Barcode Battler

[All Your Base]

No idea at all why this just popped into my head (although, if I had to hazard a guess, the bottle of red wine at the side of me may have played a part).

Does anyone else remember the hype followed by a steep downturn in interest that followed the release of the "Barcode Battler" handheld? In the early 90s, Japanese kids were going wild over getting hold of barcodes from non-Japanese products to power up their players.

Ultimately, when the non-Japanese market realised that the concept was as dull as ditchwater, it all but faded from view. However, as I recall, it was able to be used in conjunction with some other, more mainstream, consoles.

Anyway, is it just me, or does anyone else remember this?

[GameGavel]

[Jammajup]

Yes i remember it quite well and still have one boxed,if i remember correctly there was a specific brand of noodle here in the UK with a barcode which gave very high character attributes so kids were pestering their parents to purchase these noodles, i heard shop shelves were cleaned out of them for a while.I think it was indeed very short lived though and battlers started appearing at carboot`s and flea markets like the one i purchased for myself,i mean pokemon did the battle thing better later on anyway.

[Aidy]

I remember getting one when it first came out. Spent a week playing it and cutting out barcodes and making glueing them onto bits of card and drawing weapons etc on them and making up names for things.

Think I found a half decent weapon on a cereal box and called if a Mega Bazooka.

After a week it got pretty tedious though and went back into its box only to re-emerge years later when I flogged it on eBay.

[SepticLemon]

I had one of these too, the reason why I got one was that Bad Influence talked about it for 2 episodes and I begged for one for my Birthday, and yeah... I wasn't impressed with it either.

[RetroRevisited]

I got one of these at my local car boot last year, I really should play it sometime. It looks interesting, if complex.

I've always wanted to have a go on the Nintendo e-Reader though - anyone have one of those? Looks like a similar type of thing to the Barcode Battler, but I think it allowed you to play NES titles.