Adventure Vision is a cartridge-based

video game console A video game console is an electronic device that outputs a video signal or image to display a video game that can be played with a game controller. These may be home consoles, which are generally placed in a permanent location connected to ...

released by

Entex Industries Entex Industries, Inc. was an American toy and electronic game manufacturer based in Compton, California. The company was active during the 1970s and 1980s. Background The company was formed in 1970 by ''G.A. (Tony) Clowes'', ''Nicholas Carlozz ...

in either August or October 1982. The launch price of the system was $79.95. The monitor, game controls, and computer hardware are all contained within a single portable unit. The LED monitor can only display red pixels. Four games were released, all of which are arcade ports. Either approximately 10,000 or 50,757 units were produced. Adventure Vision was Entex's second-generation system following the Entex Select-A-Game, released a year earlier in 1981.

Description

Control is through a single multi-position joystick and two sets of four buttons, one on each side of the joystick, for ease of play by both left- and right-handed players. Rather than using an LCD screen or an external

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

set like other systems of the time, the Adventure Vision uses a single vertical line of 40 red LEDs combined with a spinning mirror inside the casing. This allows for an effective screen resolution of 150 × 40

pixel In digital imaging, a pixel (abbreviated px), pel, or picture element is the smallest addressable element in a raster image, or the smallest point in an all points addressable display device. In most digital display devices, pixels are the ...

s. The mirror motor draws a great deal of power from the batteries, which can be avoided by using the built-in AC adapter.

Games

Entex released four Adventure Vision games, all of them ported from arcades: *'' Defender'', originally by

Williams Electronics WMS Industries, Inc. was an American electronic gaming and amusement manufacturer in Enterprise, Nevada. It was merged into Scientific Games in 2016. WMS's predecessor was the Williams Manufacturing Company, founded in 1943 by Harry E. Williams ...

*'' Super Cobra'', originally by

Konami , is a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo, it also produces and distributes trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, pachinko machines, slot machines, and arcade cabinets. Konami has casino ...

*''

Turtles Turtles are an order of reptiles known as Testudines, characterized by a special shell developed mainly from their ribs. Modern turtles are divided into two major groups, the Pleurodira (side necked turtles) and Cryptodira (hidden necked tur ...

'', originally by Konami *''Space Force'', originally by Venture Line (similar to ''

Asteroids An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere. ...

'')

Technical specifications

* CPU:

Intel 8048 The MCS-48 microcontroller series, Intel's first microcontroller, was originally released in 1976. Its first members were 8048, 8035 and 8748. The 8048 is probably the most prominent member of the family. Initially, this family was produced u ...

@ 733 kHz * Sound:

National Semiconductor National Semiconductor was an American semiconductor manufacturer which specialized in analog devices and subsystems, formerly with headquarters in Santa Clara, California. The company produced power management integrated circuits, display dr ...

COP411L @ 52.6 kHz, headphone jack * RAM: 64 bytes (internal to 8048), 1K (on main PCB) * ROM: 1K (internal to 8048), 512 bytes (internal to COP411L), 4K (cartridge) * Input: 4 direction joystick, 4 buttons duplicated on each side of the joystick * Graphics: 150x40 monochrome red pixels * Expansion port * Dimensions:

Legacy

A similar display technique combining red LEDs with a moving mirror was used by Nintendo in the 1995

Virtual Boy The Virtual Boy is a 32-bit tabletop portable video game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo. Released in 1995, it was marketed as the first console capable of displaying stereoscopic "3D" graphics. The player uses the console like ...

. Because of the moving parts used by the system, many units no longer work, with an estimated 100 known operational units left. On March 31, 2013 at the

Revision Revision is the process of revising. More specifically, it may refer to: * Update, a modification of software or a database * Revision control, the management of changes to sets of computer files * ''ReVisions'', a 2004 anthology of alternate hi ...

demoparty, the first-ever homebrew/demo ROM for the system was demonstrated by MEGA - Museum of Electronic Games & Art. MEGA also released the source code for the demo as well as all development tools. The system is supported by the MESS

emulator In computing, an emulator is hardware or software that enables one computer system (called the ''host'') to behave like another computer system (called the ''guest''). An emulator typically enables the host system to run software or use pe ...

and AdViEmulator.AdViEmulator, a specialized Open Source Adventure Vision emulator
/ref>

References

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

''Console Living Room''. {{Video game consoles, Generation=Second Handheld game consoles Handheld electronic games Monochrome video game consoles Products introduced in 1982 1980s toys

Description

Games

Technical specifications

Legacy

See also

References

External links