Does anyone know anything about this console? I picked up a bundle of old stuff the other day and there is one in there. I haven't tested it yet but it has about 3 different cartridges of games. I looked about on the internet but couldn't find too much info on it. Cheers people!!! :icon_bigg
Ah my first ever console I got, I remember 1981 Christmas very well. The original console was based on the Hong Kong based Radofin companies 1292 console Advanced Programmable Video System released in 1976 (make's it one of the first cartridge based systems...) and based onb the Signetics 2650A processor and a programmable video interface chip which allowed a basic background (was interesting to program...), 4 sprites per line, 8 colours (with varied brightness), square wave sound generation, automatic score display (that's why all the numbers look exactly the same...) and a ADC for the joysticks. Acetronic who were a UK based company had a more active production in making and distributing the console and released the console in the UK and part of Europe in 1979 and due it being cheaper then the Atari 2600 managed to get quite a bit of market share in the early 80s before the early computer boom. The Prinztronic was a brand released by Dixons. Hanimex also released the 1292 in Australia and Fountain in New Zealand, with Grandstand also releasing the console in New Zealand too. It was also released with a different cartridge port as the Interton VC-4000 (Germany) and with a another different cartridge port as the Voltmace (UK distributed by Waddingtons) Database. Voltmace also made a frogger game too. Most of the games on the system are rubbish with some highlights being Olympics (lots of Pong and Breakout based games but some are quite playable), Grand Prix (take basically every 70s racing game from Night Driver to Sprint and you have Grand Prix), Prizefight (reasonable boxing game) and Space War (although it's a poor mans star raiders). Most games are either educational / board games or conversions of old Atari VCS games. Invaders just shows up the problem the 4 sprite limit by having 3 invaders per line... It was also the first console in the world to have the ability to write home brew software as the Hobby Module cartridge did allow you to write machine code and using the pathetic amount of RAM contained you could write a working game, you saved code via a casette recorder using the DIN socket onthe cartridge... It's a nice console and I want to get one just to play Grand Prix and Olympic again.
Wow, I wasn't expecting such an informative answer by any stretch but I suppose I should have known better! ;-) Thanks alot Jamtex. I searched and only found basic information on the net. No pictures of the system I have. I got it in a large bundle I just picked up and I think there is 3/4 cartridges with it (although one has cracked casing). Off the top of my head they seemed to have various ammounts of games per cart (up to 12?!) but against some of the numbers is just lines as though no game is on that. Alot of the titles seemed VCS as at first I was very confused (until I pulled the console from the bottom of the box). I will take and upload some pictures tonight so everyone can have a look. First time I have seen one to be honest. I checked ebay past/present but there was non for sale there either.
Most of the games do have lots of varients of the same game with each game having a amateur and professional varient. Be interested to see what games you got.
I had an Acetronic. The games were pretty basic (obviously), but I remember enjoying Space Invaders. It had a variation where you could play a guided missles game...not as easy as it sounds. Whilst your missle was weaving left and right, your ship was stationary leaving it open to attack.
Years ago I connected one of my consoles and did screencaps from my own collection of cartridges (mainly the New Zealand Fountain versions) and put them on my old old webpages with photos of all the boxes. See here.... http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~pinwhiz/fountain.htm It took me *years* to find the Hobby Module cartridge. The 2 unique Voltmace database games (Munch & Crunch, Leapfrog) are in my opinion the best games on the system and you can read an interview with the programmer of these (which mentions other interesting unreleased oddities) here: http://www.old-computers.com/magazine/view.asp?r=6&a=15 On the "rumors" side I've been told that in the UK there was a 3rd party cartridge produced for interfacing the system to Model Train sets to control points/lights etc. but I've never seen concrete evidence it exists.
Hey Radar, welcome to the site! I remember your site (Obscure pixels) from back in the day. As a matter of fact, that's the first place I ever heard of these early systems.
That's Acetronic, not Acertronic ;-) I'm sure I've written about the Acetronic on here before. I've got a Radofin which is similar. There were indeed several other manufacturers making them, or similar consoles. You should be able to find info on the system... I know there used to be some out there!
