By Mark Rodriguez
One of the inspirations to put Video Game Masters online instead of the concept being lost to old home movies on damaged VHS tapes was the Angry Video Game Nerd. One episode had him review Tiger games, which were everywhere in the late 80's/early 90's and it reminded me of those days. Before we would get an actual NES (once the price went down), Tiger games were the only way to play video games when you couldn't be at the arcade.
Thes games were the slightly more advanced versions of those old school Game and Watch games, simple games on a LCD screen with pre-drawn digital characters on them not unlike a watch or a calculator. The main difference is that Tiger and its eventual competitors is that rather than simple games like pong or whatever, they were trying to copy actual games like Double Dragon, Castlevania, Street Fighter and Strider or make games based on existing properties like Batman or the Ninja Turtles. The sound was simple, just a simple little tune at either the start of the game or when you turn the game on and then random beeps of different pitches. The tune was always a random ditty, and not anything based on the original game's soundtrack. There was a mute button if you needed it which made it easier to sneak around in school. The only problem was you can only mute it when the game was on after it played its little intro tune, so yeah, we'd get caught sometimes.
They really were a cheap 10 or 15 dollar alternative to actually owning a game system. They were everywhere. Every small convenience store with some sort of electronic section had some. I remember Toys R Us had a display case full of all the newer Tiger games that I could only drool over. Yes, drool over because we couldn't afford a game system until later. Now The Nerd showed that Tiger lasted well into the 90's with its own wannabe game console and even a Virtual Boy knock off. Yeah, you're really bad when you want to copy a piece of phail like the Virtual Boy. But that's not what this article is about. This is about the personal memories of the Tiger and Acclaim games that I used to own. Some details might be wrong but this is based on memory alone. We no longer own these and don't want to fork out the cash to find them overpriced on eBay so we'll review them in a blog rather than a VGM episode.
Ninja Gaiden LCD Watch Game
The first Tiger game I ever got was a Ninja Gaiden wrist watch that my mom gave me for Christmas. Man, I used to play that for hours. From what I remember you have Ryu Hayabyusa fight ninjas off with your sword and throwing stars and occasionally I'd fight this big dude in Samurai armor that I assume was a boss. The only thing I didn't know back then is if the game had some sort if time limit or something. I remember randomly dying whenever I got so far. And I mean just instant game over without getting hit by anything. I remember staying up late at night trying to get farther and farther in the game before whatever that time-out thing was would kill me. I don't remember actually playing it while it was on my wrist though, but I probably did... though I can't imagine myself doing that now. That thing was so tiny I can't imagine myself trying to play it the normal way. I remember being curious how the normal sized Ninja Gaiden Tiger game played.
Strider
The first and only proper Tiger game I ever owned was Strider and while it was fun, it really was a cakewalk compared to the challenge of Ninja Gaiden. Strider would go around killing bad guys with his sword and I think he could also use that orb thing that orbits around you as some kind of protective shield. I think he could also jump and hook himself to the top of the screen as well. I don't remember much details except the game had like 4 or 5 levels and it was pretty easy as long as you kept your eyes on the bad guys coming on either side. It was fun to kill some time since you can beat it in less than hour. Unlike other simpler LCD games that go on forever for the sake of the high score, these games actually had a set amount of levels and the game does end if you beat the last level. Another detail Tiger games used to have when compared to others was that the characters could actually take a few hits depending on what games they were. Most other games had one-hit kills.
Heavy Barrel
The next game was actually from a friend of mine that he'd let borrow for a day or so in exchange for my Strider one and wow was this one fun. Unlike the side-scrolling Ninja Gaiden and Strider, Heavy Barrel was an overhead view with the character on the bottom of the screen aiming towards the top. I do believe there were soldiers, tanks and these weird looking machines with extending electric claws. You had to switch between different kinds of guns and a bazooka because each gun killed a certain foe. You would think a bazooka would blow up a tank, but the way the game graphics were lined up, any attack from the wrong gun would miss. As you shoot, you move left and right to avoid bullets, cannon fire and those electric claws. I think the claws appeared in the second or so level. There were lots of levels and things would get faster and faster and the game would throw all 3 types of enemies at you at once. Those claws were insanely fast in the last levels and I think I was able to beat the game at least once. Don't forget you only get 3 lives and there weren't any extra lives or power ups.
Bo Jackson -Baseball and Football
One game I wanna mention due to it's uniqueness is this game based on Bo Jackson, the sports star that was just as good at Baseball as he was in Football. Bo was big back then and was all over commercials with his catchphrase of 'Bo knows Football, Bo knows Baseball' and then Bo knows whatever product he's advertising. For a while in the CBS episodes of the TMNT, Donatello's kinda/sorta catchphrase was 'I'm warning you, Donatello knows bo!' since his weapon was the Bo Staff. So anyway, Tiger decided to profit by releasing a Bo Jackon Baseball AND Football game, at the same time. Two games for the price of one, how cool is that? I can only imagine how bulky it must have felt to play the thing with the other side of the game hanging upside down like that. However, Paige also has a few unique titles to add.
Paige Cuts In- 3D Baseball and 3D Motocross
Honestly I forgot about these! Mark told me about the Nerd video and at first I was like "wtf?" So I watched the video and I realized what he was talking about, which were these retro handheld games. I remembered that I had two...well my brother had two when I was growing up. One was baseball and the other was motocross. I remember these were kept in my dad's old van! I would play the games during car rides. I still remember my brother's name written across the back of the device. *Hours Later* Okay, I got so determined to look for these games...but the games my brother had were different from what Mark used to own/play. Our version was a 3D type of game with a figure inside a plastic front. For the baseball game when you turn the right trigger the figure would move too. But at first when I saw the video I didn't remember much about the game, till a memory slapped me across the face and the light bulb lit up. It took me a LOOONG time to find at least one of the games....*epic sigh* Well here it is:
*A few more minutes later...*
I found the other one! Hallelujah!!!
Konami LCD handheld games with TMNT
There were a couple more I'd like to mention that I never got to own but always wanted back in the day. Aside from Acclaim, Konami also made their own handheld games including a series based on the TMNT. The first one was just called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and was loosely based on the first NES game. I say that mostly due to the artwork on the game and the spinning underwater pillar thing you had to avoid in the underwater level of the NES game. It seemed you had to save April from some sort of glass case she was trapped in.
The sequel was called TMNT II Splinter Speaks and the main draw was that you would hear the voice of Splinter advise you as you play the game. I could only imagine how horrible or robotic it would sound... There was a third game called TMNT III Shredder's Last Stand which was another original adventure. Later on they released a TMNT Basketball Game... no seriously..
Tiger would eventually grab some Turtle Power of their own with their game based on The Next Mutation, based on the live-action TMNT series most Turtle fans would rather forget. It's possibly the one video game ever based on that series.
Acclaim portable LCD Games
Back to games my bro and I actually owned, we have the Acclaim games. Unlike the Tiger games, Acclaim would stick to making LCD versions of their own games. I remember you had to go to Toys R Us or other big name places for the Tiger games. The convenience stores within walking distance sold these other ones. I got NARC for myself and Johnny got Big Foot.
NARC
NARC was challenging but to a more frustrating degree than Heavy Barrel. The stage has two floors so you must take Max Force across the screen to climb the ladder and defeat Mr Big on the top floor. As you walk there's bad guys you can shoot and you can jump to dodge when they shoot back. There's also the annoying as hell black dogs that run at you. You can't shoot them so you have to time your jumps to avoid then as you run past. As you can tell there are lots of times when you jump over a bullet and land on a dog or vice versa, and sometimes the little bastards come in pairs.
To their credit, the game kept the fact you have to shoot normal Mr. Big a few times before he turns into the giant skeleton thing and spazz left and right. I do
remember sometimes he would spazz before you even make it upstairs so I
forget the conditions that would cause it. It was a very damned
frustrating game and for the life of me I can't remember if I ever
killed Mr. Big but if I did it must have been just once.
Big Foot
One of the inspirations to put Video Game Masters online instead of the concept being lost to old home movies on damaged VHS tapes was the Angry Video Game Nerd. One episode had him review Tiger games, which were everywhere in the late 80's/early 90's and it reminded me of those days. Before we would get an actual NES (once the price went down), Tiger games were the only way to play video games when you couldn't be at the arcade.
Thes games were the slightly more advanced versions of those old school Game and Watch games, simple games on a LCD screen with pre-drawn digital characters on them not unlike a watch or a calculator. The main difference is that Tiger and its eventual competitors is that rather than simple games like pong or whatever, they were trying to copy actual games like Double Dragon, Castlevania, Street Fighter and Strider or make games based on existing properties like Batman or the Ninja Turtles. The sound was simple, just a simple little tune at either the start of the game or when you turn the game on and then random beeps of different pitches. The tune was always a random ditty, and not anything based on the original game's soundtrack. There was a mute button if you needed it which made it easier to sneak around in school. The only problem was you can only mute it when the game was on after it played its little intro tune, so yeah, we'd get caught sometimes.
They really were a cheap 10 or 15 dollar alternative to actually owning a game system. They were everywhere. Every small convenience store with some sort of electronic section had some. I remember Toys R Us had a display case full of all the newer Tiger games that I could only drool over. Yes, drool over because we couldn't afford a game system until later. Now The Nerd showed that Tiger lasted well into the 90's with its own wannabe game console and even a Virtual Boy knock off. Yeah, you're really bad when you want to copy a piece of phail like the Virtual Boy. But that's not what this article is about. This is about the personal memories of the Tiger and Acclaim games that I used to own. Some details might be wrong but this is based on memory alone. We no longer own these and don't want to fork out the cash to find them overpriced on eBay so we'll review them in a blog rather than a VGM episode.
Ninja Gaiden LCD Watch Game
The first Tiger game I ever got was a Ninja Gaiden wrist watch that my mom gave me for Christmas. Man, I used to play that for hours. From what I remember you have Ryu Hayabyusa fight ninjas off with your sword and throwing stars and occasionally I'd fight this big dude in Samurai armor that I assume was a boss. The only thing I didn't know back then is if the game had some sort if time limit or something. I remember randomly dying whenever I got so far. And I mean just instant game over without getting hit by anything. I remember staying up late at night trying to get farther and farther in the game before whatever that time-out thing was would kill me. I don't remember actually playing it while it was on my wrist though, but I probably did... though I can't imagine myself doing that now. That thing was so tiny I can't imagine myself trying to play it the normal way. I remember being curious how the normal sized Ninja Gaiden Tiger game played.
Strider
The first and only proper Tiger game I ever owned was Strider and while it was fun, it really was a cakewalk compared to the challenge of Ninja Gaiden. Strider would go around killing bad guys with his sword and I think he could also use that orb thing that orbits around you as some kind of protective shield. I think he could also jump and hook himself to the top of the screen as well. I don't remember much details except the game had like 4 or 5 levels and it was pretty easy as long as you kept your eyes on the bad guys coming on either side. It was fun to kill some time since you can beat it in less than hour. Unlike other simpler LCD games that go on forever for the sake of the high score, these games actually had a set amount of levels and the game does end if you beat the last level. Another detail Tiger games used to have when compared to others was that the characters could actually take a few hits depending on what games they were. Most other games had one-hit kills.
Heavy Barrel
The next game was actually from a friend of mine that he'd let borrow for a day or so in exchange for my Strider one and wow was this one fun. Unlike the side-scrolling Ninja Gaiden and Strider, Heavy Barrel was an overhead view with the character on the bottom of the screen aiming towards the top. I do believe there were soldiers, tanks and these weird looking machines with extending electric claws. You had to switch between different kinds of guns and a bazooka because each gun killed a certain foe. You would think a bazooka would blow up a tank, but the way the game graphics were lined up, any attack from the wrong gun would miss. As you shoot, you move left and right to avoid bullets, cannon fire and those electric claws. I think the claws appeared in the second or so level. There were lots of levels and things would get faster and faster and the game would throw all 3 types of enemies at you at once. Those claws were insanely fast in the last levels and I think I was able to beat the game at least once. Don't forget you only get 3 lives and there weren't any extra lives or power ups.
Bo Jackson -Baseball and Football
One game I wanna mention due to it's uniqueness is this game based on Bo Jackson, the sports star that was just as good at Baseball as he was in Football. Bo was big back then and was all over commercials with his catchphrase of 'Bo knows Football, Bo knows Baseball' and then Bo knows whatever product he's advertising. For a while in the CBS episodes of the TMNT, Donatello's kinda/sorta catchphrase was 'I'm warning you, Donatello knows bo!' since his weapon was the Bo Staff. So anyway, Tiger decided to profit by releasing a Bo Jackon Baseball AND Football game, at the same time. Two games for the price of one, how cool is that? I can only imagine how bulky it must have felt to play the thing with the other side of the game hanging upside down like that. However, Paige also has a few unique titles to add.
Paige Cuts In- 3D Baseball and 3D Motocross
Honestly I forgot about these! Mark told me about the Nerd video and at first I was like "wtf?" So I watched the video and I realized what he was talking about, which were these retro handheld games. I remembered that I had two...well my brother had two when I was growing up. One was baseball and the other was motocross. I remember these were kept in my dad's old van! I would play the games during car rides. I still remember my brother's name written across the back of the device. *Hours Later* Okay, I got so determined to look for these games...but the games my brother had were different from what Mark used to own/play. Our version was a 3D type of game with a figure inside a plastic front. For the baseball game when you turn the right trigger the figure would move too. But at first when I saw the video I didn't remember much about the game, till a memory slapped me across the face and the light bulb lit up. It took me a LOOONG time to find at least one of the games....*epic sigh* Well here it is:
*A few more minutes later...*
I found the other one! Hallelujah!!!
Konami LCD handheld games with TMNT
There were a couple more I'd like to mention that I never got to own but always wanted back in the day. Aside from Acclaim, Konami also made their own handheld games including a series based on the TMNT. The first one was just called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and was loosely based on the first NES game. I say that mostly due to the artwork on the game and the spinning underwater pillar thing you had to avoid in the underwater level of the NES game. It seemed you had to save April from some sort of glass case she was trapped in.
The sequel was called TMNT II Splinter Speaks and the main draw was that you would hear the voice of Splinter advise you as you play the game. I could only imagine how horrible or robotic it would sound... There was a third game called TMNT III Shredder's Last Stand which was another original adventure. Later on they released a TMNT Basketball Game... no seriously..
Tiger would eventually grab some Turtle Power of their own with their game based on The Next Mutation, based on the live-action TMNT series most Turtle fans would rather forget. It's possibly the one video game ever based on that series.
 |
| I have to admit, the artwork looks bad-ass. I wonder if you could play as Venus |
Acclaim portable LCD Games
Back to games my bro and I actually owned, we have the Acclaim games. Unlike the Tiger games, Acclaim would stick to making LCD versions of their own games. I remember you had to go to Toys R Us or other big name places for the Tiger games. The convenience stores within walking distance sold these other ones. I got NARC for myself and Johnny got Big Foot.
NARC
NARC was challenging but to a more frustrating degree than Heavy Barrel. The stage has two floors so you must take Max Force across the screen to climb the ladder and defeat Mr Big on the top floor. As you walk there's bad guys you can shoot and you can jump to dodge when they shoot back. There's also the annoying as hell black dogs that run at you. You can't shoot them so you have to time your jumps to avoid then as you run past. As you can tell there are lots of times when you jump over a bullet and land on a dog or vice versa, and sometimes the little bastards come in pairs.
Big Foot
Big Foot was less frustrating as you control the monster truck and jump
ramps and jump over logs and other jazz. Due to the road 'moving' at a
high speed it did give the illusion that it was actually
animated unlike the other LCD games. It was more fun than NARC but
frustrating in its own right. Whenever I wanted to throw NARC across the room, I would borrow Johnny's game for a while, but I don't think Johnny wanted to try NARC. I'm not sure if this game actually had an end to it or it was just ongoing and you had to try to beat your own high score.
Pac-Man LCD watch game from Nelsonic
To end this article I want to mention the very first video game I ever owned. This is going real far back in my childhood, I believe my mom ordered it from a magazine.
My Pac-Man watch.... *sniffle*. Man, I used to play this sucker for
hours on end. I had forgotten but this truly was my very first home
video game. And for what it was, it played so well (not that Pac-Man
needed that much fancy animation anyway). Just seeing it brings back
memories. It was my first introduction to Pac-Man himself since all the
arcades at the time only had Miss Pac-Man, the slightly speedier sequel.
I played the hell out of it until it finally died out, and not even
replacing the batter could fix it. But yeah... there you have it. We
hope you enjoyed our stroll down memory lane. If you have any of the old
classic Tiger games, or any of the other older LCD games, feel free to
drop your comments and share in the memories.
In Conclusion
These games were simplistic and most likely didn't age all that well, but I wish there was a way to re-buy them all without paying insane prices due to the value of vintage. You'd be lucky if you find Tiger games that cost 20 bucks, some of them go for over 100 or more on eBay and Amazon. That Pac-Man watch from Nelsonic goes for 250 bucks on ebay and is very rare. Even if I were to get it, it would be almost a crime to take it out of the packaging to relive my childhood and play it one last time. I honestly wonder if I even remember the sounds it had. Man, this article really took me back.
Thanks for the fun times Tiger Electronics, Acclaim and Nelsonic.
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