Interton VC 4000

[CatPix]

I think it's almost certain that Philips conceived the APVS/VC4000 for showcasing what their newly-acquired Signetics chips could do. I don't know about Philips and Grundig, but they may have been tied. Philips was already owning the Radiola and Schneider brands.

It's also the reason why I suggested they have have been prototyping the Arcadia system, as the Arcadia is really only just an APVS with a more powerful graphic chip and added RAM. And probably a BIOS. So using APVS games to test it, at least to test the display wouldn't be too silly. (even if experiences prove that the released Arcadia systems can't read APVS games in any way)

[Seob]

Philips had control over grundig since 1972, and sold it again in 1998 after disapointing sales.

[CatPix]

It feels like Philips owned most of the electronics brand in Europe at some point

[Seob]

From my memory Philips had the following brands at one time or the other

Philips

Erres

Aristona

Grundig

Bang & Olufsen

Radiola

Magnavox

[Seob]

 

After reading all this i decide to try my Audiosonic Programmable Video System. Always thought it was broken, as it was given to me by a other collector, who said it was broken. And the first time i tried it i din't get a picture on it, so i guess it really was broken. But after reading about the missing reset, after powering the console, i tried the unit again today. And sure enough, after hitting reset, after powering the system on, i got a nice picture on screen.
I must say it really looks crisp, the unit has a very good rf out, no interference what so ever. I only have 2 games for the unit, number 14 Pricefight and a boxed 27 Invaders.

Pricefight has a nice Rocky startup theme, but it's a 2 player game so not that much fun to play alone. Also the right controller looks like it need repair. The right player kept walking right even when i moved the joystick to the left.

Invaders is a nice looking space invaders clone, but it's really difficult to play with analog controllers. Maybe the joysticks need a bit of work, but it's hard to move just a little to the side without going to fast.

Edited June 29, 2014 by Seob

[CatPix]

The thing is that despite being analog controllers, the programming in Invaders doesn't take account of it, so there is simply a "dead zone" where you don't move, then you move fast. You have to master the controls to get used to it.

But it's a pretty good little game and showcase a bit of the power of the system. Multiple moving objects, no flickering, etc... I wonder what a good homebrew game may look on it. Think about all of the Channel F games, and the PacMan game (even if it uses additionnal RAM - Later APVS/Interton games, have additionnal RAM onboard).

[carlsson]

Hm, although I've only played a total of 22 minutes of Invaders, I didn't even realize the controller is analog nor that it would be difficult to position right.

 

Anyway, if there really aren't any existing homebrews, I'm sure Paul Robson would not mind knocking something up.

[Nognir]

Very interesting thread!

I was also able to get a working Grundig Superplay console here in Germany and a friend of mine modded it, so I could get it working on my home TV. Thanks to the RGB Signal the Output is very crisp. It's really amazing!

 

I try to set up a history article about the console to write Reviews of the games in the near future, so the Information provided here in this thread are very useful for me. Thanks very much!

 

I also own that Soccer game and I didn't know that it also has the offside rule included, which is really impressive. But honestly the game doesn't Play very good.

 

just out of curiosity: who is Paul Robson?

[Bill Loguidice]

I just bought an RGB-modded Grundig Super Play Computer 4000 along with the following games (all on their way):

 

02 Blackjack, 04 Tank Battle, 13 Chess, 19 Outer Space Combat, 23 Pinball, 32 Invaders, 37 Monster Man, 38 Hyperspace

 

I was wondering, besides those games that are already coming, what games I should definitely keep an eye out for that are either must-haves (relatively speaking of course) or unique? Thanks for the opinions.

Edited October 16, 2015 by Bill Loguidice

[carlsson]

Besides 37 Monster Man, I believe I'm in the look for 40 Super Space and perhaps 33 Super Invaders, but that is partly based on screenshots and party on YouTube footage. I think the last few games are quite hard to come across, and priced accordingly.

 

http://amigan.1emu.net/igg/

 

So Bill, did you give the seller an offer he couldn't refuse? I saw the eBay ad.

Edited October 16, 2015 by carlsson

[Bill Loguidice]

So Bill, did you give the seller an offer he couldn't refuse? I saw the eBay ad.

 

Well, it's NEVER a good deal for me because of the exchange rate, but I did get the price knocked down considerably. I figured between the mods (I have little patience for RF-locked systems these days), overall condition, and the included games it was more or less worth it.

Edited October 16, 2015 by Bill Loguidice

[CatPix]

I'd say Football. It's the only game of soccer in existence that allow you to move alll the 11 players with your controller Pretty unique experience!

[lazzeri]

Gents,

 

I once had an Interton and never managed to make it work (It´s 220v and PAL-G, I´m in Brazil, 110v and PAL-M wich isn´t compatible) so I sold it without ever turning it on.

 

Anyway, I am deeply interested on getting another one and this time using it properly. My main concern is the lack of a proper A-V out so I just cannot easily get this baby running.

 

I found an A-V mod for Interton. Have any of you nice gentlemen ever seen / tried it? Does you guys know another A-V / RGB mod for that purpose?

 

http://circuit-board.de/forum/index.php/Thread/4486-Interton-VC4000-AV-Mod/

 

Thank you all in advance and best regards.

[CatPix]

The simplest you can do to solve your problem is to find a Grundig SuperPlay Computer 4000.

 

 

It's an Interton VC 4000 that was modified by Grundig to be part of a lineup of high-end home video setup.

As such, the SuperPlay 4000 ouput RGB out, and is powered by any 12V DC source (the Interton VC 4000 use a dual voltage AC power supply that you can't replace easily).

 

Mine, crudely modded to get the 12V power from a random 12V power supply.

 

Else, the video mod displayed on the forum seems a basic and simple one. It should work; you might need to build a simple one-transistor signal amplifier to get a decent picture from it, however.

Edited April 22, 2016 by CatPix

[lazzeri]

Thank you, CatPix!

 

I´ve found a few Grundig on German eBay. But for what I´ve found there is no direct RGB port (like SCART), right? There is still some gutting and soldering to do?

 

http://circuit-board.de/forum/index.php/Thread/6302-Grundig-Super-Play-Computer-4000-Scart-RGB-Netzteil-Mod/

 

So for both Interton and Grundig there is some modding. The advange of the later over the first is that is RGB instead of composite, and you can use a regular PSU?

 

Thank you once again, really appreciated it.

[CatPix]

As you can see on my picture, I feed the 12V from "outside" I haven't opened the console, I just added a SCART plug at the end of the original wire. It's more soldering, but it all take place outside of the system, if you can deal with plugging the 12V on the cable rather than on the console.

[alex_79]

I joined the club!
A few months ago I finally bought a vc4000 on ebay (EUR 25,50 shipped). It came with the two controllers, the power supply and the "invaders" cartridge. Untested, but was the first affordable one I found in months (and I was looking for any console of the APVS family, not specifically the Interton).
I bought it from France and it turned out being the SECAM model. The board is the one of the later "single board" PAL model, but there's not the RF modulator on it and the area where the PAL encoder chip and supporting circuitry would be is unpopulated. A daughterboard is attached below the main pcb, for the SECAM encoding circuit and the modulator.

It was already my intention to mod the console for RGB before buying it, but since I don't have any TV that can tune a SECAM RF signal, that became a necessity.
With little modification to the daughterboard I was able to get the required TTL RGB signals. I then used a few resitors to reduce the voltage from 5V to 1v as required by the TV to get a perfect, crystal clear RGB output! (I used the diagram on this page about the BBC micro as reference for resistor values)
I left the console with a bunch of temporary wires going from the board to a scart socket scavenged from old equipment until yesterday, when I finally managed to solder a proper cable and close the case...

[CatPix]

Congrats!

I haven't seen an Interton for sale in France for a while, nice find! I haven't noticed that daughterboard peculiarity on mine, but maybe it's and older model. Or mabye I just never opened my secam model as I also own two PAL ones (a boxed one from Germany and one from Austria that I bough for the lot of game it came with).

And the RGB SCART Modded Superplay 4000 that I use mostly.

Edited September 9, 2016 by CatPix

[Rolo]

I was wondering, besides those games that are already coming, what games I should definitely keep an eye out for that are either must-haves (relatively speaking of course) or unique?

 

Please have a look at: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/259234-multi-cartridge-for-interton-vc4000-video-computer/?do=findComment&comment=3635669

You can have them all!

-Rolo

Edited November 22, 2016 by Rolo

[Rolo]

[Yak]

I found this ad for the first game console I ever owned, from the actual shop I bought it from.

 

I used to hang around in that shop during time spent skiving off from sixth form and play around with the VCS (first time I saw Superman was in there and I was amazed) and Ohio Superboard they had in there. Couldn't afford the VCS, and according to the documentation there was going to be something called the "Hobby Programmer Module" for the Teleng TCS at some point. I was desperate for anything I could hack code on in those pre-ZX80 days so that clinched it for me. Alas the promised module never appeared, at least not anywhere I could find it. I think it did come out for other VC4000-series machines but is pretty damn rare as you'd've needed to be a massive spod to (a) want one and (b) be knowledgeable enough in the arcane arts to be able to use one properly.

 

Still I enjoyed the console and its absolutely gigantic cartridges (the default Pong game was actually pretty cool with neat variants like gravity tennis and several Breakout variants, and the Combat version was bright and colourful and had some weird exploits you could do like getting bullets to slide down the barriers).

 

Then a couple of years later I got a VCS and could finally play some proper games, and by then I had my ZX80 to satisfy my hex hacking urges.

 

I wish I still had it, as it's one of the rarer VC4000 variants. Lordy knows where it is now though.

[CatPix]

I have seen a picture or two of the Rowtron Hobby Module, so it was released for the Rowtron family of compatible 1292 APVS machines.

 

[alex_79]

Not a game for the Interton/1292 APVS family, but somewhat related.

I found this interesting cart on ebay:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1003-SKILL-CYCLE-RARE-game-cartridge-for-RADOFIN-ACETRONIC-PRINZTRONIC-/222521855284?hash=item33cf560d34:g:YA4AAOSwOgdYrbvl

The console for that game is this one:


It's basically a pong-like system, without cpu, but using game-on-a-chip ICs that are on the cartridges (the console just provides power, controllers, difficulty and select switches and video out).
The interesting thing is that the console and carts use the same molds as the 1292 APVS family from Radofin and other brands, and in particular this cart shell is the same as the rare "hobby module", complete with the DIN connector on the back (on the "hobby module", that's for connecting the tape recorder to load/save programs, here I think is for a specific controller needed by this game, which probably is using the AY-3-8760 or similar chip, described at page 42 of this datasheet)

I thought it was interesting and posted the pictures here as reference, as those on ebay will disappear after a while.

Edited June 9, 2017 by alex_79

[CatPix]

I laready had seen some Pongs using the same shell, but not the cart using the Hobby Module shell!

I could guess that on the 10 games cart and the light gune games carts,t h connector is used for conencting the light gun. But on the others? It seems strange to waste money on adding the actual DIN connector.

[Senile Data Systems]

I'm posting just for completeness' sake, I created a couple of homebrew games as well as a demo that came in fourth (of nine) at Revision 2020.

The games are Flappy Bird (2016), Canabalt (2017), Kaboom (2019), Demo (37 Bytes of RAM, 2020) and Tetris (also 2020).

 

- Senil(e) Data Systems