Action Max Explained

Action Max
Manufacturer:	Worlds of Wonder
Type:	Home video game console
Generation:	Third generation
Releasedate:	1987
Media:	VHS tape
Cpu:	HD401010
Display:	2 character, 7 segment LED score display

The Action Max is a home video game console using VHS tapes for games.^{[1] [2]} It was manufactured in 1987 by Worlds of Wonder.^[3] The system had a limited release outside the U.S.

Gameplay

The Action Max system requires the player to also have a VCR,^[4] as the console has no way to play the requisite VHS tapes itself. Using light guns, players shoot at the screen. The gaming is strictly point-based and dependent on shot accuracy, and as a result, players can't truly win or lose a game. The system's post-launch appeal was limited by this and by the fact that the only real genre on the system were light gun games that played exactly the same way every time, leading to its quick market decline.^[5]

Games

Five VHS cassettes were released for the system:

• .38 Ambush Alley, a police target range
  • Blue Thunder, based on the eponymous 1983 motion picture Hydrosub: 2021, a futuristic underwater voyage
• The Rescue of Pops Ghostly, a comic haunted-house adventure
• Sonic Fury, aerial combat, bundled with the system

Technical specifications

• CPU: HD401010
• Internal Speaker
• TV mounted "Score Signal"^{[6] [7]}
• 2 character, 7 segment LED score display

See also

• Control-Vision, a prototypical VHS video game console
• View-Master Interactive Vision, another VHS-based console

External links

• Action Max Calibration Screen
• Action Max Emulator

Notes and References

1. Web site: 2011-03-22 . Action Max . dead . 2024-08-13 . OLD-COMPUTERS.COM : The Museum. https://web.archive.org/web/20110322121208/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=1008&st=2 . 2011-03-22.
2. Web site: James . Adam . 2017-11-21 . The Most Bizarre Console Flops In Gaming History . 2024-08-13 . SVG . en-US.
3. Book: Slaven . Andy . Video game Bible, 1985-2002 . 2002 . Trafford . Victoria, B.C. . 1553697316 . 352.
4. News: Gellene . Denise . BIG TROUBLE IN TOYLAND: Debt-Ridden Worlds of Wonder, the Maker of Teddy Ruxpin, Is Looking for Way Out of Woods . 12 November 2022 . Los Angeles Times . 14 December 1987 . 12 November 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20221112075905/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-12-14-fi-19281-story.html . live.
5. Web site: Only In The 80's Would They Put Video Games On A VHS Tape . Luke . Plunkett . March 28, 2011 . Kotaku . December 26, 2015 . August 13, 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240813231624/https://kotaku.com/ . live.
6. Meston . Zach . Rare Systems . Video Game Collector Magazine . 9 . 2007 . 10.
7. Web site: Rozenkrantz . Jonathan . Action Max: Notes on a Deictic Dispositif . residual media depot . . 14 November 2022 . en-CA . 1 June 2017 . 14 November 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20221114060910/http://residualmedia.net/action-max-notes-on-a-deictic-dispositif/ . live.