rambo tv game: the video game console that time forgot

July 20th, 2009 comments (1) stumble it! digg it! by: technabob

I was digging around the deep recesses of Flickr earlier today, when I came across a picture of what could be one of the greatest video game console oddities of all time.

rambo_tv_game

Apparently, this Rambo TV Game console came out at some point back in the 1990s. It’s a serious doppelganger for the Atari 2600, and actually claims to have had 208 built-in games. Despite the “2600 compatible” labeling, the photos on the box make me think this was one of those cheap NES/Famicom clone systems from China. And check out those joysticks…

rambo_tv_game_system

While I certainly don’t remember this system, I did manage to find a brief mention of the Rambo TV console over on the Ultimate Console Database – and the version they show has 2,001 built-in games.

rambo_tv_game_system_2

And the one in this YouTube video claims to have a whopping 11,555 built-in games! Of course, they neglected to mention that 11,554 of them suck, and the final one is a knock-off of E.T.: the Extra-Terrestrial.

There’s not much more to say about this rarity, except that anything that combines an Atari 2600 and Sly Stallone is okay in my book.

[photos via Flickr]

« previous post next post »

filed under: retro strange + wonderful video games

tags: 1970s1990satari 2600cheapcloneconsolerambotv gameweird

July 20th, 2009 comments (1): stumble it! digg it! by: technabob

subscribe to technabob rss feed

comments (1):

dacian says:

August 6, 2009 at 8:40 am

I used to have this console in the early 90s. It was very popular here in Romania, and I assume all of eastern Europe at least. All the kids had these, so I think they were really cheap. I remember some kids had two or three of them. They were sold in markets alongside all kinds of pirated electronic and apparel brands like Plima, Adibas, Osaka, Roibok, and my favorite – Panasony. They were made extremely cheap with empty plastic cases with very small electronic components. The joysticks used to break into pieces a few days after purchase and we were forced to play by pressing the contacts inside with our fingers. It was very uncomfortable and you could easily get cuts or scratches from them. They did actually have over a hundred games (the number varied by model) but they were all at the 80s level of design, most really bad atari clones. No sound, of course. You could cycle through the games in a single direction by repeatedly pushing one of the 4 metal switches. Some of the models had a game cartridge reader (below “video game system”) but I never ever saw any cartridges.
Good times, though

Reply