The Retro/Vintage Electronic-Toy Thread

[atari_afternoon]

I had Mr. Loon´s "AstroWars", too. Still have my old original tamagochi which as a student we took turns watching it, even during a metal festival
Also remember that that cheap crap-looking white Bandai plastic egg cost 40 DM and had been sold out almost everywhere in my big town!!!
(40 DM were four (expensive Saturday night) cinema tickets or eight Döner Kebaps or about 20 burgers.)

 

[Binky]

I had one of these - or one very much like it.

Also two different sets of this stuff:

It had several "black box" modules that were very easy to break.

Edit: Also, a crystal radio set a bit like this (below) but with an exposed variable capacitor.

Was a matching pair of cheap telescope and cheap microscope. Oddly, the telescope was passable, while the microscope was terrible. Both sold under the WHSmith (a stationary retailer in the UK) brand.

 

[iprice]

I think everyone had AstroWars didn't they? I know I did

I've got a fair few handheld devices still, including some Nintendo Game & Watch. The one handheld I always loved as a kid was BurgerTime; unfortunately a friend owned it and I only had occasional play. One game I really wanted to play, but never had the chance, was BMX Flyer by Grandstand. That was supposedly a legend at my school.

 

[FBnil]

BMX Flyer by Grandstand

awesome... gameplay equal to the speccy/commodorePET ...

 

[Fzero]

That little robot looks awesome! What could it do though? I note the tape controls and the headphone port. Doesn't seem to have enough buttons to do a big trak and carry you your beer from the kitchen. Was it just a snazzy tape player?

Yeah it was awesome at the time, as was Big Trak too, I think they were both about the same time over here.

So this one, Omnibot, did have a cassette player as you noted, and it sort of could get you a beer from the kitchen too!
It had a remote control, so rather than program the directions path as you did with Big-Trak, you controlled it more like any other RC toy, but you could record your voice and then have it repeat on demand... so steer it into the kitchen, then press the button to "Give me a beer" when it got there

decent sized pic here:

Spoiler

Original advert [Youtube link]:

Spoiler

A nice info page, which is where I got ^ that image and advert from... lots more details and pic of the remote, if interested
https://steveffisher.wordpress.com/2011/08/20/tomy-omnibot-5402/

But yeah, was a nice little thing if you were lucky enough to have been bought one

 

[Klumpen]

Now I want a Mr. Handy.

 

[iprice]

I'm not sure if I've ever seen that robot. We certainly had Big Trak BITD, here in the UK. Looks cool

 

[Fzero]

I'm not sure if I've ever seen that robot. We certainly had Big Trak BITD, here in the UK. Looks cool

Not 100% ... but I'm pretty sure my mate got his Omnibot robot from Tandy's shop ... remember them back in the day? I think they were on quite a few high roads, then vanished.. but seem to have made a comeback in recent years, but not in my town.
I picked up a few VFD screen electronic games from there myself in the 80s

 

[iprice]

Yeah, I remember Tandy well. I got a lot of electonic components from them BITD.

The robot probably did exist in this country- and it's definitely the sort of thing Tandy would have sold; I just can't remember ever seeing one

Tandy are still going, a bit like Woolworths, as an online only retailer IIRC.

 

[Fzero]

Yeah, I remember Tandy well. I got a lot of electonic components from them BITD.

The robot probably did exist in this country- and it's definitely the sort of thing Tandy would have sold; I just can't remember ever seeing one

Tandy are still going, a bit like Woolworths, as an online only retailer IIRC.

Definitely did, I'm from the UK too, as is my mate who had it
Yeah I had to look Tandy up online for nostalgia when posting the other day, and found they were actually brought out by Woolworths group, and as you say, still trade online, thanks to a resurgence of hobby electronics


So tonight I need to venture into the loft, shift a load of junk from one cupboard to up there ... whilst up there I think I will dig into a couple old boxes to see if I can find any old electronic toys I still have, will share if I do find anything

 

[vcoleiro1]

Ok, So I did box them up. But here are some pics of part of my 80's handheld electronic game collection

Some boxes Iv'e yet to store:

imgur.com/a/FbAmo


Some boxes full that I couldn't be assed bringing down off the cupboard:

imgur.com/a/tW2q8

Some games I have stashed behind coaches. (I also have game and watch type games under a coach which I couldn't be bothered lifting). The mini arcades I made. Adventure Vision and Game Pocket Computer

imgur.com/a/nZJUB

 

[iprice]

Some neat looking stuff there

 

[directive0]

Tamagotchi got me into electronics. I still have quite an assortment. They were a fascinating product.

I made a cheesy video about them recently, and hope to do some hacking with them in the coming winter (when I have more time). I actually managed to find some Digimon recently too, which was exciting as now I can look into how their serial communication worked.

 

[bukkit]

and I remember some LCD motorcycle game, where you used a slider to speed up and slowdown... no idea what the name of that was.

?

 

[ZXDunny]

My first handheld videogame was AstroWars - and yeah, everyone had one

In fact... I think I may have some scans of it around somewhere...

Ah yes:











I was going to create a simulator for it years ago. Ah well.

Oh yes, my first handheld computer, which I used to code in BASIC on:

I loved that thing. It was pretty fast (for the time) and the battery lasted 2 years. You don't get that sort of longevity anymore

 

[Fzero]

AW_LEDs_HR_LIT
...I like that image

 

[iprice]

I was going to create a simulator for it years ago.

There was a faithful Windows pc remake done a few years ago, but I'll be damned if I can find it now.

There is however a version for iOS available - https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/astro-wars/id665882635?mt=8

But yeah, neither feel the same as playing on the old tabletop version.

 

[ptitSeb]

I loved that thing. It was pretty fast (for the time) and the battery lasted 2 years. You don't get that sort of longevity anymore

My first "real" calculator was this one: http://mycalcdb.free.fr/main.php?l=1&id=397

 

[EvilDragon]

?

Yeeeees! That's it! Awesome

 

[Ian J]

Owned, got rid of and still regret:

Currently Own all nice and minty in their boxes:

EDIT:

For anyone wanting to check out some classic games try this:

http://www.madrigaldesign.it/sim/index.php