A lot of people grew up with electronic games. Before the invention of programmable game consoles, there are lots of dedicated hand held games like “Game & Watch”, Casio calculators, Tetris variations, …
I remember in the late 70s and early 80s, people were playing these hand held games everywhere – buses, ferries, canteens, classrooms (during a lesson!), bedrooms, etc. They could play it with both hands, single hand (when talking over a phone!), or playing two games (one for each hand) at the same time!!!
Classic game concepts are pretty simple but additive. And sometime simple is beauty. I guess a lot of people still like to play those games but unable to find it.
Few years ago I had a chance to develop some games with my friend. And I am going to update and publish these games one by one. Just hope that can bring some good old memories to us.
The first one that I would like to share is a game simulator of the 1981 Casio MG-880. We called it PC-880. It’s a invader game using digits. Pretty clever design by Casio. We only need two buttons to play – one for advance the aiming digit (comma key, or left mouse button) and the other is fire (fullstop key or right mouse button). To kill invaders, simply increase the aiming digit on the right hand side. When the aim match any of the digits on the left hand side, push fire button will eliminate it. There is a bonus UFO flagship when sum of digits is a multiple of 10.
Download links (latest version 1.1):
Standalone version
Installer version (if you are not sure, download the installer version)
Remark:
When we developed the game, we did not have the calculator in hand. So the scoring may not be the same as original. Please feel free to place comments and we will try our best to improve it.
We have tested it on Win2K, Win XP, Win7 & Win10. Please let us know if there is any problems running it. Also let us know if you can run it on other platforms.
2019 Update
Casio released a revival of the calculator — the SL-880 — in Japan on March 23rd, 2018. There are sellers on eBay selling this if you have interest. I probably will get one soon ….. 🙂