Bandai TV Jack 5000

[Atari2008]

One of my friends and fellow Atari Age member brought the Bandai TV Jack to my attention due to the fact that the carts look like Channel F carts so we're wondering if there's any connection. Anyone know anything about it or have ever seen one? It's pretty interesting. The games look like what you would see on a Channel F but they're different.

 

http://www.retrogamingconsoles.com/consoles/bandai-tv-jack/

 

http://www.heavy.com/games/games-videos/games-video/2011/10/before-there-was-the-nes-or-atari-2600-you-had-tv-jack-5000/

[Atariman]

Based on the information from the first page you linked, it didn't use ROM cartridges and wasn't able to be programmed, so they sound unrelated. (The Fairchild Channel F was the first console release in the U.S. to use ROM carts, IIRC)

[Eltigro]

Watching the video in the second link, when he opened the box, I couldn't see the console. It was like it was the same color as the cardboard and therefore camouflaged.

[thegamezmaster]

Neat to see old stuff like that,thanks!

[Atari2008]

Neat to see old stuff like that,thanks!

 

Yeah me too! I feel like I'm always learning something new when it comes to classic games. I'm fascinated by the machines that came out of the late 70s.

 

Based on the information from the first page you linked, it didn't use ROM cartridges and wasn't able to be programmed, so they sound unrelated. (The Fairchild Channel F was the first console release in the U.S. to use ROM carts, IIRC)

 

Yeah, I think the only Channel F connection is that the carts look similar. This is definitely a newbie question, but I'm confused by the fact that it didn't use Rom cartridges and wasn't able to be programmed, what does that mean in laymen terms? I see the system had different cartridges and some of the games look different from each other, like the car racing game looks different from the pong games. Thanks, it's a question I've always been meaning to ask.

[Atariman]

ROM-cart based systems are actually programmable (Atari 2600, NES, etc) while the non-programmable systems have the games built permanently into the hardware (Odyssey, various pong consoles, etc). Some of these non-programmable consoles used "key" carts that didn't truly have any data on them, but served to "unlock" each of the games already built into a console (I think this is how the Odyssey worked).

[Atari2008]

Ah got it now. Thanks for the explanation. Makes sense cuz the console only had 2 carts so all those games must've been contained in the console and they just activated different switches or whatever within it. Cool!