Educational consoles
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These consoles were designed to be educational, and they generally don't compete in the main console market.
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 | ||
Explorer | 2010 | LeapFrog | Preliminary | No | ||
Handheld Educational Computer |
2008 | Teachermate | None | No | ||
Interac TV | 2006 | Fisher-Price | None | No | ||
Interactive Vision | 1988 | View-Master | None | No | ||
iQuest | 2002 | LeapFrog | None | 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 | ||
LeapTV | 2014 | LeapFrog | None | No | ||
Leapster | 2003 (Leapster) 2004 (L-MAX) 2005 (Leapster TV) |
LeapFrog | Preliminary | Yes (No-intro) | ||
LeapsterGS | 2012 | LeapFrog | None | No | ||
Learning Lodge | 2010s | Vtech | NA | |||
Little Leaps | 2006 | LeapFrog | None | No | ||
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 | ||
Terebikko\Video Phone | 1988 (JP) 1989 (US) |
Bandai | None | No | ||
V.Flash | 2006 | VTech | None | Redump | ||
V.Smile | 2004 | VTech | Decent | Yes ✓ | ||
Video Art | 1985 | LJN | None | No | ||
Video Buddy | 1999 | Interactive Learning Group | None | No | ||
Videosmarts | 1986 | Connor Toy Corporation | 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. |
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. |