Matt's blog

On a recent (actually, not so recent) trip to L.A. Jeni's dad gave us a box full of stuff: old books, cds and the like. This box has been shuffled around our apartment un-unpacked for the last several months doing little more than becoming a constant hindrance underfoot. So finally this week, we decided it was time to clean our apartment, return our spare bedroom to an office after its use by various short term roommates, and finally unpack that box. Some of the stuff we found in the box wasn't really worth the suspense of letting the box age for months before unpacking (like Tiffany's Guide to Proper etiquette and the Holiday Songbook 4-disc set of the world's favorite Christmas Carols) but some other stuff was a pleasant surprise, like Frank Sinatra and The Who box sets, some Stephen King, the Smithstonian Earth coffee table book (not quite as cool as Google Earth) and the Tiger electronic Star Trek: TNG handheld LCD video game.

The game is surprisingly accurate to the show. You use your warp drive to fly through an asteroid field while shooting down Romulan ships each with a single shot from your phasers. (Did I mention this was all at warp speed?) At the end of the flying levels you use the Transporter button to beam down to a planet as Lt. Worf where you shoot Romulans who pop up from behind rocks. I can get to halfway through level 4 in the game's 5 levels.

I looked on Ebay to see if Tiger games have become anything of a collectors' item so I could pull down a few bills for this thing, but much to my dismay they have not. Well, if I can't make any money off of it, perhaps I could start an old-school handheld games addiction at about $5 a pop.