LGR - Oregon Trail Electronic Handheld Game

Genese Harris

Keep it up! 🖒🏽👏🏽🌐

LGR

Nope, you're stuck with what it comes set with by default. It's actually not bad at all when using it in real life, but the crappy scaling is exaggerated when using the macro lens I did for this video.

LGR

Many have asked, but I haven't seen it happen yet! I'm sure it's possible

Paul

It would indeed be pretty interesting to know what's on that board, because the most important question hasn't yet been asked: Has anyone run Doom on that hardware yet? :)

Scott Holder

PIcked up one of these yesterday and unfortunately the gameplay itself is a little disappointing if you've played a lot of the originals. It's been simplified a lot (like I don't think my health ever dropped below Good no matter what I did to pace and rations, except for running out of food entirely. And it immediately went back to Good when I hunted), and trading is a lot easier. Still a fun unit but I wish it was more faithful to the originals.

Lyall Moffitt

The Dragon 32 is basically a Tandy CoCo with a different ROM though isn’t it?

they should do a system shock handheld game

SuperBunnyBun

I grabbed one off there for $45 free shipping. not gonna give a positive rating for price gouging, but still affordable. just keep an eye out and search for them based on total price

If it's that board then it might be one of the many NES-on-a-chip ASICs that have been floating around for over a decade. A lot of them actually support more (and arguably less in some areas) than a stock NES, which might make this device more interesting.

Tim

I feel sorry for Dragon 32 fans, myself.

The weird pixel scaling looks kind of nasty. I'm guessing not, but is there a way to disable the screen stretch by any chance?

Michael Vokabre

Got really curious, went to check on eBay if someone is selling those, and welp, 50 dollars plus 25 shipping. : /

evistre

Oh no! Hahah, sorry we're jerks! <3

LGR

I didn't see anything like that on this particular board, but I could be missing it!

LGR

No kidding, I would've been blown away by this back then

LGR

Heck, just more BBC Micro/Elk reproduction hardware in general would be welcome. The Spectrum and C64 have hogged the attention long enough!

LGR

Said it wrong in a video once before and got eaten alive by Oregon residents. Never again ;)

pcwzrd13

This thing is darn impressive for $25! Sure beats most of the crappy handhelds that I used to see as a kid! Haha!

Neil (RMCretro)

We need an English equivalent with the game "Grannys Garden" on the BBC Micro

Asaf Sagi

But can we count on you to peel off that resin and tell us what chips hide behind it?

avfusion

I have one of those centipede mini cabs, so I opened it up, took an xacto knife to the epoxy, and wouldn't you know it, it's a NOAC. The D-Pad's 4 cross directions look multiplexed onto whatever two directions it represents. Then there's the Y/N/Enter/Menu buttons for the 8, and the sound button is connected to a different register looking portion, so yeah, there's the 8 register buttons. If anybody had the knowhow to dump this thing, it'd be cool to see if it could be ran on an actual NES.

Rob Caporetto

When I saw the buzz over these appearing I was thinking "WTF?" - it felt like a weird choice (and still kinda does). In the horrendously unlikely event they appeared in a shop down here, I'd still be tempted though. But hey, convenient edutainment in a "pocketable" form, right? ;)

evistre

Hey! You pronounced WIllamette right! That one stumps visitors a lot. Bravo. :)

Zachary Outen

i remember the 8 bit guy jumped some pins and got a different game on his machine, since its a similar board i wonder if it would do the same. it be cool to see qbert on this

The 8-Bit Guy

Hahah. I was sooo close to picking one of these up and doing an episode on it.. But I guess I don't need to now. Probably for the best as I'm running way behind on what I had already planned to make this last few months.

LGR

For sure. I'm more happy to pay for this than $25 in like, Sims DLC or something :P

Gary Leigh

Even though the D-pad would put me off, it seems like a pretty decent price of what you get.

LGR

Hope they have some in stock, best of luck!

Brian Smith

Interesting. Heading to Target in a bit for some cat litter may grab this as well lol

LGR

Well, for now at least. I imagine it could change later if there's demand and international distribution options

LGR

Nothing against the brand, it's just those particular batteries are the definition of cheaply-built

LGR

Hope you can track one down! Seems to be a bunch on eBay, although: scalpers

LGR

Honestly I'm down for just the whole range as a portable, haha

LGR

So it goes :/ Looks like they're actually selling at those prices, too.

Nicholas Wilson

US only? The utter BA**ARDS! :|

Allan Liebold

NOBODY has died. Whew. That's a relief.

Desmo

GP Batteries are just fine. Perhaps not so known in Murica? I got lots of rechargeable's of that brand in Netherlands. To be fair this could be their lowest end product.

I want one immediately.

Foone Turing

I opened mine up, and adding an audio-out would be very easy but video a lot harder. the chip and LCD driver are both just blobs on the PCB, so you can't easily modify them, but the speaker is on a separate wire so you could easily drill a hole for a 3.5mm jack.

Douglas Holmes

I would get it if I had fond memories of the original Oregon Trail, but I grew up with Oregon Trail II which gives me nostalgia whenever I see it.

Anders Enger Jensen

Let David hack a minijack/RCA output on it... :D Not that the sound will be totally awesome, but still.

SuperBunnyBun

Ah, I see them on Ebay already, mostly for double the price. people are already snatching them up for price-gouging resale

LGR

Eep. Yeah they seriously had no weight to them, hardly felt like real batteries!

LGR

Seriously though, why reinvent the wheel? Haha, it makes no sense to me why they'd choose a d-pad with separate diagonals

LGR

Yeah it's the one major flaw, especially combined with a tiny screen that it's harder to see what you're hunting to begin with

LGR

Thank you!

Keiron Wedlin

Pretty nice unit, those batteries reminded me the ones Comcast gives you in a new remote.

The Enforcer

Jesus Christ, that D-pad looks like something out of my nightmares. Why they couldn't use a standard mini joystick, I have no idea.

Ryan Yoder

I would get one if it weren’t for the hunting limitations. That would really bug me as I like hunting.

Kenny Ketner

nice review

LGR

Yep, just came out for sale this month

LGR

Yeah I'd love to hear more if/when you find out!

SuperBunnyBun

at a Target? You mean these are currently sold?

Foone Turing

Awesome! I got one of these the other day, I really like the design. I pulled it apart to try to see how it worked, cause it's a bit of a mystery. This company has done some other games like this but they're all based on the standard famicom-on-a-chip clones. There was never a famicom/nes port of Oregon Trail, and this version most closely resembles the DOS version. So I really want to figure out how it works! I'm waiting on some more tools to try and find out.