In the late 70s/early 80s, video game enthusiasts were subjected to an explosion of products hoping to capitalize on the growing market for home game consoles. From the numerous Pong clones, to the suspiciously similar catridge-based consoles, consumers had far more options than they do today, for better or worse. Here is a list of those first and second generation machines for those who wish to relive the dark ages.
Pong Consoles
It's fucking Pong, you can play it anywhere. Emulating first generation systems like these can be tricky, as the games were heavily tied to their hardware, and most were just variations of Pong.
- Colorsport VIII
- Radio Shack TV Scoreboard
- Wonder Wizard
- Sears Tele-Games
- Ricochet
- TV4 Four Way Video Game
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- Volley VI (pong/gun)
- Magnavox Odyssey Series
- Binatone TV Master Mk IV
- APF TV Fun
- Coleco Telstar
- BSS 01
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- Color TV-Game 6 (Just Pong variants)
- Color TV-Game 15 (Even more Pong variants)
- Color TV-Game Racing 112 (Just racing, with a wheel)
- Color TV Block Kusure (Breakout clone)
- Computer TV Game (arcade Othello remake)
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Cartridge Consoles
| Name
|
MESS support
|
No intro collection
|
Description
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| Bally Astrocade
|
Good
|
✗
|
ROMs are here
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| Epoch Cassette Vision
|
None
|
✗
|
May be a working emulator in here: Japware. Only 11 games exist for this thing.
|
| Super Cassette Vision
|
Decent
|
✓
|
1984 successor to the original Cassette Vision.
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| Coleco Telstar Arcade
|
None
|
✗
|
Only 4 cartridges were released for this triangular abomination, but the console's design means that they can't be dumped and "emulated." They're more like activation discs for data already in the console. No known emulators.
|
| APF Imagination Machine
|
Good
|
✗
|
A PC with a game console mounted on top of it 32X-style (take that, master race!) Only 15 games were released, one being built-in. ROMs are here.
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| Intellivision II
|
Good
|
NA
|
Just an update to the original Intellivision, this console does not have its own library of games.
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| Fairchild Channel F
|
Good
|
✓
|
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| Fairchild Channel F II
|
Good
|
NA
|
An update to the Channel F, with no exclusive games.
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| Emerson Arcadia 2001
|
Decent
|
✓
|
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| Bandai Super Vision 8000
|
Good
|
✗
|
Only 7 games. ROMs can be found on archive.org
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| Entex Adventure Vision
|
Decent
|
✓
|
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| RCA Studio II
|
Decent
|
✓
|
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| VC 4000
|
Decent
|
✗
|
Has 40 games. ROMs are here
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| Magnavox Odyssey
|
None
|
✗
|
This console relied on TV overlays and simple changes per cartridge to create the different games.
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| Magnavox Odyssey 2
|
Good
|
✓
|
|
| CreatiVision
|
Good
|
✓
|
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Handhelds
| Name
|
MESS support
|
No intro collection
|
Description
|
| Game and Watch
|
None
|
✗
|
Many of the 60 Game and Watch games can be played in the various Game and Watch collections. Just emulate those.
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| Epoch Game Pocket Computer
|
Good
|
✗
|
Only 5 games exist. All can be found here.
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| Milton Bradley MicroVision
|
Preliminary
|
✗
|
12 games were made.
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