Thundering turbos is a Christmas present I'll always remember. I'm not sure what year it was but I remember lying on the floor in the living room looking at the pictures of in Argos one Christmas Eve night and I couldn't wait to get it the next day. I also had the Tomy racing turbo toy and loved it. Maybe those toys played some part in my becoming a driving instructor about 15 years later :-D
I still have SkyAttack my dad bought it for me in 84 was played alot, dropped about 10,000 times and still works perfectly. Now I jest need to get it from my dads attic, I been wanting to play it for years. Tis time I get over there and get it!
I still have 3 of these up in my loft. Have no idea if they still work but i imagine so. Have thundering turbo, shark attack and sky attack which was my favourite. Oh the memories came flooding back after seeing this video.
I have a large collection of handheld electronic games from ‘76 - ‘84 but don’t own a single one of these. It’s about time I invest. Thanks for this :)
You're welcome. I'm heavily interested in these purely because they were one of my favourite electronic toys growing up. FYI .. The neck straps are often missing when you see them on eBay.
@@RetroSpectives Yeah, that okay. I wouldn’t use the neck straps anyway. :) My sentimental favourite is Coleco Electronic Quarterback which I played back in ‘78. I borrowed one from a friend for the weekend, but unlike your ‘friend’ I gave it back on the following Monday. :) Those red LEDs at night while I was supposed to be sleeping … good memories :)
I've got the red white & blue ones. I'm 49- but had Thundering Turbos for Christmas as a kid. Bought all 3 off ebay around 2 yrs ago, for a small fortune! 😑😑. Nice memories. Thankyou brother ❤️
I got Planet Zeon as a kid, bought it myself. I was so impressed with it. Fun Fact I figured out. It spells out "Emergency" in morse code at the very begnning of the game. My second was the Sky Fighters / Sky Duel, which was sold from Radio Shack under the Tandy brand and bright red/orange. I think it's my favorite. Just visually and play ability. I have a full set now. Including Jungle Fighter and Sherman Attack. Had to get Shark Attack overseas, as it was never sold in the U.S.
It's amazing that you have the full set, especially including the two rarer ones. I've never had a chance to try those two out. I had no idea about the morse code; that's a great bit of trivia. I think my favourite was always Thundering Turbo, with Sky Attack second - what's not to like about a 3D Space Invaders, especially in the 80s!?
My only, but extensive experience was with Thundering Turbo. I didn't _own_ it in the strictest sense, but my lil' cousin did - although she wasn't very interested on it; it was an imported gift her nerdy dad, my uncle, gave to her -. However, as we'd babysit her constantly at our home and, as I said, she didn't care much, she always left it with us, along with a heap of other stuff she didn't wanted to carry back and forth. So, I basically was the only one using it, and happy to do so. I was obsessed with tech to begin with and also had been enthralled with everything Tron-related - officially or otherwise - since the movie's release one year before, so I fell in love with that early and 'lite', but superbly designed and cleverly engineered for the time, glimpse at what true virtual reality might be able to achieve someday. So, I actually blame that great toy for my lifelong obsession with actual VR. As a curiosity, for anyone who, like me, has very fond memories of Thundering Turbo and also happens to own a PSVR and Media Molecule's Dreams for PS4 or PS5, do yourself a HUGE favor, fire up the headset and game, go to the search function and look for "Speedtron"; you'll thank me later.
I actually have a PSVR and Dreams, but I've never tried Dreams in VR. Never thought to. I will now though - thanks for the tip! Some great anecdotes there, too. Thanks for sharing that. 👍
@@RetroSpectives You have to! There's many average/nice experiences available in VR - specially if you own a PS5 instead of my humble OG, base PS4 - but there's also a bunch of superb, professional quality ones, too. I mentioned Speedtron for obvious reasons, as it looks, sounds and feels so much like Thundering Turbo that it almost seems like a remake of sorts, but you also REALLY need to look for some other high-quality experiences like Hypercycle (a complete Tron light cycle arena game, complete with every detail), Bionic Revolution, Tria-gone and Jungle Bill, a breathtaking Indiana Jones homage that needs to be seen to believe.
@@RetroSpectives Contrary to popular assumptions, that means that your vestibular systems works exactly as it should. Ironically, people who try strong VR experiences for the first time and not get sick are either motion sensitivity-trained beforehand - be it consciously, like sailors, air pilots, etc. or inadvertently, like car passengers who are used to travel over complicated, meandering roads very frequently - or have some sort of malfunctioning issue with their sense of equilibrium which they aren't actually aware of. Anyway, the vestibular system can be easily trained. The only trick is to use voluntary, steadily increasing exposure. Start with apps that provide mostly passive experiences with fixed points of attention inside the virtual environment and no involuntary camera motions, like, say, watching movies in virtual theaters or the giant white shark bit in Playstation Worlds, and spend a couple of hours there with relative frequency. You'll get used to those very quickly. Then, move over to mild experiences with little drift and gentle camera motions, Myst-style, like Torn, Red Matter and the sort. Make sure it's stuff you really like, as you'll be doing this for fun and it's not supposed to feel like a chore. Remember to turn all comfort settings on at first, and stop playing as soon as you notice any kind of dizziness at all; you'll notice, as sessions go by, that it takes a bit longer for said dizziness to kick in. Again, as you feel increasingly more comfortable, go and try some cockpit sims, as those provide close points of spatial reference - the cockpit of whatever vehicle you're piloting - for your brain to focus on while everything 'outside' of it in the virtual environment twists and turns under your command. Again, try the safest options first, i.e. terrestrial vehicle sims, before going for the truly intense, 360 degrees of manoeuvring experiences like the Ace Combat or Star Wars ones, or worse yet, the infamously stomach-churning outer space game in Playstation Worlds. Rinse and repeat. You can start dabbling with comfort settings by this point, too; just make sure to keep enforcing the stop-when-dizzy rule at need. Anyway, from there on you can go and finally try stuff where you move inside complex virtual spaces with full range of motion and freedom like Skyrim, Hitman, Sniper Elite and the sort and see how well you fare. Eventually you'll end up turning off every comfort option in every game by default, as you'll no longer need them and they'll become instead a nuisance getting in the way of immersion that you'll be eager to get rid of. Sorry for the wall of text, but I'm guessing that, even if you're not that interested in VR and it all sounds a bit too complicated/tiresome and not being worth the effort for you, which would be totally fair, those advices might end up being useful for someone else regardless.
Nah, no worries. That's some pretty solid advice. It's been difficult because as soon as I feel sick in a game, the nausea stays with me for a long time afterward, to the point where I gave up trying. Luckily, I can play some games without any trouble - Moss and Astro Bot being two of them. I tried Minecraft and it was immediate, extreme nausea. 🤢
@@RetroSpectives Sadly no, but I always wanted it. As a kid I was obsessed with the movie Jaws... It's still one of my favourites. Middle aged and I can now finally have some fun with my own Tomytronic 3D game. LOL :)
I still have my Planet Zeon and was playing it yesterday. If 8 year old me knew 48 year old me would still have it and use it he'd be pretty amused! Nice video, sorry your mate stole your games.
I had Shark Attack, that game is seriously overdue a in-depth look. Thanks for letting us get a decent look at the gameplay, I often wonder what it would be like if each game was converted into a app for a Android smartphone, but I don't know how the controls would work.
A VR conversion could work well I reckon. By the way .. that footage that came out really well; it was a mobile phone blu-tacked to one of the viewfinders! 🤣 (plus a little editing magic to enhance the quality)
Subbed to this channel too now mate. Will watch this on my telly when I get home. We had 2 of these games growing up. I had the blue star wars rip-off one, and my sister had the red tron tank rip-off one. Loved these so much.
I never thought about the Planet Zeon (blue one) being a Star Wars ripoff. I suppose it's a lot like flying through a Death Star trench when you think about it.
I had the Thundering Turbo's car game. I was 12 when this came out in 83. I had another hand held Galaxian clone too, cannot remember what it was. It was something to fill the void until I got my ZX Spectrum.
Only Galaxian-type tabletop game from that time I can think of is Astro Wars - the black & silver one with the round screen. I want to do a video about that at some point. Need to buy one first though.
@@RetroSpectives I had a load of Buster, and Corr, and all the others of that camp like Whizzer & Chips, Beezer, Topper, Beano, Dandy, from the about 77 through to early 90s. Sold them all to one lucky woman cheap who came picked up the lot. Had to as didn't have the space for them. Then ended up buying a bunch of them back again years later, probably built up around 80 annuals. Then again, had to part with them just a couple years ago, again space in my flat was an issue. I've literally kept just a few now on the small bookshelf I have
@@mumfnah I just have a couple. I'm not really an avid collector type, so I just like to keep it modest, just for the joy. The annuals I have mostly came from a local vintage/antique shop.
Awesome video Steve and one that actually made me go and have a look on eBay to see how much these things were going for nowadays as I quite fancy owning one now in a total u-turn of events! 😁 I also hope 'Lee' is watching and the years of harboured guilt that he must be feeling rise to the surface and it hits him that hard that he gets in touch and finally makes it up to you!😏 If I'd of seen that last advert back in the day that you somehow unearthed then it would have made me drag my parents straight to Woolies to get my Christmas presents bought early! 😲 Just a shame they didn't look anything like the way they were portrayed in the TV adverts, but then this all happened in a time well before the slap a 'Not Actual Gameplay Footage' advertising laws existed 'eh! 🙄 Looking forward to what content you have for us next and so pleased that you liked the thumnail that I made for you. Cheers! 👍
I suspect the advertisers were banking on our memories not being that clear when we finally got our hands on the actual machines. I have a brainstorm list for future RetroSpectives, and there will definitely be more coming, I just don't know how often yet as they're pretty time consuming to produce. I have to work around my energy levels after work - days off are great for that. I'm sure you know where I'm coming from. 😩😉
I had the white one and the red one as a kid in the 80s, great christmas presents at the time. Now I have an Oculus Rift VR headset, but even though the technology is vastly more technically impressive it doesn't give me the same joy i had as a child. I expect that's largely because I was a child and now I'm a jaded middle aged man. I think if I'd had the tech we have now, I'd have never left my room, at least I had a reasonably balanced childhood and spent more time on my BMX and lighting fires.
I have a PSVR now and I do feel a sense of wonder from some of the stuff on there, but generally I just can't be arsed to get it all set up! Like yourself I have some good memories of mucking about on my bike in the local parks and generally getting up to mischief, but I also remember spending a LOT of time in my bedroom, playing on and programming on my Spectrum. It's all about balance I guess.
@@RetroSpectives I spent FAR too much time playing rubbish speccy games in my room and being rubbish at those games. Only games I was ever any good at were Jetpac and Manic miner.
I had Shark Attack, which tied in nicely with my obsession with Jaws and later Jaws 3D which came out in 1983. As an 8 year old Jaws 3D blew me away at the cinema in Real 3D, so I was ecstatic when I got Shark Attack for my birthday.
When I was young in the '80s, I was able to play the Sky Attack one owned by a classmate. It may be simplistic now, but we loved the 3D effects, which are better implemented here than on Tiger Electronics' R-Zone console that came in the '90s.
Back in the day I won Sky attack and a robotic arm the Tomy made in a Sunday Paper competition! Loved Sky attack! The robot arm consisted of barrels etc from memory and other idea was to rebuild the structure I think.
Omg great memories, I had the car racing Tommy Tronic, felt so clever when I realised I could still play it at night under the covers with a carefully balanced torch above the light window, but hawk ear mum could actually hear the buttons from 3 rooms away so joy never lasted long, ps I am not that Lee who stole yours, being a military child we actually had to give most off our toys away each time we were posted to a different country sounds harsh but was used to it.
No worries. 👍 I can relate to the buttons thing. My mum used to complain about the sound of my joystick moving when I played computer games late at night.
I only subscribed to the other channel last week, having seen the old adverts video. This other channel looks more like my thing already, Tomytronic are decent and iconic toys from them days. Looking forward to what videos get uploaded here 👍
Shark Attack was my least favourite, I think because it was a re-hash of Sky Attack. Thundering Turbos was my fave too. Loads of people seem to love that one.
I have Sky Attack. Picked mine up from my parents at the weekend, along with my non-working Astro Wars, TCR and 1971/72 train set. Tried out the Sky Attack. Display is fine, but score messed up and left/right don't work. Fire button's fine. Played the hell out of this back in the day, trying to beat my high score. Hopefully it's as simple as swapping out a faulty capacitor.
As a young lad I had a habit of buying a handheld game in every major city I spent some days in. So I stumbled upon Planet Zeon in a mall on the so-called Zeil in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It was and still is one of the finest handheld games in my collection. I spent many a happy hour with it if I add up all those play sessions. Later on ebay I acquired Skyfighters but I did not find the gameplay as compelling compared to Planet Zeon. Maybe I should revisit the game more frequently and apply some advanced techniques and strategies. You don't have any veteran tips for Skyfighters, do you? 😊
Yeah - don't get shot! 😂 Seriously though, I'd say be patient, bide your time and use the cloud loops to allow the enemy to go past you so you can fire shots behind them. Strategic use of the speed button helps too.
Forgive me for saying this, about time, everytime I tried to find any video about Tomy Tronic's SharkAttack, I keep getting vids about trying to take one apart or fix it, as I had one, I was very keen on it, but could not find any screen shots of it. Nice work, good upload. If it's ok with you, I would like to share this one in my 'It's all a game, innit' playlist on Nige031077 and Nigel Mathews (NRM).
Yeah, feel free. I'm glad you appreciated the screenshots. I couldn't find any decent footage before I made this video, so I decided to try it myself. It came out really well thanks to the Blu-Tack I used to firmly attach my phone to the Tomytronics! 😆 A little post-production editing helped refine the final results, too.
@@RetroSpectives Good on you, if no footage or screenshots existed, make 'em yourself, that is the way to go. Your editing is very professional as well, I visited your Twitter page too, very informative and interesting. Stay safe and well, oh and thanks for the reply.
I had someone do to me the exact same thing your “mate” Lee did! I still remember the smug smirk on my “mate’s” face when I said “I want what I’d lent back on the Monday,” this being on a Friday. When I got to his house, no signs of life, no furniture, no curtains, nothing. I then realised the reason for that smug look on his face.😖😤
That really is awful. I still remember the sinking feeling when I realised I'd been had. I imagine you felt something similar. I did find him years later on facebook & messaged him. He asked how I'd been and I said good, and can I have my Tomytronics back, please? 🤣🤣
@J Hayes I think you're referring to the Atari game called Firefox. Based on a Clint Eastwood film. But the OP here I believe is referring to the Grandstand tabletop VFD game, called Firefox F7
@J Hayes the Grandstand Firefox F7 is not based on film that I'm aware of, though does have copy of Tie Fighters from Star Wars on one level, and music is definitely a famous piece of classical music, which probably is used in film too. But game is not directly linked to any film no. Firefox F7 is good fun
I first played on Shark Attack years after I played on the Sky Attack that I had when I was a kid, and I was quite surprised when I realised they'd reused the same sound effects from Sky Attack, in the Shark Attack game.
I've never played Jungle Fighter, but I'd love to give it a try if I ever get the chance. That, and Sherman Tank. I've seen them in other people's YT videos though.
I would love to have the ROM pulled & to be able to remake one with a 3d printer & Arduino or something like that. The only things I would updat with be a back light, rechargeable li-ion battery & maybe adjustable PD
I had sky attack while i was at bording school in 80's inOregon i had a part time job in Boiler room watching gauges all alone for 3 hours a day,i would bring Sky Attack with me,
I only had the tank and car games, they were passed down to me from my older cousin long after the Tomytronics had their heyday, but for me as a kid, these looked amazing. I hate that yours were stolen from you, thats terrible and other kids can be so bad.
I had the Tomytronic 3D Sky attack, i was a big fan of Tron at the time and this was as close as i could get as a boy trying to be a school boy Flynn😂 we also all swapped them with other kids in the playground at lunch time playing each others, but they all seemed the same to me, i remember shoulder ache would kick in after 10 mins lol. That kid that stole all yours was just wrong un. What did your parents say at the time? lol.
@@RetroSpectives True but redoing what made us love the original, you know they will ruin it by complicating things. It’ll look nothing like the original & you’d go blind for nothing.it’s the simplicity that made old games fun when we were kids.
They are definitely CGI. I was a kid around that time - 8 or 9, depending on the exact date - but our parents were quite nerdy for the time's standards; we'd just gotten a C64 as a step up from our old Telstar Pong console and our folks signed me and my sis up for computing classes to go along with it. The academy was full of Commodore and MSX machines and our teacher was an outgoing computer wiz in his early twenties who, apart from teaching, also worked on computer graphics for TV credits and such, and he used to share with us some bits of WIP footage from the stuff he was working on. Truly cool times.
Whilst were on the subject of people not returning games. Darrel Brierly, if you are reading this can you please return my copy of omega race for the vic20?
Pretty sure I owned Planet Zeon. I remember playing Sky Attack, but I can't remember if owned it or not. I was curious about the price of these things, a 1985 Argos catalogue found on Archive.org had a price of £19.95 with a suggested retail price of £27.95. Around £90 to £100 in todays prices!
From very distant memory, I remember the ones that were bought for me in the department store were about £19.99p, reduced to half price. I think they were selling them off. Lucky find, I guess.
I had Shark Attack. I loved the way the bits of shark came at you when you hit one.
Strangely enough, that's one of the bits I've always quite liked too. Chunky, meaty shark bits. Must have been explosive harpoons! 😆
I have sky attack. Still works and believe me it was played to death in the 80s
I believe you. I'm always amazed by how resilient some old 80s technology can be.
@@RetroSpectives
I know. I have so many 80s n 90s computers, consoles and electronic games. They all work.
I had Thundering Turbos, great childhood memories! The hours I must have spent playing it vs the short attention spans of my kids these days is crazy.
I remember taking mine into school on one of those 'bring your toys in on the last day' days. Did you ever have those days at school?
Thundering turbos is a Christmas present I'll always remember. I'm not sure what year it was but I remember lying on the floor in the living room looking at the pictures of in Argos one Christmas Eve night and I couldn't wait to get it the next day. I also had the Tomy racing turbo toy and loved it. Maybe those toys played some part in my becoming a driving instructor about 15 years later :-D
Definitely my favourite 1980s electronic toy.
Got my turbo for Xmas too. Around 82- I think?
Just found my old sky attack at my parents.
Decades without been switched on . New batteries in and it fired up . Blast from the past
They're good aren't they? 😁
I still have SkyAttack my dad bought it for me in 84 was played alot, dropped about 10,000 times and still works perfectly. Now I jest need to get it from my dads attic, I been wanting to play it for years. Tis time I get over there and get it!
Go for it! They're still just as much fun now as they used to be. Great 3D effect too.
I still have 3 of these up in my loft. Have no idea if they still work but i imagine so. Have thundering turbo, shark attack and sky attack which was my favourite. Oh the memories came flooding back after seeing this video.
Brilliant! I have to say, these machines are still my number one favourite vintage electronic toy. I can't believe they still work!
I have a large collection of handheld electronic games from ‘76 - ‘84 but don’t own a single one of these.
It’s about time I invest. Thanks for this :)
You're welcome. I'm heavily interested in these purely because they were one of my favourite electronic toys growing up. FYI .. The neck straps are often missing when you see them on eBay.
@@RetroSpectives
Yeah, that okay. I wouldn’t use the neck straps anyway. :)
My sentimental favourite is Coleco Electronic Quarterback which I played back in ‘78. I borrowed one from a friend for the weekend, but unlike your ‘friend’ I gave it back on the following Monday. :)
Those red LEDs at night while I was supposed to be sleeping … good memories :)
I had sky attack and I loved it.
It is good, tho' 😁👍
I've got the red white & blue ones. I'm 49- but had Thundering Turbos for Christmas as a kid. Bought all 3 off ebay around 2 yrs ago, for a small fortune! 😑😑. Nice memories. Thankyou brother ❤️
I was lucky enough to buy mine just before they started rising in price. They still work now .. those little buggers were built to last.
@@RetroSpectives When I re-bought them I thought the 1st one wasn't working properly & then I realised you needed a light source for the top! 😂
@@stephenrobinson9709 🤣🤣 Easy to forget the details after all those years.
@@RetroSpectives Those 40 yrs seems like 5 minds ago, but I can't remember last week! 😉
I got Planet Zeon as a kid, bought it myself. I was so impressed with it. Fun Fact I figured out. It spells out "Emergency" in morse code at the very begnning of the game. My second was the Sky Fighters / Sky Duel, which was sold from Radio Shack under the Tandy brand and bright red/orange. I think it's my favorite. Just visually and play ability. I have a full set now. Including Jungle Fighter and Sherman Attack. Had to get Shark Attack overseas, as it was never sold in the U.S.
It's amazing that you have the full set, especially including the two rarer ones. I've never had a chance to try those two out. I had no idea about the morse code; that's a great bit of trivia. I think my favourite was always Thundering Turbo, with Sky Attack second - what's not to like about a 3D Space Invaders, especially in the 80s!?
Awesomeness! Subbed! I only remember 2 - the car game and the space ship one
These seem to be the most commonly owned ones. It's the two I first had. Shark Attack and Planet Zeon have never felt as much fun as those other two.
I REMEMBER THESE!! A+++
Definitely one of the best vintage handheld toys.
My only, but extensive experience was with Thundering Turbo. I didn't _own_ it in the strictest sense, but my lil' cousin did - although she wasn't very interested on it; it was an imported gift her nerdy dad, my uncle, gave to her -. However, as we'd babysit her constantly at our home and, as I said, she didn't care much, she always left it with us, along with a heap of other stuff she didn't wanted to carry back and forth. So, I basically was the only one using it, and happy to do so. I was obsessed with tech to begin with and also had been enthralled with everything Tron-related - officially or otherwise - since the movie's release one year before, so I fell in love with that early and 'lite', but superbly designed and cleverly engineered for the time, glimpse at what true virtual reality might be able to achieve someday. So, I actually blame that great toy for my lifelong obsession with actual VR.
As a curiosity, for anyone who, like me, has very fond memories of Thundering Turbo and also happens to own a PSVR and Media Molecule's Dreams for PS4 or PS5, do yourself a HUGE favor, fire up the headset and game, go to the search function and look for "Speedtron"; you'll thank me later.
I actually have a PSVR and Dreams, but I've never tried Dreams in VR. Never thought to. I will now though - thanks for the tip! Some great anecdotes there, too. Thanks for sharing that. 👍
@@RetroSpectives
You have to! There's many average/nice experiences available in VR - specially if you own a PS5 instead of my humble OG, base PS4 - but there's also a bunch of superb, professional quality ones, too. I mentioned Speedtron for obvious reasons, as it looks, sounds and feels so much like Thundering Turbo that it almost seems like a remake of sorts, but you also REALLY need to look for some other high-quality experiences like Hypercycle (a complete Tron light cycle arena game, complete with every detail), Bionic Revolution, Tria-gone and Jungle Bill, a breathtaking Indiana Jones homage that needs to be seen to believe.
I'll go looking for those, but I'll have to be cautious - I'm one of those people that gets bad motion sickness in some VR experiences.
@@RetroSpectives
Contrary to popular assumptions, that means that your vestibular systems works exactly as it should. Ironically, people who try strong VR experiences for the first time and not get sick are either motion sensitivity-trained beforehand - be it consciously, like sailors, air pilots, etc. or inadvertently, like car passengers who are used to travel over complicated, meandering roads very frequently - or have some sort of malfunctioning issue with their sense of equilibrium which they aren't actually aware of.
Anyway, the vestibular system can be easily trained. The only trick is to use voluntary, steadily increasing exposure. Start with apps that provide mostly passive experiences with fixed points of attention inside the virtual environment and no involuntary camera motions, like, say, watching movies in virtual theaters or the giant white shark bit in Playstation Worlds, and spend a couple of hours there with relative frequency. You'll get used to those very quickly. Then, move over to mild experiences with little drift and gentle camera motions, Myst-style, like Torn, Red Matter and the sort. Make sure it's stuff you really like, as you'll be doing this for fun and it's not supposed to feel like a chore. Remember to turn all comfort settings on at first, and stop playing as soon as you notice any kind of dizziness at all; you'll notice, as sessions go by, that it takes a bit longer for said dizziness to kick in. Again, as you feel increasingly more comfortable, go and try some cockpit sims, as those provide close points of spatial reference - the cockpit of whatever vehicle you're piloting - for your brain to focus on while everything 'outside' of it in the virtual environment twists and turns under your command. Again, try the safest options first, i.e. terrestrial vehicle sims, before going for the truly intense, 360 degrees of manoeuvring experiences like the Ace Combat or Star Wars ones, or worse yet, the infamously stomach-churning outer space game in Playstation Worlds. Rinse and repeat. You can start dabbling with comfort settings by this point, too; just make sure to keep enforcing the stop-when-dizzy rule at need. Anyway, from there on you can go and finally try stuff where you move inside complex virtual spaces with full range of motion and freedom like Skyrim, Hitman, Sniper Elite and the sort and see how well you fare. Eventually you'll end up turning off every comfort option in every game by default, as you'll no longer need them and they'll become instead a nuisance getting in the way of immersion that you'll be eager to get rid of.
Sorry for the wall of text, but I'm guessing that, even if you're not that interested in VR and it all sounds a bit too complicated/tiresome and not being worth the effort for you, which would be totally fair, those advices might end up being useful for someone else regardless.
Nah, no worries. That's some pretty solid advice. It's been difficult because as soon as I feel sick in a game, the nausea stays with me for a long time afterward, to the point where I gave up trying. Luckily, I can play some games without any trouble - Moss and Astro Bot being two of them. I tried Minecraft and it was immediate, extreme nausea. 🤢
I've just got Shark Attack from Ebay... I can't wait for it to arrive! Thanks for the info. :)
Is that one you had originally?
@@RetroSpectives Sadly no, but I always wanted it. As a kid I was obsessed with the movie Jaws... It's still one of my favourites. Middle aged and I can now finally have some fun with my own Tomytronic 3D game. LOL :)
I still have my Planet Zeon and was playing it yesterday. If 8 year old me knew 48 year old me would still have it and use it he'd be pretty amused! Nice video, sorry your mate stole your games.
Yeah, those things really were built to last! Thanks for the commiserations .. 😔😂
I had Shark Attack, that game is seriously overdue a in-depth look. Thanks for letting us get a decent look at the gameplay, I often wonder what it would be like if each game was converted into a app for a Android smartphone, but I don't know how the controls would work.
A VR conversion could work well I reckon. By the way .. that footage that came out really well; it was a mobile phone blu-tacked to one of the viewfinders! 🤣 (plus a little editing magic to enhance the quality)
Subbed to this channel too now mate. Will watch this on my telly when I get home. We had 2 of these games growing up. I had the blue star wars rip-off one, and my sister had the red tron tank rip-off one. Loved these so much.
I never thought about the Planet Zeon (blue one) being a Star Wars ripoff. I suppose it's a lot like flying through a Death Star trench when you think about it.
I had the Thundering Turbo's car game. I was 12 when this came out in 83. I had another hand held Galaxian clone too, cannot remember what it was. It was something to fill the void until I got my ZX Spectrum.
Only Galaxian-type tabletop game from that time I can think of is Astro Wars - the black & silver one with the round screen. I want to do a video about that at some point. Need to buy one first though.
...also, clocking those 2000AD, and COR!! annuals up there, nice 👌
We'll spotted! I also have some Buster annuals and a few Look-ins too.
@@RetroSpectives I had a load of Buster, and Corr, and all the others of that camp like Whizzer & Chips, Beezer, Topper, Beano, Dandy, from the about 77 through to early 90s.
Sold them all to one lucky woman cheap who came picked up the lot.
Had to as didn't have the space for them.
Then ended up buying a bunch of them back again years later, probably built up around 80 annuals.
Then again, had to part with them just a couple years ago, again space in my flat was an issue.
I've literally kept just a few now on the small bookshelf I have
@@mumfnah I just have a couple. I'm not really an avid collector type, so I just like to keep it modest, just for the joy. The annuals I have mostly came from a local vintage/antique shop.
Awesome video Steve and one that actually made me go and have a look on eBay to see how much these things were going for nowadays as I quite fancy owning one now in a total u-turn of events! 😁
I also hope 'Lee' is watching and the years of harboured guilt that he must be feeling rise to the surface and it hits him that hard that he gets in touch and finally makes it up to you!😏
If I'd of seen that last advert back in the day that you somehow unearthed then it would have made me drag my parents straight to Woolies to get my Christmas presents bought early! 😲
Just a shame they didn't look anything like the way they were portrayed in the TV adverts, but then this all happened in a time well before the slap a 'Not Actual Gameplay Footage' advertising laws existed 'eh! 🙄
Looking forward to what content you have for us next and so pleased that you liked the thumnail that I made for you. Cheers! 👍
I suspect the advertisers were banking on our memories not being that clear when we finally got our hands on the actual machines. I have a brainstorm list for future RetroSpectives, and there will definitely be more coming, I just don't know how often yet as they're pretty time consuming to produce. I have to work around my energy levels after work - days off are great for that. I'm sure you know where I'm coming from. 😩😉
I had the white one and the red one as a kid in the 80s, great christmas presents at the time. Now I have an Oculus Rift VR headset, but even though the technology is vastly more technically impressive it doesn't give me the same joy i had as a child. I expect that's largely because I was a child and now I'm a jaded middle aged man. I think if I'd had the tech we have now, I'd have never left my room, at least I had a reasonably balanced childhood and spent more time on my BMX and lighting fires.
I have a PSVR now and I do feel a sense of wonder from some of the stuff on there, but generally I just can't be arsed to get it all set up! Like yourself I have some good memories of mucking about on my bike in the local parks and generally getting up to mischief, but I also remember spending a LOT of time in my bedroom, playing on and programming on my Spectrum. It's all about balance I guess.
@@RetroSpectives I spent FAR too much time playing rubbish speccy games in my room and being rubbish at those games. Only games I was ever any good at were Jetpac and Manic miner.
I had Shark Attack, which tied in nicely with my obsession with Jaws and later Jaws 3D which came out in 1983. As an 8 year old Jaws 3D blew me away at the cinema in Real 3D, so I was ecstatic when I got Shark Attack for my birthday.
I can imagine being in your shoes and feeling hyper excited about it. 😄
I had Sky Attack. Still looks great.
If only it looked like how the tv advert made out!
We can imagine, I suppose.
Fantastic!🤘
Great video :)
Thanks for the contribution. Glad you liked the end result.
When I was young in the '80s, I was able to play the Sky Attack one owned by a classmate. It may be simplistic now, but we loved the 3D effects, which are better implemented here than on Tiger Electronics' R-Zone console that came in the '90s.
Oh, definitely a great 3D effect. It's still impressive even now.
Back in the day I won Sky attack and a robotic arm the Tomy made in a Sunday Paper competition! Loved Sky attack! The robot arm consisted of barrels etc from memory and other idea was to rebuild the structure I think.
That was a lucky break! Sky Attack was the first one I had but my favourite has always been Thundering Turbos.
Omg great memories, I had the car racing Tommy Tronic, felt so clever when I realised I could still play it at night under the covers with a carefully balanced torch above the light window, but hawk ear mum could actually hear the buttons from 3 rooms away so joy never lasted long, ps I am not that Lee who stole yours, being a military child we actually had to give most off our toys away each time we were posted to a different country sounds harsh but was used to it.
No worries. 👍
I can relate to the buttons thing. My mum used to complain about the sound of my joystick moving when I played computer games late at night.
I only subscribed to the other channel last week, having seen the old adverts video.
This other channel looks more like my thing already, Tomytronic are decent and iconic toys from them days.
Looking forward to what videos get uploaded here 👍
Got a few ideas in the pipeline, no release schedule though - just as and when they're ready. Thanks for watching!
I still got my Sky Attack! :)
Still working I presume? Those things were built to last.
I had the shark attack one but my fave was the racing car one.
Shark Attack was my least favourite, I think because it was a re-hash of Sky Attack. Thundering Turbos was my fave too. Loads of people seem to love that one.
Superb video ,really fantastic commentary,,had 3D firefighters ,wasn't very good but it was taken over by my brother who was far better than I was
Thanks for looking up the video, Mick. Glad you liked it. 🙂👍
I have Sky Attack. Picked mine up from my parents at the weekend, along with my non-working Astro Wars, TCR and 1971/72 train set. Tried out the Sky Attack. Display is fine, but score messed up and left/right don't work. Fire button's fine. Played the hell out of this back in the day, trying to beat my high score. Hopefully it's as simple as swapping out a faulty capacitor.
I've seen a few repair videos on YT. Might be worth a quick search.
As a young lad I had a habit of buying a handheld game in every major city I spent some days in.
So I stumbled upon Planet Zeon in a mall on the so-called Zeil in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
It was and still is one of the finest handheld games in my collection.
I spent many a happy hour with it if I add up all those play sessions.
Later on ebay I acquired Skyfighters but I did not find the gameplay as compelling compared to Planet Zeon.
Maybe I should revisit the game more frequently and apply some advanced techniques and strategies.
You don't have any veteran tips for Skyfighters, do you? 😊
Yeah - don't get shot! 😂 Seriously though, I'd say be patient, bide your time and use the cloud loops to allow the enemy to go past you so you can fire shots behind them. Strategic use of the speed button helps too.
These are great and I have them all except for the elusive Sherman Attack. So hard to find but I’m always looking to finish the collection 🤞
Yeah, that's one I didn't even know existed until I made this video.
@@RetroSpectivesgood news I found a boxed Sherman Attack from Germany. Perfect condition and worth the wait all these years 😃
Oh that's brilliant! Maybe a review is in order? 🙂
I had the white racing one. It was good.
That's definitely a favourite. Racing cars .. What's not to like? 😁
I certainly wouldn't mind seeing these re-made with todays technology.
I guess the modern equivalent would be VR headsets. A version of these games in current VR would probably sell like hotcakes.
Forgive me for saying this, about time, everytime I tried to find any video about Tomy Tronic's SharkAttack, I keep getting vids about trying to take one apart or fix it, as I had one, I was very keen on it, but could not find any screen shots of it. Nice work, good upload. If it's ok with you, I would like to share this one in my 'It's all a game, innit' playlist on Nige031077 and Nigel Mathews (NRM).
Yeah, feel free. I'm glad you appreciated the screenshots. I couldn't find any decent footage before I made this video, so I decided to try it myself. It came out really well thanks to the Blu-Tack I used to firmly attach my phone to the Tomytronics! 😆 A little post-production editing helped refine the final results, too.
@@RetroSpectives Good on you, if no footage or screenshots existed, make 'em yourself, that is the way to go. Your editing is very professional as well, I visited your Twitter page too, very informative and interesting. Stay safe and well, oh and thanks for the reply.
@@Nige031077 Thanks, that's a nice compliment as I've had no training. Just an obsessive eye for detail! 😆
Take care ... 👍
I had someone do to me the exact same thing your “mate” Lee did! I still remember the smug smirk on my “mate’s” face when I said “I want what I’d lent back on the Monday,” this being on a Friday.
When I got to his house, no signs of life, no furniture, no curtains, nothing.
I then realised the reason for that smug look on his face.😖😤
That really is awful. I still remember the sinking feeling when I realised I'd been had. I imagine you felt something similar. I did find him years later on facebook & messaged him. He asked how I'd been and I said good, and can I have my Tomytronics back, please? 🤣🤣
Great video. Do you remember FIREFOX ?
Yeah, just. One of the tabletop electronic arcadey type games, wasn't it?
@@RetroSpectives Yes it was. So expensive to buy now though.
My favourite of all the Grandstand games. I have that one and a Caveman. Not the ones I original bought back on the day, but had to have them
@J Hayes I think you're referring to the Atari game called Firefox. Based on a Clint Eastwood film.
But the OP here I believe is referring to the Grandstand tabletop VFD game, called Firefox F7
@J Hayes the Grandstand Firefox F7 is not based on film that I'm aware of, though does have copy of Tie Fighters from Star Wars on one level, and music is definitely a famous piece of classical music, which probably is used in film too. But game is not directly linked to any film no.
Firefox F7 is good fun
It would be great if you got a twitter message reminiscing about stealing 3 of them at school 😂
Hilarious how the commercial made the game play seem far better than it actually was. Wouldn’t be able to get away with it these days.
Yeah, the old trading standards would probably have a field day with this one. 😂
Great stuff, always wanted one unfortunately never got one.
Get yourself on eBay! They go for about £20 unboxed. Such a lovely piece of gaming history to have in a collection.
I remember being lucky enough getting the shark attack 3D one year for christmas... they dont make toys like this anymore ....
I first played on Shark Attack years after I played on the Sky Attack that I had when I was a kid, and I was quite surprised when I realised they'd reused the same sound effects from Sky Attack, in the Shark Attack game.
i had jungle fighter...i miss it
I've never played Jungle Fighter, but I'd love to give it a try if I ever get the chance. That, and Sherman Tank. I've seen them in other people's YT videos though.
I would love to have the ROM pulled & to be able to remake one with a 3d printer & Arduino or something like that. The only things I would updat with be a back light, rechargeable li-ion battery & maybe adjustable PD
Sounds expensive, but I've seen stranger things made as pet projects.
@@RetroSpectives Expensive? An Arduino or Pi Zero are only about $15, Battery & BMS $10, LCD screen/s probably $20-30
I had the white, red and the blue ones
Those'll be Thundering Turbo, Sky Attack, and Planet Zeon, respectively.
Can't seem to play these anymore without steaming the lenses up 😂
I've had that problem too. Try leaving a small gap for the "eye juice" to escape. 🤓
I had sky attack while i was at bording school in 80's inOregon i had a part time job in Boiler room watching gauges all alone for 3 hours a day,i would bring Sky Attack with me,
There are definitely worse ways to pass the time.
I only had the tank and car games, they were passed down to me from my older cousin long after the Tomytronics had their heyday, but for me as a kid, these looked amazing. I hate that yours were stolen from you, thats terrible and other kids can be so bad.
Truthfully, they look amazing now when you see that 3D effect through the viewfinder. You kinda forget that it's basic graphics and bleepy sound.
I had the Tomytronic 3D Sky attack, i was a big fan of Tron at the time and this was as close as i could get as a boy trying to be a school boy Flynn😂 we also all swapped them with other kids in the playground at lunch time playing each others, but they all seemed the same to me, i remember shoulder ache would kick in after 10 mins lol. That kid that stole all yours was just wrong un. What did your parents say at the time? lol.
My parents blamed me for lending them out (which is how they interpreted "temporary swap"). My own fault, apparently. 🙄
I was lucky to have played the Jungle Fighter game. It was fun, but I was clumsy and not good.
I'd love to have had a go on one of those. Pretty much the only one I haven't played.
It'd be childs play nowadays to rerelease this with all 7 games & adapter for power.
The nostalgia is killing me.
They should make this a reality.
They could make a killer version like that for current VR headsets.
@@RetroSpectives True but redoing what made us love the original, you know they will ruin it by complicating things.
It’ll look nothing like the original & you’d go blind for nothing.it’s the simplicity that made old games fun when we were kids.
un compañero de la escuela tenía uno de estos aparatos, no se lo prestaba a nadie. Una vez me dejó dar un vistazo dentro y solo eso. 😥
Oh how I hope Lee is watching...😂
If he does ever stumble across the video, keeping schtum would probably be the best option. 🤣
Wow I wonder how much those cgi commercials cost back then!
(Unless it's fake cgi via animation or something)
They were impressive for the time, but even now I'm not sure if they were really CGI or since kind of animation.
They are definitely CGI. I was a kid around that time - 8 or 9, depending on the exact date - but our parents were quite nerdy for the time's standards; we'd just gotten a C64 as a step up from our old Telstar Pong console and our folks signed me and my sis up for computing classes to go along with it. The academy was full of Commodore and MSX machines and our teacher was an outgoing computer wiz in his early twenties who, apart from teaching, also worked on computer graphics for TV credits and such, and he used to share with us some bits of WIP footage from the stuff he was working on. Truly cool times.
Whilst were on the subject of people not returning games. Darrel Brierly, if you are reading this can you please return my copy of omega race for the vic20?
В только что лет
Yes, time flies. 👴
Pretty sure I owned Planet Zeon. I remember playing Sky Attack, but I can't remember if owned it or not. I was curious about the price of these things, a 1985 Argos catalogue found on Archive.org had a price of £19.95 with a suggested retail price of £27.95. Around £90 to £100 in todays prices!
From very distant memory, I remember the ones that were bought for me in the department store were about £19.99p, reduced to half price. I think they were selling them off. Lucky find, I guess.
I was hoping to see a comment from lee to let you know he was going to give you there value back now in 2022 :(
Fat chance! 🤣