the taco, where you had to remove the battery.

Brian Easton

Danger was bought by Microsoft. They made the short lived Kin that Verizon drove into the ground.

SilverHairedMiddleAgedTuxedoMask

Wasn't the Ouya the other game system that was basically DOA since EVERYONE was making fun of it on launch? I remember Game Informer skewering it on launch.

Aaron

This is a great episode! Obviously I didn't have too many of these obscure handhelds but I've been keeping abreast of many of them just for how unusual they are. Love me some Snake Roy. We didn't have a Mattel sports handheld but we did have one that was by Entex Electronics (and apparently sometimes sold with Sears branding). It's a bit more interesting than the Mattel ones in my estimation because it actually was meant to be more of a 1:1 representation of the sport (you control an LED, kinda, moving up the field and taking a chance to score when the goalie isn't at the side of the net where you are -- the ball is stolen if an opponent LED reaches you) and importantly supported TWO PLAYERS. https://imgur.com/a/lPkakFO I can relate to Bob's childhood anxiety with Simon because at time up that thing made a LOUD alarm noise to signal the game was over. We had a few Tiger electronics toys. I have fond memories of maxing out the score of a Goofy downhill skiing game in which you had to dodge trees and jump over gaps. It's a very obvious spiritual progenitor to what are today Temple Run clones. I have significantly less fond memories of doing the same with Sonic 3; the game was just too simple compared to its source material and I felt it made a mockery of it, and the music was impossible to parse.

littleterr0r

They have a Mega Duck on display at Retro Game Trader in Beaverton near Portland, Oregon and the first time I saw it my mind was blown based on name alone.

Diamond Feit

“The Ultra Hand has become the Ultra Fist” belongs on a t-shirt. Call Nina Matsumoto.

Kevin Bunch

I enjoyed the Simon discussion a lot - not only as one who played a fair amount of that as a little kid, but because I went down a rabbit hole with that device last year! It's a home version of Atari's Touch Me arcade game, which Baer thought had an interesting concept but needed a serious aesthetic overhaul to be any good (the irony of stealing Atari's game idea after they stole Pong was not lost on him). It also came out at a time in the market where stores and retailers were convinced that "electronic" games that didn't require a TV display were the next big thing, like electronic Battleship or those Mattel Electronics handhelds, and clearly was a much better option than the rest of those, heh. Also lord help me I have an N-Gage QD, which was my main phone back in the mid-00s. The library isn't terrible!