Cassette Vision
Japan's best-selling console before the Famicom.
The Cassette Vision, a second-generation home video game console from Epoch Co., hit the Japanese market on July 30, 1981. A cheaper redesign, the Cassette Vision Jr., followed later. The name "cassette" is a Japanese term for ROM cartridge, not the magnetic tape format. Its power is roughly on par with the Atari 2600. The console’s controls are unusual: four knobs built into the unit itself—two for each player, one for horizontal and one for vertical movement—plus two buttons per player. The system originally cost 13,500 yen, with games priced at 4,000 yen each. It sold about 400,000 units, making it the top-selling console in Japan until Nintendo’s Family Computer arrived. Epoch later released a successor, the Super Cassette Vision.
Epoch was founded in 1958 by Maeda Taketora, starting as a maker of plastic baseball boards before moving into toys, board games, and playing cards. It became one of Japan’s largest toy companies in the 1960s and 1970s, partly due to its family-run structure. In 1975, Epoch released the TV Tennis Electrotennis, Japan’s first video game console. The TV Vader, a dedicated Space Invaders clone, came out in 1980 and did moderately well. Drawing on its experience with handheld electronic games and other hardware, Epoch began work on a console that used interchangeable ROM cartridges.
Designer and hardware engineer Masayuki Horie, who had worked on the Digit-Com 9 baseball LSI and earlier dedicated consoles, led the Cassette Vision project. The console was meant to be the culmination of Epoch’s previous efforts, especially the 1979 TV Baseball. Epoch wanted cartridges to reduce clutter, since its dedicated machines were bulky. The Cassette Vision wasn’t Japan’s first cartridge-based console—the Video Cassette Rock by Takatoku Toys and Bandai’s TV Jack 5000 came earlier. Due to how earlier consoles were built, Horie’s team couldn’t separate the ROM and CPU.
Released on July 30, 1981, at 13,500 yen, the Cassette Vision’s marketing followed Atari’s 1977 strategy for the Video Computer System, which Epoch had sold in Japan as the Cassette TV Game in 1979. The name came from the Japanese term for ROM cartridge. With few major competitors in Japan’s home console market, the Cassette Vision quickly gained popularity and sales, becoming the country’s best-selling console.
Quick Facts
- Manufacturer
- Epoch
- Generation
- Second generation
- Release Date
- JP · July 30, 1981
- Price
- ¥13,500 ()
- Discontinued
- August 1984
- Units Sold
- 400,000
- Cpu
- NEC μPD777C or μPD778
- Memory Card
- ROM cartridge
- Input
- Internal controllers
- Predecessor
- TV Vader
- Successor
- Super Cassette Vision
- Display
- 75 x 60; 8 colors
Facts from the source article.
Lore & Background
Epoch was founded in 1958 by Maeda Taketora, originally manufacturing plastic baseball boards before transitioning to toys, board games, and playing cards. The company released Japan's first video game console, the TV Tennis Electrotennis, in 1975, followed by the dedicated TV Vader in 1980. Designer and hardware engineer Masayuki Horie, who had worked on earlier Epoch consoles including the Digit-Com 9 and TV Baseball, was assigned to create the Cassette Vision. The console was intended to represent the maturation of Epoch's previous console efforts and to use cartridges to reduce the space taken up by dedicated machines.
The Cassette Vision was not Japan's first cartridge-based console—earlier examples include the Video Cassette Rock by Takatoku Toys and the TV Jack 5000 by Bandai. Epoch's marketing strategy was based on what worked for Atari's Video Computer System, which Epoch had released in Japan as the Cassette TV Game in 1979. The console quickly rose in popularity, claiming 70% of the Japanese market by 1982. A cost-reduced model, the Cassette Vision Jr., was released on July 19, 1983, priced at 5,000, omitting the volume dial and redesigning the keyboard layout. Four days later, Nintendo released the Family Computer, which overtook the Cassette Vision in popularity due to its ability to produce high-quality arcade conversions. The Cassette Vision was discontinued in August 1984.
Reader's Guide
The Cassette Vision holds significance as the dominant console in Japan before the Family Computer, capturing 70% of the market by 1982. Its 400,000 units sold made it the best-selling console in Japan at the time, surpassing Epoch's own Cassette TV Game and Bandai's import of the Intellivision. The console's technical design was unusual: the CPU (μPD777C or μPD778) was placed directly in the cartridge, while the console shell contained only the power supply, controls, and video/sound generation hardware. This approach, using NEC's uPD77xx chipset, allowed 48-bit instructions and faster performance than systems using separate ROM through a bus, though it increased cartridge costs. The Cassette Vision had twelve released games, including titles inspired by arcade hits such as PakPak Monster (inspired by Pac-Man) and Monster Mansion (inspired by Donkey Kong). A light gun accessory was released alongside the Big Sports 12 cartridge, connecting via the aux connector, but this connector was removed on the Cassette Vision Jr., making the gun incompatible. The console's inability to compete with the Famicom and Sega's SG-1000 led to its discontinuation, after which Epoch focused on developing the Super Cassette Vision.
Did You Know?
- The Cassette Vision's CPU was housed inside the game cartridge rather than the console itself.
- The console's name comes from the Japanese synonym for ROM cartridge, not magnetic cassette tape.
- Only twelve games were released for the system, including Elevator Panic, its final game.
- The light gun accessory for Big Sports 12 is incompatible with the Cassette Vision Jr. model.
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