July 14, 2005 – Having a hero in the palm of your hand is fun, especially when it's someone like the Dark Knight Detective, Batman. Techno Source has released a handful of LCD games featuring incarnations of the hero from the new Batman Begins movie and animated series. These affordable adventures are for children of all ages and Eric Levin , EVP of Techno Source said the line has found a welcome audience in the mass market.

For those who might not have heard of Techno Source before, Levin explained the company is based in Hong Kong and New York . The Boston resident commutes back and forth to New York on a regular basis and travels across the pond to Hong Kong on a quarterly basis. Some of the other licenses, aside from Batman, that Techno Source is responsible for include: Marvel, Teen Titans, Justice League, Nascar, Crayola, Coleco, and Intellivision . "We're big in the retro games and big in boys action games," said Levin. "We also have the Sesame Street license and have expanded into the preschool arena as well."

Techno Source has only been in business a handful of years, but has made the most of those years. They studied the market and saw a void in two key categories: LCD games and TV Plug and Play games. "TV Plug and Play is really one of the fastest growing areas in the toy business," Levin stated, before beginning his history lesson on LCD games. "The interesting thing about LCD games is that they have been around for a long time and almost died away several years ago. They are pretty basic if you look at them compared to a Game Boy or PSP. The people in the LCD business then tried to overcomplicate their models to compete with the Game Boys of the world and most failed. The reality of it is the technology doesn't stretch that far. They wound up with games that were impossible to play and overpriced."

"We realized there is a place for LCD games in the market, but only at the right price," Levin continued. "In fact, when it comes to game play, the key is to make it simple or easier, rather than too complicated. If you look at McDonalds or Burger King in the past 18 months, there have been at least five LCD give away games included in their kids meals. Kids love it. So we were interested in creating a good price point and a simple and fun game. We wanted something that a person could get enjoy for a little while, put away, and revisit it later for just as much fun. We're not interested in making an immersive game like Halo."

Levin said it was all about trying to find a balance between the games like you find on a Game Boy and the ones you find in the average LCD model. He doesn't have a magic formula though and just simply said, "sometimes it works out better than others." Levin elaborated, "If you look at retro games coming back in such a strong way like PacMan and Space Invaders there's just an innate simplicity about those games. You don't need to read the instructions. You pick it up and you just start playing. The games increase in speed and challenges that take a minute to learn and a lifetime to master. We design games for that arena. I think we've done a great job over the last two years and are continuously getting better at it. For example, if you look at the Batman line, it's a simple game - there are bad guys who come at Batman from different directions. Batman is in the center of the screen and he has to hit the guys coming at him from each corner. Players just make Batman punch in the direction of the villains. It's easy on the first level, but each level gets faster and more challenging. Players have to press buttons faster, pay close attention, and develop skills to get to the future levels. Most of our games on the LCD side have four levels, with players able to continue playing forever at the fourth level until you lose. It's really challenging typically, but your reaction time needs to be up there."

"Obtaining the licenses we have has a lot to do with creating momentum," Levin continued. "We were able to create a lot of momentum where we had a solid story and strategy around who we were and what we were doing. Our goals were clear and made sense to people. We delivered the right product at the right price and our product was fun to play. We had a very focused goal and it helped. A lot of people making LCD games also make every single toy under the sun. We just deal with electronic games. We get up in the morning thinking about making the games better and go to bed each night concentrating on the same thing and we have a lot of success stories."

Levin was enthused about getting to work on the Batman Begins games, especially since he got to read the script for the movie months before the film hit theaters. "I absolutely loved the script," Levin said. "Warner Brothers did such a great job of doing the research to help their partners figure out the key things people are looking for and putting these things into the movie so they would be merchandizable. It was really exciting to be a part of thins and there are so many special things built into the Batmobile that you can work with from a gaming perspective."

"When I was reading the script, I looked at it in terms of action," Levin continued. "For the most part, when you're making a game like this, it has to revolve on action. In our Batman games the key things are driving and fighting. You have to have those elements, but what can you do to make them unique? How could the driving be different? How will the fighting stand out? How can we extrapolate the play patterns?"

Levin hopes Techno Source succeeded with their Batman Begins line. They have a variety of types of games for all ages. The company developed an affordable dual screen for one of their games. "Aside from Nintendo, no one really has this dual screen where you have action on one screen and additional information on the other," said Levin. "But Nintendo's is $150 and ours is $9.99. In our dual screen game, you race through the streets of Gotham City to avoid obstacles on the road and ninjas hiding behind buildings. It's a fast pursuit game."

"Our hand-held game, Fear the Bat is in a cool looking housing - like Batman with his cape spread out and all the buttons on the cape," continued Levin. "It's a fighting game with ninjas. He trains and learns ninja skills and then fights his trainers because he didn't want to join them. We also have a keychain game where Batman, primarily using bat-a-rangs fights the Scarecrow. Our final game in the series is a Batmobile keychain LCD game. The driving is pretty standard, but in the Batmobile you have to race and avoid hitting things that pop up around you."

Levin said their games are pretty sturdy. He told THE PULSE their company goes through great pains to test each to make sure they are durable and safe for kids. "Our LCD screens should be able to last without a problem, unless you really do something that was out of the ordinary to it," Levin said. "These are much tougher than the expensive ones and not as sensitive. An LCD on a cell phone is more sensitive than one on our gaming screen. These are pretty well put together."

All of Techno Source's Batman Begins games are in stores now. The company is also working with Marvel Comics and will be bringing some of their greatest heroes to the hand-held arena.