Palmtex Portable Videogame System

Lore & Background

The Palmtex Portable Videogame System was announced on January 30, 1983, with Palmtex touting interchangeable cartridges, layered glass for 3D effects, color graphics, sound control, and a pause button. An early prototype was shown at the Berlin Internationale Funkausstellung in September 1983, but it required an external cable to a hidden breadboard to function. The final design was sent to National Electronics & Watch Co Ltd in Hong Kong for manufacturing. At the Winter Consumer Electronics Show in January 1984, Palmtex showcased a redesigned white-and-black unit with three launch games: Outflank, React Attack, and Aladdin's Adventures. However, the transparent screen was too dark, requiring strong natural light to see the games, and no distributors placed orders due to this flaw and the ongoing video game crash. Palmtex later attempted to salvage the system by creating a back-light accessory called the LightPak and rebranding the console as the Super Micro under the Home Computer Software name, removing the Palmtex logo from packaging. The system was sold via mail order, but only three games are known to have been released. Home Computer Software stopped further game development after Palmtex failed to pay a lump sum owed for the first three games. Both companies were eventually suspended by the Franchise Tax Board.

Reader's Guide

The Palmtex Portable Videogame System is a significant artifact of the post-crash handheld market, illustrating how the 1983 video game crash doomed even well-intentioned hardware. Its design flaws—particularly the dark screen that required external light—made it unplayable in many conditions, and the lack of distributor interest at CES 1984 sealed its fate. The rebranding to Super Micro and the addition of the LightPak were last-ditch efforts to appeal to the microcomputer boom, but the damage was done. With only three known games and a very limited production run, the system is now a rare collectible, though working units remain extremely prone to breaking under normal use. Its story highlights the risks of entering a saturated market during a downturn and the difficulty of overcoming fundamental hardware issues after launch.

Did You Know?

• The PVS was originally announced as the 'Palmsized Videogame System' before being renamed 'Portable Videogame System'.
• The system's screen was so dark that a back-light accessory called the LightPak was created to make it playable.
• Palmtex was the first company to distribute Nintendo handhelds in the US, importing Game & Watch units in 1982.

The Microprocessor Revolution and Cartridge Technology

Before the second generation, home consoles relied on discrete electronic components and simple logic chips. Custom ASICs like the AY-3-8500 could consolidate circuits into a single chip but still locked in one fixed logic program. Atari recognized that spending $100,000 to $250,000 and months of development on a hardware unit with a single dedicated game—only to see it become outdated within three months—was not a viable business model. The solution came from Intel's 4004 microprocessor, introduced in 1971, which could receive instructions and return results, enabling software to be written around it rather than logic being fixed into circuits. Engineers at Atari's Cyan Engineering subsidiary and Alpex Computer Corporation saw the potential to apply this to home consoles as processor prices became affordable. Alpex partnered with Fairchild Camera and Instrument to produce the Fairchild Channel F in 1976, the first programmable home console, based on the Fairchild F8 microprocessor. It also established the ROM cartridge format: a ROM chip mounted on a circuit board within a hard casing designed to withstand physical insertion and static electricity. Atari followed in 1977 with the VCS, later known as the 2600, using the MOS Technology 6507.

The Dawn of Portable Gaming

The second generation era, spanning 1976 to 1992, marked a pivotal expansion beyond the living room. While home consoles dominated the conversation, the generation also witnessed the entry of handheld gaming systems into the market. Nintendo's foray into gaming, guided by the Blue Ocean philosophy championed by Gunpei Yokoi, led to the release of the Game & Watch in 1980, representing a significant step in portable entertainment. In 1979, toy company Milton Bradley released the Microvision, which held the distinction of being the first handheld game cartridge system. This was notable because it brought the cartridge-based software model—previously established for home consoles like the Channel F and Atari 2600—into a portable form factor. The broader context of the era, fueled by the golden age of arcade video games, created an environment where innovation in both home and portable gaming thrived simultaneously. Many games for second-generation home consoles were ports of arcade titles, and this cross-pollination between arcade, home, and handheld platforms defined the creative energy of the period.

Third-Party Developers and Industry Saturation

At the start of the second generation, all games were developed and produced in-house by the console manufacturers. This changed in 1979 when four former Atari programmers, who had departed following management conflicts after Warner Communications purchased Atari in 1976, established Activision. As the first third-party developer of video games, Activision began producing VCS games independently, a model that would gradually grow the company into a 21st-century gaming giant. In the early 1980s, many large corporations, inspired by the home video game industry's success and particularly the VCS, launched or acquired subsidiaries to produce console software. By 1982, toy store shelves were overflowing with an overabundance of consoles, over-hyped game releases, and low-quality titles from new third-party developers. This over-saturation, combined with poor market knowledge, triggered the video game industry crash of 1983. Beginning in December 1982 and stretching through 1984, the crash caused major disruption to the North American market. Some developers collapsed, new console game development slowed dramatically, and by mid-1985, the number of console games announced for US release was effectively zero.

The Long Twilight: From Peak to Discontinuation

The second generation era, which began in November 1976 with the Fairchild Channel F and saw the sequential arrival of the Atari 2600 in 1977, the Magnavox Odyssey² in 1978, the Intellivision in 1979, and then the Emerson Arcadia 2001, ColecoVision, Atari 5200, and Vectrex all in 1982, ultimately encompassed over 15 different consoles by its close. The era coincided with and was partly fueled by the golden age of arcade video games, resulting in many home console titles being ports of arcade games. Space Invaders, the first killer-app arcade title ported to a home system, appeared on the Atari 2600 in 1980, though earlier Atari-published arcade games had been ported previously. ColecoVision shipped bundled with Nintendo's Donkey Kong in August 1982. The market did not fully recover from the 1983 crash until the third generation arrived. The second generation officially ended in 1992 with the discontinuation of the Atari 2600, bringing to a close a period that had transformed home entertainment through microprocessors, cartridges, and the birth of portable gaming.