Adventures of Tron (Atari 2600 Video Game Cartridge)

Published by Mattel Electronics (as M Network)
Developed by APh Technological Consulting
Programmed by Hal Finney
Released in 1982

 

AtariAge says, "Adventures of TRON was based on the Walt Disney motion picture TRON, and was programmed by APh for Mattel. Originally it was meant to be an Atari 2600 version of the Intellivision game TRON Maze-A-Tron, but by the time the game was completed it had changed so much that Mattel gave it a different title. As a result of that change, APh also created Adventures of TRON for the Intellivision, but Mattel decided not to release it. In addition to being sold separately, Adventures of TRON was also packaged with TRON: Deadly Discs and a special blue TRON joystick. Consumers who bought the games separately could also send in proof of purchase and get a free joystick."

 

Adventure (Atari 2600 Video Game Cartridge)

Published by Sears
Developed by Atari
Programmed by Warren Robinette
Released in 1979
Via AtariAge
Play Adventure in your browser at 2600online.com

 

Adventure was a grounbreaking game that was one of the Atari 2600's most popular games.  Wikipedia says, "Adventure was published by the console's developer, Atari, Inc. It was inspired by a computer text game, Colossal Cave Adventure, created by Will Crowther and later modified by Don Woods.
Despite discouragement from his boss at Atari who said it could not be done, game designer Warren Robinett created a graphic game loosely based on the text game. Atari's Adventure went on to sell a million copies, making it the seventh best selling Atari 2600 game.
At the time of the game's creation Atari did not credit any of its authors for their work. Robinett included a hidden message in the game identifying himself as the creator, thus creating one of the earliest known Easter eggs in a video game. According to Warren, a young player from Salt Lake City, Utah first discovered the easter egg and wrote in to Atari regarding it."

Wikipedia has a pretty fleshed-out explanation of Adventure's gameplay, click here to read it. 

 

The Activision Decathlon (Atari 2600 Video Game Cartridge)

Manufactured by Activision
Programmed by David Crane
Released in 1983
Via AtariAge

 

AtariAge says this about the game, "The Activision Decathlon is one of the few Atari 2600 titles that attempts to use the player's own physical endurance to simulate athletic performance. Players are required to move their joysticks left and right to run, and hit the red button to perform actions such as vaulting or throwing the discus. Players compete in ten different Olympics events including the 100-meter dash, long jump, shot put, high jump, 400-meter race, 110-meter hurdles, discus throw, pole vault, javelin throw, and a grueling 1500 meter race that takes several minutes to complete. Decathlon is one of the first Activision games that awarded multiple patches (Robot Tank and Starmaster are two other notable examples). 8,000 points gets you a bronze patch, 9,000 for silver, and 10,000 plus nets you the coveted gold."

 

3-D Tic-Tac-Toe (Atari 2600 Video Game Cartridge)

Manufactured by Atari, Inc

Programmed by Carol Shaw

Released in 1980

Via AtariAge 

Wikipedia states that 3-D Tic-Tac-Toe, "...is similar to the traditional game of tic-tac-toe, but is played on four 4 × 4 grids stacked vertically on top of each other; it is basically a computerized version of the board game Qubic using traditional tic-tac-toe notation and layout. To win, a player must place four of their symbols on four squares that line up vertically, horizontally, or diagonally, on a single grid, or spaced evenly over all four grids. This creates a total of 76 possible ways to win, in comparison to eight possible ways to win on a standard 3 × 3 board. The game can be played by two players against each other, or one player can play against a built-in AI on one of eight different difficulty settings. The game uses the standard joystick controller." (The cartridge states that it uses paddle controllers.)

 

The Atari 2600 (Video Gaming Console) - Part 1

Manufactured by Atari
Released in October 1977
Original Retail Price US$199.99
Via AtariAge, Peter Hirschberg, Atari2600.com

Wikipedia Entry

I don't have to tell you much you don't already know about this 80's icon. The Atari 2600 was synonymous with video games and if you didn't own one, you know someone who did.

In Wikipedia's Entry for Atari, it says, "The original Atari Inc. was founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. It was a pioneer in arcade games, home video game consoles, and home computers. The company's products, such as Pong and the Atari 2600, helped define the computer entertainment industry from the 1970s to the mid 1980s. Before Atari's official incorporation, Bushnell wrote down several words from the game Go, eventually choosing atari, a term which in the context of the game means a state where a stone or group of stones is imminently in danger of being taken by one's opponent. In Japanese, atari is the nominalized form of ataru (verb), meaning "to hit the target" or "to receive something fortuitously". The word 'atari' is used in Japanese when a prediction comes true or when someone wins a lottery. The choice of Atari as a brand name was arguably better than Syzygy for most markets in terms of spelling, pronunciation and potential name recognition. Atari was incorporated in the state of California on June 27, 1972."

Now that the brief history of the company's out of the way, Wikipedia says of the Atari 2600, "It is credited with popularizing the use of microprocessor-based hardware and cartridges containing game code, instead of having non-microprocessor dedicated hardware with all games built in. The first game console to use this format was the Fairchild Channel F; however, the Atari 2600 is credited with making the plug-in concept popular among the game-playing public.
The console was originally sold as the Atari VCS, for Video Computer System. Following the release of the Atari 5200, in 1982, the VCS was renamed "Atari 2600", after the unit's Atari part number, CX2600. The 2600 was typically bundled with two joystick controllers, a conjoined pair of paddle controllers, and a cartridge game—initially Combat and later Pac-Man."

 

But, wait! You didn't own an Atari 2600! You owned Sears Tele-Games? That's fine. All that was a rebadged 2600 to sell through Sears department stores. I certainly remember playing one there every time my parents drug me to the mall.

 After seeing the TV movie Adam where Adam Walsh is abducted while playing the store display Tele-Games, I steered clear of it.

  

Going forward, there's of course way too much to cover in one article. Now that we've touched on the 2600 and the Sears variant we can figure up more in future articles. Stay tuned!

Bone Age (Toyline)

Manufactured by Kenner

Released in 1987

Via Virtual Toy Chest and Duke Nostalgia

 

Bone Age was a Kenner toyline that should've been more popular. The toyline was simple, cavemen fighting each other using dinosaur bones that transformed, fired weapons, and acted as vehicles. 

Not much info is available for these guys but Virtual Toy Chest writes, "With Bone Age, Kenner really tried to do something different to help turn things around. They combined a building toy with an action figure line. The basic elements of the series were dinosaur bones which you could assemble into all sorts of creatures and vehicles. The toys are quite large. Unfortunately, the packages just do not convey the size and weight of these toys. I am sure that the series would have benefited from in store displays. In fact, the marketing of the series was almost nonexistent. Unlike most toy series from the 80s, Bone Age did not have a cartoon or comic. Due to this and many other circumstances the line did not fare very well. It was cancelled before a second series of dinosaurs were released."

 

Boglins (Toyline)

Distributed by Mattel (US)

Manufactured by Action GT and Ideal (and other unnamed companies)

Released in 1987
Via X-Entertainment

Wikipedia Entry

I loved puppets and as a kid I became very fascinated with Boglins.

Boglins were little latex puppets designed as scary and gross creatures. According to Wikipedia, "Generally, the Boglin puppet was aimed at small children (boys in particular) from eight to eleven, as they were popularly used for frightening others, but have become valuable collectibles in recent years. They were characterized by their unique packaging (a cardboard box with a plastic "cage" entrance) and by movable eyes and mouth."

 

Boglins were a surefire hit. Even Kellogg's cereal got in on the action.

 

In 1991, Mattel introduced Mini Boglins. A tiny version of the larger puppets that were like action figures and were non-poseable.

 

 

The many types of Boglins are as follows (some may have been released in 1990 or later) -

• Boglins (Boglinus humungus): These toys were large and would fit comfortably on the hand. They were sold in boxes resembling crates with a jail-like front. There were three varieties: Drool, Dwork and Vlobb. [On the 1987 UK box, these are Plunk, Dwork, and Flurp]

• Small Boglins (Boglinus minimus):  Slightly smaller than regular Boglins, resulting in reduced freedom of motion and simpler features. The varieties were Splat, Blap, Bonk, Doink, Klang, Squidge, and Squit in the UK and Squidge, Shlump, Shlurp, Sponk, Squawk and Squeel in the USA.

• Soggy Boglins (Boglinus liquidious):  Puppets in the shapes of mutated animals. They were slightly smaller than regular Boglins and there were three varieties: Snish the Fish, which squirted water; Slogg the Frog, which had a sticky tongue; and Slobster the Lobster, which had a snapping claw. Soggy Boglins were also marketed under the name 'Aquatic Boglins'.

• Baby Boglins: Finger-sized Boglins with fixed facial expressions and googly eyes which were sold in egg-shaped boxes.

• Halloween Boglins: These were painted in Halloween forms. There were two varieties: Blobkin which looked like a pumpkin and Bog o' Bones which resembled a skeleton.

• Acrobat Boglins: Made of a flexible, sticky material which allowed them to be thrown at walls and slowly 'crawl' down them, Action Boglins could be stretched and knotted and would return to their original shape. They were roughly the size of baby boglins and were sold in egg-shaped boxes but had no finger hole and very little face detail. Acrobat boglins are difficult for collectors to preserve due to the material from which they were made, which collects dust and particles.

• Bash 'em Boglins: Highly detailed Boglins with cartoon-like features and detachable body parts. There were two varieties: Splat and Swish.

• Action Boglins: Larger than Baby Boglins, but lay on their stomachs with full body length. They performed actions when squeezed, sticking their tongues or eyeballs out or squirting water from their mouths.

• Baby Squirt Boglins: Semi-solid PVC Boglins with detailed facial features which could squirt water when squeezed. There were three varieties modeled on Klang, Squit and Boink.

• Hairy Boglins: Plunk and Flurp Boglins with tufts of hair on their heads. The Plunk Boglin had red hair and the Flurp brown.

• Talking Boglins: Boglins which talked and made noises. They were released shortly after the original three.

• Glow Boglins: Medium Boglins which glowed in the dark. They were naturally white with green tints and were modelled on Klang and Doink.

• Ric Flair Boglins: Two Hairy Plunk and Flurp Boglins with grey rather than colored hair on their heads. (Why they're called "Ric Flair" Boglins is unknown)
  

• Batty Boglins: Mattel planned to release "Nite Creature! Boglins" in 1989, but the winged creatures were never released in the United States. There were three varieties: Drak, Ooky, and Screech.

Hundreds of Classic NES Games in Your Browser

For those of you that don't know, Nintendo8.com has a gargantuan list of NES games playable right in your browser. The site uses the vNES emulator and runs it through Flash to give ya what your heart desires, games from the 80's! So far, the list of games is pretty extensive (including Japanese games), requires no sign up, and they can be played from your keyboard. So long productivity!

Via Retro Thing

BlackStar (Toyline)

Manufactured by Galoob
Released in 1983
Via In The 80s, Action Figure Archive, and Virtual Toy Chest
Wikipedia Entry for cartoon series

BlackStar was a 1981 cartoon series by Filmation (makers of the He-Man and The Masters of the Universe cartoon series) that predated He-Man and followed Thundarr the Barbarian.  Action Figure Archive tells us of the series hero, "John Blackstar was an astronaut who flew through a black hole, crashed and was stranded on the planet Sagar."

The toyline was created by Galoob, however, the toys weren't released until 1983 after the cartoon series was cancelled. Wikipedia says, "The first series was re-released alongside the second and third series of figures with "laser light" stone-sparking action. Evil characters were packaged with demons while good characters were packaged with Trobbits. Trobbits were also packaged individually with Rif, Terra and Gossamer being the tougher ones to find. Warlock the dragon and the Space Ship were each released in two color variations. Also released were Triton, Kadray's flying bull, the Trobbit Wind Machine and Battle Wagon. The Ice Castle was constructed with very thin plastic, making it very fragile."

 

 

 

Watch the BlackStar toy commercial here.