Adventure Vision is a cartridge-based video game console released by Entex Industries 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 The Entex Select-a-game is a handheld game system released in 1981 by Entex Industries. Entex released six games for the device before they dropped support in 1982 in favor of the Entex Adventure Vision. Hardware The Select-a-Game uses a 7 x 1 ...

, released a year earlier in 1981.

Description

Control is through a single multi-position

joystick A joystick, sometimes called a flight stick, is an input device consisting of a stick that pivots on a base and reports its angle or direction to the device it is controlling. A joystick, also known as the control column, is the principal cont ...

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 A liquid-crystal display (LCD) is a flat-panel display or other electronically modulated optical device that uses the light-modulating properties of liquid crystals combined with polarizers. Liquid crystals do not emit light directly but in ...

screen or an external television set like other systems of the time, the Adventure Vision uses a single vertical line of 40 red

LED A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor Electronics, device that Light#Light sources, emits light when Electric current, current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy i ...

s combined with a spinning mirror inside the casing. This allows for an effective screen resolution of 150 × 40 pixels. The mirror motor draws a great deal of power from the

batteries Battery most often refers to: * Electric battery, a device that provides electrical power * Battery (crime), a crime involving unlawful physical contact Battery may also refer to: Energy source *Automotive battery, a device to provide power t ...

, 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 *''

Super Cobra ''Super Cobra'' is a horizontally scrolling shooter developed by Konami, originally released as a coin-operated arcade video game in 1981. It was published by Konami in Japan in March 1981 and manufactured and distributed by Stern in North Amer ...

'', originally by Konami *'' Turtles'', originally by Konami *''Space Force'', originally by

Venture Line Venture may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music *The Ventures, an American instrumental rock band formed in 1958 *"A Venture", 1971 song by the band Yes *''Venture'', a 2010 EP by AJR Games * ''Venture'' (video game), a 1981 arcade ga ...

(similar to '' Asteroids'')

Technical specifications

* CPU: Intel 8048 @ 733

kHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that on ...

* Sound: National Semiconductor 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 is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles. Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produce ...

in the 1995 Virtual Boy. 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: * Patch (computing), Update, a modification of software or a database * Revision control, the management of changes to sets of computer files * ''ReVisions'', a 2004 antholo ...

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 The mess (also called a mess deck aboard ships) is a designated area where military personnel socialize, eat and (in some cases) live. The term is also used to indicate the groups of military personnel who belong to separate messes, such as the o ...

emulator and AdViEmulator.AdViEmulator, a specialized Open Source Adventure Vision emulator
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References

External links