Japanese Atari 2600

[Shari Alvine]

Beforeanybody pipes in about the failed attempt to market the Atari in Japan under the 2800 name, I am specifically referring to the golden years of the arcade, not some late attempt by Atari to cash in on the overseas gaming market.

I've read about the SG-1000 as the predecessor to the globally released Sega Master System or SG-3000 as it was known in Japan. According to Wikipedia, it was released on July 15th 1983, same day as the Famicom in Japan.

Seems more like an analog of the Colecovision than anything. So I did some more research about vintage Japanese game consoles. Excluding some early Generation 1 PONG consoles, there seems to be a gap in the late 1970s between when Space Invaders was released in the arcades and when the SG-1000 and Famicom simultaneously released in Japan.

It appears the SG-1000 did not fare well against the Famicom, as being an analog of the 2nd generation Colecovision in the United States, pitted up against the decisively 3rd generation defining Famicom/NES.

Did Japan truly have any home console presence during the late 70s prior to the Famicom/SG-1000? There is some brief mention of SORD personal home computer released in 1977 and the Sharp MZ40K in 1987, but very little information exists about them online. What was the first true Japanese home console?

Aside from some mid-70s PONG consoles in Japan (yes, Japan it's share of those 1st gen PONG systems too), it seems the gap filled by the Atari VCS/2600 in North America was largely unfilled in Japan during the golden era arcade days.

No notoriously bad ports of arcade games, the guttural beeps and farts, sprites constructed out of rectangular bricks like American gamers had here during this tumultuous time in gaming history. Like there's a page missing somewhere.

The sheer rawness of the Atari compared to everything else that came after it was the primary draw for me, and what kept me engages is the amazing games people programmed on it. Japan was ripe to takeover the gaming world after the crash left a void in the United States, but nothing much has been said about the apparent void of games in Japanese homes during the golden years of the arcade while Atari ruled the west.

Recently I picked up two obscure Famicom odd fellows, ports of the classic Atari games Millipede and Stargate, which went pretty much unnoticed over there, and it got me thinking about the seeming lack of 2nd gen console presence in their homeland.

I wouldn't describe the Intellivision audio effects coming from it's AY sound chip as beeps and farts, it's actually very capable compared to third generation consoles. The sprite animation introduced by Intellivision in 1979 was remarkable compared to anything else home or arcade, american or japanese. Mattel's next generation console would have been comparable to the Amiga. Had the Amiga been consolised it would have made the nes look rather primitive. I like the nes, nintendo made some great innovations and advancements in 1983 but they are also fortunate american companies chose to abandon the home video game market.

It does seem a little weird to think that Japan, who was so pioneering with arcade games, might have been "late" to the home console party. The Atari 2800 didn't come out until 1983, which seems like it missed the mark by several years. Everything was pretty early back then, so perhaps they didn't miss much -- except all the Atari and Activision things we like so much here. Perhaps their arcade culture was even stronger than ours back then (just as it is now)?

I always think of Sega Master System as the rival to the Famicom/NES, but that's not really true ... it's only a match to the later games that had added mapper chips in the cartridges. SG-1000 does seem Colecovisioney, I think it shares hardware (also with MSX) but resembles the early "black box" NES titles only. It's like Sega needed two systems to compete with Nintendo's one. Not so different from how Megadrive/Genesis had SegaCD and Mars32X while Nintendo stood pat with SNES/SFC.

"Second generation" lumpage makes sense to me as is. ColecoVision and 5200 are just the overture, the on-ramp, the pre-ejac, the appetizer, the starter of the sourdough. I don't think they deserve a category of their own. Forgive my heresy but early Pong clones are forgettable too. Could be that I'm forgetting aspects of my own life as I age.

Japan had several systems before 1983, including 3 made by Bandai. None were that successful, except for the Cassette Vision, which relied on micro controllers in each cart. Even that sold fewer than a million units.

Cassette Vision is definitely the closest they came to a dominant console pre-famicom. And it's successor, the super cassette vision, was basically the 7800 equivalent to the famicom - on the market at the same time but waaaay less popular.

Had the Amiga been consolised it also would have been way more expensive than the NES. It would have been like the Neo Geo of the time. So the NES still could have won by virtue of being much cheaper.

I'm not sure there really was a "golden years of the arcade" in Japan prior to the early 1980's as it is. I think that's the main difference. Their arcade scene, at least in terms of video games, started a bit later than ours. People here were more familiar with video games earlier and wanted them in their homes earlier.

But Japan's "arcades" were different. They were more about amusement machines of various types. (Funnily enough, they've kind of gone back to that now, for the arcades that still exist there.) I think one reason for this might be that pinball was never big there like it was here earlier in the 70's, and video games appealed to that same demographic, so they could just slot right in at the same existing locations. But in Japan, their amusement games were more family-oriented or for something to do on a date, so hardcore arcade games didn't really fit in. It was a separate subculture.

Space Invaders did very well there but it was kind of an outlier until the early 80's. I think they were just less familiar with video games in general than we were until games like Pac-Man and Donkey Kong, which could more easily co-exist with family-friendly amusement machines. Our arcade and home console scene kind of grew out of the young, male-dominated hardcore gaming demographic. But Japan's was way more heavily tilted towards family-friendly and date activity titles. Of course there was a lot of crossover, but it's obvious just by looking at them that Japanese games had kind of a different look and feel at the time, and that's because they were trying to attract the demographics who were used to their mechanical amusement machines.

Interesting observation about Japanese Arcade scene. Japan didn't really play much pinball, except in Pachiko gaming parlours. And Pachinko is a totally alien concept to western pinball from a mechanics perspective. So the arcade scene wasn't established in the same way like it was here.

Honestly, I could make the argument that the Famicom was the 2600 of Japan. It was the unassailable console that nobody could touch during its lifespan much like the 2600 here in the US. Nobody could touch it. Not the Super Cassette vision, not the MSX, not the sg-1000 and it's subsequent iterations. Hell, not even the PC engine ever beat it in terms of lifetime units sold. Like the 2600, it continued to see sales into its early third decade until it was discontinued. But unlike the 2600's sucessor, Nintendo had a clear vision of how to market and replace the Famicom with the Super Famicom.

Does anyone know wether the two directional knobs on the Cassete Vision were 8 direction stics, rotary, or what? I didn't really clearly see this information written anywhere I searched. They kinda look like rotary buttons, but they could actually be just about anything. just from the look of them.

Wikipedia says the Cassette Vision has 2 two-dimensional lever switches, 4 push buttons, 4 revolving dials, 1 course switch and 3 buttons for Select, Start and Aux. While I haven't seen it in real life, I would suppose those dials just rotate. Also it should be noted the games have built-in CPU and RAM besides the obvious ROM chip. It almost makes them more alike the GI type games, except I suppose the CPU really runs binary code instead of being programmed with gates to achieve a certain gameplay. I understand that the Channel F also has some extra custom chips inside the games, though that console has the CPU in the main unit.

The Bandai Super Vision 8000 though seems to have a NEC D780C (Z80 clone) in the main unit, so it would be far closer to the concept of a 2600 or Intellivision. I wonder if there is any homebrew for this system, given it has relatively well known components such as at least the CPU and AY PSG.

I think the Epoch Casette Vision "2-drectional lever switches" are only 2-way digital control, for games like space invaders. Space Invaders was everywhere in Japan and Epoch made a dedicated space invaders clone home console prior to the cassette vision. So for 2-dimensional movement you might have to use the two paddles on the Cassette Vision.

The Bandai Super Vision 8000 initially sold for 60000yen and was just not affordable compared to 13500yen for the Epoch Casette Vision. In 1982 Bandai scrapped the Super Vision 8000 and sold Intellivisions for 49800yen. Whether if it was the value of the yen, or taxes on foreign technology, prices were too high and Atari likely would have the same problem trying to enter the market. The Famicom was introduced at only 14800yen in 1983.

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