Discuss Tiger's Game.com Handheld system

[GizmoGC]

Did anyone buy one of these systems? It was released in 1998, and at the time, had a hard time fitting in. It was the only compeition for the Gameboy Color (Game Gear was gone, Virtual Boy was coming out...IIRC). Game.com was sold at Best Buys, Wal-Marts, and Target, however, the department stores put the systems and games in the toy section, not in the videogame section. It did however have some 'decent' games and licenses like Sonic Jam, Duke Nukem, Resident Evil, Fighters Megamix...In total, 20 games were released.

Tons of games were in development, but never saw the light of day. The most famous being Castlevania - Symphony of the Night, as well as Giga Pets, Furby, Unknown RPG, Small Soldier, and X-Files. I wish I still had pictures of these games.

Games can be purchased for a penny on ebay, but its the systems (Mainly the re-designed Pocket Pro) that go for $25 or so.

So, who owned one/wanted one, despised it?

[downpresser]

I have a nice collection of Game.com stuff myself. I'm a handheld fanatic, and I bought this stuff up when I was young just because I realized that it was a whole new game system that I could get for cheap (yes, in the TOY aisle). Even then, I realized that most of the games were pretty crappy (the sound was AWFUL), but it was still a fun system to carry around and play Lights Out and Resident Evil on.

I have boxed/complete verions of both consoles (there was a redesigned, backlit smaller console released called the game.com Pocket Pro, only had a slot for one game though). I only own about a half dozen games, but I have a couple of the internet kits that I picked up cheap when everyone started shoving this stuff out the door (never picked up a modem though).

I'm fond of all niche handheld systems, and I'm glad I was able to pick up a lot of the stuff for this system when it was out, but I just wish there had been SOMETHING for it more compelling than the built-in solitare. :/ (Don't get me wrong, the touch-screen solitare is pretty frickin' addicting. FIRST system with touch screen right here!) Even the prospect of a killer app like Resident Evil was reduced to only a mildly interesting frustration-fest because of nearly non-existant controls and NO music??

Oh well, I guess it sounds like I'm pretty down on this system, but it would be pretty for me not to love a nicely made handheld, good games or not!

[Zadoc]

I plan on picking one up eventually, just because I like to own off-the-wall kinds of consoles.

The system its self is awful. The slow down on the two games that I did play on it, Sonic Jam and Fighting Vipers, made the games unplayable.

[GizmoGC]

Actaully there were 3 different versions of the Game.com.
The origina
The BLACK Pocket Pro with Backlight
The other Pocket Pros (Green, Pink, Blue?) WITHOUT backlight. A red PP was suppose to come out bundled with Command and Conquer, but never surfaced.

[Lovely Assistant]

My brother happened to buy one on eBay a while back. I found it rather amusing to play, but he only had two games for it(Oh Henry, I think is what it was called, and Resident Evil). I personally didn't care for it, as I don't like Resident Evil, not to mention the controls for it were horrid. Of course, I only got to play those two games, so my opinion is somewhat limited.

[President Shinron]

this system completley sucks i bought it on ebay 2 years ago with 5 games and they all suck. sonic jam sucked the most.

[digitalpress]

I'm one of those people who can find something good in just about every form of videogame media. But with Game.com it's REALLY hard to do. The quality of the games are so shoddy that you're not just disappointed, you're angry.

I got into collecting for it when the bottom dropped out of its retail market, got just about everything dirt cheap, except Wheel of Fortune 2 - if anyone's got one of those please PM me so we can deal!

As a gamer I'd advise to keep away. Even as a collector, there are better things to collect. But if you really like Soiitaire and can find a Game.com for a song, why not pick it up. You can always sell it for a song again later.

[pookninja]

its a very crappy system.even though its crappy,i actually own 2 of them(the older,bigger model,i actually found laying in the middle of the road with lights out and batman&robin in the cartridge slot/cart storage slot)then i went to kaybee and bought the smaller version for $4.99.i have bought resident evil 2 and sonic jam on ebay for it,and both games really suck.lights out isnt to bad,and batman and robin is actually a somewhat playable,side scroll fighter.its not a system that your really going to play,but since you should be able to pick one up with games for less then it cost to buy a small pizza,its worth picking up just to add to the collection.

[fishsandwich]

I got a new system and a bunch of nerw games for about $60 when KBtoys was blowing them out.

I hated the damn thing then, and I hate it now. Far and away the worst handheld system EVER (not ever having played the Microvision or Adventurevision and I don't count Games & Watches)

[The_4th_Survivor]

I'm sure you'll find this surprising, but, for a time, Tiger Electronics and Konami were going to release "Metal Gear Solid" for the Game.Com system.


Below is the original .jpeg image which I have had on my Hard Drive since 1999, when Tiger still had a "Game.Com" website dedicated to the system as well as it's games.

I'll try looking for the screenshots of Metal Gear Solid somewhere on one of my HD directories, but I doubt I'll be able to find it.






The above image was supposed to be the actual box art.

Unfortunately, we'll never know if this particular artwork was to be finalized, as the Game.Com was silently put to sleep near the end of 1999/beginning of 2000.

[Gamereviewgod]

There's soemthing to discuss? I have a near complete collection (I thought I had them all until I got the new guide), and have no desire to pick up the rest.

[MarioAllStar2600]

Yup, I got one the year it came out. I remember my mom got me, my sister, and my cousin one. We played it for a little while but there weren't very good games. I remember I wanted to go online with it, but I didn't have the money and my parents wouldn't buy me the online adapter (or was it a program). I think there was a Duke Nukem game for it to, which i want to play cause D.N. owns you.

[dcescott]

I like the
"Put to Sleep" verbage of killing a system. It seems to fit the bill. I never owned a Game.com. A buddy of mine does and enjoys it but I didn't venture in there because I can't stand small screens. Handhelds aren't my thing. I tried but they drive me nuts. I use the super game boy and later on it will be the GBA adapter on the gamecube when the prices come down some more. I know they are low already but cheaper the better.

[Dangerboy]

I own the complete library, about 4 AC Adpaters, 3 different systems, and my web page GAme Rave used to be the only true fan page of the Game.Com. I even did walk-throughs for several of the games for gamefaqs HERE. Check out that RE2 guide to see how I spent a month in maryland.

Eventually when I regain my sanity from all the PSX Guide stuff, I'll most likely try and go back and finish up the game.com stuff, maybe even add a section to the web-site again. I think the only accessories I need are the modem, bag, and link cable to have everything.

I also want that mod that a DP User did to get screenshots off of the game.com. I Want Jurrasic Park maps damn it!

Jason

[fishsandwich]

I remember seeing Duke Nukem 3-D for the system (this is before I played it) and thinking "Wow! This thing must be really powerful to do a FPS like Duke Nukem!" Keep in mind this was way before the GBA came out and that no real FPS's had been on handhelds yet (I'll bet the Lynx could have done it... isn't there an AvP proto out there somewhere?)

Bottm Line... it sucks. It's not a real FPS at all... just a pseudo-shooter where you advance in four directions in fake-ass, cheap 3-D. Very, very tired. Just like the system. I suppose Solitare is ok, though.

[Slimedog]

I've got all the versions of the hardware and most of the games. I've got to admit, its pretty bad. By far, the worst system I own, but I still have a soft spot for it. If you want to get fun games for it the best are probably Batman & Robin, Solitaire, Dunk Nukem, RE2, Lights Out, Frogger and Centipede. Most of those aren't even that good, but honestly everything else is pretty much unplayable due to hardware constraints.

Everything wrong with the system stems from the fact that Tiger only knew how to make LCD games. Tiger liscensed the franchises but they did the programming, so you really can't blame Sega for the way Sonic Jam turned out. The same arangement worked out fine for Sonic and the NGPC.

Anyway, the hardware was basically made to replicate the "finite state machine" behaviour of LCD games. The memory limitations means that the framerate it really horrible on all games that require smooth motion. Maybe 4-8 frames per second. In a fast moving game like Sonic Jam, you can literally be dead before you see the obsticle. Also because of memory or design, whenever a digitized sound plays (which is constantly) there is a slight bump in the gameplay. This makes platform gameplay even more difficult.

The whole thing was designed from a marketing perspective. The digitized sound and large "sprites" make for excellent still screenshots and marketing bullet points, but also make horrible games. Also the whole internet capability thing reeked of senior execs adding features that no gamer would want. They also never really played to the strengths of the system. There was wasted potential in the system. If the designers would have made games that made more use of the touch screen, didn't have scrolling, and exploited the built in High Score save to allow for saving game progression, we could have probably seen some passable turn based tactical RPGs or pretty good point-and-click adventures.

I've got some screenshots of Metal Gear Solid from one of the promos that came with a later release so they were definitely working on it. Some others from Castlevania, but considering their design practices, I'm sure they would have been horrible.

[fishsandwich]

Anyway, the hardware was basically made to replicate the "finite state machine" behaviour of LCD games. The memory limitations means that the framerate it really horrible on all games that require smooth motion. Maybe 4-8 frames per second. In a fast moving game like Sonic Jam, you can literally be dead before you see the obsticle. Also because of memory or design, whenever a digitized sound plays (which is constantly) there is a slight bump in the gameplay. This makes platform gameplay even more difficult.

The whole thing was designed from a marketing perspective. The digitized sound and large "sprites" make for excellent still screenshots and marketing bullet points, but also make horrible games. Also the whole internet capability thing reeked of senior execs adding features that no gamer would want. They also never really played to the strengths of the system. There was wasted potential in the system. If the designers would have made games that made more use of the touch screen, didn't have scrolling, and exploited the built in High Score save to allow for saving game progression, we could have probably seen some passable turn based tactical RPGs or pretty good point-and-click adventures.

Hey, Slimedog, that was a very interesting post you did there. I like to hear that kind of technical info. The more you know about a thing, the more interesting it can be (even the Game.com.)

[TheRedEye]

I post this in every game.com thread:

I threw mine in the garbage after two days.

[The Sage of Sega]

I got my Game.com with 9 games (8 of them boxed) for $15. It was a well-spent $15; I really enjoy the system and the graphics are great to impress your friends. Touch-screen Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune are great, Duke Nukem sounds awesome and RE2 is a great way to show the system off. All in all, it's a nice addition to my collection; personally, I'd rather play my Lynx or SP but the Game.com is a nice unit that holds its own.

[Snapple]

I nearly picked this thing up brand new. The only reason was because they released one of my favorite Saturn game, Fighters Megamix, on it. Of course that port sucked just as bad as every other game for the system, but I didn't know that, because none of my video game mags even TALKED about the Game.com.

I surely dodged a bullet by deciding against the purchase in the long run.