The Entex Adventure Vision

TL · March 22, 2013, 15:43:29 PM

[size=180]Entex Adventure Vision[/size]

The Adventure Vision is a tabletop console released by Entex Industries in 1982. The Adventure Vision was Entex's second generation system. Their first console was the Entex Select-A-Game, released a year earlier in 1981. 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.

One particular feature of the Adventure Vision is its "monitor." Rather than using an LCD screen or an external television 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 a screen resolution of 150 x 40 pixels. Another product using this technique was produced by Nintendo in the mid 1990s – the Virtual Boy – another product which, while technically ahead of its time like the Adventure Vision, was doomed to failure in the open market. The game cartridges can be stored in spaces on top of the case.

Drawbacks to the Adventure Vision are its monochrome (red) screen as well as the mirror motor, which draws a great deal of power from the batteries. The latter problem can be solved easily by the use of the built-in AC adapter port. Many casual fans dismiss the Adventure Vision as a failed handheld console. In fact, it was a tabletop console that was much too large and fragile to be used effectively for handheld purposes.

Entex released just four games for the Adventure Vision:

Defender - based on the Williams Electronics arcade game of the same name
Super Cobra - based on the Konami arcade game of the same name
Turtles - based on the Konami arcade game of the same name (similar to Pac-Man)
Space Force - a clone of Atari's Asteroids arcade game

Technical Specifications

CPU: Intel 8048 @ 733 kHz
Sound: National Semiconductor COP411L @ 52.6 kHz
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 pixels

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Rogue Trooper · March 22, 2013, 16:10:51 PM

Nice.Never knew about this, nor that it was years ahead of Virtual Boy in terms of early tech.used.

From our 'chat' yesterday? on PS Vita games in the chatbox, was tempted to say:did it run games at higher res.than the Vita? :-), but must resist....

Shadowrunner · March 22, 2013, 16:13:16 PM

I was just reading about this rare system last week.
Game Gavel had one up for sale, ended up going for just over $1000Â :13:

http://www.gamegavel.com/reviews/2013/0 ... ming-soon/

TL · March 22, 2013, 16:14:09 PM

Quote from: "Rogue Trooper"Nice.Never knew about this, nor that it was years ahead of Virtual Boy in terms of early tech.used.

From our 'chat' yesterday? on PS Vita games in the chatbox, was tempted to say:did it run games at higher res.than the Vita? :-), but must resist....

I thought it was interesting tooÂ :1:

I like to post stuff about more obscure systems from time to time like my threads about the Camputers Lynx, Oric 1, PC-FX, Casio Loopy and Dragon 32 in other parts of the forum.

I think it's nice to learn about the forgotten systems from our gaming history.

onthinice · March 22, 2013, 17:31:45 PM

I agree. I knew Turtles was released for the Odssey2. Good to know that a portable version was released. Shadowrunner kind'a dashed my hopes of owning one