The Epoch Cassette Vision (カセットビジョン, Kasetto Bijon?) was a video game console made by Epoch and released in Japan on July 30, 1981.
Despite the name, the console used cartridges, not cassettes, and it has the distinction of being the first successful programmable console video game system to be made in Japan. The system retailed for 13,500 yen, with games going for 4,000. It is believed, though not confirmed, that Sega and/or SNK made games for the Cassette Vision. Its graphics were less refined than the Atari 2600, and the only controls were four knobs (two to a player, one for horizontal movement, one for vertical) built into the console itself, along with two fire buttons to a player. Though the Cassette Vision was not a fantastic seller, it managed to spawn off a smaller, cheaper version called the Cassette Vision Jr. and a successor called the Super Cassette Vision. The latter was released in 1984, and was sold in Europe, with little success.
Except for their failed Game Pocket Computer handheld system, Epoch never had another system released.
Famous quotes containing the words epoch and/or vision:
“Every epoch which seeks renewal first projects its ideal into a human form. In order to comprehend its own essence tangibly, the spirit of the time chooses a human being as its prototype and raising this single individual, often one upon whom it has chanced to come, far beyond his measure, the spirit enthuses itself for its own enthusiasm.”
—Stefan Zweig (18811942)
“In clear weather the laziest may look across the Bay as far as Plymouth at a glance, or over the Atlantic as far as human vision reaches, merely raising his eyelids; or if he is too lazy to look after all, he can hardly help hearing the ceaseless dash and roar of the breakers. The restless ocean may at any moment cast up a whale or a wrecked vessel at your feet. All the reporters in the world, the most rapid stenographers, could not report the news it brings.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)