When you reflect on '80s gaming, you probably think of either the Atari 2600 or the Nintendo Entertainment System. While both consoles dominated their respective halves of the decade, in between them a third entity lingered -- electronic tabletop/handheld games.

One of these, the Tomy Turnin' Turbo Dashboard, was 1983's attempt at a driving simulator. It isn't really a video game by any modern standard as its inner workings are almost entirely mechanical. Four D-cell batteries powered whirring sheets of plastic and timers that mimicked a car's sense of speed and fuel consumption.

It amazes me that this sort of toy ever took off. I had several faux-video game playthings as a kid, including a driving simulator similar to this and a shooting gallery. I venture to call them video games because a great deal of effort went into presenting them as such. Take the toy in the video above. The moving grid-like screen on the dashboard is clearly quite influenced, at least stylistically, by Tron. 

Thankfully, the NES saved gaming in 1985. If it hadn't, these mechanical nightmares might still be with us.