Vintage Gakken LCD Games

 So a few friends that know I like old (vintage) LCD games sent me this site that emulates old LCD games in Flash (for FREE!), which ironically led me to like one of the as-yet-undiscovered-by-me games so much that I hunted it down on ebay and bought the real deal. I got 'Runaway' because I liked the artwork, as well as the fact that it was the reverse of the usual game. By that, I mean that usually LCD games use the liquid crystal to make a character, item or what have you, and most of the screen is the background or blank or whatever. This one is mostly covered by the black LCD, and a searchlight goes around, leaving holes in the LCD where you'd normally have it inverted with an image. Same goes for the guards around the outside of the prison, their cutouts show through as they move around. This is fairly unique amongst these titles, as I've never seen this method of display employed before.

I was well aware of the existence of Gakken's games before, and their cute, quintessentially-80s design, but much like Nintendo's Game & Watch series, once I got one in my hands, I was impressed with the form factor and size. They're neat little conversation pieces, so I decided to track down more of em. I bought Fishing Boy & it arrived on Tuesday from Japan, and I'm expecting one more from a prominent collector in "ASIA" (says their ebay location, they've been around forever & I've sold them stuff before, so I know they're legit & passionate about handhelds, otherwise I wouldn't be buying from them) in the next week or two.