I grew up with this! My grandparents had it at their place, so when they looked after my brother and I during the school holidays and when we were sick we would play this. This would be around 96-97, I was 6-7. We had the first version since we were able to hook up Commodore controllers to it. We knew it was hopelessly outdated but it's all we had. We eventually got a Sega Master System 2 as an upgrade. Was always a bit behind on console gaming. Really appreciate this video. This was a fond memory.
I remember owning and playing this monstrosity, can't remember if I got it from Woolworths or Argos. Most of the time it was played by my mother as she only played it for space invaders.
My mum bought me this and got completely addicted to Space Invaders too! What is it about that game and ladies of a certain age?! lol She was also addicted to Tetris.
@@Andros2709 Ah, back when plug and play manufacturers cared about compatibility. Ah, yes. Here's a portable mini LCD famiclone without a controller port or video output. It has Duck Hunt in it... Good luck playing it.
This was technically my first ever Games Console. I got it for Christmas in '97 when I was 11 years old and I remember liking the games. I had no idea they were Atari 2600 games back then. One game in Particular I liked was a platformer where you are a little Elf boy trying to get back home. Also I personally liked the menu theme.
I do remember the 9 pin joystick port. It’s funny how most of the copyrights where removed from the games. A classic example of hong kong video game piracy. A large toy store chain in the netherlands sold these around late 1995. I still remember the advertisement and how it was depicted next to a PS1 which was just released at the time.
I see the whole modern "retro plug 'n' play" category as basically the legit (and sometimes still not legit) response to these old pirate gadgets. Though I suppose in spirit they're not too different from the old 1970s dedicated pong machines.
HAHA! I can’t believe you covered this! I grew up in a poor family in New Zealand in the 90s, and we couldn’t afford a PlayStation or Nintendo. So my mum got us one of these exact same TV Boys. As kids though, my brother and I got hours of fun from it, even if it wasn’t a flash console of the times. I still remember playing some of the games that you played in this video. Thank you for bringing back some childhood memories!
I have two! My original from the day and one I randomly found in a pawn shop, for a whole $2 about 6 months ago. The original's plastics degraded, it got old and started crumbling away. Awesome seeing you cover one. I recall "Pitfall" was referred to as "Teeth Brush" yes, seriously!
The thing is that the entire Atari VCS No-Intro set is about 30mb, and 52mb for the goodset at most. The entire Atari VCS library can be stored on a 2gb flash drive and leave room to spare.
So basically an Atari Flashback before there was a Flashback. Being one that runs on real hardware instead of being an emulator box though is interesting in its own right.
The FlashBack 1 was an NES on a chip, but the FlashBack 2 was a functional recreation of the 2600 hardware, running the original code, and I think the additional sequels were as well.
Sadly the Flashback 3 onwards are all software emulation. Which is a shame. The hackability of the Flashback 2 was such an amazing development - being incredibly easy to just solder on a 2600 cartridge connector to play real carts. It's a shame there's not been anything more modern in the same vein… because well, there are some rad modern releases in 2600 land, and playing them on an emulator just ain't the same…
If it helps the Retron77 is an emulator in a box, but it does have a cartridge slot for playing real cartridges and will work with a number of flash carts. Original ataris are also still fairly affordable. Lastly there is rumor that the Flashback 9 will feature an SD card slot, so it may be able to load homebrew.
What a weird coincidence! I used to have the exact same thing when I was a child... I don't remember any of the games - but I do still recall being very underwhelmed with the whole thing - even as a child ^^
Wow. This is something I had completely forgotten about. As a 8 year old kid with a broken mega drive this was the best alternative. I don't ever want to touch one again even though this gave me many hours of entertainment.
Now that's a blast from the past! I had a TVBoy (in fact I think I've still got it somewhere, probably in the loft) and that it did have the extra joystick port on the side. I seem to remember having "fun" playing Frogs and Flies, Combat and Gunslinger with my kid brother on that thing with a Master System joypad hooked up.
This would have been the most amazing thing to me when I was a kid. It’s shitty now that I am approaching 100 years old and you see such amazing products but you are immediately sceptical. I miss that innocent hope that the cheap junk may just be an amazing machine. Oh to be in my 60s again...
I had this from Argos some time in the 90s. Can't remember if it was the 1 or 2 but was identical to yours. I don't remember that much about it, but I almost certainly still have it in my family attic if I look hard enough! You've really brought back some memories here though, not so much with the TV boy, but with Systema. I'd love to see a video on this company some time. Their products were as much my early childhood as Sega were and of course they were portable so came to school with me! Everybody had a Systema product. I had the little red and black racing game you used in this video, along with the yellow and black thing too. Were they also responsible for the Teenage Mutant Ninja/Hero Turtles handhelds too?! These were really popular. Great vid as ever!
As someone who is currently writing documentation I can feel an affinity for the person who got bored towards the end of the list - you start off with lots of detail and ideas and as the deadline approaches you just get the basics into the document with the intention of padding it out later :)
Liked for "you can tell the person got bored while writing these". Always my favourite thing on these guides. Also, "God, it sounds like a Master System in pain". 10/10, there.
Fun fact: The original TV Boy is not probably the very first plug & play console ever, but also it, Alongside TV Boy II and Super TV Boy are all emulated in MAME
YES I specifically remember staring suspiciously at this thing in the Argos/Index catalogues with its bargain price and loads of games - it always seemed "too good to be true", my instincts were the same as yours. This is the first clone style "x-in-1" console I ever saw in a "real shop" rather than a market or as a ticket prize in a seaside arcade. Amazing you actually got one after all these years! Interesting that whilst most of these type of systems are Famiclones, this is a 2600 clone instead. Though I like to collect them for the box art and historic value, I'm not a huge fan of 2600 games save the odd few, so I'm glad I didn't buy it at the time. A Famiclone with Super Mario Bros, Donkey Kong et all would have been a far more exciting prospect for me at the time.
@@BobMonkeypimp I never said he didn't. I just pointed out its interesting that most of these type of systems are famiclones, but this is a 2600 clone.
Did i take the first high score screenshot i took one of river raid in 1983 using an old film camera people used to sy "why would you do that take a photo of your game and its score" how times have changed
The spirit of these old many in one consoles lives on, definitely. For my birthday my kids went to Argos or Hawkins Bazaar, the kind of place you go when you don't know what to get someone for a birthday. I got a Red5 Desktop Arcade Machine (Argos number 668/2240 if you're tempted!)... And, well, it's awful. The casing is okay, the controls are okay. Battery life is okay. But there are 200 Atari 8bit - era clone games on there and not one worth playing for more than a few minutes. The games on the TVBoy look much better. Still, I bet Argos sells boat loads of them this Christmas.
I remember changinging color palettes as a feature in early home computer games. It was to give you the best experience for your particular black and white tv.
I completely forgot this thing existed, what a nostalgia trip. I got one of these things for Christmas (i think from my Nan). Another thing that brought back memories was that WCW lcd game, i didnt have it but i defo remember playing it at school.
Whew. Talk about a nostalgia trip - I used to play one of these on a tiny black and white TV every weekend at my grandparent's, stuffing my face with penny sweets, Beano comic at my side.
even with the copyright issues. I'm surprised nobody's ever made one of these pieces of crap that contains the entire Atari library from one system or the other. Can you imagine little handheld like this crammed with the entire 500 game library for the 2600. Hard to believe that system had 500 games. Not all consoles were nearly that lucky or fortunate.
Nowadays I could expect somebody doing it with a sd card slot. So you have to provide the games yourself and they don't fear any copyright issues with the games, only the hardware.
Not really. It was the only counsel available and in those days one person could write a game in a few months. Now you need a team and 7 years for games like GTA 6
@@colinjohnston8519 Only console available? I get it was the most popular by far, but it was also competing against Intelivision, ColecoVision, Odyssey2, and home computers just to name a few.
@@HappyBeezerStudios no ,thats facilitating piracy. If anyone released something like this ,they would get sued to kingdom come or get an injunction or something. That's why stuff like flashcarts cant be legaly sold in shops.
I owned this as a child! The version I had thou had 2 gamepad sockets on the bottom of the console that you could plug master system/mega drive pads in for two player gaming. Forest Walk is the one I remember the most
Haven't heard 'Index Catalogue' in decades - so long ago I can't actually remember when they disappeared or exactly what they were. My memory tells me it was like Argos but I don't recall the shops, just the catalogue.
@@jjwp-ql5rv I think you missed the gist of my comment - I'm familiar with Argos, I shopped there two days ago, it's Index catalogues that I haven't heard mentioned in decades and I can't remember whether they were the same thing as Argos (essentially a warehouse with little on display and an in-store catalogue ordering system as opposed to stacked shelves) or just mail order. And yes, indeed "decades"-I'm 33 and I'm afraid that is a recent photo.
Yes, Index operated on the same business model as Argos. There were a few separate Index shops, however most Index outlets were actually within Littlewoods deprartment stores.
I had one of these when it came out, after noticing it played 2600 games (a console I used to play as a kid), and can confirm the music was indeed horrendous, enough to give you a headache.
There WAS a retro gaming scene in the 90's where people on Internet newsgroups collected and traded 2600 games with each other. I remember hearing about the TV Boy on rec.games.video.classic so i checked out the video to see one in action.
I had COMPLETELY forgot about this until I saw the name. My cousin had one and out of all the games we only played two... Pacmania and Forest Walk.... sometimes invasion.... not too sure why she had this thig as there was a perfectly working available Mega Drive she had and we would be eventually be on with the TvBoy chucked in the corner.
10:44 That's actually very neat. Being able to broadcast the game to the TV so there is no need for wires. But I'm sure it breaks some sort of laws for broadcasting in the process.
I still have mine! Since it was my first experience with Atari 2600 games, it wasn't until many years later I realised some games had been palette-swapped, like the TV Boy version of Pitfall. It's hard to see the proper versions as being "correct" after playing the TV Boy so much. Also didn't realise that some of the games had the company logos erased, like one game that still had the placeholder where "Activision" used to be, but the letters taken off. For years I wondered why that shape was on the bottom of the screen, then saw the real version.
I had something like this with an atari paddle. 1st player had a massive paddle that housed literally everything except the second player, and even had two more ports for up to 4 players, though the only game I remember that could do this was an upscale version of warlords with a crown and Darth Vader helmet as each corners core.
I had a Super TV Boy in the late 90s, picked it up at a car boot sale for something like £5-10. I didn't even have the manual with it, so I just had to remember the numbers of games I liked, after going through to see what each game was.
oh my days! not seen this since I was a kid when I had one 😁 brings back so many memories 👍🏻 unsure as to why my parents got me this as it was after my Atari and c64 days 😁, think my dad may of had a say In it as me and him used to play Atari 2600 all the time together 😁 great video buddy 👌🏻 although I distinctly remember my tv boy had extra controller port 👌🏻
I had one of these! All I remember is plugging it in on Christmas Day, playing a crappy Spider-Man game, and getting a shock from one of the joystick ports.
All I can think of when I see that spider man game is the song froom the AVGN Spider Man episode: "Spider-Man, Spider-Man Takes a dump in a coffee can Plays some games with a grudge Gonna shit out some anal fudge Look out! Here comes some shitty games Alcohol is his power source Takes a piss like a drunken horse Climbs a wall then he falls This game sucks his spider balls Oh no, he's playing the shitty games When he plays his games, he feels so ashamed He shoots web from his wrist But now Spiderman's fuckin' pissed Angry Nerd, Angry Nerd Rather suck on a frozen turd Or eat some crap from a moose Gonna chug down some poopy juice These games are such a great big fuck-up They make you wanna throw up All over Spider-Man..."
I got something similar to this as young kid in the early 2000s... I don’t remember much about it but I remember getting bored of it pretty quickly because it was all mostly space games. Looking back now, the controller was really similar to the N64's controller but without the joystick.
6:46 i had the first one but mine was green. It was a motorcycle game that played just onece until the button battery fell off and those were expensive so it ended on the back of a drawer... Nostalgic.
Not a bad device that was reviewed. For decades I've kept the 2600 alive here starting with the Heavy Sixer in the early '80s to the most recent incarnation via a cheap RCA W10 tablet with HDMI and USB 3.0 port hub with Ethernet. Throw in a couple gamepads and it's cheap thrills with all the games.
Massive nostalgia trip. I had one of these but couldn't remember what it was called. I remember the the toothpaste, submarine and one shot galaga style games the most. Didn't realise they were all 2600 games. Although a clone, not emulation? Ordered one on eBay, thank you sir.
