Tiger R-Zone

[Turbo-Torch]

I had an R-Zone for a little while in the mid '90s.

 

This is a necro-bump. Read post 11 from over 10 years ago.

 

it was tigers response to the VB

 

the VB was better tho...

 

It wasn't even a piss poor response to an Entex Space Invader. Mentioning that POS in the same sentence as a Virtual Boy is blasphemy. VB has a cool/fun/sophistication factor right up there with the Vectrex.

A MicroVision from 1979 was literally light years ahead of that R-Zone trash.

[Iwantgames:)]

I just got one of these at Goodwill today for $3 lol it came with Millennium Falcon Challenge which I found to be a ok game, definitely not great but well worth the $3. I do wonder however why the games are so expensive on ebay

[BassGuitari]

This is a necro-bump. Read post 11 from over 10 years ago.

 

Well, it's good to know my impression was the same as it was in 2006 and my memory isn't slipping yet.

 

I just got one of these at Goodwill today for $3 lol it came with Millennium Falcon Challenge which I found to be a ok game, definitely not great but well worth the $3. I do wonder however why the games are so expensive on ebay

Because it's a dumb system that no one but an insane collector would want.

Edited January 17, 2017 by BassGuitari

[BassGuitari]

*double post*

Edited January 17, 2017 by BassGuitari

[Iwantgames:)]

*double post*

Lol I suppose so, I'll probably stick with my 1 game unless I find some cheap lol

[keepdreamin]

good god, just joins and first order of business is to bump a 10 year old R-Zone thread?

[Tanooki]

Some people love to get intimate with a corpse.

 

 

Anyway, $3 pick up of the r-zone with star wars eh? Yours the handheld or the eye piece version? I've actually wanted one of these, just won't pay to buy it off ebay hoping to see one in a local setup. I hate to admit it, but I am a bit of a fan of the Tiger handheld stuff and keep a few around. I've had more but let go of some I didn't much care for, though looking back I still wish I had that awful SF2 copy and Ninja Gaiden.

 

Maybe I should have a stupid moment and splurge, or at least look on ebay to see what's there for a laugh.

[Iwantgames:)]

Some people love to get intimate with a corpse.

 

 

Anyway, $3 pick up of the r-zone with star wars eh? Yours the handheld or the eye piece version? I've actually wanted one of these, just won't pay to buy it off ebay hoping to see one in a local setup. I hate to admit it, but I am a bit of a fan of the Tiger handheld stuff and keep a few around. I've had more but let go of some I didn't much care for, though looking back I still wish I had that awful SF2 copy and Ninja Gaiden.

 

Maybe I should have a stupid moment and splurge, or at least look on ebay to see what's there for a laugh.

Mines the eye piece. And eBay is crazy!

[Gabriel]

good god, just joins and first order of business is to bump a 10 year old R-Zone thread?

 

The R-Zone's power of suckage is one for the ages.

[Tanooki]

They're not awesome, total marketing ploy. But sometimes the overly simple ends up living up to the whole less is more thing too. One of the most fun sub games I've enjoyed is the Tiger Sub War handheld in their classic little white frame the likes of all those NES/arcade conversions sat in. It was a little unique, had a volume on/off switch plus ran in what they called super sound so you had very basic sampled audio instead of just the generic beeps most have. It's fairly hard, but it's fair and fun.

[Iwantgames:)]

Here's my R-Zone display

 

[jeffsteffel@yahoo.com]

Does anyone own Judge Dredd for the Tiger R Zone?

[Tanooki]

Wow disembodied blue man group with the borg eyepatch r-zone device. Under the right lighting downright creepy I bet.

 

I need to be careful, this thread is making me want to do something stupid and head to ebay and maybe not r-zone but replace a pretty fun IR Tiger game I once had that was fairly awesome (when it worked right) which was Virtua Cop. Had a poormans version of the Wii IR setup going on and you used a detachable pop gun from the case that ran on one battery while it ran on the usual on the main handheld. Oddly when light in an area didn't hose it up it played very well. They also did an Area 51, Independence Day, and a Star Wars Rebels shooting Stormtroopers game (body of unit was Darth Vaders head.) The VC and SW two were the only ones people ever talked up much.

[Iwantgames:)]

Wow disembodied blue man group with the borg eyepatch r-zone device. Under the right lighting downright creepy I bet.

Well he does light up!

 

[bpatte02]

I got one for Christmas back when it came out. The one I received came with a Batman game. It lasted a day and them it stopped working. I was crushed. I should have taken that as a warning sign about Tiger. But alas, would later get the Game.com... A childhood of bad choices.

[keepdreamin]

Does anyone own Judge Dredd for the Tiger R Zone?

When Google image search and eBay don't show what you're looking for, it doesn't exist.

[jeffsteffel@yahoo.com]

I collect vintage portable systems and their games. I have a complete in box atari lynx game collection. Also many brand new atari lynx consoles. I have many doubles of brand new obscure atari lynx games I would consider for trade or possible sale. I simply thought this may be the site to make a friend or two. I didnt want to be bombarded with people asking me what I have. I am in no hurry to sell a damn thing. Perhaps I could interest a select few of you in this:

[keepdreamin]

I'm confused.

[Iwantgames:)]

I'm confused.

Don't feel bad so am I lol

[+jgkspsx]

Here it is, folks, the necrobump you’ve been waiting for.

 

I got out my R-Zone and played through the games I have for it.

Overall impressions:

 

It is amazing what they were able to render with just LCD segments. The clouds and mountains in Daytona, the different stages in Mortal Kombat 3, the worshippers in Primal Rage... it is an amazing accomplishment that nobody really wanted or valued. Nintendo’s Game & Watch games did so much more with so many fewer segments. It’s kind of tragic.

 

They tried their best to do real music with the thing. Virtua Fighter has recognizable music. Other games, Primal Rage being the worst offender, attempt to make Arnold Schoenburg sound like Britney Spears.

 

I have the first release version of the headset system, and let me tell you the controller is cursed. The Dpad is extremely topological, making it very hard and unpleasant to press diagonals. The controller buttons are extremely topological rocker switches, so you literally cannot press two at a time.

 

You would think that wouldn’t be an issue, because Tiger games could hardly process more than one input at a time, and you would probably be right. But plenty of games seem to be designed to expect you to do that.

 

In general, it is not actually the worst. It is a gimmick, and many of the games are flagrantly bad, but that’s just like any other Tiger handheld, and there are some good ones. It wasn’t much more expensive than the standalone handhelds. The headset solves some usability problems of the traditional LCD handhelds - you don’t need bright lights directly overhead.

 

The system’s greatest flaw is that it had few of the games that work the best in LCD form - simple games that do not rely on accurate collision detection. The library specializes in games that do require fine tuned collision detection: high speed racing games with lots of vehicles on the road, fighting games (!!), and (I am told but I don’t have any) the usual lame Tiger attempts at platformers.

 

Capsule reviews:

Daytona USA: This could have been a winner, with positively amazing use of LCD segments to present different views of the track, but it’s hurt by the controls. Instead of using one pair of buttons to shift up and down and the other pair to accelerate and brake, the buttons map to the specific gears you’re shifting into, and you have to use the horrible dpad up and down to accelerate and brake. Maybe you’re supposed to stop accelerating to change lanes, or maybe my d pad is failing, but this seemed to control very poorly. (It appears that the VRT-X holographic handheld had this same version, but I remember one of them being a lot of fun, and I guess it must be that one because this ain’t it.)

 

(See updated comments below. It's growing on me... comparatively.)

 

Virtua Fighter: by far the fastest and most responsive of the fighting games I have, matches start with an animation that makes you think you can move around the ring in 3D, but you can’t. This is the medium difficulty fighting game of the ones I have. Simple backgrounds (I mean, it is Virtua Fighter), tons of segments for the fighters, and it animates well. Great music. Stupid fun, but kind of fun nevertheless. EDIT: There are a surprising number of special moves in this one.

 

Mortal Kombat 3: detailed backgrounds, surprisingly successful distinguishing characteristics of fighters. Ridiculously easy, or at least unbalanced - I beat the game by just hammering the kick button with Jax over and over again. Apparently you can do fatalities but I never figured it out. EDIT: literally the same special move button combinations are used for every single fighter and reused for fatalities, which consist of "turning the opponent to ash". Okay then. This is such a lazy game. I wondered why the R-Zone got both MK3 AND Trilogy, but my money is on MK3 being a launch rush game that is half finished, and MKT is probably more of a real game. I sure hope so, anyway.

 

Primal Rage: very sophisticated compared to the other fighting games, but way too hard. I just get annihilated over and over. (To be fair, the same is true of real Primal Rage.) You have worshippers running around your feet and both the heart and brain meters, but I don’t know if you can eat followers or go into Rage mode. Not fun, but impressive. EDIT: Tons of special moves in this one as well. It's very sophisticated. I think that makes it probably unsalvageable ? EDIT: Um, there's only one special move per character. I'm not sure why I thought it was sophisticated. Maybe because I get slaughtered mercilessly whenever I play it.

 

Panzer Dragoon: I almost have to think the system was designed for this game. The first person perspective works, the lightgun-like shooting is fun, it supports both missiles AND lock on attacks, and you can actually change your perspective like in the real game. Honestly I think this is more fun than the deadly dull Game Gear port.

 

Edit: just to make sure I was telling you the whole truth, I beat it again on Normal difficulty tonight (which is still easy):

 

I also played a solid half hour of the Game Gear game, and I tell you this is a lot more fun and a lot truer to the spirit of the Saturn game. Due to the score attack nature of it, there is a fair amount of strategy to how to approach looking for enemies coming from every direction. The music is a little rough, but it is the best representation of Panzer Dragoon’s haunting music this poor little speaker is capable of. It really plays to the strengths of the system and suffers from no control problems whatsoever. I don’t know that the R-Zone has any real must-plays, but this is the closest my collection comes. I’d go so far as to say that if you are a Panzer Dragoon fan who likes weird gadgets, you should definitely pick one up.

 

Speaking of which, because I am apparently a masochist who wants to spend precious gaming time on crappy LCD games, I am looking to buy copies of some of the games I don’t have to play and review. Here is the thread in the Wanted forum: 

 

[Tanooki]

I'd call from experience Panzer Dragoon, Daytona, and really, at least one of the star wars and fighting games as a must play as far as the usual common stuff to find.  If and only if that Virtua Cop game is based on their little wii-wannabe light gun tabletop as far as layout and shooting goes, that one is more fun than it should be and would be a must own too.

 

Problem is when you get beyond around 15 games into it, you get into the weeds on things that are hard to come by, some are even good, but ugh are they hard to get and usually collector trolls will battle over it.  I watched an Apollo 13 one go for nearly a $100 within the  last week.  I wanted that, but couldn't stomach it, because it's good and is like a lunar lander old arcade game for one of its two modes.

[+jgkspsx]

That's one of the ones I'm after because I and my wife are both space nuts. It's probably gonna be uncomfortably pricey, though ?

[+jgkspsx]

Well, @Tanooki's spare R-Zone XPG arrived, and I can definitely and strongly endorse it as the more ergonomic and engaging way to play these games over the headset. As expected, the d-pad and buttons are a lot more usable, and it's a lot more playable outside a dark room. Unexpectedly, the XPG actually does look weirdly 3D since I'm using both eyes. Probably healthier than squinting one eye closed

 

I haven't gotten a Super Screen yet, but that doesn't look especially promising. The D-pad is individual buttons and it doesn't look like you can hand-hold it. It looks like it's pretty washed out at best. But hell, I've invested this much effort, I will have to get one if it turns up at a reasonable price.

 

Capsule review:

 

I have definitely gotten better at Daytona USA, and gotten to understand it better. The most confusing thing about it is that there are more lanes in reality than you can see at one time, and sometimes when you change lanes it's impossible to tell. You just gotta believe. I got to first place, lap 9, and then paused, and then it turned off. Oops. I wonder how many laps it goes. Definitely one of the better games.

 

 

Star Wars Jedi Challenge is pretty bad. Unless there's something wrong with this cartridge, the backgrounds are the most empty and boring of any R-Zone game so far. It's like walking down an empty field full of trash after a concert festival.

 

 

I guess you're supposed to walk forward and kill all of the Mandalorians. There are a lot of Mandalorians. A light saber appeared at one point, and I grabbed it, but it didn't seem like it did anything differently than the blaster. And I guess Leia (or Padme???) appears behind you sometimes? But I don't know what you're supposed to do with her? A manual might help. But maybe not. Evidently it's pretty much the same game as the Batman games. Probably the least fun I've had on this system.

 

EDIT: I figured out how it works. You have Leia and Chewie (and maybe Han?) as backup that you can call in to shoot enemies out of range from you. I don’t know if buttons A and B both do the same thing? Chewie is your backup for most of the game, it seems. Chewie only shoots enemies at the top of the screen, Leia only at the bottom.

 

Also, you can pick up Rebel Alliance icons to restore your health. Hilariously, these seem to appear over and over again when your health is full, and are nowhere to be found when enemies are mobbing you.

 

The enemies are indeed more than just Mandalorians. There are pig things and... people who start fires? Or is that Han? And they can swarm you, with up to six enemies onscreen at one time plus you and your assist character. The different enemies and backup characters do take up a lot of segments, so I guess that’s why it’s so sparse, but man is it sparse.

 

Also I realized there are also attack patterns for the enemies, and their attacks are much more dodgeable than I thought.

 

 

Hey, it was fun enough that I beat it. I suspect that score is pretty low compared to what it could be if I had known what I was doing from the get-go. I still don’t know what that random junk on the victory screen is.

[Tanooki]

17 hours ago, jgkspsx said:

Well, @Tanooki's spare R-Zone XPG arrived, and I can definitely and strongly endorse it as the more ergonomic and engaging way to play these games over the headset. As expected, the d-pad and buttons are a lot more usable, and it's a lot more playable outside a dark room. Unexpectedly, the XPG actually does look weirdly 3D since I'm using both eyes. Probably healthier than squinting one eye closed

 

I haven't gotten a Super Screen yet, but that doesn't look especially promising. The D-pad is individual buttons and it doesn't look like you can hand-hold it. It looks like it's pretty washed out at best. But hell, I've invested this much effort, I will have to get one if it turns up at a reasonable price.

 

*snip*

1. the Super Screen isn't that great for what you said, the only plus, if you hate red, it's not in red.  It's like a crappy split button tiger handheld in a clumsy tabletop.
2. You're right about Daytona.  As I said and you added there, imagine actually driving for real, not what the segmented panel kind of shows, be smooth about it, it handles very well then.  I think you need to do 20 laps maybe 25. I've done it on easy before.
3. No there's nothing wrong with the cart, the one I have is the same, it's just very weirdly minimalist.  Probably why it's the most commonly thrown in with the system game as it's just a tired pack-in that's functional, but not sellable on its own due to the basicness of it.  The saber is just another way to attack, don't recall if it really changed points or whatever else, in that a kill is a kill and it's all just window dressing unless I missed it.  I'll see if I can find a PDF of that manual, so far no such luck.
4. You figured out more than I did, I just went it alone and it wasn't bad, just not very inspiring.

[+jgkspsx]

My R-Zone cup runneth over. A seller in Greece has piles of NOS Virtua Cop, Virtua Fighter 2, Batman Forever, and Battle Area Toshinden lying around that they are selling for cheap with affordable shipping. (Three of which came, unannounced, with SuperScreen overlays, so now I have four of those, if I ever find a SuperScreen.) I lucked into a set of four games with manuals and a seller who cut me a nice price break so I didn’t have to completely give up my self esteem by spending stupid money on R-Zone games. (I also committed to scanning and posting the manuals and posting videos of the games in play.) I am now somehow up to 17 different R-Zone games.

 

I think the only one that I don't have at this point that I really want is Apollo 13. I'm also interested in Independence Day, which is a second clone (see below for the first) of the Star Trek: The Next Generation handheld that saw me through a lot of car trips as a kid. But the rest of the games seem either impossibly rare (Mask of Zorro, Football, Judge Dredd, VR Troopers) or clones of games I already have (Star Wars Rebel Forces [Area 51/Virtua Cop], Star War Imperial Assault [braindead simple Panzer Dragoon], Batman and Robin [Jedi Adventure]). Men in Black seems to be very rare, but maybe not as rare as the others? I haven't found any footage of either the R-Zone or the Grip Games version of that, so I don't know if it's a clone too. 

 

If you have any games I don't have, or if you have manuals for games I don't have manuals for (Jedi Adventure, Millennium Falcon Challenge, Area 51), I would pay a security deposit to borrow them and take gameplay videos. (Or I would be super appreciative if you could send me scans of the manual, or even better post them on the Internet Archive.)

 

Capsule reviews part 3:

 

 

Area 51

 

This doesn't look as nice as Virtua Cop, but it doesn't start super boring like Virtua Cop either. It pretty much throws a full court press of zombies at you from the get go, and then I die. I don't know if there are hidden weapons, ammo, health, etc., as I don't have the manual for it. Maybe I will get better at this. At least it doesn't start incredibly slow.

 

Battle Area Toshinden

 

This has a good range of fighters, supports ring out, and has special moves that actually look pretty good in action. I haven't been into Toshinden since 1997, but it's pretty fun. This is in the upper half of the R-Zone fighter stakes, I think, but only by a nose. Just like in real life, the Virtua Fighter games significantly outclass it.

 

Batman Forever

 

This friggin' game. It attempts to be more than Jedi Adventure, and makes you jump over wrecking balls, duck robots, and punch a lot of enemies who shoot you from a distance where you can't reach them. I must be missing something, but I cannot finish the first level to get to the pretty decent looking racing levels that occur every other level, apparently. It's trying to do something impressive, and either I'm missing something or it isn't doing it.

 

Indy 500

 

I beat Championship Mode of Indy 500. It is actually a really fun game with an impressive sense of speed and control for an LCD game. Hey, it plays better than most Jaguar racing games. It is too easy, but it’s also really easy to get screwed by the pack and end up in last place until you get a sense for it. There is also a time trial practice mode and a 1:1 dogfight mode, and this was fun enough that I will probably play them all. It is pretty hilarious that an Indy car tops out at third gear??? This is the only R-Zone racing game with an accelerator button - it uses up and down to shift gears. So much more pleasant. I don't know why they didn't do that on the others.

 

 

 

The Lost World: Jurassic Park

 

This is another avoid-and-shoot-em-up, but honestly it's different enough from Millennium Falcon Challenge to be quite interesting. If you are a fellow benighted soul who knows the game.com version of The Lost World, it's amusing to note that this is essentially the same vehicle sequence that starts each level of that, except actually BETTER and more fun and more well tuned in every way. This is actually really fun. You have to drive, avoid dinos, and tranquilize them when you can. You can shoot in three directions, actually taking advantage of all those buttons. It plays very well and really suits the display technology. The only drawback is that it's another up to accelerate, down to brake game, but let's face it, you're not going to brake.

 

Mortal Kombat Trilogy

 

I thought that this would be an upgrade to Mortal Kombat 3 that would at least stand equal to the R-Zone's other average fighting games. It is a step up from MK3 in that the fighters actually have individual special moves now (ONE each; every other game gives characters two special moves), but it's a step down in every other way (and Sindel had two special moves in MK3). Gone are the detailed backgrounds, the three background layers, and even the more interesting characters. Nope. In this game, you get the boy ninjas, the girl ninjas, the robot ninjas, and, um, Sonya Blade. And there are Kintaro and Shao Kahn as non-playable bosses. MK3 is better if you absolutely need red-screened LCD Mortal Kombat in your life.

 

NiGHTS Into Dreams

 

I do not understand how to play NiGHTS Into Dreams on any console. I have tried. I love the concept, I love the idea, I love the aesthetic, I limp through every level and can hardly make it past the first boss. Well, much like Panzer Dragoon, the R-Zone version is a farcically ambitious port that has everything. The two kids. Nights. Ideya captures. The critters. The kids run around in a 3D world and collect clocks and orbs. Nights flies around a 3D cylinder collecting orbs and dumping them into the Ideya captures.

 

 

I cannot survive at all. I don't know what I'm doing wrong, and the manual doesn't tell me. This might be fun if I could figure out what the hell I'm supposed to do.

 

Road Rash 3

 

Another farcically ambitious game, this features three different bikes, FULL BIKE UPGRADE CAPABILITY, and different weapons. It has all of the different countries of the Genesis game. It has hills, oncoming cars, punches, kicks, everything. I am pretty frickin' decent at Road Rash. Road Rash 3 is my favorite version of Road Rash. I cannot win a single race in this conversion - I got 3rd place once and never again. It has tremendous potential but I just can't figure out how you're intended to play it. Like Daytona, it idiotically makes you press up and down to accelerate and brake, and ALL of the face buttons are given over to attacks: punch, kick, use weapon, grab weapon. Guys, why didn't you do it like, you know, the real game, and have one button to punch, use weapon, and grab weapon, and give me my accelerator and brake? Sigh. I know, I know, it's an LCD game, it's miraculous it does what it does. It really would have been a better game if they had not done the whole upgrade thing and instead concentrated on fine tuning the playability.

 

Star Wars: Millennium Falcon Challenge

 

This is basically the same game as the Star Trek: The Next Generation handheld I whiled away so many hours on as a kid. There are asteroids you have to dodge and enemies you have to shoot. It feels like this is more unfair than Star Trek in both asteroid placement and enemy behavior, but it's been a long time since I played that one. I plan to spend quality time with this soon.

 

Virtua Cop

 

Oh I want to like this so much but it's not doing it for me. It looks clear and the design is nice and looks, actually, like the real artwork for the game. Your cursor moves around fine, aiming and reloading is fine, and the hostages add a level of caution. The problem is that the first two levels start out SUPER slow and then the third level gets crazy in a hurry and you will die over and over again. So you will play two very, very slow stages over and over again. This is terribly unbalanced and it could have been decent. Area 51 starts ridiculously crazy; this starts ridiculously slow. Couldn't they have found a nice middle ground? Maybe Rebel Forces is that. Or maybe not.

Virtua Fighter 2

Yeah, there's a theme here. Unreasonably ambitious and... I think... actually successful?? This is a fast, fluid fighting game that features throws, voice samples, and real special moves. So far I suck at this, but it seems like there's a real game here if I can figure it out. This seems by far the most likely of the fighting games to be a worthwhile purchase. If you for some crazy reason get interested in the R-Zone and you want one fighting game, make it this one - it's cheap and it's very impressive, for an LCD game.
 

EDIT: it turns out Virtua Fighter did have throws. The CPU is kind of a pushover in this - whether you barrage them with punches, kicks, or throws, as long as you keep pounding the buttons, you win. Then again, I was playing as Pai, and she may be the easy mode. This also has ground stomps. Maybe even rolling. Anyway, I beat it. I don’t think this one did as good a job of differentiating the characters - Dural had hair.