Lost games of Interton VC4000 & its many clones
Jul 26, 2024 20:18:37 GMT
MantleM and cheesypizza2000 like this
Post by extremewreck2000 on Jul 26, 2024 20:18:37 GMT
Now here's a subject that I've been thinking about for a while, but never got around to talking about it here until now. This is about the possible lost video games for the Interton VC4000 & its many clones!
This right here is a German, specifically West German, video game console from 1978 that was made by Interton, who is a hearing aid company that's actually still in business today! Several games were released for this thing for about 40-50 Deutsche Mark each. According to this post, the console itself costed about 298 DM back in the day & had games of multiple types, such as the obvious Pong clones, sports games & arcade games more resembling what Japanese developers were doing back then. It had quite some variety! Sadly, we have no known sales figures, so we're not sure on if this was a successful console or not, but it does seem to be fondly remembered. We also have no idea if Interton produced the console themselves or if it was only commissioned by them, then outsourced to presumably Taiwan. The console was eventually officially discontinued in 1983, possibly due to the overwhelming popularity of the Commodore 64 & ZX Spectrum.
Some of the games on this thing are also quite cool as shown by Retro Pals; for example, the golf game(37:58 timestamp) on it looks to be the 1st ever golf game to have somewhat of a 3D perspective as opposed to a top-down perspective that was seen in American golf video games from the late '70s to early 80s. Electronic Pinball(32:19 timestamp) also has some advanced graphics & design compared to its 1st-party Atari 2600 comparison, Video Pinball(though Spectravideo's Bumper Bash looks better). Melody/Simon (1:04:26 timestamp) also features possibly the 1st video game version of Simon ever? Paddle Games(1:17:01 timestamp) also features some interesting Pong variants such as one for volleyball & basketball.
So, what's lost here? Well, there are a few unreleased games as shown on this list. The known unreleased games are Basketball(planned as cassette 39), Rodeo(cassette 35) & Space Laser(cassette 34). Additionally, there is a good chance that there exist games made for various clones of the console. A couple of sites have listed various clones, but here is a list of a few ones I consider to be at least somewhat interesting to me in some way(IMPORTANT NOTE: Some of these clones are NOT directly compatible with each other as some of them have different cartridge pins & therefore cartridge slots; think of it as being like how the Japanese Famicom & USA/European NES are the same console, but the cartridges are different):
Grundig Super Play Computer 4000: One of the less notable clones, being just a white-colored VC4000, but honestly its coloring does make it look modern at a glance.
Bildschirmspiel 01: This clone is from East Germany & it costed about 500 marks, which was about half of an East German's monthly salary back then.
1292 Advanced Programmable Video System: This one is confusing as it seems to be a clone, but was said to have been made earlier in 1976 before being released in 1978, so perhaps the VC4000 was being made in '76 as well? Could just be that they have very similar architecture. This particular clone spawned its own set of clones.
TRQ Video Computer H-21: A Spanish clone with an interesting looking design that is a tiny bit more colorful than usual for these clones.
Fountain Force 2: This was quite popular in New Zealand it so seems & the boxart is cool!
I am a bit invested in this as this is a small, but IMHO important part of European video game history that is usually unexplored compared to their computer games(which are generally not given attention around here anyway) & their post-Sega Genesis/SNES games(which are more talked about due to them being more available around here in the USA).
Ok, so that's all I have to say about this thing as of now. I don't have much else to add. Hoping that there probably exists more stuff about this & the lost video games of this console & its various clones, perhaps even more information about its history, development, etc. If you're reading this, then thank you for deciding to view this thread. I bet this won't get much attention at all & there won't be much I can do(especially as of now) to get further research into this, but I do feel that perhaps there IS indeed more to find about this interesting & bizarre West German video game console. Who knows, maybe one day I or someone else that is interested in this kind of stuff will make a Lost Media Wiki page about this. Thanks for viewing & cheers!
This right here is a German, specifically West German, video game console from 1978 that was made by Interton, who is a hearing aid company that's actually still in business today! Several games were released for this thing for about 40-50 Deutsche Mark each. According to this post, the console itself costed about 298 DM back in the day & had games of multiple types, such as the obvious Pong clones, sports games & arcade games more resembling what Japanese developers were doing back then. It had quite some variety! Sadly, we have no known sales figures, so we're not sure on if this was a successful console or not, but it does seem to be fondly remembered. We also have no idea if Interton produced the console themselves or if it was only commissioned by them, then outsourced to presumably Taiwan. The console was eventually officially discontinued in 1983, possibly due to the overwhelming popularity of the Commodore 64 & ZX Spectrum.
Some of the games on this thing are also quite cool as shown by Retro Pals; for example, the golf game(37:58 timestamp) on it looks to be the 1st ever golf game to have somewhat of a 3D perspective as opposed to a top-down perspective that was seen in American golf video games from the late '70s to early 80s. Electronic Pinball(32:19 timestamp) also has some advanced graphics & design compared to its 1st-party Atari 2600 comparison, Video Pinball(though Spectravideo's Bumper Bash looks better). Melody/Simon (1:04:26 timestamp) also features possibly the 1st video game version of Simon ever? Paddle Games(1:17:01 timestamp) also features some interesting Pong variants such as one for volleyball & basketball.
So, what's lost here? Well, there are a few unreleased games as shown on this list. The known unreleased games are Basketball(planned as cassette 39), Rodeo(cassette 35) & Space Laser(cassette 34). Additionally, there is a good chance that there exist games made for various clones of the console. A couple of sites have listed various clones, but here is a list of a few ones I consider to be at least somewhat interesting to me in some way(IMPORTANT NOTE: Some of these clones are NOT directly compatible with each other as some of them have different cartridge pins & therefore cartridge slots; think of it as being like how the Japanese Famicom & USA/European NES are the same console, but the cartridges are different):
Grundig Super Play Computer 4000: One of the less notable clones, being just a white-colored VC4000, but honestly its coloring does make it look modern at a glance.
Bildschirmspiel 01: This clone is from East Germany & it costed about 500 marks, which was about half of an East German's monthly salary back then.
1292 Advanced Programmable Video System: This one is confusing as it seems to be a clone, but was said to have been made earlier in 1976 before being released in 1978, so perhaps the VC4000 was being made in '76 as well? Could just be that they have very similar architecture. This particular clone spawned its own set of clones.
TRQ Video Computer H-21: A Spanish clone with an interesting looking design that is a tiny bit more colorful than usual for these clones.
Fountain Force 2: This was quite popular in New Zealand it so seems & the boxart is cool!
I am a bit invested in this as this is a small, but IMHO important part of European video game history that is usually unexplored compared to their computer games(which are generally not given attention around here anyway) & their post-Sega Genesis/SNES games(which are more talked about due to them being more available around here in the USA).
Ok, so that's all I have to say about this thing as of now. I don't have much else to add. Hoping that there probably exists more stuff about this & the lost video games of this console & its various clones, perhaps even more information about its history, development, etc. If you're reading this, then thank you for deciding to view this thread. I bet this won't get much attention at all & there won't be much I can do(especially as of now) to get further research into this, but I do feel that perhaps there IS indeed more to find about this interesting & bizarre West German video game console. Who knows, maybe one day I or someone else that is interested in this kind of stuff will make a Lost Media Wiki page about this. Thanks for viewing & cheers!
