I recently started collecting these kinds of games after watching some of VectrexRoli’s videos on youtube. I’m only about 3 weeks in, and I already have 5 of them. I plan to collect a bunch of these, as they are really fun to play and are a true blast from the past.
Oddly, I’ve never heard of or played a lot of these games growing up, but they still gave me this strong nostalgic euphoria…
I’m going to collect these only if they are in excellent condition with the manuals and boxes, wich means I’m going to have to buy some more shelves to display them all (my wife is pissed and wants a word with VectrexRoli’s wife :D).
Here, I’ll post some of my favorite ones, along with the box art and manuals and a game-play image. Starting with…
Epoch’s Invader From Space. This game is very well-designed and the actual game-play is on point. Very simple, but plays what it’s supposed to play, and does a really good job.
Love this one!!
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A very recently released line of “handhelds” that I find to be very neat is the “Arcade Classics” line of mini-arcade cabinets, manufactured by Basic Fun, a division of The Bridge Direct, Inc. It appears that these are exclusively sold by Wal-Mart, so obviously resellers are already trying to snatch them up and sell online for higher prices. I currently have numbers 03 through 07 in my collection, and I’m hoping to get the whole line. Strangely, it seems that only numbers 01 through 08 and 10 have been released so far, but there are rumors online that number 09 is / will soon be “Defender.”
pinmagic wrote:
Actually, many (all?) of the Arcade Classics are widely available at stores like JC Penney, BB&B, Amazon, Toys R Us, and others. But Wal-Mart may have an exclusive on the nice box packaging – all the others sell the games on blister packs.
From what I have learned so far, the nice packaging in the pictures I provided, which includes the special numbering from 01 to 10, is exclusive to Wal-Mart, but not only that, the versions of the video games for Centipede, Q*bert, Frogger, Joust, and Rampage are also exclusive to Wal-Mart. Thus, the versions of the games in the blister packs for Centipede, Q*bert, and Frogger are different, not to mention the styles of the cabinets themselves, while the styles of the cabinets for Asteroids and Pac-Man in color are likewise exclusive to Wal-Mart, and it appears that Joust and Rampage don’t even sell in the blister packs at all. So yeah, I’m considering the Wal-Mart exclusives as a line in and of itself.
Here’s my collection so far. Looks like I’m only missing “01 PAC-MAN” since “09” hasn’t been released yet. I actually forgot that I had “02 SPACE INVADERS”, it was on its side behind the other boxes in my stash.
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Just checked my local Wal-Mart, and no 08 or 10. This is the same location where I purchased my ones from, they did have a bunch of them like almost a month ago.
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pinmagic wrote:
For those who plan to keep their games sealed in the box, you may want to reconsider. The batteries provided are GP brand “heavy duty” batteries. I replaced mine immediately with a brand name alkaline, to minimize the chance of leakage over time. They go back in the box easily, so if you take a little care in opening them, it shouldn’t be noticeable.
Yeah, I might just do that. But I’ll wait until the original batteries no longer work the “Try Me” feature. I knew eventually this would happen.
Benjamin Stevens wrote:
I sure hope that these get restocked, and that Defender doesn’t get canceled. I fear that something has happened, which will cause Defender never to get released, in which case people would have to settle for homebrew Joust-hacks with altered cabinet art.
Nah you’re good Ben. I’ve been collecting these for at least a year now, and one thing that I noticed is that they’ve been releasing these games in two’s (except for 05, 06, and 07, those three were released at the same time). I’m quite confident that 08 and 10 will get another run, it’s just that with Joust and Rampage being the most recent to be released they’re probably just sold-out everywhere at the moment since collectors already have numbers 1 – 7. Now numbers 01 and 02 are a different story. I haven’t seen those restocked in almost a year, so eBay might be your best bet when it comes to acquiring those. I just received 01 Pac-Man in the mail today, so my collection is now temporarily complete.
speedyink wrote:
Isn’t there a jumper in two of these to turn one of them into a different one? I want to say Centipede and one of the other ones. I guess the two have identical boards with both games on them, and just a jumper which dictates which actually gets booted.
Yeah, Centipede has Q*bert, and Q*bert has Centipede… 08 Joust has Defender, which most likely will be “09”. I heard #10 Rampage was too big to fit another rom in it, but I’m very curious to know if there’s another rom hidden inside of 06 Frogger. I can’t find any videos of people hacking that one yet.
