8-Bit Show And Tell | 4-Bit Video Games: Tron, Scramble, Lupin, and Caveman by Tomy @8_Bit | Uploaded May 2021 | Updated October 2024, 12 hours ago.
Tomy made a lot of great handheld electronic games in the 1970s and 1980s, but my all-time favourite is Tomytronic Tron, based on the 1982 Disney movie. Over the years I picked up Scramble (Tomy) and Caveman (Tandy, by Tomy) and eventually noticed they have exactly the same form factor. With a bit of research I found out Scramble also goes by Alien Attack, Astro Blaster, and Rambler (exactly the same gameplay) but there's one more unique game in this unofficial series: Lupin, which has an interesting story as well, somewhat connected with the Cliffhanger laserdisc game. Finally, I have all four games, so here's a video showing them all in action, and I even have a shot at explaining how they work: they use the earliest SoCs ("system on a chip") available, which are 4-bit CPUs with integrated I/O, ROM, and a little bit of RAM, which were originally designed for use in electronic calculators. So these are essentially 4-bit video games.
To support 8-Bit Show And Tell:
Become a patron: patreon.com/8BitShowAndTell
One-time donation: paypal.me/8BitShowAndTell
2nd channel: youtube.com/channel/UCAgWzEh5c8391eJnELDy9OA
This is sort-of a sequel to my earlier video "Mechanical Handheld Zero-Bit Games from the 1970s": youtu.be/NwQMBV7Td1s
Closing credits song is "Vacuum Fluorescent Display" by Bedford Level Experiment from the album "Place Without A Computer": bedfordlevelexperiment.bandcamp.com/album/place-without-a-computer
Index:
0:00 Four Tomy games with the same form factor
3:40 Why would people buy these?
5:04 Tron
6:45 Tron Gameplay
12:08 4-Bit Brains: Inside The Games
15:35 Caveman
16:35 Caveman Gameplay
22:11 Scramble
23:10 Scramble Gameplay
29:48 Lupin (including history)
32:51 Lupin Gameplay
37:34 Summary: Visceral
38:14 Thanks!
Tomy made a lot of great handheld electronic games in the 1970s and 1980s, but my all-time favourite is Tomytronic Tron, based on the 1982 Disney movie. Over the years I picked up Scramble (Tomy) and Caveman (Tandy, by Tomy) and eventually noticed they have exactly the same form factor. With a bit of research I found out Scramble also goes by Alien Attack, Astro Blaster, and Rambler (exactly the same gameplay) but there's one more unique game in this unofficial series: Lupin, which has an interesting story as well, somewhat connected with the Cliffhanger laserdisc game. Finally, I have all four games, so here's a video showing them all in action, and I even have a shot at explaining how they work: they use the earliest SoCs ("system on a chip") available, which are 4-bit CPUs with integrated I/O, ROM, and a little bit of RAM, which were originally designed for use in electronic calculators. So these are essentially 4-bit video games.
To support 8-Bit Show And Tell:
Become a patron: patreon.com/8BitShowAndTell
One-time donation: paypal.me/8BitShowAndTell
2nd channel: youtube.com/channel/UCAgWzEh5c8391eJnELDy9OA
This is sort-of a sequel to my earlier video "Mechanical Handheld Zero-Bit Games from the 1970s": youtu.be/NwQMBV7Td1s
Closing credits song is "Vacuum Fluorescent Display" by Bedford Level Experiment from the album "Place Without A Computer": bedfordlevelexperiment.bandcamp.com/album/place-without-a-computer
Index:
0:00 Four Tomy games with the same form factor
3:40 Why would people buy these?
5:04 Tron
6:45 Tron Gameplay
12:08 4-Bit Brains: Inside The Games
15:35 Caveman
16:35 Caveman Gameplay
22:11 Scramble
23:10 Scramble Gameplay
29:48 Lupin (including history)
32:51 Lupin Gameplay
37:34 Summary: Visceral
38:14 Thanks!
