Monday 8 October 2012

Handheld Games - Tomy Turnin' Turbo Dashboard

Handheld Games
Tomy Turnin' Turbo Dashboard

Hmm. Not technically a hand-held game, but it's small enough, you COULD play it hand held. Despite the 4 'D' size batteries required to run it.

Still, it's a game, it's retro, and it's... well... as a 5 or 6 year old at the time, it was fascinating, but now? It's a hunk of plastic with no real gameplay in there.

Alright, I'm being harsh. Because, despite the fact that it's the shallowest "game" in the world, with very little replay value, young Fishsta would play it over and over again... and my happy memories of playing it as a fascinated youngster come flooding back.

So what do you do... turn the ignition key to turn it on, press the reset button to refill the fuel gauge and turn the "Trip" counter back to zero. Select a gear, and you're away. Your display is a small back-lit rolling roadway with your natty red car at the bottom of the screen. Stay on the road to make the "Trip" counter rise (effectively your score), touching the edges of the road will cause it to stop for a few seconds. And. That's. It. Until your fuel runs out, whereupon you hit the reset button and try again. And again. And again.

The gear stick chooses what speed you go, but after some practice, I'd managed to go at full speed for the entire fuel tank, pretty sure that just about wrapped the Trip Counter back to zero again.

You might see one of these at a Car Boot sale, and if you do, why not offer a couple of quid for a little entertainment?

Just don't expect to be still playing it the next day. I know what I'll be doing is taking it apart to see how the gear lever changed the speed and Revs display. That fascinated me! Simple things, simple minds and all that...