You know last holiday season, one toy that everyone, from kids to adults seemed
to want were these little joysticks that plugged into television sets and allowed the user to play some favorite little arcade games from the early 1980's.


The company that made the video games so dang popular in the United States was a company by the name of Jakks Pacific. Jakks first released a joystick with popular Namco games such as Pac-Man and Galaxian, and within a few short months the company was making all sorts of money from various joystick based games.

A lot of companies took interest in these products, and started releasing cheaper imitations of the joystick in time for the Christmas season. Jakks had the rights to Atari, Activistion, Namco, as well as their own games so they really had an edge on the competition. Competitors were making joysticks with games from pretty much every old console / computer from the 1980's.

There were Commodore 64 units, Colecovision, as well as Intellivision ones. Pretty much all of them were 8-bit chips, however a few 16-bit systems were also released. The flood of these systems came just in time for the holiday season, however only one company had really produced a profit. That was Jakks, not only because they
had the coolest games, but also because their units were high quality.

The joysticks actually looked like the joysticks from Atari, and they actually felt like they were durable. The systems ran on four double A (AA) batteries, and
connected through the television using RCA cables.

When you plugged one in, and turned it on, you were greeted with a little menu that allowed you to select which game you wished to play. Once you selected the game,
you were greeted with a reprogrammed version of the game.

I really enjoyed the Namco unit. It offered some really fun games, all in a portable package for a mere twenty dollars. Gamers that actually played these games during the 80's however are bound to discover that although they resemble the original arcade games, they do have some limitations and are not exactly the same as the arcade versions of the games.

Although Jakks still markets the units, they have really cut down production over the past year. Last year's units can be found on clearance racks for under ten
dollars, while the new promised units (more games, better graphics, ect) are nowhere to be found. The other companies that brought clone units onto the market are also steadily disappearing.

So if you remember having a blast playing old Atari games, and really do not want to mess with thirty year hardware, then I suggest picking one of these great gaming units up. For less than the price of a game on the new video game systems, you get a whole retro gaming setup, complete with games and easy setup. Just be sure to remember to purchase a lot of batteries. If you like playing these games, then
you will be swapping batteries in these systems every week or so.