Catch a Caterpillar
I remember this game from the early 80s, when the video game Centipede was supernova hot, so hot indeed that Tomy made a stupid little plastic game with a transparent Centipede theme. Unlike Centipede, in which you dismember an insect with callous efficiency, Catch a Caterpillar challenges you to assemble an insect from individual insect pieces, also known as "BBs," making the game more like a combination of Cootie and Gothic horror than a video game. According to the instructions, you "release shooter to fire, aiming into center opening," which sounds great except you can't actually aim. You just shoot one BB after another, hoping the mysterious power of magnetism will cause them to stick together. D

Dragon Trap
This belongs to one of my favorite Tomy Game subgenera, the "annoying buzz" group of games. You set a timer and the game makes what I'm tempted to describe as a nasal rattling, in spite of the fact that the game does not actually have a nose. Except, of course, for the painted nose of the dragon you have to avoid along with his friends the evil plush spider, the evil vaguely-amused-looking skull, and the evil happy pile of excrement. You have to get your intrepid adventurer, also known as a "BB," past these dangers and to the safety of what is either a castle or a small mob of gnomes before the rattling stops, or else your adventurer is held in place by the still-mysterious if increasingly commonplace power of magnetism. D

Copter Fight
In another uncannily realistic simulation, this game puts you behind the controls of a helicopter with the ability to shoot short-range air-to-air BBs at another helicopter that's just sitting there doing nothing. As in real life, each direct hit causes the enemy helicopter to move forward a small distance, except for the 8th, which makes it explode. I hear the army is seeking out Copter Fight experts for recruitment into its elite helicopter units. D+

Golf Game
"A real test of skill for more advanced Pocket game players," this game's instructions warn. I burn with envy that I cannot call myself an advanced Pocket Game player. This game, which is both dull and awkward -- although perhaps that's just because I'm not advanced enough -- emulates the dull and awkward game of golf. Each of nine "holes" is created by rotating the little golfy landscape they have set up for you, which is kind of clever at the same time that it doesn't actually improve the game, which is essentially low-budget Pachinko with a pastoral theme. D-

Robot Factory
This allows you to fulfill the universal dream of randomly assembling modular robots. It's kind of like those kids' books where you can flip pages to put a penguin's head on a walrus's body, except that the results here are essentially random and not at all amusing. You get points for certain combinations, and if you can get 100 or more points in ten spins, you're a "Robotics Expert." I'm sure you, like all thinking people, would like to be a Robotics Expert, but don't get your hopes up. The chances of actually getting 100 points are something less than one in a million. D-