How VHS Gaming Conned Us | Nostalgia Nerd

Head to ​www.squarespace.com/nostalgia... to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using code NOSTALGIANERD.... Please note, these games use *FLASHING LIGHTS*. It was bound to happen eventually. I couldn't get away with it forever. VHS Gaming. It was inevitable. The Action Max, Video Challenger, Hasbro Control Vision/NEMO, ViewMaster Interactive Vision, Sega Video Driver and everything inbetween. It's all here, and I've had to endure it. So I thought I'd dive in with the key question: How it conned us, and what I mean by that is; how any of these "game consoles" convinced us that they were something worth dabbling with in the first place.
Personally, having gulped an exceptionally large dose in one go, I don't want to play another VHS based game for a several months, possibly years. Thanks to Quang for letting me borrow his Interactive Vision (even if he doesn't know I did).
Thanks again to RetroReplay. Please find his view Interactive Vision video at • InteractiveVision Revi...
Index:
0:00 Intro & Backstory
2:28 Connor VideoSmarts
3:50 Worlds of Wonder
6:02 Action Max
13:25 Video Challenger
17:34 Captain Power
19:57 Sega Video Driver
21:29 Hasbro Control Vision
26:26 View-Master Interactive Vision
30:00 Atmosfear
30:52 TV Teddy
32:14 Toby Terrier / VEIL
35:27 Closing Thoughts
🔗Video & Reference Links🔗
Nintendo Training Video: • Nintendo Training 1991
Action Max Commercial: • 80's Action Max Commer...
After Burner (Video Challenger): • Video Challenger - Aft...
Road Blaster (Video Challenger): • Video Challenger - Roa...
Pops Ghostly (Action Max): • Action Max Game Video ...
Ambush Alley (Action Max): • Action Max - .38 Ambu...
NES UK Advert: • Nintendo NES UK Advert...
Captain Power: • Captain Power Intro
Night Trap Scenes: • Night Trap HD-ish All ...
Dragon's Lair: • Showbiz Pizza Place Dr...
📚Reference Material📚
ComputerSmarts: nnerd.es/3dj8Pki
Teddy Ruxpin: nnerd.es/3m4ItpW
WoW: nnerd.es/3di4kX7 / nnerd.es/3ub0eHg
Action Max Discussion: nnerd.es/3wgUm0H
Video Challenger: nnerd.es/3u0pPm2 / nnerd.es/3wgjG6Y
Encoded Light: wikivisually.com/wiki/Video_E...
VEIL Press Release: nnerd.es/3rL3kjD
Anime Bargain Bin: www.anime-games.co.uk/VHS/anim...
Sabre Star: d19cgyi5s8w5eh.cloudfront.net/...
VEIL Interactive: www.veilinteractive.com/about/
Light Gun Technicals: www.epanorama.net/documents/j...
NEMO Briefing: nnerd.es/2O8ehhj
Polygon Sources: nnerd.es/31vFGwN
Kotaku Video Tape Report: nnerd.es/2PGaLLA
Continue? The Boss Fight Anthology (book)
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🎥 Equipment & Software 🎥
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📜 Resources 📜
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In video links and references are provided where possible. If you believe I have forgotten to attribute anything, please let me know (drop me an email via. the about page on KZbin or send me a tweet), so I can add it here. Apologies if I have missed anything out, it takes time to make these videos and therefore it can be easy to forget things or make a mistake.
Errors and omissions excepted.
Some material in this video may be used under Fair Dealing / Fair Use. Where under section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976 (UK: Sections 29 and 30 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988), allowance is made for purposes including parody, quotation, criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, education and research. Fair Dealing / Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing.

[@Nostalgianerd]

Please remember to SmAsH tHaT bElL

[@Elastane]

𝓐 𝓜𝓔𝓢𝓢𝓐𝓖𝓔 𝓕𝓡𝓞𝓜 𝓣𝓗𝓔 𝓟𝓡𝓔𝓢𝓘𝓓𝓔𝓝𝓣

[@pompshuffle562]

Good video, although it might be a good idea for an epilepsy warning for the video challenger section but im not an expert

[@garethfairclough8715]

Oh my, steady on now, Nerd!

[@Clay3613]

Would you be interested in covering QUBE, the worlds first interactive television service from 1977? It pretty much made modern cable boxes, on demand services and viewer feedback.

[@Christopher-N]

(35:24) NUON by VM Labs: I doubt they would carry a compatible remote like what you're looking for, but when I need a remote for an outdated television-closer to the original remote than a universal remote-I go to ReplacementRemotes (dot) com, which is labelled as Dan's Electronics on the site. Admittedly, I've only had to order from them 4 times since 2010, but all 4 orders I got the exact remote control I needed (my latest order October of 2020). I don't know about international ordering.

[@jmtrad1906]

It's the same feeling of giving a unplugged controller to your small brother while you play.

[@jamous3226]

I just got PTSD

[@CeeJayThe13th]

Small brother

[@chincemagnet]

😆 ohh, memories

[@spillinthebeans4354]

Little brothers everywhere having their mind's blown as they read this comment.

[@PajamaManor]

This is the console that you’d give to your little brother so he won’t overwrite your save files again.

[@povnw8985]

This is like the advanced version of giving your little brother the broken controller so he can think he's playing too.😆

[@JulianVR4]

Big bran NRG

[@retrogamernes3121]

It's never funny when you ARE the little brother though

[@povnw8985]

@@retrogamernes3121 ; It was to me when I got older and did the same with my little siblings, nieces, and nephews. It's the circle of life! Shit rolls downhill. If you can dodge a turd boulder you can dodge a ball!

[@jc.1191]

🤣

[@vincentshone8618]

Someone has to control Tails!

[@keith_dixon]

My Aunt Ann and Uncle Larry got me one of these for Christmas in 1988. Everyone was super excited to try it out and quickly realized that it was not fun at all. I'm still grateful for the gift, they couldn't have known how bad it would be.

[@GrandWushu]

I remember we got an action max for Christmas one year. I had to wait till the older siblings got bored of it before I could try it. That was about 20 minutes.

[@tester9154]

😂😂😂😂😂

[@danobelelement7828]

My pops tricked me into getting that instead of Nintendo a few weeks before Christmas he was like you could get this now or wait for Christmas for Nintendo and of course my 8 year old dumbazz went for it

[@YomommasStankPoon]

@@danobelelement7828 heh. You got finessed

[@danobelelement7828]

Lmao Faxctz

[@borstenpinsel]

I'd imagine it would be pretty cool at first but as you play another round it dawns on you. Not only does it make a 2nd and 3rd game boring, it also takes away the fun of the 1st time when you realise it's a static video

[@joeblow5214]

The amusing thing is that it tries to trick you into thinking you are actually pointing and hitting what you are shooting at when in reality you are just following the target.

[@glitchgatsby4290]

It's literally a company doing what my older brother did when I was 3, where he'd give me a controller on a single-player game and tell me we were playing together. Literally just an entire product line based around that.

[@scottcharney1091]

@@glitchgatsby4290 No, not literally.

[@feralkitty33]

I was born in the early 90s and up until now I thought I had imagined the bear from the library that told me stories for hours.

[@noka1979]

🤣😅

[@TJ-wg3ud]

I was born in the early 80’s and let me tell you that when teddy ruxpin came out it was amazing. My neighbor had one and i thought it was the coolest thing that a stuffed animal was telling us stories.

[@noka1979]

Had one also

[@Axeman369]

@@TJ-wg3ud I remember that, we could never afford one so a kid in our school would bring one in on the last day of school because you were allowed to bring in any toy in for that day those were the days

[@AliciaGuitar]

Omg...i wanted one of those SO bad 🤣🤣🤣

[@PoignantPirate]

Just an extra note: the captain power toys in the U.S. would actually respond to the TV show as well as the VHS. There were several other toys along with the ship that all had the small video sensor in them, so if you were watching the show on TV while holding the toys they would do things like flash, play audio clips, or let you shoot at the enemies and react to the events in the show. And every single one of the captain power toys would go absolutely ballistic during the 'armor up' scenes (aka:magical girl transformations)...

[@Freshbrood]

I LOVED Captain Power toys.

[@NihilisticHatred]

I remember this as well.

[@NihilisticHatred]

You could also shoot the screen with Captain Power.

[@DrivingTheClassics]

Yep. I had the Action Max. I was SO excited to get that. I played it one time and it never came out of the box again.

[@scottcol23]

me too. played it once. Still have it though

[@sneakysnake7695]

@@scottcol23 you could probably get a nice bit of change if you find a collector for it.

[@scottcol23]

@@sneakysnake7695 yeah looks like about $130 on ebay. Ill keep it. At this point I don't even own a VCR or a CRT tv.... So its just a thing in a box.

[@WilDBeestMF]

@@scottcol23 Fully functional, it's basically just a thing in a box. Lol. It probably would make a lovely sound if you throw it out the window.

[@keithpatrick156]

Same here....I begged my dad for one, but when I played it, it was like "WTF???" I wound up taking it apart to see how it worked after barely playing it

[@MikaelMarius]

Why hasn't ActionMax developed a lively homebrew scene? Imagine the possibilities... "Nana's 80th Birthday: The Game"

[@dalekman9999]

"Grandpas 8th Racist Rant of the Day: The Game"

[@mr.pavone9719]

Columbine Massacre Footage: The Action Max Edition.

[@MikaelMarius]

@@mr.pavone9719 lol that's awful Action Max presents: The greatest hits of Ron Jeremy

[@thatguy7155]

Mission impossible: german spy execution the game

[@nimblenavigator9520]

Hillary Clinton in Action Max's "Under Bosnian Sniper fire"

[@SuperNicktendo]

Ah the 80s where the toys did everything you wanted provided you have a high quality television studio to edit out the frustration

[@McDADDyK]

Better than now where the games don't even work

[@penfold7800]

At least the computers in the 80s only did what you told them to and nothing else. I miss that.

[@larkefedifero]

​@@penfold7800 DITTO! DITTO!! DITTO!!! DITTO!!!!! :-) Too many losers, useless anuses and jerky corporations cutting in on everyone else's lives these days. If someone or some group(s) need to cut in on my dull life to enhance *their* livelihood, what does that say about him / her / them?!?! The answer is that these *people* (since they're the ones behind everything) *have* no lives and need to get some. Pathetic... It's for this very reason I don't have a dopey iPhone or iPad and intend to avoid having one for as long as possible. BTW - you may want to reconsider voluntarily having a *chip* jammed under your skin in the near future just because everyone else is and you won't be allowed into certain movies, theaters, casinos, sports arenas, and shopping malls without one. At that point, I consider it "GAME OVER," and hopefully others with the same objections / rejections will agree and take action along with me... ;-)

[@IgorOzarowski]

@@larkefedifero you talking about the vaccine?

[@larkefedifero]

@@IgorOzarowski Actually, no...but I can see the parallel there. Difference is, coronavirus is something which, though invisible, is very contagious and very, very *real* . Thus, so is the need for innocculation. Whilst concerns about bots and other additives are reasonable, I haven't seen evidence of such as of yet. However, there is NO need for an organization or entity to require you to place a chip under your skin just to be able to use a certain type of phone or computer hardware OR software. THAT is true "Big Brother" territory and where dystopia has in fact begun. :-/

[@promontorium]

My family found Atmosfear in the early 2000s at a second hand store. We found the audio hilarious. We never got into the actual board game so sometimes we'd just play the VHS in the background as every few minutes a character pops up and says funny things.

[@0utlaw408]

I played it early 90s

[@wmlukepriest8012]

So far I haven't had a personal connection to any of the technology being discussed in any of Nostalgia Nerd's videos that I have watched, but the quality of research, writing, editing, etc. keeps me coming back for more. I don't have any of the nostalgia, but the nerd is fascinating!

[@JackstandJohnny]

Im realizing that as a child playing our Action Max, we never once hooked up that red light. My childhood was a lie.

[@pennstation5638]

We hooked it up trust me it didn't help lol

[@radicalraccoon]

Out of curiosity, did you at all brag to your friends how realistic the "graphics" of these games were and/or invite them over to share this...unique experience? Haha.

[@pennstation5638]

@@radicalraccoon within 5mins of standing there think you are actually playing. It hits you 😳 shyt they got me!! Then you hide this crap somewhere in your attic basement closet or you bury it so nobody knows you spent $80 - $100 cause you can't return it.

[@rustneversleeps85]

@@pennstation5638 Shouldn't you be able to return it if the creators claims it does something which it clearly doesn't? I mean if it's not an interactive game you'd think they'd have it spelled out in the fine print somewhere in case someone wants their money back? Or consumers had no rights back in the days?

[@pennstation5638]

@@rustneversleeps85 watch Action Max clip again they over exaggerated what the game did making it seem as if it was live action. Only the clicker and target worked. No the stores didn't do refunds. Bradley's lol would not take it back.

[@tophatjones179]

“He started going to the air force base every day, for work. Time and again, military base officials had to break the news that he wasn’t actually a pilot.” 😂🤣

[@nukelex]

Watching the section on the ActionMax made me want to cry for all the children who received it and the parents who bought them.

[@tasantana1174]

Ya man at that time if it was 1987 or prior to that ,the NES was the sure way to go or Sega Master system before that you couldn't go wrong with the Atari 5200 or even the classic 2600 , ColecoVision etc. just lots of solid systems out there. I don't know why anyone would go VHS. I supposed the deceptive marketing contributed to people being duped into buying an inferior gaming product.

[@kriscynical]

I was born in '84 and just the _sound_ of you sticking that tape into the VCR astral projected me straight back to my childhood, my _god._

[@iluvcamaros1912]

The clunk-thunk sound along with the hum of it coming to life makes a VCR seem almost steampunk nowadays.

[@kriscynical]

@@iluvcamaros1912 Pair that with the crackling dissipating static of the CRT turning off and it's just 🤌.

[@wolfetteplays8894]

Just buy a used VCR and more tapes. It’s not like they’re illegal to own now

[@kriscynical]

@@wolfetteplays8894 The point of my comment really whistled over your head _that_ quickly, huh? That's not at all what I was saying or even implying, but A for effort. You must be so much fun at parties.😏

[@kriscynical]

@@wolfetteplays8894 Okay nevermind I just went to your channel and saw a little bit of your latest video. Fucking _yikes,_ dude. Touch some grass, get help, and re-home that poor dog, you doorknob.🤨

[@frydemwingz]

I still remember playing this as a kid and figuring out it was a con and getting really angry at my mom. Forever.

[@PajamaManor]

I’m sure she was just as angry at you for having all that stuff laying around the living room. But it was really her fault because she should have just bought you the SNES like you asked.

[@frydemwingz]

@@PajamaManor honestly.

[@BeerBreath702]

Fucking brats.

[@rockfresh5359]

@@BeerBreath702 😂😂😂

[@rockfresh5359]

1992 playing the original nes

[@superpj]

As a kid living in a trailer the Action Max was the most awesome game system. The local police that would come by for uhh, reasons, actually played the haunted house game a bunch then one day 2 of the officers came by after school and gave me Ambush Alley and it was probably the coolest day of my life. One time a few months later a neighbor got pretty drunk up and cops were called. One of the cops was walking around their trailer and I heard him radio it was all clear and the response call was "STAY ALERT BABY, STAY ALERT" They were quoting Ambush Alley in what I later found out was a drunk guy with his x-wife at gun point in the house.

[@kutter_ttl6786]

Sounds like you had some pretty cool cops in your area.

[@superpj]

@@kutter_ttl6786 I did. Except for the one that spent almost 20 minutes talking me into looking at a dead body. Then when he finally got me pumped enough to look, it was a bug he stepped on.

[@hellbillymods45]

@@superpj Hahaha, dude, that's freaking funny! Loved the story too, thanks for sharing.

[@coreym162]

@@kutter_ttl6786 Leave the cities and the cops are super chill.

[@Khorne_of_the_Hill]

@@coreym162 in the south it's the opposite; the cops and sheriffs in a city area don't give a shit about anything, but small town cops have nothing better to do than extort people for money

[@DirtCobaine]

That captain power toy was pretty genius. An arcade game that allowed pvp multiplayer. I would’ve loved it as a kid. Especially the cockpit flying open and ejecting to give you an actual consequence. Pretty sick.

[@sealtyk]

Had all 5 games. Loved this as a kid. My dad wasn't super tech savvy but he would play this with me. Great memories

[@meidomiseri]

The way they used the vhs frames to hold scenes for Night Trap like that is actually pretty ingenious

[@calvinmercer8768]

I still remember the moment in dawned on me as a kid that I wasn't, in fact, changing my Sega Video Driver VCR game in any way with the steering wheel. Life lesson right there.

[@elreyyakko]

Same, I didnt steer for a moment and well,video kept going. Turned it off and never looked at it again.

[@kloggmonkey]

certainly sounds like one of those 'realization followed by a powerful sense of betrayal'-experiences from childhood

[@Joe_Mama661]

*anger*

[@elLooto]

Direct analogy to voting, right there :)

[@brentfisher902]

@@kloggmonkey It's like when you leave the Mormon church and realize that you could have been helping people in need instead of playing dress up and be holy in L.A.R.P. clothing.

[@MrLlamajockey]

I remember getting Battlevision at Christmas one year. It was a pretty cool experience...once or twice... then it just became a hideout for my G.I. Joes to launch daring attacks on a friend's My Little Ponies.

[@andreasottohansen7338]

Now that latter half sounds like a much better time.

[@por77os]

Tv teddy was sold in argentina as an interactive bear but with no vhs. The bear simply reacts with the tv with the tv signal of state channel "canal 7". During the 90s

[@haruhisuzumiya6650]

and TV teddy in Australia

[@Whickerx7]

That would be be pretty cool nowadays. Back them it must have been amazing.

[@StriderBillman]

Microsoft did something similar with Teletubbies interactive toys that react to their tv show known as Actimates.

[@vonpiro2397]

Lo promocionaba Sofovich, que se ponia a hablar con el coso ese, una bizarreada.

[@dickJohnsonpeter]

My favorite thing to do with an old VHS tape was cutting it, attaching one end to the back of someone's car, hiding the tape under the car and watching them drag a half mile of tape behind their car as they drove around town.

[@JinzoCrash]

Mine was renting a VHS tape, covering over the "read only" tab, then recording weird things into the black space before the movies started.

[@sjogosPT]

@@JinzoCrash I used to record stuff on end of retail cassettes, but cassetes we own xD.

[@JinzoCrash]

@@sjogosPT Sometimes, in the name of humor, risks must be taken. ...and making sure you don't record too long to obscure the intended media. X D

[@DarkArachnid666]

HAHAHAHAHA!!! 😂

[@CeeJayThe13th]

@@JinzoCrash man I thought of that but never did it. Feels like a missed opportunity now.

[@frost8077]

I've heard of VHS games before but I was confused as to what that even meant. This was a great video on explaining that, and the history and variety of these games. It's really fascinating how they could do so much with a single signal.

[@yourlifeisagreatstory]

Check out Captain Power .. it was such a great vhs and PvP setup.

[@Anhviet19]

The action max somehow popped in my head earlier this week. I had one as I kid. The game we had was like a haunted house ghost game . But when it popped in my head I couldn't get past on how it worked just being a VHS tape. Glad I came across this video.

[@c.l.7525]

Even as a kid I had serious doubts about these things, so glad I didn't have to experience them.

[@negirno]

Living behind the Iron Curtain thus not getting access to these things also help. You could read poorly researched articles about these magical interactive toys in your kids magazines, though...

[@glyph241]

I Had At Least Some Fun With This: “Debuting in 1987, Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future was a multi-media brand which included a TV series, a toy line, and various tie-in products. So why am I writing about it on my retro gaming blog? Because at its core, Captain Power was a game.”

[@waverazor]

As a kid I really wondered how it worked, I remember watching a lot of VHS and it just didn't make sense to me

[@c.l.7525]

@Eugene Cam What makes you think they could've afforded a VCR and the unit to play these games? May as well have gotten a NES. Super Mario Brothers is infinitely better to play/replay than watching the same tape over and over never even knowing if you actually killed your foe or not.

[@Len1977gt]

You probably didn't experience much as a kid

[@yetinother]

I used to cheat at DuckHunt with my brothers when I was like 8 years old, I figured out by myself that if I pulled down the shade in the kitchen window just right, then I could make the square that the Nintendo light gun picked up. I could literally just point the gun at the TV and it would always pick up the square from the window. I could get a perfect 10 out of 10 for many rounds without even trying. Then when I finally lost from the game going to fast I would stand behind my brothers in-between the tv and the window, so there was no more white square for them to use.

[@LittleRainGames]

It doesnt detect the square shape, just the light. The system then checks where the electron beam is pointing, and if the gun recieves light at the same time the beam is creating the light a hit is count.

[@lmcgregoruk]

@@LittleRainGames Well when you pull the trigger, it first makes the whole screen completely black for one frame, then it make a white square where the duck was for the next frame, and it detects the intensity of the light from black to white to register a hit. That's why pointing the zapper at a constant light source like a lightbulb won't work.

[@vylbird8014]

@@lmcgregoruk His cheat wouldn't work with the legitimate duck-hunt, but we're looking at old degraded memories here. Perhaps he had one of the knock-off immitations.

[@blueredbrick]

Great fun. Pointing it at fluorescent tube light did the same trick. Duckhunt was cool. Good memories.

[@paulocuento9949]

nice. fond memories of childhood videogames are always cool

[@only1muppet]

After seeing this, I realize my siblings and I were luckier than some, in the gaming sense. We had Pong, then Coleco Vision, SNES and finally Sega. My sister had Teddy Ruxbin lol

[@MidMo4020]

I had G.I. Joe… and Voltron!!

[@jedgrahek1426]

I absolutely loved Captain Power as a kid, and my dad was usually up at that time and would watch it with me lol... glad to hear you say it was worth checking out. It's like... Star Trek crossed with He Man crossed with The Terminator. Weirdly dystopian for a kid's show, but that's what made it so cool as a kid.

[@benjilee329]

I liked the show too. It just didn't get a fair shake at the time.

[@franklloyd3264]

Me and my brothers got all things Captain Power for Christmas one year so great!!

[@scienz]

the figures and the art in the vhs tapes were awesome

[@J_Dubb1]

I agree! Still have some of the figures and I loved it soooo much, very spooky story line tho for a 8 year old at the time! Rofl

[@Roxor128]

You really have to admire the fact that they managed to pull off what they did at all. It's all very much a case of making a system do something that was never in its spec sheet.

[@misteridiot]

“... How am I firing a handgun from the cockpit of fighter jet?”

[@CarrotConsumer]

That's how fighting was done in planes in the old days. He's a traditionalist.

[@vylbird8014]

@@CarrotConsumer It was tried in the very early days of aircraft. The hit rate was an impressive zero. It didn't take long to realise that the solution was 'more dakka' - fit the plane with a machine gun or two and pump out enough bullets that some of them might actually hit.

[@abdelali9279]

GTA logic maybe

[@subduedreader5627]

@Cheryl [Phone] First try was a strip of armor on the propellers.

[@jeopardy60611]

@Cheryl [Phone] I think they came up with some sort of sync mechanism that times the shots so as to not hit the propeller.

[@KaleOrton]

Man, you're the best 80's nostalgia tech channel that I've discovered. Subscribed a while ago, and slowly savouring, enjoying, and re-watching all of your incredible work. Thank you.

[@rjd_frostcor3]

Thanks for being kind and rewinding there at the end, sir.

[@the_hanged_clown]

4:52 so THAT'S where that toy gun came from! I grew up playing with that exact gun but as it was just another hand-me-down from a brother 10yrs my elder I never had any clue what it was for

[@huntforandrew]

I still remember that Gargoyles VHS+Boardgame. Man that 90's were the shit.. No one knew what was gonna be the next big thing so everyone was cranking out all kinds of random shit. What a time to be alive.

[@wesss9353]

Nightmare was fun. I think I still have it somewhere. An hour long VHS and board game.

[@maxgood42]

I remember a VHS / game / story / AKA choose your adventure and we had to pause and then FF to a set time, based on clues that we had to guess the answer to, to continue the ADVENTURE. I also thought I had the power of GOD when I was finnaly able to save lines of data in text box feilds, with the AWSOMENESS of my new (second hand) Epson 286 .....🤣🤣🤣 /run... 20 GOTO 10 ..... /end...

[@slanderman3296]

I remember I wanted a creepy crawly maker SOOOOOOO BAD. I never got one

[@nightwatch3359]

I'm watching this and I'm laughing, feeling nostalgic and sad at the same time at just how much I miss those simple and uncomplicated days. I wish I had a time machine.

[@mrmeestah6177]

come on man take the red pill embrace the future and create it

[@InZomnia365]

Honestly, the Captain Power thing seemed like a really neat idea. If people still watched TV instead of streaming online at their own leisure, I could've seen something similar happen today with the use of a smartphone app.

[@Vallee152]

I didn't even know these existed before watching this

[@markhammer9975]

I played with the airplane gun one with my friend down the block in 1986 or whatever. I remember shooting at the tv and then running around shooting each other's ships. What a memory seeing this video. I was born in 79

[@abandonedmuse]

Same.

[@mkhachfe]

Me neither. How odd

[@marckhachfe1238]

@Rante Aligheri ? Joke by who? Google search reveals it did exist. Is this some sort of super dry/abstract humour im not getting? LOL

[@souljastation5463]

I knew Captain Power, because of the TV show and the the action figures toyline.

[@igorszamaszow171]

I remember an old video by James Rolfe and Mike Matei, when they suggested that people should start making Action Max homebrew games. That would be neat.

[@Nostalgianerd]

I did consider it for this episode, but time was a limiting factor. But, if I can face it again, it would be a fun thing to do.

[@AcornElectron]

@@Nostalgianerd I’ll warrant you’d make more from the KZbin revenue from views than the sales of said game 😂😉🕹📼📼📼📼📼📼📼

[@meetoo594]

You should get that teddy to swear and growl, that would be epic.

[@neophobicnyctophile8264]

@@Nostalgianerd I was wondering the whole time if you encoded digital signals into the video feed...

[@neophobicnyctophile8264]

@@meetoo594 Put a Tom Waits cassette into your Teddy Ruxpin. And maybe some boric acid.

[@dominicdelprincipe2583]

That was a really slick segue… It made the ad portion almost unnoticeable at the start of it... almost. Great job!

[@calijguyman]

thank you for putting this up! I tried bringing this up to some friends a year or so ago, and everyone thought I was crazy!

[@3rdalbum]

I'm impressed by having four different streams of video at the same time on a VHS! I'm also impressed by encoding data on the edge of a video signal and the data communicating with the Interactive Vision to draw onto the screen. That's really cool.

[@bobbobbity463]

That encoding is also how Teletext worked

[@jonathanellis6097]

Im an 80`s kid and this all passed me by, intresting stuff.

[@madmax2069]

Be glad it did.

[@KaleOrton]

So much detailed research - should all be archived for future generations. Just incredible. Thank you.

[@phalinangel]

My dad was working for Worlds of Wonder during this time I wonder if he remembers any of this. He was also the one that developed the technology behind the laser tag light gun system and did the animatronics for Teddy Ruxpin, it was a very fun time to be a kid with him coming to me with prototypes from work for me to play with. He told me many years later it was me as a kid that helped the development of some of the things at Worlds of Wonder.

[@davidmeyer6908]

Thank goodness I was born too late for these. Wolfenstein 3D and Commander Keen were my first forays into gaming, and they definitely did not disappoint.

[@joshuaa.5523]

Holy shit are you me? are you 35 too?

[@chosentonessournotes]

@@roberttodd2414 Yep. Sewer Shark is a particularly rare kind of turd, it’s so bad.

[@hitkid2456]

At least Japan saw that concept for what it was. The PC-CD had a damn good selection of games.

[@fisharmor]

You never new the joy of being on a cross-country road trip in 1982 and having your older brother say "Hey this hotel has Donkey Kong!" and knowing you had your evening planned.

[@MrVarhansen]

My first games were Secret of Mana, Chrono Trigger, Illusion of Gaia, Final Fantasy 2 (us). [Game set match, don't be jealous, I just had good taste, or at least my older brother did lol]

[@rolandkatsuragi]

Surprised how the rail shooter genre didn't take advantage on this technology

[@Trimint123]

One reason is epilepsy.

[@joemck85]

@@Trimint123 It wouldn't have been that hard to make one that worked without flashing lights, but you'd need a base unit and it would cost more than the little battery powered handheld Video Challenger. Pass the video signal through the base unit. A vertical (or horizontal!) bar off the visible part of the screen would encode X,Y coordinates of each target. Then the base unit compares the timing of a pulse of light picked up by the light gun as the electron beam passes where it's pointed. Then all they need to do is ensure all targets are brightly lit. As a bonus, since the video signal passes through a base unit, it could also do more tricks like obscuring parts of the frame, demuxing multiple 240p video streams, or just drawing the score counter on screen.

[@chemistryofquestionablequa6252]

Photo sensitive epilepsy is actually vanishingly rare. It's just that companies are terrified of being sued.

[@lcmiracle]

@@chemistryofquestionablequa6252 It could be 1% of Americans and it'd still be 3 million people. How about you getting sued by 3 million people?

[@findantu]

it kinda did in arcade.

[@fuxbox]

Wow it's been so long! And I've been searching a long time for this rare thing I played as a very young boy. I started to think I imagined it. Captain power! Blew my little mind back then. Probably more the video than the actual "game" Thanks for reassuring me that actually happened lol

[@DanAtkinson918]

I had the Captain power ship. I got it for my birthday. It never seemed to work right and got shelved for the Nintendo. It was definitely a weird time in tech. I had forgotten about these. I remember all the VHS board games as well. Thanks for drudging up some cool child memories.

[@hyliahero]

Captain Power! Wow. I forgot that existed, but as soon as I saw it I completely remembered it. I was totally into that show when I was about five. How did I forget about a show I was so obsessed with. That was a major trip down Nostalgia lane. I wonder how many other things from my childhood I’ve forgot about that would blow my mind to remember? I’m gonna look up an episode of Captain Power as soon as I finish this awesome documentary.

[@iamzachinreallife]

I got “Video Driver” for Christmas when I was 6 or 7. I remember thinking, “hey, it’s a Sega product! It should be fun.” But then right after that I thought, “wait a second...it’s a video tape. Videotapes are pre-recorded, so you can’t actually control it.” Dissatisfaction and disappointment quickly ensued.

[@davidjames579]

Did you realise it was pre-recorded at age 6? That's pretty cool. That said, if it had been Laserdisc....

[@andrewmosley2588]

Ok lol. I call bullshit.

[@alexandertaing29]

Bullshit

[@Tarquin23]

@@andrewmosley2588 pretty sure you could be a 4 or 5 year old and realise that a VHS is a VHS and doesn’t do anything. I have, ironically, VHS tapes of me playing Mega Drive around that age and I absolutely knew the difference between a VHS and a game cartridge.

[@grumpyoldwizard]

Fascinating video. Very nostalgic for me. It seems they tried a little harder than I thought at the time.Thanks.

[@popanollie1]

oh man this video brings me back to my first glitch gaming experience. the action max, if you slightly offset the sensor it will expose the white light in the corner, than all you have to do is shoot the non moving corner light. thanks for bringing a great part of my childhood back.

[@MrJC1]

"Even to this day, this kid, now a grown man, believes entirely that he is an ace pilot. it was the Action Max that made him this way, and it's that kind of technology that you need in your life"..... ahhahahahaha classic.

[@johndough3125]

32:09 Tv teddy grabs a knife, stands up “now it’s time to bring this interactive game to real life.” Then starts walking towards you

[@Krystalmyth]

"Please don't run away! You'll only die tired!"

[@TipsterLIVE]

I actually had a friend who owned an Action Max. Never got the chance to play it. But I remember seeing it and the original box in his home.

[@loyale27turbo]

Beyond Awesome! ... Thanks for this very informative Video. I saw DVD consoles that played Nes games, illegaly by the way, here in Honduras.

[@jjtimmins1203]

This show held my attention longer than my buddy's Action Max flight game. I knew he had it for Xmas but he wouldn't play it until I begged for a couple days. Then he reluctantly set it up and gave me the pistol. I thought it'd be like a mix of Afterburner and Top Gun. Ten minutes later I understood why my buddy hated it, and we never played it again. Forgot all about it until now.

[@KnarfBlack]

The SD footage upscaling creates some serious nightmare fuel every once and a while.

[@amicloud_yt]

i was just wondering what the hell is wrong with these monsters' faces!

[@leeartlee915]

Wow, I thought I knew (near) everything about video games wild history. And yet, this whole thing went right by me. Truly fascinating stuff.

[@andrewrobertson3894]

Captain Power and The Soldiers of The Future was freakin' awesome and way too dark for me when I first saw it. When the Bio-dread's digitized people, it was actually quite horrifying. A lot of the story lines were quite grim & it seemed the whole planet was just a big smouldering, smoking ruin full of villains. The protagonists were pretty scary and the early CGI used for two of the main one's was fairly good. Great stuff and I recommend it for anyone who hasn't seen it.

[@thomasfurgalack2577]

I remember being freaked out by the "digitized" scenes 😳. like, they come back right? Lol. I also remember having a bad guy ship gun too.

[@andrewrobertson3894]

@@thomasfurgalack2577 Ha, nice! I just had the figures but they were pretty sweet. Actually, basically all the action figures from that era were decent. Especially the Visionaries, Centurions and Sectaurs.

[@camelspiderattack4161]

interestingly, the Captain Power storyline was written by J Michael Straczynski, creator of Babylon 5 and a contributing writer to movies like the Underworld series and World War Z

[@andrewrobertson3894]

@@camelspiderattack4161 That is interesting. Thanks for the info, mate.

[@005AGIMA]

"No one really knew what was happening in afterburner anyway". After 30+ years, finally I feel vindicated.

[@raycearcher5794]

Afterburner makes sense for about 10 minutes, then it's just utter nonsense. Space Harrier is kind of the same deal, but there's less happening at once so you can KIND of work it out.

[@Krystalmyth]

Ill be honest, theres no way to play that game well. I owned a standup cab for years before it melted and never got good at it lol

[@matthewjohnson1891]

Yes!

[@parteibonza]

I wouldn't mind finding one of the sit down versions. I would spend my meager salary rebuiding it and improving the speakers. It was my favorite game at the time. RENRUB RETFA foreva!!!

[@VulpisFoxfire]

@@parteibonza That and G-Loc were fun for the motion-control cabs. Though one of the only times I've had the chance to play the G-Loc one, it was partly broken and the seat was just tilted to the left the entire game, though IIRC the forward/back tilt still worked.

[@NeverAgain.BeNiceToPeople.]

And I thought my parents were just naive saying, "why can't we just put it in the VCR?" Talking about NES cartridges. Maybe they had seen one of these gaming systems :-)

[@appliedengineering4001]

FUN FACT: Did you ever wonder why the original NES has that really shitty front load mechanism for it's it's game cartridges? it's not because it's a better design. In fact, Nintendo knew it was going to be a piece of shit from the start. No, they did it because it emulated the feel of loading a video cassette into a VCR. During the post video game crash of 84. Nintendo made every effort to make sure that the NES did not feel like just another game console of the time. Just like Rob the Robot. Nintendo knew Rob was a gimmick, but it still help kick start the NES into the market.

[@NeverAgain.BeNiceToPeople.]

@@appliedengineering4001 thanks 😊

[@mrmeestah6177]

@@appliedengineering4001 that's extremely interesting and might I say a good move, because I was born in 93 but have played my fair share of original NES cartridges and that is one of the things I remember most

[@big_ry82]

That Lazer tag bit brought back the memories. Had that as a kid. Never worked well but I just loved that gun.

[@knoopx]

had a wonderful time watching this, thank you

[@reddyredwolf3931]

Just a correction. Takara known for Transformers and Tomy known for Zoids are two different companies that later merged to Takara-Tomy. Also it's Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future.

[@Schwarzorn]

I was about to say the same thing. As soon as I heard “Takara-Tomy” in a video about 90s stuff, I was immediately thinking “Wait. That company didn’t exist yet!”.

[@pigs18]

Speaking of Transformers, I think you could use the Takara gun to shoot the Decepticons in the intro to one of the Japanese series.

[@barahng]

Zoids man, what a time. I loved watching that on cartoon network after school.

[@ValenceFlux]

I had Action Max as a kid and yes jumping behind the couch and all over the place pretending to dodge incoming fire was a lot of fun.

[@rickershomesteadahobbyfarm3291]

I have never heard of this. Now I’m going to be on the lookout for one of these.

[@justanotheryoutubechannel]

That Video Challenger actually seems really cool! I can’t believe they ported a version of Road Blaster and After Burner 2 onto it. I imagine it must’ve been really fun, the first time at least, although it might’ve got boring once you realised the enemies always moved the same way and blew up at the same times.

[@Monsuco]

Makes you appreciate how influential Night Trap was. It helped push the tech behind these VHS games only to be dropped, picked back up by Sega CD and then spur the creation of the ESRB. Yeah, it still sucked gameplay wise but it influenced a lot of stuff.

[@jonathansoko5368]

Night trap has an important place in gaming history. They tried so hard to censor it and prevent it existing! I own a boxed copy for that reason.... It's dumb but ridiculous and fun to play with unexpecting people

[@billkeithchannel]

So sad the ending of Dana Plato who starred in Night Trap.

[@riffgroove]

Reminds me a bit of the XBOX Kinect. It worked horribly, but they wanted to get it on the market as fast as possible just so nobody else could steal the technology. Roughly a decade later, the technology is still in it's infancy.

[@TrevorAvrett]

I'm not a gamer or a collector, but you do such a thorough and passionate job archiving these things that I find myself clicking on your content from time to time! Thank you for sharing your passion and knowledge with the world.

[@CatMandiano]

Learning about all this old tech that easily encodes simple messages into tv broadcast raises the question of what ELSE is NOW encoded in broadcasts.

[@JRBowling1997]

We need to find out...

[@beuxjmusic]

After watching a couple Nostalgia Nerd videos, I'm reminded to be thankful that I had a Father who sat me down to play Myst when I was basically still a baby.

[@TheOvadex]

The up-scaling on that old game footage was haunting....

[@Bt3615]

It's worth noting that Takara mandated that the japan exclusive Transformers Headmasters featured interactions with video challenger. This happened roughly at the same time of Captain Power (both show started airing in 1987 in the respective countries), but the Transformers cartoon in question used a very crude technique to achieve the same effect.

[@mightyfilm]

And it went deeper than that. They actually had Daniel Witwicky play with the Video Challenger in an episode or two. Of course, the actual "interactivity" with this series was just a seizure inducing version of the opening theme that came on about halfway through the show's run, basically having the home audience shoot at the flickering Decepticons. This was preserved for the US DVD release. Not the eyecatches or the next episode previews, but a gimmick for a long since dead toy from another country, without context was left in.

[@LiveTUNA]

I had the entire Captain Power set up. It was the coolest thing I had ever seen at that time when I was a kid. I got up every Saturday morning to watch the show with my black Power Jet XT-7 for that fits season. I also got the Interlocker throne, the Power on Energizer, the Soaran sky sentries, Lord Dread and basically everything that came with the series. I still remember I was obsessed with it back then. I loved Captain Power and the soldiers of The Future!! Great memories!

[@THRASHMETALFUNRIFFS]

Awesome vid man! We had a VHS board game that used NFL football clips. Our VCR was old, no remote, just a pause button on a long wire!! Like you said, board game format at least allowed some random aspect to the "interactive experience" but it did also get pretty boring quickly seeing the same clips over and over. I think the "Scene It" DVD experience was a success and also pretty fun for gatherings and allowed for way more outcomes due to DVD instant scene accessessablity and larger capacity but again, the same clips repeated and outdated quickly.

[@LordThanathos]

The TV Teddy was huge for a short while over here in Argentina: they somehow convinced one of the most famous TV hosts ever to marketing the crap out of it, so we had this elderly man with a vague "mafia boss" aura telling kids to turn on their Teddies on live TV, and then the bear would tell a short night time story just before 10 PM. In retrospective it was really funny, because they made the bear sound argentinean, in harsh contrast with the generic Latin American accent of the VHS tapes included with the toy. Good times.

[@positivelycurvedpikachu]

we need to get back the 90s. Milei 2023 - 3023

[@sforza209]

Wowwww! That sounds so cringe it hurts.

[@ronniepirtlejr2606]

I am 51 years old. I grew up in arcades. I owned many of video game systems but, I've never heard of this!

[@ronniepirtlejr2606]

@@TheTillmanSneakerReview I agree! I would have been pretty mad spending money on a gaming system like that to find out, all you do shoot a blinking light!

[@tieran2009]

I'm 52, and I only know about the Action Max, because my best friend in college owned that with the Blue Thunder tape... and he brought it back with him after one trimester, since we both loved Video Games and we both loved Blue Thunder (Movie and TV Series) and Airwolf.

[@mysterious-benefactor]

That was a nice walk down memory lane. As a child in the 80's I feel like they toys are an archive of the culture. Good on u for producing such great content!

[@reddjustaguy1598]

my first time watching this channel. i frigging crushed the subscribe button on my phone screen with strength and gusto.

[@sneffels]

i used to watch captan power and id see the sections of the show with the flashing parts and thought I bet this is for a game or something. I had never known that it was actually for a game since I have never seen the toy for it advertised or on sale in any of my local stores. Cool to know that it actually was for a game.

[@ColinHuth]

Just when you think things couldn’t get any weirder, you realize that the actor who shows up at 28:49, Bill McCutcheon, played Dropo in Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. This is entirely irrelevant, but my night was made.

[@Eidolon1andOnly]

Woah, didn't even notice the first time viewing, but by golly, you're right. Good eye.

[@JustAGuyYaKnow42]

The ingenuity required for these games is amazing. I was gaming when these were out, but they somehow all flew under my radar.

[@RileyNA]

Really high quality video, love it!

[@kriskropd]

As someone who grew up in the US during the 90s as a tv-console enthusiast, I've honestly never-ever heard of these until now.

[@robbylebotha]

They even ported these rubbish "games" to DVD. I kept seeing them up until even 2012

[@rubilacxe1]

I remember Captain Power and the little car thing seems familiar

[@milkapeismilky5464]

I'm the same, never heard of these BTD

[@nmbmemphisbeast3690]

Lol I think it was sold in dumbass states I never heard or known someone with this and trust me we had every system just about except that Atari handheld

[@IvanFazekas]

You reopened a whole cubby hole full of memories I unconsciously stashed away - THANK YOU!! Omg the nostalgia - I remembered all the feelings that came with watching these commercials as a young boy and even remembered my teddy ruxpin and his buddy grubby. Just amazing.

[@HiddenLiverpoolChannel]

I worked in the very early UK computer gaming industry for companies such as Bug-Byte and Software Projects and wasn't really interested in 'passive gaming' to coin a phrase. However I do remember sitting with friends playing Atmosfear a few times and really enjoying it. This video has reminded me about how groundbreaking the gaming industry was back in the day. It's been a blast watching this and an eye-opener too to see how limitations of media formats lead to some actually astounding innovations. It makes the process of bringing modern gaming to the masses look positively pedestrian in comparison!

[@netsendjoe]

I never had one of these, but in my teens I understood how a VHS "tape" could be used as a cheap gaming console. It utilized the VCR hardware to connect audio and video to the TV though RF. I loved "junk week" because it gave me an opportunity to salvage electronics and/or tear them apart to learn how they worked. The inside of an old CRT TV, stereo or computer monitor was most impressive, as were old devices that still had tubes. It was like an early birthday present since it generally happened before my June birthday.

[@kikodekliko1209]

You know you've got something good when the box itself has a message from the president

[@smokingwedinbambos4128]

Ah yes you know something is trust worth when theres teh fucking president

[@rjd_frostcor3]

Did that president turn from Japanese to a white dude towards the end? Anyways... ahhh... politics....

[@mikesmith1290]

As a kid growing up in the 80’s, I knew VHS was linear, and these games couldn’t possibly be what they claimed to be.

[@kbhasi]

I sense that you were a smart kid.

[@killjoydod4937]

LOL Same here!! I had the Action Max and The Captain Power XT-7 fighter. It didn't take long to figure out they were nothing but high score challenges. The action max could count hits as fast as you could pull the trigger (and keep the gun on target). I remember being able to get either 37 or 47 points before the training mission was over in the Action Max jet game!!!

[@gordontaylor2815]

@@killjoydod4937 Of course, some people didn't mind trying to keep topping their previous high scores (or simply figuring out how to max out the counter). But even then there was no replay value besides that - like with FMV games, this was style over substance.

[@killjoydod4937]

@@gordontaylor2815 Well, reclaiming the top score from friends always made me want to "REPLAY" it!! There's a key word in this statement!! Look for it!! XD

[@CNash85]

That’s true enough, but it’s really only a couple of features short of an arcade-style rail shooter like Lethal Enforcers or Time Crisis. The stages play out in a linear way, the only difference is that you get feedback on your performance via graphics rather than just a high score system. In that respect, Action Max et al are an odd mix of FMV games and rail shooters without branching paths.

[@UMfan21]

The Christmas where I got both of the Captain Powers ships was spectacular. I remember sitting around with my uncles playing that VHS over and over trying to get high scores.

[@chrlpolk]

Captain Power is the entire reason I watched this video!

[@corelpo]

Wow, amazing video as always. Keep the great work !!

[@IxodesPersulcatus]

Spaceship dogfighting PvP toys that impartially tally up the score actually sound amazing even now.

[@VulpisFoxfire]

The PvP part was basically the same as Laser Tag/Photon/whatever that line is they're selling beside the Nerf stuff even today.

[@crazyivan030983]

Wow, they tried to squeeze out everything they could from VHS :) greetings from Poland :)

[@bltvd]

In Poland did the Action Max use an 8-track tape machine?😂

[@wetbiscuits3062]

Ogórek

[@crazyivan030983]

@@bltvd hehe :) I don't know :) I was to young :) but true, we never was at the top of technology :) but it is not a reason to laugh :) check USSR how they killed our economy and technology :) best to You :)

[@mattkennedy6115]

@@wetbiscuits3062 cucumber? 😆

[@adenowirus]

@@bltvd Speaking of Poland and video tape, here's a bit of trivia. In 1968 Polish Television wanted to buy a tv studio grade video tape recorder from Ampex. Problem was, in the west there was an embargo on sale of such machines to Eastern Bloc countries. So the Polish Television ended up purchasing their first Ampex illegally through Yugoslavia. It was kept in a closed room in the basement of Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw (where the transmission facilities were located), only few people could access it, and it was officially labeled as "air conditioner" in documents.

[@WatanukiProductions]

The Hasbro Control Vision and the View Master Interactive Vision are both brilliant. I feel like I could have come up with the Action Max or the Video Challenger if tasked with making a VCR game but the HCV and VMIV are so incredibly clever that I'm struck with genuine admiration.

[@YourLocalZombie]

I had a Gabby Bear! It was pretty cool actually. My cousin had a bunch of the Captain Power stuff. Loads of fun at a time when a home PC was 8bit and had to load from 5.25in floppy disks many of which required you to reboot the computer to start.