Philips Videopac+ G7400 emulators
| |
| Developer | Magnavox |
|---|---|
| Type | Home video game console |
| Generation | Third generation |
| Release date | 1983 |
| Discontinued | ? |
| Predecessor | Magnavox Odyssey² |
| Emulated | ✓ |
The successor to Magnavox Odyssey² released only in Europe rarely encountered in the wild due to limited number of units released, it features a number of hardware improvements over its predecessor, such as 96-time RAM increase from 64 bytes to 6KB and resolution increase from 128x64 to 320x238. It was supposed to get a true mechanical QWERTY keyboard (instead of membrane), LaserDisc adapter, speech synthesizer, modem and computer module (the American analogue of the European BASIC module) but not all of them materialized (but the latter 3 did reach the working stage either as prototypes or actually released peripherals).
The planned American release under the name Odyssey³ Command Center was cancelled, because the system was doing very poorly in Europe, it was severely underpowered against other recent systems such as the Atari 5200 and the ColecoVision, and the market conditions at the time made it impossible to compete.
It was backwards-compatible with most regular G7000 games except: Videopac 5 (Blackjack), Videopac 31 (Musician) and Videopac 40 (4 in 1 Row) + Videopac 48 (Backgammon) won't work correctly on French systems.
It was also compatible with enhanced G7000 games (with additional high-res background graphics that would appear only when played on the G7400) as well as G7400-only games with high-res sprites and backgrounds.
French variation Jopac JO7400 by Brandt was released with design quite different. Games in the Jopac line are called "TO.TEK Editions," and consist of several renamed Philips games plus a number of original titles. Games that are unique to the Jopac line include Chez Maxime, Des Chiffres et des Lettres, Exojet+, Le Trésor Englouti +, Moto-Crash+, and Syracuse. In addition, several Jopac games featured "Plus" background graphics not found in any comparable Videopac release. These games include: Basket/Bowling+, Billard+, Demon Attack+, Flipper +, Western +. Western+, an enhanced version of Gunfighter (Showdown in 2100 A.D.) was announced by Jopac but apparently never released. Jopac games were only distributed in France and are consequently not terribly common; many of them are highly sought after today. Des Chriffres et des Lettres is particularly rare.
Emulators
[edit | edit source]Hardware features and peripherals
[edit | edit source]| Name | Emulator | |
|---|---|---|
| Hardware features | Philips Videopac G7000 backwards compatibility | ? |
| Enhanced Philips Videopac G7000 games | ? | |
| Peripherals | 300-baud Command Center Modem | ? |
| C7420 Basic Module | ? | |
| Command Center Computer Module | ? | |
| Command Center Voice Module | ? | |
| Chess Module | ? | |
| Misc. | Frying | ? |
.png)