Retro Gaming Hacks

Collect Classic Handhelds

Put retro gaming power into the palm of your hand.

Collecting home console games—as described in most of the other hacks in this very chapter—can be fun, but there’s another side of classic game collecting out there that might be more up your Alleyway. Handheld games have been popular since the late 1970’s—just about as long as home games. Of course, the games were never as powerful as the home games of the time; but then again, if you only cared about the most advanced gaming technology, you wouldn’t be reading this book!

In this hack, I’ll talk about some of the most popular lines of handheld games, give you some idea of what they played like, and how difficult it is to collect them [Hack #1] . But first, here are some reasons to get into handheld collecting, as well as some web sites to visit.

Why Handhelds?

Most of us have fond (or less-than-fond) memories of playing LCD handheld games when we were far away from our home consoles, in the car or on vacation. Many of them were patterned after successful home games of the time, and usually adorned with artwork and fancy form factors to distract from the fact that the games were ultra-simple and oftentimes not that much fun. Still, there are plenty of advantages to collecting handheld games over consoles.

Handheld games are small

This one’s a no-brainer. Handheld games were meant to fit into a pocket, or at least be small and light enough to be portable. So storing them isn’t nearly as painful as stacking ...