Toymax Activision TV Games
Licensed from Atari Interactive and released by Toymax International in 2001, this
was the first Atari plug-and-play system that was released (Jakks Pacific Inc.
bought Toymax in February of 2002 and used this product to design and release
dozens of systems). This was styled like a joypad and was released in
several different colors (grey, blue, yellow, purple, etc). It includes 9 Activision games and 1 Imagic game:
Atlantis
Boxing
Crackpots
Freeway
Grand Prix
Ice Hockey
Pitfall!
River Raid
Spider Fighter
Tennis
Jakks Pacific re-released it as a joystick that resembled a Suncom TAC-2 joystick controller, but instead of having 2 fire buttons on the base, there's 1 on the base and 1 on top of the stick. The joystick feels flimsy and the fire buttons are too recessed. Techno Source re-released it again as a 'wing'-styled joypad.
All variants feature A/V output and runs on 4 AA batteries. Internally, they use a NOAC (Nintendo-on-a-chip), and although Digital Creation Studios took the time to try and made the games look the same as the originals, they aren't exactly the same, nor do they play or sound the same. For example, with Freeway, your chicken is in the center of the screen. Being there's only a 1-player variation available on the system, it's reasonable to have it centered, but it never was in the original version. Boxing also has white and black dots in the upper-right corner of the screen, the purpose of which is unknown. With Pitfall, the vine graphics look noticeably blocky, and in one video, an invisible treasure is picked up!
At the time of its release, this system was considered a decent effort to have a VCS PnP, but with the exception of the Atari joystick and paddle system releases that followed this one, later efforts by others were often worse in comparison. As always, stick with using original hardware to experience these games as they were originally intended.
