Chronogamer

What I find interesting is how good (relatively) the MP1000's graphics are compared to the other consoles of the time, especially with the built-in chracter generator. But as long as the games are stuck in that 1st generation, I can see how it pales compared to the other consoles.

What I find interesting is how good (relatively) the MP1000's graphics are compared to the other consoles of the time, especially with the built-in chracter generator.

 

Yeah, at the time they were probably trying to sell it to education-minded parents who would then upgrade to the Imagination Machine. It seems they weren't spending too much time making the games very fun. It's a shame I can't get a hold of the games that have titles that sound more interesting than what I've got. There might have been something worth playing, if only briefly.

What I find interesting is how good (relatively) the MP1000's graphics are compared to the other consoles of the time, especially with the built-in chracter generator.

 

Yeah, at the time they were probably trying to sell it to education-minded parents who would then upgrade to the Imagination Machine. It seems they weren't spending too much time making the games very fun. It's a shame I can't get a hold of the games that have titles that sound more interesting than what I've got. There might have been something worth playing, if only briefly.

 

The MP1000 looks like it uses the same display chip as the Tandy Color Computer; I think this would mark the first time that a home game machine has used a display controller that would later be used in a personal computer. Looking at the pictures, they probably wired it similarly to the CoCo (using D6 and D7 to control inverse video and semigraphics modes). It's been a long time, but I recall reading an article about homebrewing with that chip; seems an odd choice for a game machine, but I don't recall what else was out there.

The MP1000 looks like it uses the same display chip as the Tandy Color Computer

I thought that character set looked familiar. The CoCo used off the shelf Motorola chips - 6809, VDG (Video Display Generator), and SAM (Synchronous Address Multiplexer). I wouldn't be surprised that since the MP1000 was based on a 6800 that it also used the same off the shelf part for video.

But as long as the games are stuck in that 1st generation, I can see how it pales compared to the other consoles.

 

Perfectly put. When I saw the first screenshots of APF games, the system looked very capable and I was very interested in trying the games. Now, of course, I'm disappointed with what I've seen so far.

 

About these games, I liked the triplex mode of the memory matching game. At least that was something new.

 

It's good for very young children or really smart dogs.