OT - sort of

Kind folks, I'm pretty sure that some here restore and use vintage computers at least in part in order to be able to play vintage computer games, which is the only thing that makes this post on topic at all. After a bit of research on the web, I find that I'm at least 5 or 6 years behind the times based on some forum discussions of something I just became aware of just yesterday! What triggered all this was that our daughter showed up at the house with this little game controller which she says was bought at WalMart for about USD $20.00. It says "namco" on the front, "PLUG it in & PLAY TV GAMES" on the back. Says 6VDC on the back too, so probably 4 AA batteries. It came with batteries, and I haven't opened it up to explore the insides at all - yet. On the bottom next to the list of games are copyright dates from 1960 to 1983, the best I can tell. There is also a copyright notice on the bottom dated 2004 for JAKKS Pacific, Inc. and a reference to www.jakkstvgames.com. This little gadget has a joystick, a few pushbutton switches, and composite video and a sound output. It allows one to play vintage Ms. Pac-Man, Galaga, Pole Position, Mappy, and Xavious by connecting it to a standard TV's video and audio inputs. I mention this here because I just thought it was really cool to be able to play these vintage games, and some might be in the same uninformed group with me. :-) FWIW, my daughter says there are a number of other similar units with different games, and the web seems to confirm this. Wanting to see if the web site is WOT approved, I googled jakkstvgames.com and it seems to only be referred to by other web sites. I finally got brave and typed it in to the Firefox URL entry and was rewarded with "403 Forbidden" and "You don't have permission to access / on this server." Sounds pretty scary to me. BTW, I have absolutely no connection with this company - whatever it is - Jakks Pacific? It says it is made in China, of course. The thing is plastic, but seems to be remarkably well made for something that only costs 20 bucks. Of course the possibility of hacking it for other purposes never crossed my mind. ;-) Later, Charlie C.