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Post by gliptitude on Feb 4, 2013 12:00:48 GMT -5
Has any one ever played with one of these? At first I was reluctant to bring any more attention to it, thinking it might hurt my prospects of attaining one. But apparently they are so rare and valuable, I really have no reasonable chance of ever owning one. For those who know nothing about it - it is an all in one console, roughly contemporary with Vectrex. It is certainly inferior to Vectrex in most ways, but I think the design of the object is quite awesome. The novelty of this system may rival that of Vectrex, though the novelty of Adventure Vision might be a bit pointless, and difficult to look at. wikipedia.org: "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." So, due in part to this fragile mechanical system, there are very few working Adventure Visions. Among the gameplay videos I watched on youtube, the whole picture was wobbling the whole time. ... I think this wobbling was always part of the deal, even when new. The cartridges do not contain PCB's and they are not shaped like normal carts. It is more like a single socketed chip, with a lean and stocky plastic housing. I would love to just SEE one of these in person, and maybe play it briefly. Does anybody know if they are any fun at all??? Attachments:
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Post by VectorX on Feb 4, 2013 12:41:13 GMT -5
At first I was reluctant to bring any more attention to it, thinking it might hurt my prospects of attaining one. Yeah, what with jinxing it! It is certainly inferior to Vectrex in most ways, but I think the design of the object is quite awesome. The overhead slots for storing the games was pretty awesome. I would love to just SEE one of these in person, and maybe play it briefly. Does anybody know if they are any fun at all??? With Defender, Turtles and Super Cobra being three of the four games that was ever released for it, I'd think yes!
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Post by Mayhem on Feb 4, 2013 12:51:17 GMT -5
I have played one, at the Classic Gaming Expo. It's definitely something unusual, although it does take a bit getting used to, and it can warp your eyes a bit like the Virtua Boy did after a while. Very ambitious for what it achieved as well.
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Post by TrekMD on Feb 4, 2013 12:59:09 GMT -5
I've never played one of these but I had read about it. I think there's a special issue of ReVival Magazine about it. Looks like a cool system and they are indeed quite rare and difficult to find. If I am remembering correctly, Defender is one of the best games on the system. Edit: Found this site with info on the system and games: AdventureVision
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Post by VectorX on Feb 4, 2013 13:13:51 GMT -5
Looks like a cool system and they are indeed quite rare and difficult to find. There was a helluva "holy grail" of an e-bay sale of it just a couple of years ago, with the system and all four games complete, with boxes, and possibly still sealed. The package sold for $4000, maybe even $5000 if I remember correctly.
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Post by gliptitude on Feb 4, 2013 14:07:59 GMT -5
With Defender, Turtles and Super Cobra being three of the four games that was ever released for it, I'd think yes! Yeh, but trying to consider why you would play these games with Adventure Vision ($$$) instead of the numerous other existing ways to play these games, I just would wonder how well they play on this console. I have read that Defender, which was the pack in game, is very complete and plays pretty well. But as busy as that game is, it's hard for me to imagine playing it this way. ... The 4th game is an ASTEROIDS CLONE, which I heard was the least playable of them all, that the controls and display couldn't keep up with the game action. For me most of the fun would be in seeing this obscure mechanical display system in action. But yeah, it would be mandatory that the game(s) be playable. At first, I don't understand why they didn't just have a static array of LED's??? But I guess the effective resolution of 150 x 40 was beyond a reasonable number to have otherwise (6,000!). Really feel like I need to see this with my own eyes. I guess this still constitutes a "raster" display, since it is effectively a pixel grid. But I've already experienced how much more satisfying the LED and VFD tabletop games are for me, as compared to other early generation home gaming systems. I really can't stand to look at the Atari 2600 et al and, like Vectrex, these tabletop games have provided me an inlet to classic gaming that I otherwise really wouldn't have been prone to. I love those twinkling lights.
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Post by gliptitude on Feb 4, 2013 14:14:00 GMT -5
Looks like a cool system and they are indeed quite rare and difficult to find. There was a helluva "holy grail" of an e-bay sale of it just a couple of years ago, with the system and all four games complete, with boxes, and possibly still sealed. The package sold for $4000, maybe even $5000 if I remember correctly. www.stevenread.com/project/adventure-vision-saleThis is a page maintained by that seller I think. He also a link on here to an archive of the original ebay listing. The item description in that old auction is quite verbose. He implies towards the end that buying this is not a sane course of action. And somehow he wouldn't take Paypal or CC payment, just a a cashier's check!!! Resembles a drug deal to me.
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Post by VectorX on Feb 4, 2013 14:17:47 GMT -5
With Defender, Turtles and Super Cobra being three of the four games that was ever released for it, I'd think yes! Yeh, but trying to consider why you would play these games with Adventure Vision ($$$) instead of the numerous other existing ways to play these games, I just would wonder how well they play on this console. Part of being able to play these games was back then, which Defender for the 2600 wasn't much like the arcade original. Ports of Super Cobra didn't really fit the bill, and I don't think Turtles had a port anywhere else, but I could be wrong. Nowadays, sure, there's MAME, official other ports (many non-2600 ports of Defender were pretty good) and homebrews, but back then, there wasn't a whole lot for those three on the home console front.
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Post by gliptitude on Feb 4, 2013 15:15:25 GMT -5
I have played one, at the Classic Gaming Expo. It's definitely something unusual, although it does take a bit getting used to, and it can warp your eyes a bit like the Virtua Boy did after a while. Very ambitious for what it achieved as well. Cool. Were you entertained? Was it a cool way to play these games, or was your main impression more to witness the oddity of the whole thing? Was the oddity in any way GOOD? Would you be just as satisfied to never play Adventure Vision again? Would you say that this item is really only the domain of the fanatical collector, i.e. has not much to offer in terms of fun??? Also, is the picture really constantly wobbling like in the videos? Any comments on that?
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Post by Mayhem on Feb 4, 2013 18:09:42 GMT -5
It was fun, but because everything is in red, it's hard to tell what's going on at times. Admittedly I was playing it more for the curiosity because it is so fragile and hard to find. As a collector, I would say that this is the sort of system that should be preserved for posterity due to its nature, and sometimes those people do video games a service by buying such things. Honestly, I'd worry about playing one if I owned the system heh, simply due to what it is and how easily it can break apparently.
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Post by VectorX on Feb 4, 2013 18:39:37 GMT -5
Sometimes with systems like that, at certain expos the owners will ask for a donation before playing them. Can't really say I blame them, even if it's as low as a dollar (or maybe they would want more than that, I don't know).
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Post by gliptitude on Feb 5, 2013 0:45:33 GMT -5
Well, I'd be willing to pay in the right circumstances. Seems like a difficult thing to negotiate though. Like if I could just drive across town today and pay $50 for any hour and a half of open access, and permission to take pictures/video - I'd do it. (That might be enough to get my fill for life.) But at a show, in passing, probably not a very ideal situation and yeah, I wouldn't know how much to "donate".
I hope to plan a visit to this arcade collection in Pasedena (future museum) next time I visit my sister in Los Angeles. In addition to arcade machines they've collected some of the more obscure console stuff (like prototypes). I wouldn't be surprised if they had an Adventure Vision, so I'll have to remember to ask.
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Post by VectorX on Apr 20, 2014 12:16:28 GMT -5
Thought I'd give this one a bump, as I know someone on a forum who got one! Wow...holy video game grail, Batman!It'll be interesting to hear how on earth he got his hands on that. I think I can see now why he had to sell some of his stuff recently! And sadly, it might be another 30 years before he can get the two other games he needs to complete it!
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Post by gliptitude on Apr 20, 2014 17:52:06 GMT -5
Wow exciting! Nice bump. Perhaps this fellow could offset his cost by charging myself and others a fee to visit with his Adventure Vision. I really want to see.
.. I seem to remember seeing a couple games on ebay and I think they are more common than the consoles, not nearly as expensive or prone to breaking. So maybe he will get those himself soon enough. Looks like he has Defender in the picture though, which I'd b happy with. I'd really like to know what he went throught t o get this.
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Post by binarystar on Apr 24, 2014 4:54:29 GMT -5
Jim has one. He got a broken one in a trade and fixed it up. I'd love to make a modern version using leds and an arduino one day.
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