[ Retro Scan of the Week ] Tiger Game.com $10 Rebate
November 30th, 2015 by Benj Edwards
I need to start a historical coupon collection
Apparently I ripped this Tiger Game.com $10 rebate coupon off the back of some unknown cereal box around 1997 or 1998. I found it recently in the papers cleaned out from my childhood desk.
The Tiger Game.com seemed like a neat machine when I first read about it — with its touch screen and potential for “Internet access” — but it ended up being a major let-down.
I did eventually get a Game.Com — I could have sworn I got it on clearance at K-Mart or Toys’R’Us (but I didn’t mention that in this earlier post)…or maybe it was a birthday present from my dad in 1998. Despite buying many Game.com games over the next few years on clearance, I pretty much only played the built-in Solitaire game on it. But that was fun enough.
I remember thinking something along the lines of “For the price I paid for it, it’s a pretty good solitaire machine.” So maybe I did get my first Game.com on clearance. It’s sad that my memory is fading like this. I can typically remember how and when I got everything in my collection. I will have to look through my papers later and see if I have a receipt for it. That could shed some light on things.
See my previous Retro Scan posts about the Game.com (listed below) for more of my stories about this odd console. It’s the only video game console I ever used to call a BBS. Now that’s odd.
Discussion Topic of the Week: Did you buy a Tiger Game.Com in the 1990s? What did you think about it?
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See Also:
Tiger Game.com (RSOTW, 2010)
Game.com Internet Module (RSOTW, 2012)
December 1st, 2015 at 1:32 pm
I didn’t buy a game.com, but I remember seeing it and being fascinated with the possibilities it represented. This was the first time the concept of a hand-held device that could contact OTHER hand-held devices and exchange data or even real-time play crossed the threshold from “far-off SciFi” to “this is something I could have soon”.
I kept thinking “Sure THIS device looks like drek, but what happens when something with games as great as the Gameboy Color can make use of this technology?” I don’t think I could’ve imagined the phones we have today.
December 2nd, 2015 at 4:05 pm
I’ve still got mine.
I thought it was pretty cool at the time, although their lighting scheme was pretty bad (frontlit, but advertised as backlit!). It should have been a LOT brighter. The screen’s pixel persistence meant that there was a lot of blurring when objects moved.
I liked that it had a calendar/notepad/address book, but they were too limited to be really useful. Plus mine tended to lose data when the main batteries died.
Believe it or not, my favorite game turned out to be Wheel Of Fortune. No, I’m not a senior citizen LOL