Handheld TV game

A handheld TV game or plug and play game is an integrated video game console and game controller.

A TV Boy with power and TV attached

Overview

"TV game" refers to a single-unit portable game system, possibly battery powered, which plugs directly into a TV. The game software is built directly into the unit, which is typically designed to look like a toy or classic game console or controller with the addition of AV ports. These systems usually contain either highly specialized games or activities, or a collection of classic games. Because the game software is integrated into the game unit and almost never designed to be changed by the user, these game systems are typically marketed as electronic toys or collectibles rather than game consoles.

Several manufacturers produced these devices before 2002, and the concept became best known with Jakks Pacific's Atari Classic 10-in-1 TV game. Most manufacturers have their own trademarked names for these systems, such as Radica's Play TV or Majesco's TV Arcade; however, most retailers refer to all of them as TV games or Plug & Play games.

History

From the mid-1990s to the early 2000s three things happened: the retro game movement started to gain momentum, the price of system on a chip fell dramatically, and car television sets became popular. Several unlicensed family games, such as the TV Boy, were produced. These factors led to manufacturers officially licensing classic games. The first TV games include collections of classic games; one of the earliest was the Toymax Activision 10-in-1, released in 2001. Although the first TV games contained collections of classic games many manufacturers started incorporating original content and controls into the device. Criticism that video games were contributing to obesity in children led to the development of TV games such as the Play TV series, including Play TV Baseball, Play TV Football, and Play TV Barbie Dance Craze in 2003. Nickelodeon also contracted with Jakks Pacific to create original SpongeBob and Blue's Clues games. in 2004 Tiger also started creating paintball and a Lord of the Rings sword-fighting game, using a toy sword as the controller. In 2004 Radica started producing collections of Sega games. The C64 Direct-to-TV was also released in 2004 by Toy:Lobster and Mammoth Toys with a copy of the Commodore 64 operating system and a virtual keyboard as a hidden extra. In 2005, Jakks Pacific produced original game content for the new Star Wars and Fantastic Four films, and Tiger produced a Jedi light-saber sword-fight game using a light saber as the controller. In 2005 Milton Bradley started producing TV game versions of Whack-a-Mole and Miniature Golf. Radica's games include Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle, Columns, and Gain Ground.

Manufacturers

See also
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