Robot Claw – Page 412 – “Life In The So-Called Space Age”

My Collection: Pokemon Mini

April 23, 2015

It’s been over a year since the last post of this type showcasing a part of my game collection, so I thought it was about time I returned to this topic. Today I’ll introduce a game system many of you have likely never heard of: Pokemon Mini!

The Pokemon Mini was released by Nintendo back in 2001. It’s one of the smallest game systems ever released that uses cartridges. All the games were Pokemon themed, simplistic and somewhat ugly due to the 96×64 LCD display (which is not backlit). The device includes a startling amount of features, such as an accelerometer, IR communication, force feedback (via an internal motor), an internal clock and battery backup. It only weighs about 50g (!!) excluding the single AAA battery used for power.

It was released in the US first, then Japan and eventually Europe, and while specific details are hard to find, it seems to have been a collossal failure. 2001 wasn’t exactly the game dark ages, so it didn’t compete too well against other devices of the time for serious gamers, and was probably a bit too niche for children, who were presumably the intended audience.

There’s a lot to like about the device. It’s smartly designed, doesn’t feel at all like a toy, and the screen is very sharp with a fast refresh rate. The speakers are tiny but the sound is good, and the controls (d-pad, 2 buttons, right trigger and shake function) all work well. I also like that the cartridges are so tiny, and that they have the name of the system written directly on the back of the PCB!

The games though… well they aren’t good. Incredible simplistic, most of them are versions of traditional parlour games (such as tangrams seen above) or sub-NES quality arcade games. The other problem was that there were only four released in the USA (including the pack-in)! There were a total of 0 games released after launch, which shows this device was pretty much DOA. I few additional games were released in Japan and Europe, but in it’s lifetime the system saw under 10 games in total.

Of course this means that my collection is complete (as far as the US version is concerned):

According to my records, I purchased the handheld and the three additional games on May 25, 2003 – about 18 months after it had been released. I pid $29.99 for the system and $9.99 for each additional game. These days it’s worth quite a bit more – especially the games. Were I to sell it on ebay I could expect to easily triple what I paid, and perhaps make even more (since listings for the games are scant).

But I won’t sell it. It’s a tiny but curious part of my collection, and happily sits in a box with the other two unusual handhelds I have… both of which I’ll feature here within the next few weeks 😉

The Impossible Dream

April 16, 2015

Adam and I were boulevarding around Sydney, or maybe elsewhere, when we came upon a strange vending machine. It was a very tall box – ten feet or so – with a small keyboard and no screen. There was a dial to the right of the keyboard that had a few settings, but none were labeled. A tiny sign had been taped on and said it would print posters of anything the purchaser wanted. It was in the lobby of some building, alongside other more mundane machines. No-one seemed interested in it; we were.

The cost was $0.75. We fed it a dollar coin. It didn’t give change.

Since there was no screen at all it was unusual to use. We put money in and typed ‘Doctor Who’. Nothing happened for a while, then it printed out a poster which came out a slot at the very bottom near the floor. The poster was massive – about the right size to hang on a door. And it was amazing. I seem to recall a montage of heroes and villans done in a woodcut style. Absolutely not what we expected. More money went in.

‘Tardis’ got us a disturbing picture of the Tardis with a screaming face carved into the front panel and a ring (like Saturn) around the light.

I typed ‘Jon Pertwee’ and got something resembling a 1960s bond poster with Pertwee in leather on his bike, babe in arms. It was amazing.

Adam printed out more Doctor Who stuff, including using the same term twice and getting two different posters that seemed to be in a series. He tried the dial, using the same term three times with the dial set differently each time. The posters were different, but we couldn’t work out what the dial did, if anything.

We then switched to fantasy monsters (dragons, beholders, demons) and collected armloads of giant, unique, incredible door posters. I vividly remember a poster depicting a dark tangled forest in astonishing detail with monsters very well hidden behind almost every tree. The poster was printed in such a way that the setting sun seemed to glow like an actual light source. We were baffled.

I inspected the posters very closely and found no copyrights or trade marks at all. The machine itself had nothing written on it. It was a complete mystery.

I forget how things ended. I don’t remember leaving; we just kept printing posters over and over. It was addictive. I wish it was real.

But it wasn’t of course. It was just the dream I had last night.

Food Competition

April 7, 2015

When Bernard and I were younger, we were very competitive about food. This has developed in me a bit of a streak that continues to this day, and truth-be-told KLS has even picked up on it a bit. Today I’ll share the horrible history that led to this.

Ah, raisin toast! That beloved breakfast bread of Oz! Every time I visit I buy this stuff because it’s delicious, and I’ve loved it since I was a child. Bernard did too (and mum and dad), and in our house a loaf of this would disappear very quickly – even in a single day. This became problematic, and after too many trips back to the kitchen to toast two more pieces only to find the bag empty one started to consider other options.

The first solution was a bigger toaster. I recall we had one that toasted 4 slices at once. A perfect solution you may think: every member of the family could have one delicious warm slice simultaneously! Alas, the truth was simply that B and I were eating 4-slices-at-a-time and making the loaf disappear even faster.

So the next solution was to buy more of it. Specifically two loaves. One for me and one for him. I actually recall this happening more than once, and coveting mine so no pilferers could steal my bread! I used to hide it away so I wouldn’t feel pressured to eat it all at once. Such was the competition for raisin toast in our home.

Chips were another problem area in the early (pre-teen) years. The family would buy a bag to share but it would disappear very quickly. This led to binge eating – if I didn’t take two massive handfuls now next time the bowl came to me there may be none left! It was alarming how quickly B and I would pac-man away a family sized bag.

Of course we solved this by buying bags for each of us. These would actually be stored in different parts of the cupboard to prevent thievery. In time our tastes diverted – I bought salt and vinegar, he bought chicken – so it became easier to know who owned what. Sadly the seeds of gluttony had been planted, and even then both of us easily ate an entire bag in one sitting (often on bread, as we ate a loaf-load of chip sandwiches).

In the years just before I left Oz B had moved onto a refined diet of CC’s (basically Doritos) and Coke. He used to hide the CC’s in his room, as if he thought I couldn’t find them there 🙂

The most amazing food competition occurred at dinner time. We both loved ‘oven fries’, especially the McCains shoestring type called ‘Superfries’. Needless to say when cooking them for dinner, we’d put the entire bag onto an oven rack every time. There would be squabbles about the division of the fries once ready though, and neither of would be satisfied if the other got more.

Incredibly – and I honestly can hardly believe this is true as I type it – this led to a system we developed to ensure fairness. One of us would divide the fries onto two plates, and the other would choose. This put the burden on the divider to make the portions as equal as possible lest they miss out. Such fry-democracy! Our house was nothing if not progressive!

However this itself led to a dark turn of events. The mania between B and myself for food equity led to – and I swear on Yossie’s shiny silver coat that this is true – us dividing the fries absolutely equally by counting them. I kid you not! I recall quite vividly portioning the fries out on two plates one fry at a time to ensure they were as equal as possible. I would even consider the length of individual fries (I wouldn’t put a long one on one plate with a short one on the other). I know this is madness, but this was serious business to me and B!

Even today this continues, albeit in a reduced form. In January B gave me the hairy eyeball when he thought I was taking more than my allotted portion of chips from the dinner table when we got takeaway. And at Chinese he always insists on getting two fried rices rather than sharing one. And as I said, KLS has picked up the habit, and every time we get Mr Subb guards her nuggets maniacally from my thieving hands.

Old habits die hard I guess.