1981 Tron Handheld from Tomytronic in LIKE-NEW CONDITION! 

I've still got mine in complete boxed mint condition, it was fantastic as a kid to play this as a kid because I was such a fan of the TRON movie as a kid.

Okay, I was not expecting the lightcycle sequence to be that impressive. I figured it would be single screen and extremely limited, but this was just... Wow. I also liked the rudimentary Pong physics for the Sark battle; that was fun to see!

When I was a kid, I had a choice between this and Tomytronic Pac-Man. I picked Pac-Man. It's nice to get a peek at the road less traveled! Also, I feel it's worth mentioning that the MCP, as drawn by Tomy, looks like the angriest lava lamp ever made.

I remember getting one of these for xmas back then. I was obsessed with TRON and I received several TRON based toys that year. We had the video tape which I played to death. It really had a big part in my early interest in computers and electronics.

I had one of these as a kid, and it was fantastic! Loved the fact that the game got faster as you progressed too.

OMG, I had one of these when I was a kid. Whenever I had a friend sleep over they wanted to play my Tron game because nobody else had one of these. I also had a tabletop/handheld Scramble that nobody else had and that game was popular during sleep overs too. If you loop this Tron game enough times Sark becomes impossible, he moves so fast there's no way to get the disk behind him, so the game only ends when it's impossible to advance. There's no ending that I know of. Cool video, brings back memories.

Had one as a kid was great, bought the A1up Tron about a year ago, love it as well, perfect emulation

OMG good memories! I played the heck out of this game on long summer road trips as a kid! I felt my old child instinct on how to beat the game start coming back! Thanks for sharing!

I love collecting LED and VFD games from ‘76-‘84. So much nostalgia. Great find!

The arcade Gods smiled upon you with this one! Good score! It’s all in the wrist!

Very cool! I also have this Tron handheld from Tomytronic. You should be on the lookout for the Scramble one as well. Very good gameplay and a lot of fun!

I still have mine. I got it for my 11th birthday almost 42 years ago. It was a fun game for what they had available back then.

Holy Cow, One of my ALL TIME Favorites as a kid. I was lucky enough to own one of these and I remember countless hours playing it. It was so cool having 3 games in one machine at a time that was unheard of. Thanks as always for the journey back to my youth!

Oh my gawd....I played this game for years. I loved it. This brings me back.

I never had one but played my cousins all the time. I love the look of it, especially cleaned up

For an LCD game it looks extremely fun! I’ll have to hit that place up next time I’m down there

Wow! Never realized this unit had such awesome gameplay! Now I want one!!

Congrats on this find. Tomy had some great toys. I especially appreciate the electro-mechanical stuff.

That is just pretty! I have (and had) a few older games like this. I miss those days. That battery compartment is flawless! WOW!

had one of these! great game for my mini arcade back when i was younger. pretty advanced with the different stages, too!

Wow, a blast from the past! I had completely forgotten about this game.

Too cool! Never heard of this. Just found it in mame, I have all the required art too. On my play list. Man, that list is getting looooong!

Still have my Tomy Tron, in near-mint condition with its original box, packaging and instructions! In the summer of 1983, KB Toys had a fire-sale, with a giant pile of boxed Tomy games marked down to $13.99 (originally $55.95!). I bought Tron, my brother bought Scramble. They ate batteries quickly, so we'd fight over who got to use our universal DC power-adapter. Played hours of Tron (and Scramble!), until I bought my Apple II Plus clone computer, a year later.

Really cool finding these little gems out on the road and of saving them from being discarded one day and finding their way onto a beloved collector's shelf. Great find!

My brother and I had many of these games, but TRON was my favorite! It's the only one I still have! As well as it's instructions and box! But I will have to try that flurp sound technique to clean it! Great find and review, Jon!

Hey Jon, you probably don't remember but I used to show up on your live streams here on GenXGrownUp as Berly Suazo. Happy to be back and I can't wait for more videos.

Oh man this is cool. Tomy made some really fun stuff. This Tron one is a winner. Great video and thanks for sharing.

Nice tour of this game! I recently returned from Japan and found a working Japanese version of this game at a pop up antique fair. All wording on the back case are in Japanese. I can’t find a single one for sale online, so my assumption is I found a rare gem!

What a thing of beauty! Great pickup Jon and thanks for sharing :-)

I received one of these for Christmas of 1983. Fun little game. The only drawback was that it ate through batteries quickly. Watching you play it in this video brings back memories.

Awesome find. Love Tron, I forgot how much the MCP looks like a lava lamp!

I still have the one I got in 1981/82. My box and instructions disappeared soon after I got it. I also made a mess of it by trying to build it into a larger cabinet and add a joystick and taller button to it, like the creative kid I was. I eventually removed the stuff but it did make a mess of the plastic. It may look rough but I never really stopped using it for long. It’s addicting to play and because the speeds increase, it’s always a fun challenge. The disc battle does get hard, seeming like Sark’s speed changes and he catches the disc far easier than you’d think. Tomy really did a good job on the TRON game. They made several others including a Scramble version and even did a few for Radio Shack stores with custom art. They use the same case but with different controls on the panel. Coleco’s tabletop arcade games were fairly good licensed games too but Tomy made a better product and used that D-Pad design before most other game controllers used that design. It’s similar to playing with a SEGA Master System controller.

great stuff, I only remember seeing ads in the Sears Wishbook for this and maybe a friend had it in a pile of stuff, maybe also saw it at a Salvation Army store a wile ago. once again thank you for this installment..I'm hooked !

This was definitely an impressive game for the day. I wish I still had mine.

This is soooo cool! TRON is one of my favorite movies, nice grab!

It is so interesting to see this Tron handheld game. Back in the early 80s when the arcade games came out, a handheld game couldn't measure up. Solid state computer memory and video displays were not nearly as compact as they are now. In the 21st Century, an arcade replica can be had that really works like the original arcade game.

Another great pick up, love these VFD units. Also, I think might need to get some of that Flarp putty for occasional gadget cleaning needs, sure seems to work great.

I have always wanted that game being a big fan of the movie TRON. If you like VFD games, I would highly recommend you find a Radio Shack Astro Thunder. It is like Star Wars the Arcade game. It is also the only handheld that has two separate sound amplifiers - one for sound effects and one for music with switches to turn on and off. Highly recommended. Check Handheld Museum as this game was sold under many names. Thanks for the video!

Had so much fun with this when I was young, my cousin had one

thats so cool that it worked! my friend had that when we were kids and we used to play it all the time while listening to men at work! LOL

I haver a real fondness for these handheld LCD games, I had a bunch and it felt like having real arcades at home (back in the day!).

Wow! That's pretty cool. I'm going to try and find one for myself.

I still have mine I got new when I was a kid! I love this!

Very cool. And great video. (I actually loved seeing you take the time to clean up the game.)

I still have mine and it's in perfect working condition! Just a few scratches on the screen but otherwise fine. Looking at yours, I do need to clean my game. My mom got it for me because I loved Tron. Couldn't get enough of it after seeing it. I burned so many hours playing it. The only thing that would have made it better for me is if there was a volume control or a headphone jack because I would have been playing when I was supposed to have been sleeping! LOL

OMG I loved it. Thank you for sharing, Jon!

That was a lot better then I thought it would be. Nice find

What a cool channel this is. I just found you about a day ago randomly and have already watched quite a few videos. Subscribed!

What a great addition to your collection, and what a fantastic video documenting your journey. Thankfully, it was in relatively good shape. I’m sure you heard they just green-lit Tron three. That’ll be interesting. Power to the User! Keep up the good work, Jon!!

Ayyy i had that, loved it, and played the heck out of it. On the light cycle stage i would prolong the game by running away from the enemy, using up the screen memory.

That putty trick is genius.

Amazing! Super lucky find! Congrats on that one! 😎👍🏻

When i was a kid i found a tomytronic game called scramble at a salvation army thrift store, case was the same shape. Played it for hours. Ever since i saw one of these I've always wanted to get it because i liked scramble so much.

All hail the vacuum fluorescent tube! It gave us color unlike most games with lcd displays, that came later on.

Wow never saw this game before! Cool find 👍🏼

I still have mine that I bought in the 80's.

What a sweet find this was! Wow!

This is such a cool device!

It's hard to believe how many hours I would play games similar to this one back when I was a kid. I still have a few tucked away somewhere which will no doubt turn up when I move house the next time. I sure hope I remembered to take the batteries out. 🤐

I had one of these. Played for hours.

I’ve had this for a couple decades and it’s absolutely a blast to play. VFD display is bright and colorful I have the coleco tabletops too, fun times

tron is my favorire movie and year 82!! you got lucky that looks great condition!!! nice!!i want that!!

What an awesome find I never knew it existed.. so neat

Beautiful find Jon!

I own one as part of my tron collection along with action figures and the pop up book Edit: One tomy game I had and lost was cosmic clash, it’s mini electromechanical game like what arcades used to have in that short period between pinball and video games. It was pretty fascinating how it worked in such a small form.

Vintage electronic games are amazing.

I had this as a child as well.

This was before my time (I was around but to young) but if I saw it today, I'd buy it. I started gaming in 1986 with the Nes and Master System so I'm not too far off from you guys. I don't have the same feelings for Atari as you all do but...I understand it. You see, I fell in love with Sega especially after getting my Genesis in 1989. That was the machine that turned me into a hard-core player for life. Addendum- I don't know if you all just stick strictly to Atari but I do like the channel. I myself play everything across all platforms, genres, and generations of gaming. I am also a huge 5th generation collector. I am all about the Sega Saturn and Sony Playstation. I also love modern gaming and we (fiancee and I) have every current gen system that's out now (Series X, PS5, and Switch).

My one's busted - so I'm very happy for you! Great find 😉

I still have the one I got for Christmas many years ago 🤣

I've always wanted one of these (and the Coleco Zaxxon tabletop)

Beautiful game.

Oh man what a beauty!

Great p/u. Love me some Tron. CLUE RULZ!!

For the tech that is pretty advanced. Looks kinda fun actually.

OMG I used to play the hell out of it!

Ah, a fellow north coaster! I am in the JAX area as well.

These are awesome! I have one for sale with the manual if anyone needs one. I have owned it since I was 10 and I am 52 now!

You would think otherwise, but I never had one of those units. However, it was ahead of its time in that the game is "widescreen".

Hi John, if you look through the plastic casing at the very back of the game, at the bottom of the printed circuit boards you can read the words “world of Tron” . I’ve had mine since it was new and then my sister acquired it so I managed to track another one down years later. I still remember seeing the movie in the cinema back in the day, I believe it was said that Tron was the first movie to use computer graphics in the making of that movie? Thanks for sharing mate.

Didn’t know you were in Jax! I’ve eyeballed that same Tron a couple times! I did grab a Atari Touch Me from there a while back though

As a Gen Z who loves TRON, I want this lol

I had Astro Blaster and Scramble which had identical cases.

I had this when I was younger but I was stupid enough to put a screwdriver to it because that smoked glass tempted me to that cardboard printed circuit I was 8 at the time

It's awesome than you obtained that awesome old console :0

God damn it!

I only had this and another grey tabletop I think was named galaxy II . It was like a galaxian clone. I miss those .😢

Wooaahhhj ❤❤❤

This has a simulated Light Cycles? You really can't ask for more.

I had a table top version pacman.

Wow, I don't remember this one. Was it something to promote the movie while the movie was still in production? Tron the movie wasn't officially released until the Summer of 1982. Also, I know nothing about electronics, but why did so many electronics back in the day require C and D cell batteries? That's a pretty small device yet still requires C cells. Finally, and I'm sure you already know this, but I was at an antique mall the other week and saw some tabletop games for sale there. You never know what you'll find at an antique mall.

damn, i don't remember this one

This reminds me of that PacMan knock off Vacuum display game

I just got mine back from storage. I'll have to troubleshoot it because if I remember correctly it stopped working...

Can’t get mine to turn on smh. Any suggestions?

IMPORTANT!!! do not use any hard wiping to clean the screen. The “paint“ or whatever you wanna call, it has a tendency to just come right off.

I bought a Caveman game from a friend

Pretty sure I got kicked out of the old main street drug store for playing this on their glass counter for far too long.

This came out before the movie?

Caveman VFD game had much deeper gameplay imo.