worst handheld/tabletop memory ever

[bomberpunk]

an interlude with the holy grail - (by bomberpunk)


i just want to kick myself in the ass every time i think about this...

Red White & Blue. a thrift store in Chalmette, Louisiana circa 1992/93. having previously found a loose working Tomy Cosmic Clash and various other great items, would go with my mom at least once a week to this place right after she picked me up from school. i was roughly eleven/twelve years old.

and stupid.

i find this thing with a metal joystick in the center, and a set of white arrow keys/buttons on either side. they weren't quite white, kinda yellow probably from cigarette smoke or some other nastiness that built up on the plastic. perhaps it was just old age. the eight arrow-shaped buttons made me realize that this was some kind of game. there is a black box sticking out of the center, with some type of white residue as if a sticker or label of some sort used to be there. on the top of the device is a set of four holes, which were the same size as the black box sticking out of the machine. i put my hand inside the rectangular "screen" and noticed that there is a mirror that i could spin to the left and right. wondering "what the hell is this?" and then seeing the price tag, i knew my next goal in life was to get my mom to buy it for me.

are you drooling yet?

$6.99

i got this thing home and immediately installed the four D-sized batteries it needed. with the flip of a switch on the front of the unit, the mirror started spinning at what was to me a blazing speed. horizontal red lines. immediately formed what looked like a helicopter. i played the hell out of it for a couple of days until i noticed that the sound wasn't working (which was probably why the previous owner got rid of it).

so what did i do? i did what any know-it-all mr-fix-it curious moron would do.

i took it apart. and i ended up not being able to put it back together after i examined the guts. in fact, i had broken a few wires here and there, and in a fit of rage (i had some anger issues as a kid), i completely ripped out the innards.

for years my cousin was telling me that what i had was Vectrex. but oh no, i had the holy grail of tabletops/handhelds. and i didn't even find out what it was, how rare it was, how much it was worth (over a thousand), and how awesome it was until almost a decade later.

i don't know whether to be , be , or just in the mirror.
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cheers,
bp

[Rik]

Well, if you could touch the mirror, then it was missing the front screen... So you weren't the first to open it up...

Still, an AV in ANY condition is probably worth $6.99... But it would probably actually sell for $200-300 in that condition on a good day, so you didn't miss much.

(Don't suppose you still have the parts in a box somewhere?)

[bomberpunk]

unfortunately i was also dumb enough to throw everything in the trash. if only someone could invent a time machine...

i'm tempted to save up for one, but man, those things are just so pricy these days.
_________________
cheers,
bp