Handheld info for dummies please!!!

[Arqueologia_Digital]

Hi, i have some questions about handhelds, for example...
LCD is "liquid crystal display", but what is the meaning of VDF (video funcion display??) and what are the initials for electromechanicals???

Thanks

[FABombjoy]

By VDF do you mean VFD? VFD = Vacuum Fluorescent Display, usually on older tabletop/handheld games. VFD games are self illuminated, sometimes color, sometimes just a bright-green display. The Coleco tabletops are VFD.

Electromechanical games are usually abbreviated EM, but I've never seen that designation used to describe handheld games before.

[christianscott27]

self proclaimed handheld expert explains it all (cut and pasted from my AA post)

"to be a real nitpicker-

the pac man games mentioned above (tomy, coleco) were not LCD (liquid crystal display) but VFD (Vacuum Florescent Display). roughly speaking handheld games, like calculators, have left vfd in the past and moved onto lcd. lcd is the familar dark gray characters on a silvery gray background like you would see on a digital watch or a nintendo game and watch. when i was a kid i used to press on the screen to see the neat oil slick rainbow, the screen would crack and that gray stuff would blob out, thats the liquid part VFD offered a bright, sharp character display that could handle multiple colors via a layered stained glass technique. the downfall of VFD displays was the cost and power consumption, thats a shame since that glowing bright display was never matched by LCD. nintendo attempted to match the quality of vfds by using whats known as CLCD on its tabletop game and watches (like the donkey jr. game i described in my 1st post), this system used a sunroof on the game to illuminate the screen, it was color but not with the play in the dark power of a vfd. vfd does live on in non gaming uses, VCR clocks, medical monitor readouts and the like.

other early handhelds used LED displays (light emitting diode) think of the mattel football games. like vfd LED lost out due to power issues, leaving us with the blah gray tiger handhelds still sold today. of course led did not go away, in fact it evolved into a respectable display now capable of many things, including the recently invented blue led used to great effect on the the playstation 2."

for the whole thread
http://www.atariage.com/forums/viewt...=259354#259354
________
OLD MAN SUCKING COCK

[Arqueologia_Digital]

Wow, thanks for all friends!!!, now i understand a little more about this machines...

[Lady Jaye]

I love VFD games!!! I think that it'd be time that game companies try marketing that again (after all, if Nintendo could bring the Game Boy down from 4 AA batteries to 2, I'm sure it'd be possible to bring down the power consumption of VFD without compromising it!).

BTW, thanks Chris Scott for the explanation regarding Nintendo's tabletop games. I have Donkey Kong Jr. and I didn't know what the white opaque window on top was for. Now I know. And knowing is half the battle! :P

[Arqueologia_Digital]

I think that there might be a new forum or a sub-forum for handhelds only...it will be great!