Educational consoles

From Emulation General Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search

These consoles were designed to be educational, and they generally don't compete in the main console market.

Consoles

Model Year Developer/Distributor MAME support ROMs Links Miscellaneous Info
Advanced Pico Beena 2005 Sega Preliminary No
Bible Challenge 2000s Excalibur Electronics None No
Bridge Companion 1985 BBC Enterprises Good Yes
Bubble 2005 Bright Things None No
Didj 2008 LeapFrog Preliminary No
DVD-Kids 2005 3-Plus None No
Interac TV 2006 Fisher-Price None No
Interactive Vision 1988 View-Master None No
Ion 2005 Hasbro None Yes (incomplete)
iQuest 2002
2004 (v4.0)
LeapFrog Preliminary No
iXL 2010 Fisher-Price None redump
K-Magic 2010 K's Kids None No
K-Magic 2 2018 K's Kids None No
Kasey the Kinderbot 2002 Fisher-Price None No
Leapster 2003 (Leapster)
2004 (L-MAX)
2005 (Leapster TV)
LeapFrog Preliminary Yes (No-intro)
Leapster 2 2008 LeapFrog Preliminary No
Leapster Explorer 2010 LeapFrog Preliminary Yes (Incomplete)
LeapsterGS 2012 LeapFrog None No
LeapTV 2014 LeapFrog None No
Little Leaps 2006 LeapFrog None No
Mobigo 2010 Vtech NA
Nitro Vision 2005 Vtech None No
Pico 1993 Sega Good TOSEC/No-intro
Rockit Twist 2019 LeapFrog None No
Smart Cycle 2007 Fisher-Price None No
Smart TV Consoles 2010s Clementoni Preliminary No
Socrates 1988 Vtech Preliminary Yes
Story Reader Video + 2006 Publications International None No
Teachermate 2008 Innovations for Learning None No
Terebikko\Video Phone 1988 (JP)
1989 (US)
Bandai None No
V.Flash 2006 VTech None Redump
V.Smile 2004 VTech Decent Yes
V.Reader 2010 VTech None No
Video Art 1985 LJN Preliminary No
Video Buddy 1999 Interactive Learning Group None No
Videosmarts 1986 Connor Toy Corporation None No
Voyager Adventure System 2002 Vtech None No
Zippity 2009 LeapFrog Preliminary No

Descriptions

BBC Bridge Companion
An 8-Bit console made exclusively for teaching people to play bridge.
Bible Challenge
Release sometime in the early 2000s by Excalibur Electronics, Bible Challenge is a educational game handheld console made to teach kids the Bible. It was re-released as "Bible Quest" at some point but its unknown when this variant was released. Around five games were released for the system and it's unknown how many units were sold or when it was discontinued.
DVD-Kids
Released by the 3-Plus circa 2005. DVD-Kids is a rare Icelandic console that plugged into your DVD Player. It's unknown how many units were sold, how many game were made for it or when it was discontinued.
Hasbro Ion
Released in time for the 2005 Holiday season, the Ion is basically a PS2 Eye-Toy turned into an edutainment console for preschoolers. At the time, the Ion was turning heads at toy fairs, hype was building, and the console was looking to be a real hit for Hasbro, but for whatever reason, the console flopped and disappeared into obscurity faster than the refunds could be made, it's unknown how many games were made for it, how many units sold or when it was discontinued.
Interac TV
Released by Fisher-Price in 2006. The Interac TV was designed to turn any DVD Player into an educational console. just sync the custom wireless controller to your DVD Player and put a game disk in. Unfortunately incompatibly issues resulted in most people been unable to sync the controller to their player and some even said that their DVD player couldn't even read the disks. it's unknown how many games were made for it, how many units sold or when it was discontinued.
iQuest
An odd hybrid of an Educational Console and a basic PDA released by LeapFrog in 2002.
iXL
Released by Fisher-Price in 2010 and discontinued in 2012, The iXL is a Touchscreen-based console designed for kids 3 to 7 years of age, it's unknown how many units were sold or how many games were released for it.
K-Magic
Released by in 2010 by K's Kids for the 0-6 years market, The K-Magic is an educational handheld console that used cartridges called "Magic Cards" and was overall designed to be as simple as possible. It was discontinued in 2018 with the release of the K-Magic 2. It's unknown how many games were made for it or how many units were sold.
K-Magic 2
Released in 2018 by K's Kids for the 0-6 years market, The K-Magic 2 simplifies the original console by having everything already built-in and ready for parents and children to use, Because it's still being sold, when it well be discontinued and info on how many units have been sold so far not been released to the public.
Leapster
The Leapster Learning Game System (Released in late 2003) is an educational handheld game console aimed at 4 to 10-year-olds (preschool to fourth grade) and made by LeapFrog Enterprises. Its games teach the alphabet, phonics, basic mathematics (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division), art, and animal facts to players. It featured a touchscreen and games from various licenses from Thomas & Friends to Sonic X. Its software seems to be based on Macromedia Flash. Oddly enough it's successors, i.e. the Didj, Leapster Explorer, and LeapPad series of tablets which run on the Pollux and NXP3200 platforms along with a customized Linux distribution has a homebrew scene that even features some emulators.
LJN Video Art
A notorious "educational" console made by the notorious LJN released in 1985. It was meant as a paint program type system that was meant to compete against television rather than mainstream consoles at the time. It flopped hard. Commercial AVGN Review
Sega Pico
Child's edutainment console released in 1993. Was actually fairly successful. Has good support in MAME.
Smart Cycle
Released in 2007 by Fisher-Price and not to be confused with their later phone\tablet controller of the same name. the Smart Cycle is a hybrid between an exercise bike and a edutainment console. it's unknown how many games were made for it, how many units sold or when it was discontinued.
Smart TV Consoles
Launched sometime in the early 2010s by Italian toy company, Clementoni seemingly as a partnership with Hong Kongese toy company, WinFun, Smart TV is series of educational consoles mainly sold in Italy (Example). The controllers of these consoles ranged from traditional to the gimmicky with some having motion and PS2 EyeToy-like controls. There is around 10 to 25 games that were released for these European systems. It's unknown how many units have sold been or when this line of systems was discontinued.

Smart TV console was also release in North American circa 2015 by Wal-Mart, under their Kid Connection brand, called the "Funtastic TV Adventures". It was a failure and only two games were released for the system, and both came bundled in with the console (Examples 1, 2). It's unknown how many units have sold been or when the NA console was discontinued.

Story Reader Video +
Release in 2006 by Publications International. The Video + turns the Story Reader electronic book into one of many educational consoles of the 2000s. It's unknown how many units were sold or when it was discontinued. Around 7 games were released for the system.
Teachermate Handheld Educational Computer
Released in 2008 by the non-profit company, Teachermate, This educational handheld console was only sold to schools and taught kids in a Kindergarten to Second Grade level, It's unknown how many games were made for it, how many units sold or when it was discontinued.
Terebikko\Video Phone
The Terebikko is a VHS-Based edutainment console released in Japan by Bandai in 1988 and in the US by Mattel in 1989, The Japanese version had less then 10 games made for it but most of them are based on high profile properties such as Super Mario, Sailor Moon, Doraemon and Dragon Ball Z, Meanwhile, Only 2 games are known to of been released for the US version, both were discontinued in 1994 and it's unknown how many units were sold.
V.Flash
Released in 2006, The V.Flash was a spin-off console to the V.Smile Series created by VTech. Like the V.Smile, it was an educational console for children around ages 6-9, but, unlike the V.Smile that used ROM cartridges, the V.Flash used CD-ROM's. It also had 3D based graphics rather than 2D on the V.Smile. It didn't have many games, around 10 to be exact. Mostly being licensed children IPs such as Disney. It was discontinued a year after its release.
V.Smile
V.Smile is an educational game console by VTech. It derived from Sunplus' 16-bit SPG-series CPU architecture, which had similar peers including most Jakks Pacific TV games and Vii. The XaviXPORT was similar but had its own custom XaviX CPUs. Several variants of the V.Smile console are sold including handheld versions, or models with added functionality such as touch tablet integrated controllers, microphones or motion sensitive controllers. 69 unique V.Smile games were known to have been released. Since July 2020, every dumped V-Tech V. Smile Motion game now runs in MAME. So, too, do all V. Smile games that use a standard controller, apart from one bad dump (Italian version of Toy Story 3) (Same month Nintendo's Game & Watch titles were fully compatible for v 0.223).
Video Buddy
Released in November of 1999 by the Interactive Learning Group, the Video Buddy is a VHS-based console designed for children aged 3 to 7 years old and had about 20 games released for it. A revision of the Video Buddy that used DVD's instead of VHS's was released in 2003 and while both versions were initially successful, a crowded "Children" console market led to its downfall. The other company that made the DVD-based console shut down in 2006. It's unknown how many units were sold.
Videosmarts
Released around 1986 by the Connor Toy Corporation, the Videosmarts is VHS edutainment console that taught Preschool to Second Grade Subjects, It's unknown how many games were made for it, how many units sold or when it was discontinued.
View-Master Interactive Vision
1988 edutainment VHS console that used two audio tracks on each tape, the player choosing one of two options on the screen, to create interactivity. Also had short mini-game segments with ColecoVision-like graphics. Unlike the other VHS systems, the games were actually decent. No known emulators.
VTech Socrates
Old edutainment console released in 1988. It featured a robot-type character called Socrates and had wireless infrared controllers. The same company would later release the V.Smile and V.Flash systems many years later.

Dedicated hardware

Model Year Developer / Distributor MAME support ROMs Emulators / Description
A A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Alphie: The Electronic Robot 1978 Playskool Good No
ABC Phonics Pals 2008 VTech None No
Alphabet Classroom 2002 VTech None No
B A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Bubble Gum Phonics Fun 1999 VTech None No
C A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Cogsley 2011 VTech None No
D A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Datamax 2005 Kids Delight None No
Datamax II 2008 Kids Delight None No
Dial A Teacher 1984 VTech None No
E A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Electronic Number Muncher 1989 VTech Good No
F A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Fishing for Phonics 1998 VTech None No
Fun 2 Learn Learning Game Player 2007 Fisher-Price None No
G A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Geo Safari 1987 Educational Insights None No
H A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Hooked On Phonics Touchscreen Learner 2007 Zizzle None No
I A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Imagination Desk 2002 LeapFrog None No
L A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Little Smart Super Smarty 1995 VTech None No
Little Talking Scholar 1990 VTech None No
M A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Math Safari ~ Unknown Educational Insights Good No
P A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Phonics Writing Desk 1995 LeapFrog None No
S A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
See & Learn Driver 2003 LeapFrog None No
Snoopy Math Learning Aid 1984 Canon None No
T A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Turbo Twist Brain Quest 2002 LeapFrog Preliminary No
Turbo Twist Fact Blaster 2000 LeapFrog Preliminary No
Turbo Twist Math 2002 LeapFrog Preliminary No
Turbo Twist Spelling 2000 LeapFrog Preliminary No
Turbo Twist Math 2002 LeapFrog Preliminary No
V A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Voyager Adventure System 2002 VTech None No