Gakken Compact Vision TV Boy

The Gakken Compact Vision TV Boy (Japanese: TV ボーイ, Hepburn: TV bōi) is a second generation home video game console developed by Gakken and released in Japan in 1983 for a price of ¥8,800.[1]

Gakken Compact Vision TV Boy
A Gakken Compact Vision TV Boy
DeveloperGakken
TypeHome video game console
GenerationSecond generation
Release date
  • JP: October 1983
Introductory price¥8,800
MediaROM cartridge
CPUMotorola MC6801 (inside cartridge)
Memory2k RAM
Display128 × 192 pixels, 4 colors
GraphicsMotorola MC6847 video processor

The system was made to compete with the Epoch Cassette Vision, which had a market dominance of 70% in Japan.

The console was released months after the Nintendo Famicom and Sega SG-1000 which, although more expensive at ¥15,000, were more advanced and had more features as well as a bigger games library; furthermore, Epoch had just launched the Cassette Vision Jr. revision for ¥5,000. These factors made the console obsolete from the start, with a high price tag, few games, and a strange form factor, leading to poor sales. As a result, it is now a rare and collectible system.

Technical specifications
  • CPU: Motorola MC6847[1]
  • RAM: 2 Kb[1]
  • CPU (cartridge): Motorola MC6801 (8-bit)[1][2] clocked at 4 MHz
  • Image: 128 × 192 pixel; 9 colors, 4 of the can be shown at the same time[2]

Games

There were only 6 games officially released for the system, each being sold for ¥3,800;[1]

  • Excite invaders
  • Mr. Bomb
  • Robotan Wars
  • Super Cobra (Japanese: 地対空大作単戦, Hepburn: Ji taikū taisaku tansen)
  • Frogger
  • Urban War Year 200X (Japanese: 市街戦200X年, Hepburn: Shigai-sen 200 X-toshi)

Each of the games is designed for one player only.[3]

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gollark: How the <:bees:724389994663247974> does this <:bees:724389994663247974>ing <:bees:724389994663247974> work?
gollark: UPDATE: it is probably not that.
gollark: Maybe it's a quirk of the ordering of its ringAt function.
gollark: Not that relatedly, æææææ what is this haskell implementation doing which means all pixels it accesses are initialized when it tries to get them.

References
  1. "Compact Vision TV Boy by Gakken – the Video Game Kraken".
  2. "Gakken Compact Vision TV Boy [BINARIUM]". binarium.de. Retrieved 2020-06-15.
  3. "The Video Game Console Library". Video Game Console Library. Retrieved 2020-06-15.
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