classic games that would have made good handhelds?

[christianscott27]

i really like the early 80s handhelds and tabletops, especially the arcade ports. many classics were made into tabletops but surely some were passed over due to licensing issues and the crash. what classic era games would have made decent tabletop/handheld games? think VFD, LED type games like coleco donkey kong or entex space invaders, none of those LCD tiger type games.

my games thus far-

kaboom! yeah its not an arcade game but the bombs dropping from above game play is perfect for the printed display format.

[Sanriostar]

I wish the Coleco Berzerk could have come out.

Mr. Do's Castle. Back when, I'd even worked out on paper a graphics matrix for the game.

With some changes, Mario Bros. could have been made.

Xevious

and.. Joust?

[AB Positive]

I wonder if it would even be possible to do one of those for Sinistar. That would be a neat and challenging project.

-AG

[NE146]

mmmm handhelds. arcade ports onto handhelds were (and still are) a particular fascination of mine :-P Matter o' fact they were the only kind of handhelds I bought usually! The ones I go were usually from Bandai, Gakken, Epoch, etc. But the ones I drooled over and what was "exotic" were the Coleco ports LOL (which weren't generally available where I was).

I always thought Phoenix could be made into a decent handheld. Think of Tomy's Scramble screen but turned vertically (for those of you who have this game). The screen real estate could be you'd have the dots for the shots. Then around the dots you'd have the sprite for the small birds. Then the small birds could be the inner portion for a larger winged bird for the 2nd type stages. Then of course the Boss Ship (could be one large figure at the top of the screen. Maybe you could simulate it's scrolling barrier with the shot or small bird sprites on the top as well. Anyway.. just rambling :P

I always say I'm not a collector and I just play what I've always had since the 80's.. but handhelds are definitely something I'm considering getting into and adding to the ones I own already... maybe replacing those boxes I so hastily threw away years ago. :P

[christianscott27]

one of things i find interesting about the tabletops is how they worked with the limited display options of the day. basically everything was pre-drawn and then lit up at the right time in gameplay. some had several images on the same square like coleco pac man(dots, ghost and pac). the format works well with maze games and simple screens like donkey kong or q*bert, free space games like joust and sinistar would be really hard since there are so many potential positions for the sprites to be in, guess thats why there never was a good asteroids type game. even coleco pac man which is one of the more deluxe games is limited to 80 squares or cells. of course its just a matter of creative the designer gets, coleco's zaxxon used two displays melded with a mirror.

[Kid Ice]

Robotron

[Pedro Lambrini]

Simon! :D One big round table and four big lit up corners that you hit with a hammer!! Mole Hunt with a beat - now that would be groovy 8-)