"Handheld" arcade games hit eBay

by John Bardinelli { Jul 24th 2007 at 10:46AM }

Retro Treasures points us to a set of "handheld" arcade games (more like tabletop) up for auction on eBay. Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Galaxian, and Dracula have been preserved from the dark era of 1981 and are fully operational, supporting two players simultaneously and running off those not-necessarily-rechargeable things called C batteries. The auctioneer has several other tabletop arcade games on the block, including Donkey Kong and Q-Bert. The prices seem a little steep for some, but sometimes nostalgia knows no limits.

[Via Retro Treasures]

Tags: arcade, coleco, retro

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

baby sea tuna @ Jul 24th 2007 10:51AM

Wow, talk about a blast from the past. I still remember my friend Brian having these versions of Donkey Kong and Ms. Pac-Man when we were about 10 or so.

Good times.

Truepatriot @ Jul 24th 2007 10:52AM

wow! i had a really bad racing game like this and a pacman. who knew i could have made money of them now =/

DragonXNIK @ Jul 24th 2007 11:57AM

This is not news, I have that pac-man thing lying around in my basement, it is a pretty terrible machine. It probably still works, but who cares? It only has one level.

Joshua @ Jul 24th 2007 11:13AM

Ah yes how I loved my Pacman and Donkey Kong 'Handhelds'. Brings back memories of a time when C size batteries powered more items than vibrating items purchased at an adult bookstore.

WiNG @ Jul 24th 2007 11:21AM

um, aren't these kind of already covered by DS, PSP, and mobile phone offerings?

Ze_ro @ Jul 24th 2007 11:28AM

So Joystiq is doing stories on random eBay listings now? I mean really, stuff like this goes on eBay all the time...

Believe it or not, there are plenty of people who collect these things, despite the fact that "better" versions of the games are available elsewhere. It's more the hardcore collectors who go for this stuff though, which is probably why the prices go so high. Game & Watches usually go for quite high a price as well, despite the fact that you can pick up the (updated) compilations for the Gameboy.

StrangeBum @ Jul 24th 2007 11:43AM

Hey, at least they aren't using an over-abundance of reverb and saying 'It came from e-Bay' in an overly exaggerated manner.

But these are pretty cool, I'm a tad young to remember these things, but I do remember plenty of similar items from when I was a child. In particular a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles racing(?) game that was shaped like their van from the cartoon series.

JodyAnthony @ Jul 24th 2007 11:32AM

I used to have the ms pac man, it was sweet.

WiNG @ Jul 24th 2007 11:38AM

This is gonna sound really lame but I wanted to get a 360 JUST for PacMan CE

Hopefully it will come out on Steam like Geometry Wars. Maybe.

baby sea tuna @ Jul 24th 2007 12:42PM

That only sounds lame to people that haven't played it yet. That game totally rules.

Chintz @ Jul 24th 2007 11:44AM

I have the Pac-Man one. It has the most annoying sound imaginable. I remember a friend of mine had a Donkey Kong one that somehow used light light that shone in from above to display its color graphics - curious technology I'd never seen before nor since.

Rob Accomando @ Jul 24th 2007 12:19PM

I used to hate these games. As bad as the handheld LCD games. 1 frame per second, usually monochrome.

konajinx @ Jul 24th 2007 12:30PM

Man, I remember when I first saw these. It was in a Sears catalog at the time and in there it said it was a tabletop game, but it was a closeup shot, so it made the thing look huge. There was nothing else in the picture..just the game by itself on a white page background. So I was all excited and thougght it would be a sizable tabletop game. Shit, two players could play, so it had to be a good size!

A week later I'm in Kmart with my mom and dad and they have them in a big display and I was more than disappointed. Suddenly, I didn't want one anymore. Hilarious that they would "simulate" that whole two player thing, though I do believe the Pac-Man game had a variation where two people played at the same time, which must have been ridiculous. I do recall playing the Galaxian one at Kmart that day and thinking to myself, "What a cheap piece of shit." Thanks for dashing the dreams of another innocent kid in the '80s, toy manufacturers!

baby sea tuna @ Jul 24th 2007 12:40PM

+1 heart point for proper punctuation of '80s.

SinisterRabbit @ Jul 24th 2007 10:22PM

Wow, I still have all of these, plus some others! It's a good thing I never throw anything away, maybe I should put my collection on ebay and become a hundredaire!

Adam @ Jul 24th 2007 2:03PM

Hey Joystiq, I have a bunch of old 2600 games I'm planning on unloading on eBay, how about some free promotion for those?

Seriously, couldn't you have just linked to a fan page or something rather than shilling for "Retro Treasures"?

ianoid @ Jul 24th 2007 4:05PM

This is so unremarkable. There are 50 of these units on eBay on any given day. Can Joystiq post some ads to my auctions? I'm sure I'd get more hits and bids.

Diskoboy @ Jul 24th 2007 5:20PM

"Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Galaxian, and Dracula have been preserved from the dark era of 1981 and are fully operational"

Dark era of 1981!!!??? Oh my friend, you must not have been alive in 1981. Eapecially since two absolute classic games came out that year (Ms. Pac-Man and Galaga). There was a reason why it was called "the golden age".

And I still have my Coleco Donkey Kong and Frogger tabletops. Still working.

Vejadu @ Jul 25th 2007 10:42AM

You can find these tabletop arcade games on eBay at any given time, however they're pretty cool collectibles and they're not easily available. I've had Donkey Kong Jr. since I was a kid and I've recently picked up Donkey Kong, Frogger, Ms. Pac Man and Galaxian.

Nolano @ Jul 26th 2007 12:52AM

I seriously had some of these about 10 years back... We actually found them in a building we were renting for our business... We had pacman, frogger, donkey kong, and one other that I cant remember.