Mattel Electronics Portable Electronic Games
Football, 1977
“Mattel began making handheld electronic games in 1976, beginning with a handheld version of Missile Command. Games such as Auto Race and Football soon followed, and were sold through Sears. By 1978, these games were huge hits, selling as many as 50,000 per week. Mattel eventually turned their attention to the production of the Intellivision console system, but these early handheld games continue to remain an important part of their history with electronic games.” — Museum of Play
The Mattel Electronics logo appears to be Gemini Computer with customized ‘M’, ‘A’, and ‘N’.
Baseball, 1978
Auto Race, 1976
Soccer, 1978
Sub Chase, 1978
Football 2, 1978
Basetball 2, 1979
Armor Battle, 1978
Football, 1977
Missle Attack, 1976. Logo a customized Futura Display?
Basketball, 1978
6 Comments on “Mattel Electronics Portable Electronic Games”
Here’s a shot of Mattel’s Bowling handheld (sourced from Wikimedia Commons), which appears to be using Twentieth Century Ultrabold (or, at the very least, a very similar font):
Photo: Joe Haupt (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0)
Thanks, Bryson! Added.
Does anyone know what font the title “Soccer” is written in?
I would have said custom, but considering that many other logos on these devices are based on fonts, I might be wrong.
The closest one I can think of right now is Yagi Universal. It has the right s and c. Its weight is a tad too light, though, and there is no angled e among its alternates.
I love how Gemini Computer and the blurry bitmap illustration share the same aesthetic.
Did you see the animations that Wei Huang made? Pure genius.