5 More Failed Consoles That Never Made It Out Of America

[@jcaseyjones2829]

Ok, you win. I have never heard of the VIS. That's the first time that's happened to me in a decade. Well played.

[@pigs18]

It had one or two recreational games. It's even less of a game console than the Leap Frog devices. Edit: Then again, the ViewMaster Interactive and the Action Max only had like five tapes apiece so it's not that very different.

[@robintst]

Visually the RCA Studio II looks like it'd be right at home on an office desk next to a 70s hospital intercom. I didn't think anyone could make beige look anymore mundane than it already is.

[@JohnnyWednesday]

Hold my Non-alcoholic beer

[@AtariDays80]

I have the RCA Studio II new in box stored away in my basement somewhere. Crazy find at an antique store for $10. Oh, and I had the Entex Space Invaders hand-held too, 40 years ago. Thanks for reminding me of it!

[@arostwocents]

I miss the days before all charity stores and antique places checked the value of everything online. It's impossible to find anything good now.

[@10p6]

Forgot I still have a VIS lol. Interesting how it has a full PC expansion slot inside.

[@themidcentrist]

I've always thought the ZX Spectrum could have had a good chance here if the hardware was tweaked for the US market. Yes, we got the Timex Sinclair 2068 which is basically a Spectrum 48K but they made the very stupid decision to make it incompatible with the thousands of games available for it in it's home country.

[@TheLairdsLair]

I totally agree, they missed a big opportunity there.

[@stevendobbins2826]

I disagree. The '83 Crash not only tanked the home console market, but annihilated the demand for (relatively) cheap home computers too outside of Commodore and Tandy. We wouldn't even touch the MSX, despite there being an enormous software library ready for import and models from known brands with established distributors like Goldstar and Sony.

[@arostwocents]

The Channel F games are actually playable today. I enjoyed doing a lot of them on RetroAchievements.

[@AgentM79]

Here in the USA, the Telstar Arcade wasn’t obscure - it was just expensive. And people were still new to the idea of a TV hook-up. The games were actually fun, and you got a light gun and a steering wheel along with the Pong paddles. Before the VCS, it was cutting-edge.

[@pigs18]

The issue is that the Telstar is just a really fancy Gen 1 machine that came out when ROM consoles were already on the market.

[@colinmcdonald2499]

I think i saw the Studio 2 once in an older kid's basement rec room. I asked if we could plug it in and try it. ( In probably 1981)He replied, " No, It sucks, my dad doesn't want me touching the cables to plug it in".

[@chrislaustin]

As a kid of the 70's & 80's, there wasn't too many handhelds or systems that I never saw on display some place, but for the life of me, I have no memories of seeing the Adventure Vision. I may have seen it in a Christmas Catalog or on a shelf, but never running on display in person. That being said, I got to play one at a gamers expo some years back here in Vegas, and I was blown away by what I saw. To see a device from that period of time, and still be amazed at what I saw in current times, that speaks volumes to what was created. Videos simply do not do this device justice, as it really needs to be seen in person to appreciate how well ahead of its time it was.

[@Mrshoujo]

My dad had an RCA Studio II. It was fun for what it was when it was.

[@arostwocents]

The Entex machine looks awesome. Like a keychain game. I want emulation and the full library

[@arostwocents]

You cant say a console didn't make it out of America when clones were released here. The world was a different place and that essentially is being released here, back then.

[@jessen600]

I played with a Tandy VIS demo unit in a Radio Shack many decades ago.

[@jasonblalock4429]

Wow, two on this list I'd never even heard of. Good job! In particular, the Adventure Vision sounds like it was sadly ahead of its time. It coulda been a contendah. Also, I'll never get tired of how incredibly, perfectly late-80s the hardware design of the InteractiveVision is.

[@wackyworldofwindios3476]

thanks for all the great videos mate.

[@baroncalamityplus]

Had a Tandy VIS. Got one when they were blowing out during clearance. I wanted to get the Sierra point and click adventure titles they were advertising with it, but I never did find those. Wonder if they were ever released? It was painfully slow. Worse loading than the Sega CD which was several years old at the time. I got the system and a couple of games for less than the price of one regular console game and still felt ripped off. The controller was terrible as well. Was nearly unresponsive in any action game. I also had the Telestar arcade. I bought it in the mid 1980s. Possible during the video game crash. A store was going out of business, and they had one in box covered in dust. It was only a few dollars. I enjoyed it. Only had one game for it.

[@pancudowny]

Coleco Combat... the first console my dad bought our house after my brother got tired of the Hanimex Pong knock-off. Thankfully, we eventually stepped-up, and went to decide whether to get an Atari or the Odyssey-2. That's when we discovered a far-better system than either: The Intellivision... and bought the Sears version of it.😉

[@kenwheeler3637]

I have a RCA Studio II and a Telstar Arcade, three of them actually but only one of which that is functional. I had two VIS consoles but it was so much of a mind numbingly lackluster and boring system that I sold them. The Studio II is a curious oddity in that it was a case of too little too late. If it had been released a couple years earlier it would have been a hit since it does offer a lot more variation versus a standard Pong console. Some other curiosities is that the power supply and R/F connector are integrated into a proprietary set up, similar to what Atari would do with the original 4 port release of the 5200. Also, the sound emits for the system itself like the first model of the Fairchild Channel F. Kind of the same situation with the Telstar. It's pretty much the Rolls-Royce of Pong units but it's still a Pong console at heart. True the triangular cartridges did offer up more options, like the Studio II but they were all quote basic and primitive and when compared to the Atari VCS there just wasn't any hope of sustainable success. Plus the system itself is a bit of the delicate side. The interior of the system is an exhibition of vintage mechanics with wired connectors on the sparsely populated boards and the like.

[@theantithesis1]

There is a picture of the View Master Interactive Vision on its Wikipedia page. Also found a reddit post that identifies: - Processor: It appears to be a custom Intel processor, a VMI8802 A 850AZBL (̈M) (C) Intel 1980 (possibly a microcontroller) - Video: Uses a chip widely used in the 1980s, the Texas Instruments TMS9128NL (hence similarities to the Colecovision) - Memory: I found two Texas Instruments TMS4416-15NL chips, which would give you 16KB of RAM.

[@TheLairdsLair]

Great info thanks, very similar to a ColecoVision then.

[@gringowhois]

Well done. The vhs 📼 gaming console reminds me of the Action Max.

[@MrStupidarmy]

Nice, thanks for this console video❤

[@cabbitkisser2620]

i remember back when i was a kid in the late 70's early 80's. my mom & dad did own the rca studio 2. the only games we had for it was math & blackjack. this was before we got the atari 2600

[@RationalistRebel]

Just when I thought I'd heard of all of the random retro consoles, you manage to pull out a few more that I had never seen before. It seems that just about everyone and their uncle was trying to put out a console in the 70s and 80s. Oh, and I'm glad I wasn't drinking anything when you blasted that "America" song. I would have hosed my monitor. LOL

[@mixedhairless]

I have all 4 Telstar carts. I was surprised to see the advert in this video that showed 6 carts.. I guess 5 and 6 were never released

[@BigBoy_Thegamer]

Wow never heard of any of these consoles, the Adventure Vision seems quite interesting!

[@drno-xc1yt]

Entex made very good tabletop games, and I'd forgotten all about the Adventure Vision - I remember seeing a couple in stores back in the day, and they promptly vanished with almost no fanfare. With a little more processing power and better hardware, I wonder if that system could have been a success, as there was nothing else quite like it.

[@deathstrike]

Interesting note about the RCA Studio II. It has a similar RF architecture to the Atari 5200 (Rev 1, 4 player version). Meaning that the power lead on the RCA Studio II actually plugs into the RF box connecting to the Television. Many of these systems no longer work simply because the owners either lost the RF/power modulator for the unit, or the unit has broken down and they either threw it away, or lost it not knowing it was essential to have it to actually power the unit. Now it should be noted that there is a modification (Deathskull Labs had it but the site is gone) to reroute the 9V power back to the console. It takes a bit of research to find it. Also, there is a documentation as well to either build your own RF/Power Modulator, or repair the one with the console. But truthfully? You aren't missing anything as the graphics are awful. Now if RCA has released this in 1973? It could have been a good seller as competition for the Magnavox Odyssey.

[@pigs18]

It should also be pointed out that while they use a different power cable, the junction boxes are compatible so if you can use a Studio II box on a 5200 and vice versa. I used my 5200 box with a universal adapter for a couple of years until I could find an RCA one.

[@cheeseparis1]

The Telstar looks great! I want this for Christmas

[@user642a2]

Tons of knowledge and history. Thank you for your effort!!

[@crossroadcircleoffical]

Your videos are great we are working on a console it'll probably be on this list one day 😂

[@danielespeziari5545]

The Studio II is very depressing to look at and to hear. I am surprised there were clones of it

[@pigs18]

The Studio II is the most misunderstood name in gaming. It's not even the name of the console. The console itself is called the TV Home Programmer and is merely part of the Studio II line of products that included headphones and microphones. The idea is that the consumer's home is the Studio II while the original is the RCA studio in Nashville.

[@TheLairdsLair]

I have never heard that before! It certainly makes sense!

[@BuckEtheAlien]

With the Coleco Telstar Arcade being essentially a passthrough, wouldn't that mean it's essentially unlimited in it's capabilities other than the A/V and controls? Someone could potentially build a Pi Zero based cartridge for it and do...who knows what. Or build an interface to it and connect literally anything.

[@TheLairdsLair]

Possibly, but it depends what the passthrough connection is capable of.

[@jcaseyjones2829]

I love this series!

[@NEStalgia1985]

Ive seen that Miami news paper article in like 250 videos, getting sick of it lol, i actually have zoomed in to read it all lol

[@stevew8513]

I have a few of these... the Coleco Telstar Arcade, the ViewMaster Interactivision, and the Tandy/Memorex VIS. They are all just as sad as you make them out to be. Were there any consoles or computers that were specifically Australian or Canadian? Those are two areas that I know little about, especially Canada. The only game console that originated there was the GameWave DVD player as far as I've ever heard. And it seemed like Australia only had rebadged hand-me-downs from other countries. I'd love to know more about their '80s computer/console scenes.

[@TheLairdsLair]

I did research this and found none from Australia, you have to remember that although the country is huge it has a smaller population than London. And the only Canadian one I found was the GameWave.

[@pigs18]

Canada was the only place in North America that the Amiga 32CD and the Commodore 64gs were sold due to a patent lawsuit in the U.S. I'm not sure if the 64gs was sold anywhere else.

[@TheLairdsLair]

C64GS was only sold in Western Europe.

[@pigs18]

@@TheLairdsLair Thank you, I stand corrected. I've only seen them from Canadian retailers but I'm on the East Coast of the US and that would make sense if they were all coming through Quebec.

[@faenethlorhalien]

Very good video.

[@SUSLTD]

I am kinda amazed the Adventure Vision was realized as a product in 1982?? When I think of tabletop arcade gaming in the 1980s, I think of clunky VFD and LCD games with a refresh rate of "please, do not refresh, thanks".

[@Tolbat]

Does anyone else think the video game crash of the early 80s were just customers tired of being served the same crap over and over with no real innovations.

[@TheLairdsLair]

Nope, there was load of innovation at this time with things like the 5200 controllers, the Vectrex, the Adventure Vision, the Coleco Expansions etc.

[@pigs18]

Yes. That was part of it. But the market was ridiculously hot going into '82 so there was no reason (except hindsight being 20/20) for Atari not to hold back on the 5200. If the Colecovision had come out a year earlier, the crash might not have happened.

[@stevendobbins2826]

Yes. Too many companies were churning out heaps of overpriced junk and customers couldn't differentiate the good from the bad and just gave up. That's why afterwards only two or three standards at a time IBM clones solidified a standard for business and productivity-focused computing, Commodore ate up the lower end of the market for cost-conscious home users, and Apple had the educational market cornered. In the video game market Nintendo used skeezy contracts and harsh restrictions to try and stymie the mountains of shovelware that suffocated Atari, with limited results in practice but with great results in restoring consumer confidence.

[@mekman4]

Great Stuff!

[@McCucumber]

Back in the day my dad had a friend that worked at Nintendo and I had access to the Nintendo 65 it never came out to the public but we actually got to make play with it it was pretty cool you should have seen super Mario world 2 it was the coolest game ever on the Nintendo 65 I'm surprised they never brought it out that game was so sweet.

[@TheLairdsLair]

rrriiiiggghhhttt . . . . . . .

[@NEStalgia1985]

Was the pc engine lt battery powered? Looked like a power cord i saw

[@TheLairdsLair]

I don't believe so, I think you had to use an AC adaptor with it.

[@NEStalgia1985]

@@TheLairdsLair looks like it, probably the reason it's shown in photo. Well it was the laptop years

[@jasonz7788]

Great job thanks 👍

[@michaelmalak]

Telstar Arcade was not a failed console IMO. It sold one million units and was ubiquitous in stores and catalogs here in the U.S. Short-lived, yes, thanks to the Atari VCS as you said, but not sure it was a "failure".

[@TheLairdsLair]

Yeah, I did think perhaps I was being harsh, but it was short-lived and very limited, so I thought it did enough to qualify.

[@starscreamsghost148]

YAAAAY! ADVENTURE VISION!

[@williamcrowe2576]

Thank goodness my family never owned any of these.

[@Sinn0100]

Bro, did you happen to really look at the advertisement @2:51? That thing had a multicolored display (3 colors at once). How was that possible? I thought they either had one color or used an overlay. The tech specs say 'Red Pixels.' Oh and thank you for playing me theme song.

[@TheLairdsLair]

Dark red, light red and black - 3 colours!

[@Sinn0100]

@@TheLairdsLair ;)

[@V3ntilator]

The American console CD32, sold all consoles only in Europe.

[@Gameboy-Unboxings]

I asked before but didnt get an answer. What does your intro say? Lol i have OCD & it drives me crazy every time i hear it. And for the record, ive never been good at understanding song lyrics & stuff like that so its just me.

[@TheLairdsLair]

"Welcome STUN Runner" from the Atari Lynx port of the equally awesome arcade game.

[@Gameboy-Unboxings]

​@@TheLairdsLairthanks man! And thanks for letting me know what it's from as well. Love your channel.

[@axtrifonov]

What is that music?

[@TheLairdsLair]

The intro music is taken from the Atari Lynx version of STUN Runner

[@axtrifonov]

@@TheLairdsLair no, i mean that heavy metal about "something America something"

[@TheLairdsLair]

Oh, that's a clip from the Team America theme - "America f*ck yeah!"

[@samcadwallader2899]

No thanks. Unsubscribed and won't watch any more of this content.

[@TheLairdsLair]

Erm, why? What has offended you so much exactly? FYI - still says you're subscribed LOL