Retrocomputing Enthusiast Repairs Mattel’s 48-Year-Old Handheld Videogame

Again in 1976, Mattel Electronics Auto Race turned the very first handheld sport to make use of solely solid-state electronics, in accordance with Wikipedia. (Its solely mechanical parts had been its on/off change and hand-operated controls…) Practically half a century goes by — till the traditional and damaged gizmo reaches long-time Slashdot reader Shayde, who “dove into disassembling the unit and determining the issue.”

Paradoxically, at one level his voltimeter stopped working, as a result of…its batteries had been useless. However a tri-wing screwdriver reveals the sport’s stunning 1976 circuitboard — earlier than the video quick forwards by way of “an nearly comical try by me, a techniques software program engineer, to sauter the connections again onto this 48-year-old connector.” (As a substitute he finally ends up changing the machine’s 9-volt battery connector…) On his Patreon web page, he writes that filming the video “took a stupidly very long time to place collectively.” However their Slashdot submission acknowledges that in the long run, “Taking it aside and debugging it was enjoyable. (Slight spoiler: I found out what was flawed, was a simple repair), and the sport performs nice now!”

Any Slashdot readers have reminiscences of taking part in Mattel Electronics Auto Race? My one expertise felt like that point {that a} gaming journal had 9 kids (ages 9 to 12) attempt to play outdated Nineteen Seventies-era videogames like Pong. (“Wow. The rating is tied. It is so exhilarating…” “My line is so beating the heck out of your silly line…”)