What do you think of new dedicated consoles?

[DEBRO]

I see there seem to be a lot of dedicated consoles being released lately. Jakks has a number of them and I recently saw a Spider-man and Power Ranger VR set.

It seems history is repeating itself.

This is one of the reasons we got the Atari VCS. Nolan thought (or at least he said he did in an interview) that eventually having all these dedicated consoles (Pong, Pinball, Stunt Cycle, etc.) would add up in the closet. Why not have a console where the user can change out the cartridge? Hence Stella was born :)

I have to agree...wouldn't it be better just to by a game machine and buy like a Namco museum for $19-$30?

[Arcade Antics]

They're kind of nifty in their own way, but yeah - they quickly eat up that precious closet space. Especially the newest one from Konami - Frogger.

That's it. Just. Frogger.

Bring on the carts! :)

[Oobgarm]

What's even more funny about the Frogger one is that they're bringin one out based on the GBA Koami Arcade game with Scramble, Rush N' Attack, Frogger, etc.

:hmm:

[joshnickerson]

It's just a fad, something else to stuff in the stocking this year. It really just appeals to people in their 30s or 40s who don't want to bother getting a new console or drag out their old ones to play a few rounds of Pac-Man. By next year, everyone will have forgotten about them and will be all excited about their new Electric Boots.

[o2william]

What's even more funny about the Frogger one is that they're bringin one out based on the GBA Koami Arcade game with Scramble, Rush N' Attack, Frogger, etc.

Both Konami units are currently being discussed (and roundly trashed) over on rec.games.video.classic (http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&threadm=e3g4n01nur36uv7f6lerfq8h3den91235t%404ax.c om&rnum=1&prev=/groups%3Fhl%3Den%26lr%3D%26selm%3De3g4n01nur36uv7f 6lerfq8h3den91235t%25404ax.com). I loved the GBA cart, but these plug-n-plays don't sound very impressive after reading this.

[Flack]

Electric Boots? @_@

Seriously though, I have a couple of the Jakks sticks and the fad is already getting old to me. For me they have to main selling points. One, they're really mobile, which makes it easy for me to move it around the house or take it in the car for my son. And two, it keeps my young son (age 2) off of daddy's more expensive consoles.

The SpongeBob one is pretty novel since it had original games and a television tie-in, but you would have to be a pretty hard core fan to buy one of just Frogger.

It seems to me like they keep testing the waters to see just how much or how little they have to put on there to get $20 from you. First there were the 10 in ones, then the five in ones, and now a one in one.

[Pedro Lambrini]

The thing I hate is that they don't save yer feckin' scores! It may sound petty but I think in this day and age they could afford to put a wee chip in there to save them for you. Maybe then they wouldn't just be a novelty but would be more like a mini version of the arcade machine you always wanted...

[le geek]

The Atari paddle one interests me kind of. I'm hoping the c64 one come out in the US. I will actually buy that...

[Jive3D]

I thought that these were kind of novel at first, but not nearly enough to warrant a purchase. It's definately something that I would have liked to have waitinf ro me at grandma's house when I was 12. Alas 13 years have passed since then and I don't get to see grandma nearly as often. It doesn't mean that she's any less cool though.

If I were going to pick up any items like this I would continue to collect the oldschool Coleco Table Top games. Now THOSE are cool. I have the Pac-Man and Ms Pac-man versions. They make EXCELLENT book ends.

[Zap!]

Can someone list all the different ones they make, with breif discriptions on each?

[Ed Oscuro]

They need to get Jason Alexander to sign on for the Frogger handheld. They could show it getting hit by a Mack truck and then cut to the shocked look on th face of 'GLC.' Though somebody takes issue (http://www.slipups.com/items/11399.html) with all of this.

[Neil Koch]

Can someone list all the different ones they make, with breif discriptions on each?

Here's the ones that I have:

Namco 1 - Pac-Man, Rally-X, Bosconian, Dig Dug and Galaxian. Really crappy sound (no voice in Bosconian) and the screens aren't formatted right. I'm not an expert at any of these games, but from what I've heard, the patterns on here are nothing like the real arcade games. The joystick feels nice and sturdy though.

Namco 2 - Ms. Pac-Man, Galaga, Pole Position, Xevious and Mappy. A much better effort. Pole Position is kinda unique since you have to twist the joystick to steer. However the small size of the second button makes Xevious (reason why I bought this one) hard to play -- the stick feels kind of cheap also.

Taito - Space Invaders, Phoenix, Qix, Lunar Rescue and Colony 7. Space Invaders is in color, but otherwise this one seems pretty accurate. The joystick is an excellent size and has buttons for both lefties and righties. This is best one of these joystick/games that I have, but it is more expensive than the Jakks ones.

Konami - Yie Ar Kung Fu, Frogger, Rush N Attack, Time Pilot, Scramble and Gyruss. These are the NES versions, which is readily apparent by the flickering. Still, this is a solid stick, even though the NES version of Yie Ar Kung Fu sucks and the stick itself is a little uncomfortable.

Atari 2600 - Adventure, Asteroids, Breakout, Centipede, Circus Atari, Gravitar, Missile Command, Pong, Volleyball and Yar's Revenge. A decent selection of games and the stick has that feel of one off of a 2600. But it is overpriced IMO, and some of the games were meant to be played with a paddle controller.

The other stick/games that I know of are SpongeBob (original games), Genesis (too much for the games on it), Atari Paddle (haven't seen this one), Intellivision (ditto), Tetris (overpriced and clunky). There's also a 7800 replica "system" coming out.

[baddseed]

this is most of them.. with pics and prices.

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product_listing.gsp?cat=92430&path=0%3A2636%3A92430

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

Here (http://www.thelogbook.com/phosphor/mattel/tvgame/) is a review of the Intellivision 25-in-1 game if you're interested.

[ddockery]

Forget about the shoddy ports of the games (I only tried the forst Namco one) but they don't hold up well either. They are made VERY cheaply. I can't imagine the new C64 ones lasting more than a week. They have all of the EPYX Summer Gamer, Winter Games, etc on there. I broke nice heavy duty Wico sticks when these games were out for real.

[joshnickerson]

I can testify the Genesis TV game is shoddy as well. Some of the games still have to player options available (despite only one controller!) and the first game I played, Sonic, some sound effects were missing, most notibly Sonic's jump sound! :angry: