Activision Handhelds

[D.Yancey]

Now there's a portable handheld toy that look like a Nintendo 64 controller. It is made by Toymax. It needs 4 "AA" batteries and plugs into A/V jacks on a TV. You now have 10 Activision games from the 2600 to play anywhere(in the car, at your parents

) Does onyone else have this? What do you think? I hope they make models with many more games.

[foxglove9]

I own this. Generally I don't care for it, here are my reasons.

 

First the controller is very uncomfortable to hold in the hand. And to follow that up the D-Pad is poorly made and hard to get accurate movements in the games. Also the other button layouts which control reset and start functions are near the fire buttons and it's very easy to hit reset by accident.

 

The sound on most of the games are not emulated, and in some cases poorly reproduced.

 

The selection of activision games is so-so. Considering there are only 10 games you would think they would've picked the best titles, but really it's a so-so mix.

 

I could be wrong on this one but I also think some of the games have actually been changed, either made easier or levels removed. I remember playing spider fighter for about an hour and the game never got harder. I know the original was not like that.

 

It's $30. When you compare it to those similar Korean (or whever they are from) Controllers with like 120 NES games for the same money, I don't see why toymax couldn't really overload the controller with tons of actvision games. It had the memory for it.

 

The good part is that it is AV out so it is pretty portable, but for me I'd rather pull out my old 2600 or just play Stella on my Mac.

 

-fox

[D.Yancey]

That is a very good analysis! I agree with what you say. Toymax really should put many more games on it too!!

[Albert]

The Activision Handheld has been discussed a few times here on AtariAge. The general opinion seems to be that the quality isn't that great, and not as enjoyable as it could have been. Here are some older threads for you to read through:

 

Topic: Activision Handheld

Topic: Activision's TV Game... from the inside!

Topic: Activision 10 in 1 Handheld

 

Enjoy!

 

..Al

[King Atari]

quote:

---

It's $30. When you compare it to those similar Korean (or whever they are from) Controllers with like 120 NES games for the same money, I don't see why toymax couldn't really overload the controller with tons of actvision games. It had the memory for it.

 

---

 

Intriguing, where could I get one of these NES things?

[geogray]

The 10 in 1 is under $20US. I paid $10US for mine.

 

For ten bucks, it's a steal. I play it for 10 to 20 minutes at a time...which is about how long I could stand 'the real thing' now. I prefer my pc and Stella.

[geogray]

Oh yeah...My four year old LOVES it. Especially Freeway. It's perfect for him to play with: fits his hand, simple game play (yet fun for us too) and DURABLE. It's been dropped, banged around and drug by the cord...still works great!

[welshleo]

We bought a similar unit for a couple of nieces at Christmas. I had a quick go at it and wasn't that impressed by the games. This particular one could also take cartridges and came with around 100 games, I think.

 

They cost the equivalent of around $15 each.