TV Tennis Electrotennis explained

TV Tennis Electrotennis
Manufacturer:Epoch Co.
(developed with Magnavox)
Type:Dedicated home video game console
Generation:First generation
Release Date:Japan: September 12, 1975
Price:19,000 Japanese yen
Units Sold:Not clear; around 10,000, 20,000 or 3 million
Successor:TV Game System 10

The TV Tennis Electrotennis (Japanese: テレビテニス,[1] Hepburn romanzination: Terebitenisu, meaning Television Tennis,[2] commonly abbreviated as TV Tennis or Electrotennis) is a dedicated first-generation home video game console that was released by Epoch Co. (developed in cooperation with Magnavox)[3] on September 12, 1975 for 19,000 Japanese yen only in Japan. It was the first video game console released in Japan.

It was released several months before the release of Home Pong in North America. One unique feature of the TV Tennis Electrotennis is that the console is connected wirelessly to a TV, functioning through an UHF antenna.[4] Depending on the source, it sold about 10,000, 20,000[5] or 3 million units in its lifetime, including about 5,000 units in the first year.

Legacy

The successor of the TV Tennis Electrotennis is the TV Game System 10 from 1977. It includes as a light gun a plastic replica of a Mauser C96;[6] [7] the C96 replica was also usable with its next console, the Epoch Cassette Vision, created in 1981.[8]

The wireless broadcast functionality of the TV Tennis Electrotennis got Nintendo designer Masayuki Uemura to consider adding that capability to the Famicom (Nintendo Entertainment System), though he ultimately did not pursue it to keep system costs low.[9]

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: 2019-01-22. Retro-Gaming: Die allererste japanische Videospielkonsole feiert 40. Jubiläum. 2020-11-10. https://web.archive.org/web/20190122044225/http://www.gamona.de/games/retro-gaming,die-allererste-japanische-videospielkonsole-feiert-40:news.html. January 22, 2019.
  2. Web site: Japan's 1st Video Game Console was released 40 Years ago!. toarcade. September 12, 2015. Toarcade. 13 March 2019.
  3. Web site: エポック社沿革. epoch.jp. 2020-03-14. ja. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20071011082525/epoch.jp/info/ep02.html. 2007-10-11.
  4. Martin Picard, The Foundation of Geemu: A Brief History of Early Japanese video games, International Journal of Computer Game Research, 2013
  5. 藤田. 直樹. March 1999. 「ファミコン」登場前の日本ビデオ・ゲーム産業 ―現代ビデオ・ゲーム産業の形成過程(2)―. 經濟論叢. 163. 3. 59–76. 10.14989/45271. 0013-0273.
  6. Web site: Epoch TV Game System 10 . Centre for Computing History UK . 23 August 2021.
  7. Web site: The Forgotten Epic: Epoch TV Game System 10 . TheGameScholar.com . 10 June 2020 . 23 August 2021.
  8. Web site: Epoch and the Cassette Vision – 1997 Developer Interview with hardware engineer/designer Masayuki Horie . ShmupLations.com . 23 August 2021.
  9. Web site: Feature: NES Creator Masayuki Uemura On Building The Console That Made Nintendo A Household Name . Nintendo Life . 30 October 2020 . 3 March 2020.