Here some handhelds from the early eighties.

Unlike later handhelds like e.g. Nintendos Gameboy, the picture of the old handhelds wasn't created using a dotmatrix. The necessary elements of the game (e.g. your character) were predefined as LCD elements instead. The advantage is, that the elements are not square and don't have "corners", because they are not made of single pixels. This however also has a disadvantage: Normally only one game was possible on one handheld.

There were also innovative games which had very special features, e.g. LCD games with two screens, or with "LCD elements" which covered a colored background (more info later) or even with two LCD layers, that allowed different levels with different game-content on one handheld.

King Kong from Tiger
This handheld from 1982 has nothing special to offer. The "Deluxe Features" listed on the box are normal standard features.
-Two fun filled games or skill levels in each unit. -> real meaning: two different difficulties to choose from
- Hours, minutes, month, day -Dual time zone -12 or 24 hour clock - Melody alarm -> real meaning: clock included
-Record score retained -Game sound effects -> hmm this was also nothing special, lah
The player has to save the woman at the top of the skyscraper from King Kong.

(click on the picture to magnify)

Also available in this series from Tiger: Spacefight, Caveman and Dragon

Oil Gang von GAMA Tronic
This game was published some years later. In Germany distributed by GAMA Tronic it is originally from エポック社 (Epoche). An additional feature beside the game, the clock and the date-function was the built-in stop-watch.
Your aim in this game is to provide a secure pipeline, so that the oil will reach the ship, while the oil-gang is trying to cut the pipeline and to attack the ship.

(click on the picture to magnify)

Flucht aus dem Kittchen von tacOtronic
("Escape From Jail" from tacOtronic)
In Germany known as tacOtronic these handhelds are actually from 学研 (Gakken) and sometimes distributed by Bienengraeber, who also distributed Game & Watch (as ticOtronic) since 1982 in Germany and In France they were released by Lansay. The English name for the original Gakken game is "Runaway", the Japanese name is サ-チライト (Search Light). This is again a very early handheld and unlike the other games from tacOtronic this one had a special feature. Normal LCD games just activate or deactivate a LCD element in front of a grey background. Here a black element is activated or deactivated in front of a colored background. This background can contain e.g. colored objects. Now all colored objects unnecessary at a certain moment are just under such an activated LCD element and are thus not visible. So its not activating LCD elements to show something but to hide something! In this game your aim is to escape from a jail, while avoiding the guard with the spotlight and the guard with the dog.

(click on the picture to magnify)

Also available in this series from tacOtronic: „Rette sich wer kann!” and „Krabben Terror”

Other Handhelds
Besides the LCD games there were also other kinds of portable games (I just call them handhelds to keep things simple).
One example are the completely non-electronic handhelds filled with water. With the attached buttons you pump water into them and your goal is e.g. to bring all rings of plastic to the pipes of plastic.
Also very famous was MBs "Senso". Heres a picture of the portable Mini Senso. The Game is about pushing buttons in the right sequence, which is shown to you with increasing speed.

(click on the picture to magnify)