VHS-image using "View-Master" console (1988)

How goofy can a console look like?


http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=250349366563

I'd really love to know how that VHS-overlay-stuff worked though. Apparently it wasn't such a huge success, so I assume there was certainly some catch about it.

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AMAZING! Maybe the major reason to buy it :110:
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Wow, that thing is awesome! It looks like someone really DID build a console out of Lego! :lol:

I don't think I'd call it a console, though. It sounds like the "games" are just backgrounds. If the console isn't loading the actual game from the video, then what is it doing? It sounds like it has a pre-determined path and you're just using different backgrounds, but in effect playing the same game. What was that old game from I think Tomy? Something like Video Driver or Video Racer - you got a steering wheel and a bar that hung from your television with a car that ran left and right along the track. The steering wheel moved it. You also got a video tape of traffic - the idea was to steer through the traffic. Other video tapes were available - but of course, they must have all followed the same path!

However, if it has a way of loading data off the video, then maybe you could call it a console.

 

How interesting. I bet the games sucked Love to see it in action, though!

 

If it weren't in the states i'd buy it. It's a pretty low price for a piece of curio.

 

Man, coolest thing ever! It was love at first sight, I'm glad I bought it. Does anyone have any resources about it? I can't wait to show it off!

 

There's this great thing that was invented in 1996 called Google. It is what is known as a search engine. You type in what you want information on, and it gives you links ;-)

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=view-master+interactive+vision&meta=

Nice purchase... maybe ;-)

 

and let us not forget the ever-so-great justfuckinggoogleit.com:icon_bigg

 

Okay, I guess I'm just not up to par in my google fu. Only thing I could find mentioning it was that ultimate console database listing, and he doesn't really foray into the nitty gritty about things.

 

In theory you could load a full game (Atari style) using closed caption-like line 21 data in about 30 seconds... No doubt cool games could be made with seamless loading, but due to tape linearity obviously no Laserdisc style games and it may have to rewind periodically

 

Exactly why I refrained from using JFGI and gave him a link ;-)

Adam, the product is called "View-Master Interactive Vision" - as you can see, that's what I googled and there's loads of links, including:

http://www.amazon.com/Master-Interactive-Vision-Muppet-Madness/dp/B00076IQ6M

If you want a tape for it ;-)

You'll also see that Digital Press have a list of games.

Far from the one site you said Google threw up, I think you'll agree ;-)

Hope that's of use.

EDIT:

Oh, and:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qhV_5v6RL0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czZsPSrUSN0&NR=1

and there are a couple more on there.

I won't point out that your very console went unsold two weeks ago for $20 ;-)

 

It's all about timing right? No, thanks for being helpful and not ripping me up. I saw it and it just looked so interesting, thinking back I really should have paroused about for a better price. I'm excited to get collecting, there's only seven games, and it will be fun to hunt them down. Thanks again!

 

I think it was still a reasonable price. A shame it wasn't brought to our attention a few weeks back - the Buy It Now was $40 but the start was only $20 and as there were no bids, you could have got yourself a bargain - not that you didn't anyway ;-)

Well, if it doesn't come with the one on Amazon, grab it for that price!!

 

Someone remembers! ^_^

It was Video Driver, and surprisingly I remember how exactly it worked. The controller had a score counter, and after the video was over it'd tell you if your score was good or bad ("Sunday Driver" was the worst rank XD). This, however, this is where you might be surprised: the video included a bar on the bottom of the screen, and the hanging bar had a sensor of some sort that moved with the toy car. It worked sort of like the old NES Zapper, where the pattern of black and white would tell the system whether or not you were steering properly (IIRC, the black part of the bar represented the "score zone"). So yes, other videos could have had much different courses.

Now, if someone could explain to me just how the hell Battlevision was supposed to work...XD

 

And the less-offensive http://letmegooglethatforyou.com/

 

hah, I cant say ive seen that one before.

 

Hmm, I had forgotten about that, but now you mention it that sounds kinda familiar. I had one, but only ever had the first video. I remember my friend having a different video but not having the system any more, so we tried that. It was much the same as the first, heh.

WARNING: I wouldn't suggest doing a Google image search for "video driver"+tomy without turning safesearch on!

EDIT:

Hmm, it was made by Sega?! I wish I'd kept mine! Oh wait, I can clearly see a Tyco logo on it!!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SEGA-VIDEO-DR...14&_trkparms=72:1301|66:2|65:12|39:1|240:1318

Only got out of the box once to put the stickers on?!?! WTF?!

 

I have three of the ViewMaster systems. As has been stated earlier, the games are brutal (same with the Action Max). More info on these VHS systems below...

http://www.videogameconsolelibrary.com/pg80-actionmax.htm

Interesting items and for whatever reason the market seems flooded with these ViewMaster consoles over the last few months. Snagged a BNIB for $10 a few weeks ago.

 

never seen this but I do remember the ActionMAX where it was a lightgun VHS game system