Flashback to another exciting and memorable period in my life. At a time when arcade and tv video games were all the rage, some really, really cool guy made a digital one that fit in your pocket. Teacher classroom property seizures would skyrocket, and I would join the rest of my peers as proud owners of a handheld electronic sports game. Man, that sounded lame. How bout h.e.s.g. for short?

It's difficult to brand them all with one name, because there were so many. I'd say football was the most popular (at least in Midwest and Edgerton), but we also had baseball, soccer, tennis, and others. We knew the names like Coleco, Mattel, and Tudor like we knew the names of our favorite players.

TOUCHDOWN

The games are crude and ancient by today's sharp and brilliant standards. They mostly consisted of  a few red or orange LED lights that could be controlled at the push of a button. The screen wasn't even a monitor, but a see through part of the plastic cover.

The action on these games wasn't exactly gripping, but none of us cared about that just as long as there was a clear winner and loser. You could go head to head on some of these h.e.s.g's! They were like the 70's and 80's equivalent of today's smartphones. All of a sudden, there was no need for boredom! We could take this instant form of self-gratification anywhere. Yes, I say! And as long as we could keep buying the batteries and had a new high score to set,  the h.e.s.g. would reign supreme for a long time. They were like anything else in our day; trendy and popular, and I'm sure they made, and continue to make, some people very wealthy. We all had 'em!

OFFSIDES

That said...some of these games were of higher quality than others. My family generally would've been considered working middle class. That kind of means that your h.e.s.g would also be working middle class. Though, I did manage to get my hands on a Coleco a time or two, my own game would be somewhat less amazing. Good luck finding documentation on it. It was orange, and I never saw another one like it. It might have even come from the Edgerton grocery store. The buttons took effort to depress, and you could actually hear them when they did. The action was slow, and I couldn't help but feel a little depressed myself thinking I was probably missing out on a truly great handheld electronic sports game experience. I wish that at the time, I would've been more appreciative of its uniqueness and individuality. What kid does, though?

Okay, so I'm gonna go and look for that thing. It's probably worth some big bucks by now! You enjoy the videos.

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