A few months back I learned that you canemulate handheld video games from the early 80s on systems like Retropie or Batocera. That seemed pretty crazy to me. I had luck getting it working on the Batocera, so I started trying to play handheld games from the 80s like Electronic Quarterback, Coleco’s tabletop Galaxian, Donkey Kong, and Zaxxon, Nintendo’s Game & Watch Donkey Kong and many, many more. TO be honest, getting them to work was hit or miss at best.
Nintendo’s Game & Watch Donkey Kong handheld game
As a result of this discovery I remembered one of my favorite handheld games from this era: Bandai’s Packri Monster. Packri Monster is a port of Pac-man for handhelds that along with Entex’s Space Invaders and Coleco’s Head to Head Football were the holy trinity of my handheld period. I found the game files for Packri Monster and tried to emulate it but it was terrible, unrecognizable really. But all was not lost because not being able to emulate the game prompted me to acquire an actual Packri Monster on Ebay for $30, and I once again own the holy trinity 🙂
Bandai’s Packri Monster image from Handheld Museum, which rules.
Trying to play Packri Monster on the plane back to Italy from New York reminded me of the simplicity of these early handhelds. One game, simplified pixels, no volume control, maybe a start button, and no headphone jack—these games were not designed for crowded rooms or airplanes 🙂 When turning on Packri Monster once settling on the plane I quickly realized it would be impossible given how loud it was. I felt like someone watching their Youtube videos without headphones, and I hate those bastards!
Anyway, above is some video of me playing Packri Monster which will give you a better sense of the game than me describing it ever will.
Looks like the audio in the video was not recorded. I suck. Will re-record.
The thing is HUGE. Bigger than the biggest iPhone.