Rip into the R-Zone! Or ... not.

by John Bardinelli { Apr 27th 2007 at 8:57PM }

Tiger Electronics, creator of inexpensive handheld games like Electronic Bowling (admit it, you hid one in your Trapper Keeper), have had plenty of hits and misses with their products over the years. One of their flops was the R-Zone X.P.G. Xtreme Pocket Game, a handheld gaming machine released in 1995. The games were craptastic, the design a little too clunky, and the red-on-black graphics were tolerable only if you closed your eyes and jabbed the corner of your sockets with your pinky. But hey, gotta try and oust the Game Boy, right?

The R-Zone was released in three versions during its lifespan: one with a traditional layout pictured above, a souped-up (and enlarged) model with a color screen, and a version with a headset and flip-down screen for your right eye that just-so-happened to hit store shelves a year after the Virtual Boy. And we thought hardware ganking was unique to this century!

Take a look at the original R-Zone Headset commercial after the break. Ready to rip into the R-Zone?

Neither are we.

Tags: failedsystems, handheld, portable, rzone, tigerelectronics

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Brian @ Apr 27th 2007 9:05PM

Hahaha I remember getting one of those headset things for Christmas at least 10 years ago. What a blast from the past. I played it for like 5 minutes before realizing it was total crap, and never touched it again. Plus, it made you look really dumb.

Crazylink @ Apr 27th 2007 9:09PM

I could never see the screen when I tried to play one.

Greg @ Apr 27th 2007 9:56PM

I had the headset! I had Batman Forever and Panzar Dragoon for it. Ya, looking back it was utter crap, but when I was a kid, I didn't care, I was all "oooh, virtual reality whoosh"

John Doe @ Apr 27th 2007 10:01PM

Wow I remember those. Even as a kid I was always eying the commercials with a good 'o fashioned WTF expression. then I worked at TRU for a couple years when this thing was on the shelves. We broke open one of them when they hit the clearance bin. Yep shittacular.

Dagon @ Apr 27th 2007 10:17PM

I remember seeing that commercial once at about 3 in the morning when i woke with the flu when i was a kid. For years i thought i had dreamed the entire product until i saw one at the sears outlet store and freaked out and bought it immediately. I played batman until the batmobile stage... and never cared to go further.

Brian B. @ Apr 27th 2007 10:43PM

hah i remember playing Mortal Kombat 3 on that POS!! The red graphics plus the crappy headband hurt after playing awhile.

schlomo @ Apr 27th 2007 11:28PM

I still have that thing in my attic... with about a dozen games... it hurts like hell - you get the craziest headache between the headband and having to focus on the monochrome-red-on-clear screen bullshit they tried to pull...ahh... fond gaming memories...