The Epoch of the Super Cassette Vision - Introduction

[@bombasticbeegirl]

The Super Cassette Vision is one of those "footnote" consoles in the English-speaking world, so I'll be watching this series for sure! I especially can't wait to hear your thoughts on the Lupin III, Doraemon and Dragon Ball games.

[@PAN--]

I don't know how you keep the work ethic to make daily videos of this quality, but we thank you!

[@JonCannon]

I'm SUPER excited for this EPOCH Sequel! 😁

[@MabelsFanboy]

Super Cassette Vision is a better console and it really deserves it 3rd place in the console "wars" at that time. The library had a couple of better games, and for some of them they are either "first" or "unique" in Japan at the time. The ones that most people are going to recognize are the anime/manga licensed titles for a home console, which was a second in Japan (Bandai Arcadia predated it), though the games based on Lupin the Third and Dragon Ball (the only non-Bandai one in Japan, too) are more significant than Doraemon (although Epoch would continue to support the Fujiko Fujio library after closing their console production).

[@thedrunkmonkshow]

It's interesting how this system and the Atari 7800, both designed in 1984, had video hardware that could do 128 sprites while most others like the NES, Master System and PC Engine were limited to 64. Except that since the PC Engine had 16x16 sprites you could piece together larger images with less individual sprites since most other systems were limited to 8x8 sprites. As you mentioned though, it is strange that the palette is limited to 16 fixed colors which reminds me of MSDOS with it's CGA and EGA. Where the Atari 7800 was unique is that although it was limited to 25 on screen colors you could chose from a palette of 256. The lack of background tiles and hardware scrolling is wildly baffling through the most. Either way thanks for showcasing this fascinating yet limited console. 😇

[@RndStranger]

EGA or the C64 palette would be my points of reference as well for the colors. It wasn't an uncommon thing to do at the time.

[@fruitbatsalad]

I can already tell that this series is going to make me appreciate the Famicom even more!

[@anactualmotherbear]

I LOVE the Super Cassette Vision. I might not've had much nice to say about the original Cassette Vision beyond the first game, but Super Cassette Vision is awfully cute... and it sure fights to show off what it can do! I mean, 4MHz is INSANE for 1984.

[@darktetsuya]

not at all familiar with this system, but color me curious! I mean dragon ball, doraemon, lupin, and freaking dragonslayer games?! looks like a lot of very interesting titles for the system. definitely a huge upgrade from OG cassettevision, that's for sure.

[@seanmckelvey6618]

This is one of those machines I've only heard about in passing, so it was cool to actually learn something about it. Great stuff, man. Keep it up!

[@ryansease7066]

Very much looking forward to your examination of this console as some extensive coverage of it is long overdue. Take care and I am very thankful you are doing this and not locking it behind a paywall or anything.

[@therealquinnzack1819]

These games seem really interesting and I can NOT wait to see you review some of the library; especially any arcade ports that didn’t get released anywhere else at the time!

[@RndStranger]

Epoch decided to go alone at software development which meant they didn't get a lot of arcade ports except for one weirdly significant one at the very end. They just ripped off a lot of popular arcade games.

[@therealquinnzack1819]

@@RndStranger hahaha well that’ll be interesting too then😎 I’ve been loving your post-famidaily videos it’s always exciting to see what you’re going to do next!

[@inky3]

I didn't even know what a cassette vision was never mind a super one

[@PixelReality1]

Есть у меня коллекции ддве таких консоли и в добавок ещё и коробочные. Меня она.заинтересовала несколькими играми.

[@officialretroshell]

Great video, thanks for sharing. We will feature this in the next issue we have of our retro gaming news roundup (link in bio).

[@bafflemint8442]

I'm curious how these controllers compare to the Atari ones? One of the things that is becoming extremely fascinating to me is that Atari more or less solved the problem of console controllers back in 1977, and then almost everyone, including Atari themselves, spent the next six years *un*solving the problem.

[@RndStranger]

They are terrible. They're small enough in size that they don't fit comfortably in my hand and the tiny joystick means that I'm twisting them right out of my hand when I push left or right. The buttons aren't much butter, mushy and unresponsive. A lot of my videos about the games will mention how rough it is to play with those controllers.

[@bafflemint8442]

@@RndStranger Thanks for the response. Pour one out for the Super Casettevision. And they're hardwired, so I guess you're stuck with them. That seems like a pretty short-sighted design decision, too.

[@RndStranger]

@@bafflemint8442 I considered replacing mine with Famicom controllers, but I decided for the series it was better to do this stock.

[@Bro3256]

embarrassed to admit that the only games I recognize are Doraemon and Dragon Ball but I'm more than ready to learn about the whole library I have some respect for Epoch sticking around for this long but they had no chance after Nintendo and Sega burst into the scene

[@IsaacKuo]

The TMS9918 and Famicom's video chip could handle 64 sprites, which is in the same ballpark as 128 sprites, BUT ... they could only handle 8 sprites on a scanline before flickering. With the Famicom/NES, this was a particularly harsh limitation because the width of those sprites was limited to only 8 pixels. So yeah, the Famicom couldn't come anywhere close to dealing with the balloon demo. Generating a display out of only sprites was done with the Atari 7800 (not so successful in the market) and the Neo Geo (pretty successful with tons of well remembered classic games). So, the basic idea isn't so bad.

[@RayOfTruth]

It still bewilders me that games can even be stored on cassette.

[@Nemo2342]

Just sad we won't see a Cassette Vision 64.

[@RndStranger]

They did release another console in the early 00's, but it was more of an educational toy so I decided not to go for that one.

[@nate567987]

and now they make mario board games@@RndStranger

[@romannikonenko7325]

Super CV is nice. Let's see what we get there 😊

[@cthulhulives2]

Uh, Nintendo Famican't what Super Cassette Vision sort of can in limited circumstances, sometimes? (It's still a work in progress, but this ad campaign's gonna take Epoch straight to the top!)

[@retrojoe85]

Some of my friends own this. It's a kinda weird system with a strange japanese flavour on it, a superpowerful CPU for the time (c'mon, 4MHz was insane for 1984 standards) but with the same colour palette as the Intellivision (16 colours) plus no background sprites. It was launched in 1984, but it was featuring an outdated controller design even for the period of release, plus the "phone" section like an Intellivision (once again) or a Colecovision mounted directly on the console exactly like the controllers' cables. The Super Cassette Vision was a weak effort indeed but today it owns a particular fashion, for some japanese consoles' freaks like my friends at least.

[@user-is4jf8yr4z]

They were "super" before Nintendo 😄

[@1-eye-willy]

uncle jeremy talks about the casset vision

[@NukeOTron]

Hmm... if that BASIC program ever gets out, or if we know what kind of software architecture it uses, this thing might actually be an interesting machine for homebrews. The sprite-layering alone is pretty impressive, as systems like the ColecoVision and TI 99/4A struggle with this. Also, a combination of bars of solid color and sprites means (if the programmer knows the architecture well enough) it can at least do something along the lines of Solaris if it weren't for the limited color palette.

[@Shizukurushii]

Do you have a Patreon or some other way to support you financially? The speed and quality of your output is seriously impressive so I hate to think you aren't being meaningfully compensated for it

[@RndStranger]

I do not. I'm fine financially and I don't want to push myself toward chasing money with my videos. Not having to bow to the whims of the algorithm means that I can spend a month talking about the Super Cassette Vision.

[@BagOfMagicFood]

I've been turning off my adblocker on your channel just in case it helps you afford these games!

[@RndStranger]

@@BagOfMagicFood I don't monetize! Use that ad blocker!

[@BagOfMagicFood]

@RndStranger But maybe you should monetize, just in case you ever need a bit of cash socked away later on for your survival!

[@IsaacKuo]

Is it just me, or does the Super Cassette Vision font look a lot like the VIC-20 font?

[@eucalipto9724]

after watching your videos on the cassette vision i wasnt impressed at all by those games... but some of these games actually look nice! maybe some of them are even good... who knows?! ill have to watch the series to find out :D

[@sparkly9294]

It still baffles me that Nintendo showed up in 1983 with the biggest and most impressive console ever made and then Epoch and Sega were only able to bring the weakest conceivable competition to match it. At least Sega had the Mark III a few years later though.

[@RndStranger]

Epoch really tries to take advantage of their machine's absolutely absurd sprite capabilities, but I think they hamstrung themselves too much.