A handheld TV game or plug and play game is an integrated

home video game console A home video game console is a video game console that is designed to be connected to a display device, such as a television, and an external power source as to play video games. While initial consoles were dedicated units with only a few game ...

and

game controller A game controller, gaming controller, or simply controller, is an input device or Input/Output Device, input/output device used with video games or entertainment systems to provide input to a video game. Input devices that have been classified as ...

, usually

battery Battery or batterie most often refers to: * Electric battery, a device that provides electrical power * Battery (crime), a crime involving unlawful physical contact Battery may also refer to: Energy source * Battery indicator, a device whic ...

powered, which connects directly to a television. The game software is built directly into the unit, which is typically designed to look like a toy or classic game console controller with the addition of a composite video cable to connect the unit. These systems usually contain either a collection of classic games or original games based on licensed properties. Because the game software is integrated into the game unit and almost never designed to be changed by the user, these game systems are typically marketed as electronic toys or collectibles rather than game consoles. Several manufacturers produced these devices beginning in the 1990s, though the concept became best known with the release in 2002 of Jakks Pacific's Atari Classic 10-in-1 TV. Most manufacturers have their own trademarked names for these systems, such as Radica's Play TV or Majesco's TV Arcade; however, most retailers refer to them as "TV games" or "plug and play" games.

History

From the mid-1990s to the early 2000s, three things happened: the

retro game Retro gaming, also known as classic gaming and old school gaming, is the playing and collection of personal computers, consoles, and video games from earlier decades. Usually, retro gaming is based upon systems that are outmoded or discontinu ...

movement started to gain momentum, the price of

system on a chip A system on a chip (SoC) is an integrated circuit that combines most or all key components of a computer or Electronics, electronic system onto a single microchip. Typically, an SoC includes a central processing unit (CPU) with computer memory, ...

technology fell dramatically, and car television sets became popular. Several unlicensed family games, such as the

TV Boy The TV Boy, and its successors TV Boy II and Super TV Boy, are handheld TV games sold by many different companies, including Systema, Akor, and NICS, based upon an unlicensed clone of Atari 2600 hardware. They were released around 1992 and thre ...

, were produced. These factors led to manufacturers officially licensing classic games. The first TV games include collections of classic games; one of the earliest is the Toymax Activision 10-in-1, released in 2001. The first TV games contain collections of classic games, and many manufacturers started incorporating original content and controls. Jakks Pacific reached licensing deals with

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

DC Comics DC Comics (originally DC Comics, Inc., and also known simply as DC) is an American comic book publisher owned by DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC is an initialism for "Detective Comics", an American comic book seri ...

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is a New York City–based comic book publishing, publisher, a property of the Walt Disney Company since December 31, 2009, and a subsidiary of Disney Publishing Worldwide since March 2023. Marvel was founded in 1939 by Martin G ...

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (nicknamed Nick) is an American pay television channel and the flagship property of the Nickelodeon Group, a sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on April 1, 1979, as the first ca ...

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (CN) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the Cartoon Network, Inc., a sub-division of the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks division of Warner Bros. Discovery. It launched on ...

, and others. Criticism that video games were contributing to obesity in children led to the development of TV games with motion controls such as the Play TV series, including Play TV Baseball, Play TV Football, and Play TV Barbie Dance Craze in 2003. In 2004,

Tiger Electronics Tiger Electronics Ltd. (also known as Tiger and Tiger Toys) is an American toy manufacturer best known for its handheld electronic games, the Furby, the Talkboy, Giga Pets, the 2-XL robot, and audio games such as '' Brain Warp'' and the ...

created

paintball Paintball is a competitive sport, competitive team sport, team shooting sport in which players eliminate opponents from play by hitting them with spherical dye-filled gelatin capsules called Paintball equipment#Paintballs, paintballs that b ...

and a ''

The Lord of the Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an Epic (genre), epic high fantasy novel written by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's book ''The Hobbit'' but eventually d ...

'' sword-fighting game, using a toy sword as the controller. In that year, Radica started producing collections of Sega games, such as ''

Sonic the Hedgehog is a video game series and media franchise created by the Japanese developers Yuji Naka, Naoto Ohshima, and Hirokazu Yasuhara for Sega. The franchise follows Sonic the Hedgehog (character), Sonic, an anthropomorphic blue hedgehog who battle ...

'', ''

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is a 1992 platform game developed by Sega Technical Institute (STI) for the Sega Genesis. Players control Sonic as he attempts to stop Doctor Robotnik from stealing the Chaos Emeralds to power his space station, the Death Egg. Like the fir ...

'', ''

Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle is a side-scrolling platform game developed and published by Sega for the Genesis. It is the only 16-bit platform game starring Alex Kidd, and the fifth game in the ''Alex Kidd'' series of video games. ''Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle'' follo ...

'', ''

Columns A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member ...

'', and ''

Gain Ground is an action game with strategy elements released as an arcade video game by Sega in 1988. It was ported to the Master System, Mega Drive/Genesis, and TurboGrafx-CD. Gameplay In ''Gain Ground'', players control one of a set of characters a ...

''. The

C64 Direct-to-TV The C64 Direct-to-TV, called C64DTV for short, is a single-chip implementation of the Commodore 64 computer, contained in a joystick (modeled after the mid-1980s Competition Pro joystick), with 30 built-in games. The design is similar to the At ...

was released in 2004 by Toy:Lobster and Mammoth Toys with a copy of the

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in ...

operating system and a

virtual keyboard A virtual keyboard is a software component that allows the Input device, input of characters without the need for physical keys. Interaction with a virtual Computer keyboard, keyboard happens mostly via a touchscreen interface, but can also take p ...

as a hidden extra. In 2005, Jakks Pacific produced original game content for the new ''Star Wars'' and ''Fantastic Four'' films, and Tiger produced a

Jedi Jedi (), Jedi Knights, or collectively the Jedi Order are fictional characters, and often protagonists, featured in many works within the '' Star Wars'' franchise. Working symbiotically alongside the Galactic Republic, the Jedi Order is depic ...

lightsaber A lightsaber is a fictional energy sword featured throughout ''Star Wars''. A typical lightsaber is shown as a luminous laser sword about in length emitted from a metal hilt around in length. First introduced in the original ''Star Wars'' ...

fighting game using a lightsaber as the controller. In 2005,

Milton Bradley Milton Bradley (November 8, 1836 – May 30, 1911) was an American business magnate, game pioneer and publisher, credited by many with launching the board game industry, with Milton Bradley Company, his eponymous enterprise, which was purchased ...

started producing TV game versions of Whack-a-Mole and Miniature Golf.

Sales

By 2002, the original TV Games device from Jakks Pacific sold over 350,000 units. By 2004, the TV Games series had sold 1 million units. , ''

Pac-Man ''Pac-Man,'' originally called in Japan, is a 1980 maze video game developed and published by Namco for arcades. In North America, the game was released by Midway Manufacturing as part of its licensing agreement with Namco America. The pla ...

'' TV Games sold over 15 million units.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Handheld Tv Game Video game platforms *

History

Sales

See also

References