Ho-ho-ho no! I broke the coolest Christmas present I ever got

Remember those hand-held electronic sports games from about 35 years ago?
Unless you're an old dude like me, chances are you don't. But, believe me, they were cool. Maybe not cool by 2011 standards, but back in the mid-1970s they were hotter than Charlie's Angels and trendier than Farrah Fawcett's hairdo.
If memory serves (and sometimes it doesn't) Mattel made a football, basketball and a baseball version. They were played on these rather bulky hand-held devices that essentially featured no graphics at all. Instead, there was a series of flashing lights controlled by pressing arrows up and down, back and forward. They also beeped and played some sort of a tune when you scored a touchdown, hit a home run or made a basket.

How do I know about the sounds? Sadly, I once tried to play my buddy's football game during church one Sunday afternoon. I scored, the thing made a sound and mortified my parents.

I wondered if I might go to hell for playing it in church, but then I thought, “As long as I'm going, I'm taking this game with me.”

The calendar on the wall tells me Christmas is coming, and for some reason this holiday season has me thinking about those old games. See, back in 1977 or '78, when I was in my early teens, my folks got me the basketball version for Christmas.
I remember playing the game for hours on end, moving my flashing blip – my player – around the defensive blips, shooting and scoring. To anyone under the age of say, 40, this must seem incredibly archaic, like chiseling words on a stone tablet. But at the time those things were cutting edge.
As I mentioned, I remember playing the games for hours on end, but the thing I remember most is how I broke the darn thing.
Here's what happened …
A few weeks before Christmas my parents went out for the evening – maybe dinner, maybe a Christmas party, I can't remember. What I do remember is snooping around the house for presents. And I hit the jackpot when I saw the box high on the shelf in the hall closet.

I wish I could say I felt a twinge of guilt or even a split-second of remorse, but sadly, I think I was so excited to see Mom and Dad got me an electronic basketball game I blew right through the mental stop signs.

Of course when I opened it up I noticed the required 9-volt battery was not included. So I searched around the house, found one and immediately connected it to the game. Then I sat down on the couch and played that thing with the focus of an old lady playing three simultaneous slot machines in Las Vegas.
At some point, an internal clock went off in my 13-year-old brain and I knew it was time to put it back on the shelf. So I did; but at the last minute I remembered the battery. In my haste, I pulled the wire off the little black piece that battery plugged into.

Oops. I broke it.

Just imagine the emotional torment I was going through at the time. Now imagine it multiplied by 10 on Christmas morning when I opened it, my dad gave me a battery and said, “Here you go. Have fun!”
Not wanting to rat myself out, I stuffed the wire back into its proper place and it stayed there very tentatively while I played the game, ever so careful not to move it too hastily.
And that's pretty much how I played that game for the next several months before I finally gave up. I'd love to tell everyone that I eventually did the right thing, told my parents, they forgave me and we all had a nice laugh about it. But I honestly don't remember what happened, although something tells me if I really did do the right thing, I'd probably still remember it.
So, when I ask if anyone remembers those old Mattel electronic sports game, I'm guessing few remember them for the same reasons I do.
At least I ho-ho-hope not.