Handheld History makes all those ridiculous LCD games available for free
I'm finally going to beat handheld Apollo 13
If you're of a particular age, you can remember growing up with handheld video game system that were each dedicated to one singular title. You usually you could move your character between three locations on screen and, if you were lucky, fire a weapon. Tamagotchi was the most universal experience, but some of us only got to experience Double Dragon on the school bus via a stupid plastic box that ate batteries. For folks like that, who for some reason missed this experience, your day has come. The internet now has a beautiful and extensive archive of all those ridiculous LCD titles.
There's an incredible and heartbreaking breakdown of this genre of game and the efforts the emulation team has gone to in order to archive these titles for history and for your maybe-enjoyment. There's so much here, ranging from Garfield adventures to shooters to puzzle games, and many of them existed on platforms that only existed for a single game -- including one game system that's an actual pyramid. It is 100% worth your time to read this piece about process and gaming history over at the Internet Archive Blog.
I mean... just look at this. How is this not at least the next hour of your life?
You can check out the entire catalogue of throwback titles, and their corresponding downloads, by clicking here.
Wait, there's a game based on the film Apollo 13 on this list. Or is based on the actual Apollo 13 disastrous space mission. Oh my god, that would dark? Let's solve this mystery.
And there's our answer.
Please join me on the journey into yet another video game wormhole. Feel free to post your weirdest finds below. I don't think we're topping Apollo 13, but you are welcome to try.