Strange 'Consoles' like the LeapPad

[Corrupted Unicorn]

Wow, I don't even remember the name of the ones I owned, but the "toy" side of consoles is a fascinating world

I remember owning a tamagotchi-like device that was also an agenda, a calendar, a calculator, an alarm, pretty much everything you needed as a young student plus extra goodies like a virtual pet, a fortune teller and such. Also, more "serious" versions of those for grownups (sadly, with no virtual pets :sad:smile: that were like tiny keyboards you could fit in your pocket. I'd love to revisit this kind of tech sometime!

Lately, I'm also fond of "toy" computers and laptops! I don't know where to start looking for this stuff, but I'd love to leaarn more about them and look at pictures of them for aesthetical purposes.

If you're interested in this kind of world, I do know of someone who makes youtube videos about techy toys and 2000's toys in general! He even has one on the LeapPad.

[bugholder's epiphany]

Dunno how similar this is to the weirdness with the leapfrogs and the pads and such like that, but I tend to enjoy looking into strange bootleg or 'odd' consoles sometimes. Such as this thing here:



The 'Mega-Duck'. A weird portable console (akin to a bootleg gameboy) from hong-kong that uses cartridge games and has audio that makes me want to gouge my ears out from it's... audio quality.

But also who can forget the tiger electronic games?

[TheFrugalGamer]

@thesolitarygamer, I've never heard of that Mega Duck console before! I watched that entire video, and it's not bad for what it is, really. The sound is a bit shrill, I agree, but it looks like the games are all clones of well-known franchises. I probably would have played a lot with that thing if I had it as a kid. I am curious about the cartridges, though--since it's an off brand, I wonder how easy it was to find new games for it at the time?

[bugholder's epiphany]

@thesolitarygamer, I've never heard of that Mega Duck console before! I watched that entire video, and it's not bad for what it is, really. The sound is a bit shrill, I agree, but it looks like the games are all clones of well-known franchises. I probably would have played a lot with that thing if I had it as a kid. I am curious about the cartridges, though--since it's an off brand, I wonder how easy it was to find new games for it at the time?

Hard to say, honestly. Apparently the list of games on Wikipedia is incomplete, with one game left up in the air about if it actually existed or not. It was released and marketed under different brands around the world as well, with a variant of it called the Cougar Boy being distributed in South America. Also apparently the company that distributed it there, called Cougar USA, didn't actually release the console in it's origin country funnily enough.

Also apparently it had it's own educational computer addon:dunno:

[TheFrugalGamer]

Oh wow, that is so strange! I wonder when that thing was released? Wikipedia says the cougar boy came out in 1993, so I have to imagine the laptop extension wouldn't have been impressive even by 1995 standards. Also, I love that the mouse just has controller buttons on it and doesn't even function like a real mouse.

[3lsie]

Oh this thread is bringing back so many memories! My favourite thing I used to have, if it counted as a console, was this Neopets toy:


I remember my friend used to have Friendchips and we'd play with it together. You could write a message on the console and save it to the chip, then someone else could put the chip into their console and read it. It seemed so cool to us!


On the learning theme, I used to have an electronic dictionary, and I thought it was so futuristic. It had a full QWERTY keyboard and you could obviously look up any word you wanted! It blew my mind as a kid.

[sokil]

Anybody remember this bad boy? Supposedly this was my first console (according to mom) but I coulda sworn that the PS1 was my first. Either way, I remember I would swap between both of 'em. Sorry Playstation, but how are you gonna beat a controller that looks like this?

OMGOSH!!! i had one of these when i was a kid! i remember that it was set up in my parents' bedroom (and possibly moved to the living room at one point?); weirdly, i have a very clear memory of a three or four year old me sitting on the bed playing a mickey game - mickey's magical adventure, i think it was called! unfortunately i don't remember any of the other games i had. i probably spent a good amount of time playing games on my vsmile, though i was usually playing outside with friends or forcing my parents to play board/card games with me xD. there is a very slim chance that it might be stored away in a box or tote somewhere since we rarely get rid of old technology, but i kind of doubt it.

i think that was the only unusual console i owned, unless the pokewalker counts. i think i actually still have this, but the battery died a long time ago and i never bothered to replace it.

the two kids i was friends with on my street growing up had some kind of vtech laptop - unfortunately the only thing i can recall about it is that it was dark blue. i also remember the rise of vtech/leapfrog tablets, though i don't know anybody who owned one.

[Gloogo]

Oh this thread is bringing back so many memories! My favourite thing I used to have, if it counted as a console, was this Neopets toy:

I remember these! Wow, thank you for posting this, such a deep memory for me. I wonder if I could find my old one at my parents' house...

This whole thread is awesome, I remember I had a vtech laptop "toy" as a kid that had a surprisingly capable word processing app on it.

[3lsie]

I remember these! Wow, thank you for posting this, such a deep memory for me. I wonder if I could find my old one at my parents' house...

I'm so glad to hear that! It was a deep memory for me too, and I can't believe I'd forgotten about them until this thread jogged my memory.

I hope you can find your old one - that'd be awesome. I don't have mine anymore, but I did do some window shopping on eBay after I posted that, and it looks like they're not too hard to get hold of, so maybe one day I will, haha.

[milo]

But also who can forget the tiger electronic games?

I grew up on those cheap, LCD handhelds. I couldn't get a real Game Gear or Game Boy but I sure as heck had a bunch of those lying around.

I also have really early memories of this thing:



It was basically a tablet you could hook to your TV to draw pictures. Pretty basic and standard, but I had a blast with it when I was very young before I played any real video game consoles.

[Zunne]

can it run DOOM?

[candycanearter07]

WOW! That thing looks really cool and out of this world :]

I was not aware that so many early game stuff where focused around trivia. Maybe its my perception or just my experience but I don't feel like there is much interest in trivia these days.

How could I forget about that gem!



Much fun was had on this thing.

i had one of those as a kid

[Nikodile]

I always thought the N-Gage was really, REALLY weird.


I'm aware it's not like it's unheard of, but the whole concept of it is just so weird to me. Was it supposed to be a phone first or a game console first? Why do we have to open the back just to change the game (I know the later revision fixes this)?


Just overall, a really niche console that I was always really curious about. I bought one a while back just to play around with and every design choice made for it made me feel like they couldn't decide whether they wanted the comfort of a mobile phone or the feel of a handheld console so they just made 50/50 decisions.

[halcybutton]

i had a LeapPad at some point :) the niche 'console' i loved as a kid was a 20q machine, i would play it like all the time. this is what it looked like

[xXWebMasterXx_Gina]

I remember having a LeapPad! I was recently debating if I should buy one off of eBay but luckily there are walkthrough videos on YouTube of most, if not all of the books it could pair with!

It's funny looking back on it, any children's point and click PC game could do everything the LeapPad could do and more (minus the tactility of using the pen and turning the pages); but I wont knock it, I still had tons of fun with it!

i had a LeapPad at some point :) the niche 'console' i loved as a kid was a 20q machine, i would play it like all the time. this is what it looked like

Oooh! I had one of these in blue! I would sometimes bring it to school and my friends would fight over getting a chance to play XD.


I'm not sure if this counts, but is Cube World a console? Each cube kind of functioned as its own unique "game" in a way. Plus the way they could be paired was pretty cool!

(video is loud)

I distinctly remember having an orange and purple cube which was a stickman with a dog and a stickman with a staff respectively. I always wanted to get more, but it would have been expensive!