Various  View Master Interactive
view_master

Introduction

If you remember View-Masters, it's probably as the cheap plastic viewers you'd insert photo discs into to see faux-3D scenes of cities, and some of your favorite cartoon characters. Manufacturer Ideal wanted to license that brand name for something in the modern era, so they decided to jump feet-first into the game console world.

The resulting hardware is a deeply weird piece of technology, with one of the most bizarre and non-ergonomic joysticks ever produced. Looking more like a fishing controller, it boasts a quintet of colorful buttons.

Games play with video footage that allows you to make choices along with simple arcade gameplay in between segments. The illusion of interactivity came with the soundtracks - each video had a pair of audio tracks, different ones of which would play depending on the buttons you hit.

Technical Details
Released 1983 Country Missing Information Brand Pioneer Type Various Consoles Name View Master Interactive CPU Class Z80 CPU Intel 8048 @5.91MHz Memory 192Bytes CPU-RAM, 6kB RAM, 1kB ROM Sound Chip Intel 8244 (PAL)/8245(NTSC) Sound 1 Channel, 8 sounds Display Chip Intel 8244 (PAL)/8245(NTSC) and EF9340 / EF9341 for new Video Modes Display 320x238 16 colors, 160x200 16 colors Sprites 4 8x8 single color user def sprites
12 8x8 ROM sprites
4 quad characters
System OS Unknown
Related Systems
 
Various Consoles
» 
View Master  Interactive (1983)
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