Several manufacturers produced these devices beginning in the 1990s, though the concept became best known with the release in 2002 of Jakks Pacific's Atari Classic 10-in-1 TV.
From the mid-1990s to the early 2000s, three things happened: the retro game movement started to gain momentum, the price of system on a chip technology fell dramatically, and car television sets became popular.
In 2004, Tiger Electronics created paintball and a The Lord of the Rings sword-fighting game, using a toy sword as the controller.
In 2005, Milton Bradley started producing TV game versions of Whack-a-Mole and Miniature Golf.
By 2002, the original TV Games device from Jakks Pacific sold over 350,000 units.