Cassette Vision and Super Cassette Vision impressions
A while ago I got a Cassette Vision, Cassette Vision Jr, and a Super Cassette Vision. Since these are fairly obscure systems in the west, I figured I'd do a little write up on them. I apologize for the blurriness of the photos, the games look blurry enough on the TV and the camera only made it worse. For screenshots that were too blurry, I just downloaded screenshots from http://aizuma.hp.infoseek.co.jp/scv/scv.htm. I'll take better pictures later.
Cassette Vision:
This ugly bastard of a system was released in 1981 to little or no fanfare. And after playing it I can see why. The controls are all integrated into the system itself. There's 4 dials, 4 action buttons, two levers and a switch labeled "Course". The dials are for pong-style games, the action buttons are self explanatory, and the two levers are used for moving your ship/person/whatever back and fourth. The course switch lets you choose different variations of whatever game you're playing. No external joysticks though, sort of like an old Pong system. That would have been fine in 1976, but by 1981 we had Intellivisions and Atari 2600s. There is a plug for an external light gun, but I don't have one so I can't really comment on it. Graphics-wise, the system is also straight from the late 70's. The graphics are roughly the same level as the Odyssey 2, but maybe slightly less advanced. And considering the Odyssey 2 came out in 1978, the Cassette Vision is pretty damn dismal by 1981 standards. Sound is limited to simple beeps and boops, the kind of stuff you'd expect from an RCA Studio II or something. It's funny, because today when you think of Japanese video game consoles they always tend to be a step ahead of what we have in the US. But with the Cassette Vision, it lagged far behind what Western companies like Magnavox, Atari, and Mattel had done.
Cassette Vision Jr.:
This is basically a revision of the Cassette Vision, as it plays the same games (except the one Pong title) and basically works the same way. All four dials are gone, and only one of the switches is left. The course selector is gone, too. There are still 4 buttons, but they're arrayed like a joypad rather than being in a straight row as on the original. The light gun port is gone as well. It's nicer than the original Cassette Vision, but it's still pretty crude, especially considering the Jr. was released in 1983.
Cassette Vision games:
Galaxian: This game looks and plays nothing like the arcade original, but it's still actually pretty fun. It's the same premise, your little ship at the bottom of the screen shoots at aliens at the top of the screen, but the similarities end there. Rather than a group of aliens moving togeather, you're shooting at 5 or 6 aliens that move around on their own. There's different kinds of aliens, too. Some just wander around, some take two shots to kill, some dart down at you really fast. When an alien reaches the bottom of the screen, it appears back at the top again. You go through three stages with different alien patterns, then in the fourth you actually have to dodge through asteroids to make it to the top of the screen, more like Round 42 than Galaxian. Then you do it all over again. I have no idea why they bothered calling this game Galaxian, but it's fun and that's all that really matters I guess.
PakPak Monster:
I guess you could call this a Pac-man clone, although it's awfully crude. Rather than a complex maze, there's just simple pattern of large blocks sitting around the screen for you to move around. And there are only 5 or 6 dots to be munched, sort of like KC Munchkin on the Odyssey 2. But each dot has to be eaten several times before it dissapears. You can't eat the same dot twice in a row, though, so you can't just keep running over the same dot over and over until it dissapears. The large dot in the corner of the screen is your power pellet, and eating it lets you kill the ghosts for awhile, just like in Pac Man. Like Galaxian, it's simple but fun. It's no substitute for Pac-man, but it's fun in its own right. But it's basically the same level over and over again and barely gets more difficult each time.
Monster Mansion:
A trimmed-down version of an arcade game like the others, but this time it's based on Donkey Kong. There's only three platforms per screen. There's four ladders, and you have to go up or down all of them for the fifth ladder to appear which allows you to get to the top of the screen. The second level is the same, except there's a slow,giant monster chasing you around. There are also several dots strewn along your path that you have to jump into. By going off the edge of one platform it can appear on whatever platform it pleases, so it doesn't have to take ladders to follow you. The things actually pretty tricky in the way it moves and tries to fake you out. There's a cross on the second platform, and grabbing will temporarily make the monster retreat from you. When you collect all the dots and go up or down all the ladders, the final ladder appears and you can continue on your way. The third level is the same except there's the barrels and the giant monster at the same time. Get the dots, climb the ladder, and you get the girl. As simple as it is, it's quite fun for a few rounds before you get tired of doing the same thing over and over again. And I just love the look of the game and the goofy way the sprites are animated.
Big Sports 12: Pong. Which is sort of lame, because Pong was already ancient in 1981. There are several common variations of pong on here, including tennis, squash, hockey, and so on. Also, each game is 4 players as there are four pong knobs built into the system. You apparently can't play it on the Cassette Vision Jr because it doesn't have the paddle controls. There's also a few light gun games on it, but since I don't have the light gun I can't play them. The game was released with the light gun bundled with it. As far as I can tell, this is the only Cassette Vision game that uses the paddle controls, the only one that uses the light gun, and the only one that uses the course selector (used to change pong variations).
Astro Command: Slimmed down version of Scramble. The graphics might be weak, but it's still fun to play. Shoot ships, dodge enemies, standard stuff. You can move up and down, of course, but you can also move forward but not backwards. Getting through some parts of the game require precise timing and use of the forward thrusters to navigate through the obstacles. You also have an extremely limited supply of fuel. I have yet to complete the stage without running out. You can get more fuel by shooting fuel tanks, but the more you shoot and move around and use thrusters the faster you run out of fuel. At the end of the stage is a big boss ship, which is pretty unusual for 1981. Unfortunately, it's just one stage repeated over and over again, so the fun doesn't last for too long.
Yosaku: From what I understand, this game was the pack-in sold with the original Cassette Vision. It also seems that this game was the “Killer App” for the system. Apparently there’s even an effort to recreate the game for windows. You’re a woodsman, and your goal is to cut down the two large trees on the screen. You have to hack at each side of the tree three or four times before it comes down, and as you chop at it pine cones rain down at you that you have to avoid. Boars charge across the screen at you too, which you have to either jump over or hit with your axe. You have to hit it at exactly the right time, or you’ll miss and you die. Worms also burrow up from the ground at you, and you have to move out of the way or jump over them. Birds fly above you and try to drop crap on you as well. The game’s quite fun, and stays fun longer than the others because so much is going on at once.
All Cassette Vision games can be summed up the same way: Simple, fun games that get old really quick. It's just a few simple levels that repeat themselves, and it only gets a little more difficult each time. If there were more levels or the game got more difficult that would have provided some incentive to keep playing. But as it is, you just play until you make a mistake or get bored. Since Epoch was known mostly for making handheld LED/LCD/VFD games, this isn't suprising. After all, most LCD games are just one level repeated over and over again. Still, the games are astoundingly entertaining considering how primitive they are. Whoever wrote them had a knack for taking arcade games and distilling their essence into something simple enough for the Cassette Vision to handle. There's only 9 or 10 games for the system, which is suprising since it was around for at least a few years.
So what possessed Epoch to release such an antiquated machine? I can only guess, but I do have a theory. In the late 70's Epoch released two stand-alone TV games. One only played baseball and one only played a Space Invaders clone (called TV Vader). It just so happens that both games later appeared as cartridges for the Cassette Vision, and look and play exactly like the old dedicated systems. So my guess is they simply took that hardware they developed in the late 70's and slapped a cartridge port on it. That'd explain why it looks about 5 years obsolete, at least.
Super Cassette Vision:
This system is the sequel to the Cassette Vision, and was released in 1984. Unlike the Cassette Vision Jr. this is a brand new system that isn't compatible with the old one, and it plays its own games. It has proper joysticks like a normal console, although they're hardwired to the system so you can't replace them if they go bad. Plus the joystick itself is rather small and flimsy and feels like a toy. There's also a number pad on the console itself, as well as a start and pause button. The system was slightly more popular than the original Cassette vision, with around 30 games being released for it. It even got limited distribution in France by Yeno. But it didn't stand a chance against the Famicom/NES. The NES steamrolled over the Super Cassette Vision along with every other console on the market.
As far as graphics go, it seems somewhere between an MSX and a NES. Pretty good, but no match at all for the NES. Sound isn't much more advanced than the original Cassette Vision, and is still limited to beeps and boops. Most games don't have music during the actual gameplay. On the whole, the Super Cassette Vision games I have are quite fun, and probably would have been a hit in 1982 or 83. But they're not even in the same ball park as NES games like Super Mario Bros, so there's no way in hell it could have competed.
Miner 2049er:
The Atari version of this game is one of my favorite games of all time, so I was excited to get this one. It looks much better than the Atari/Commodore/Colecovision versions, and is probably the best looking version of the game. It's got a nice Japanese feel to it, and Bounty Bob is actually wearing proper mining equipment rather than that funny hat he wears in the original. The enemies are slightly more detailed, but just as generic looking as ever.
But a lot of what made Miner 2049er excellent is missing in this game. For instance, the levels aren't as precisely designed. In the original, there was usually one specific way to get through a level in time and half the fun what trying to find it. In this version, many of the platforms aren't as thoughtfully placed, so you can get through a level multiple ways without giving any thought to strategy. And you get so much time to complete it that you aren't racing against the clock. Another problem is that you can fall quite a distance without dying, unlike the original. This gives you more leeway on how to proceed and takes a lot of the challenge of measuring your jumps just right.
50% of Miner 2049er is figuring out the level, and the other 50% is actually doing it. In this version you really don't have to figure out the level, and you don't have to put much practice or skill into executing it. There's a higher difficulty level, but it just makes the enemies move faster and gives you less time to finish the level. This is a fun game, but it isn't the masterpiece the true Miner 2049er is.
Super Mahjong:
I don't really know how to play Mahjong, but the game looks nice enough. For a card game, that is. I don't know what's so super about it, though.
Punch Boy:
Sort of a mix of Pengo and Pacman. You're in a Pacman style maze, but there are boulders strewn about. You're a little fellow who can move around and punch the boulders, which roll around until they hit something. The boulders hatch into little fire breathing dragons that roam around and try to kill you. Your goal is to punch and kill all the dragons. Which is actually pretty tough, because you can't punch them from behind. You've got to hit them right on the nose. That's how Level 1 and 2 play, at least. In Level 3, you're climbing up a house to rescue your girlfriend. Little monsters pop out of windows and throw potted plants at you. You can't rescue your girlfriend until you punch them all to death. There are also little rats scrambling around the house, but you don't have to kill them. The game's fun, but it just misses the mark of being a true classic. Punching dragons gets boring after awhile, and there's little strategy involved. There are also devices laying about the level like trampolines and spring loaded boxing gloves, but you don't get much opportunity to use them. You can knock the boulders around, but that doesn't really accomplish anything because it doesn't hurt the badguys. Lots of good ideas that just weren't implemented to their fullest potential.
Astro Wars:
Space Invaders style game, but with varied levels. The first level plays like Space Invaders, with a large mother ship sending out little baby ships to shoot at you. You hide behind a laser shield which only blocks a few hits from enemy fire before holes are punched through. Beneath you are 8 silos that contain extra ships for you (basically extra lives). But if the enemy hits the silo, you can't use that ship. So you've got to protect them by hitting the enemy bullets with your bullets. Level 2 has you flying through space towards the main alien mother ship, who sends more little ships at you. You just keep shooting at it until it explodes. Then you do level 1 again at a higher difficulty, etc. The game looks good and is fun for a few iterations, but it gets dull pretty quick. There's a sequel, also on the Super Cassette Vision, but I don't have it so I can't really comment on it.
Nebula:
A very interesting Scramble-style game with a Egyptian theme (ala Luxor or Desert Falcon on the 7800). There's even some simple parralax effects in the background. Other than that it's a pretty standard shmup. You can blast enemies with your main gun, but you can also drop missiles. By holding down the secondary button, you drop a missile. It continues to fall until you release the button. Then it shoots off like a rocket and hits whatever's in front of it. It's quite difficult to pay attention to your ship while at the same time looking to see if your missile is lined up with your target, so you sort of have to do it with your peripheral vision.
There are only a few kinds of enemies in this game. There are small battle stations on the ground that shoot at you (you have to hit them in a specific place to destroy them, which makes aiming with your missile much more difficult), as well as Moai-head looking monsters (no, this isn't a Konami game) that float around and shoot at you. There's also large statues on that lob explosives at you. When the explosives explode, if you're caught in the explosion your weapons are temporarily disabled. This can mean serious trouble if you've got moai heads coming at you.
There's even a simple boss at the end of the levels, and each level has a different background and theme. I've only played the first two stages, though, so I don't know how far it goes. This is really impressive for 1984 considering Gradius hadn't even been released yet! It's not even in the same caliber as a classic like Gradius, but it's fun for a shmup of that era.
Boulder Dash:
Obviously, a port of the Atari 8-bit classic. The game’s box proudly proclaims “From U.S.A.” Besides being hampered by the Super Cassette Vision’s mushy joysticks, this is a pretty decent port.
Ton Ton Ball:
You’re a little fellow in a space suit who has to kick pig’s heads into baskets. I’m not going to even speculate why, so I’ll just chock it up to random Japanese insanity. You can bump the heads about by running into them, or by pressing the action button you can kick them a further distance. There are bumpers strewn about (like on a pinball table), as well as barriers that can be destroyed by bumping them with a pig head. There are also little “transport spots” that’ll transport the pig’s head to one of the other transport spots. And some levels even have a slot machine in the middle, which you activate buy kicking a pig’s head into. I’m not sure what happens if you get a winning combination, since I never have.
Gameplay can get quite frustrating because it’s hard to kick the pig heads where you want them to go. And they bounce off everything they touch, so even a slight mistake can send your pig’s head careening off away from the basket you were trying to kick it in. Unlike most Super Cassette Vision games, this one has tons and tons of levels. I think I made it through 20 levels before I ran out of lives.
Wheelie Racer:
Imagine Bump ‘n Jump but without the jumping or bumping, because that’s what this is. If you try to bump a car you explode, and your car can only pop a wheelie rather than jump. The wheelie’s can be used to hop over obstructions in the road, but that’s about it. This isn’t a very interesting game. The only nice thing I can say is that there are multiple levels that take place on different continents.
Elevator Fight:
More on this one later.
Milky Princess:
This is hardly even a game. The most noteworthy thing about it is the picture of an extremely creepy looking Japanese man on the cover. This is one of those profoundly horrible games that the Japanese are willing to buy because it’s tied to some anime or manga series. Some girl floats around the screen, tied to a balloon, and monsters try to fly into her balloon and pop it. You play the role of an Angel who has to protect her. When the girl starts to fall, you have to swoop under her and lift her back up. The game does have a simple song playing in the background, which is more than most games. It also has a very long intro sequence that you have no choice but to sit through. This game is utter crap.
So the Super Cassette Vision seems to fall into the same trap as the original Cassette Vision: 3 or 4 simple levels repeated over and over and over again with no changes and little difficulty increase. There's roughly 30 games for the system, though, so perhaps later titles are a bit more evolved. Still, it's a fun system. I wouldn't have wanted to be the only kid on my block with one.
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by tom
