European consoles / computer list?

[walterg74]

 

Hi, didn't know whether to put this in classic gaming or classic computing, but since my focus is games, title sounded better here

 

As some know I collect retro consoles and computers, oriented to games. I live in South America, and while I relatively frequently get to travel to the US, it is much rarer to get to go to Europe, so I try to get what I can when I go (on my last "spree" in 2012 I snagged all sorts of stuff, foprom megadrive/mega cd to ZX Spectrums, amigas, atari STs, etc . I just came back and didn't have a lot of time but managed to get an amstrad cpc 464 with monitor

 

Anywho, my brother will be going in a few weeks, so I have another shot at getting some stuff which is why asking here if you can add for a list I want to build so that I don't miss anything, see what I can find and the list would be:

 

"Retro Consoles and computers that either only came out in Europe or are MUCH more easily available in Europe"

 

Some examples like I placed above, ZX Spectrum, Atari St, etc.

 

Which ones do you know that fit the description?

[CatPix]

Consoles :

I won't mention the Pong clones...

 

The Radofin 1292 Advanced Programmable Video system, released in 1976 in England and most of europe. But mostly available in England. Exist under various brands sur as Acetronic, Bandai, but the Radofin console is the most common.

The Interton VC 4000 is the German version of the same console, but use different shaped carts, and is more easy to find in Germany.

 

The Game Master, Game Tronic, etc.. are a series of very low-tech portable consoles. Rare and crappy but you might like it?

The BitCorp Gamate. Usually cheaper in Europe than in Taiwan (despite being a Taiwanese console) and that in North America. But maybe it's available in south AMerica as well? It sold "well" in Italy more than in any other European country.

The Watara supervision might be more common by your side? But europe might be the only place where the first, GameBoy like model is easy to find. Games and consoels aren't easy to find but are usually inexpensive.

The Mega Duck. Which you may know as the Cougar Boy.

 

The Yeno Super Cassette Vision. originally the Epoch Super Cassette Vision in Japan, but it seems that Epoch collabored with Yeno to release the Super Cassette Vision in France. Might be hard to find and expensive, but you'll never know...

 

For computers, gosh! It's not as crazy as the Soviet Union, but there are alot. I guess you'll need other European peopel to point out some local computers. Probably Italy made some local computers, Olivetti being a powerful company at the time.

England had a shitload of them as well.

I can name the Oric 1 and Oric Atmos. While being an English computer, it was successful mostly in France, up to the point that when Oric closed in England, a French company bough it and made more computer for the French market.

 

The Thomson series is a big one in France; in the 80's, the French Government wanted to introduce computer to children, and so, commissionned French companies to make computers. Strangely, private companies like Exelvision failed, but Thomson, then a nationalized company, got the biggest share of the cake, and SMT Goupil a sizeable bite as well.

The Thomson TO7-70 and the MO5 are probably the easiest to find and the cheapest in the serie.

 

SMT Goupil made computers for the French government as well. It sadly mean that their earlier models are very rare and hard to come by, and later models of the mid 80, more comon, are IBM PC clones.

 

Exelvision was created by former Texas Instrument France employees. They created the Exelvision EXL100, which can be described as a TI99 on steroids, with faster BASIC and more functions.

There are some specific things about the EXL100 that make it interesting : infrated keyboard and joysticks, and integrated TI speech synthesis. Also some programs come on thick cards, or small cartridges depending on your point of view.

 

There are more machines probably but I can't think of all of them

Edited August 25, 2015 by CatPix

[walterg74]

Thanks Catpix! Lots of good info there to consider.

 

Two things I probably should have mentioned though:

 

1) I don't really care about collecting clones. Example, Atari 2600, while I may want to have all the different models (and I do) I don-t really care for clones, just the original systems

2) Regarding computers, while it may be interesting don-t really care abot different computers that had little to none gamebase etc. so while a computer may be fantastic technically for the time, not really interested unless it had a good game base (with nice known games.. )

[carlsson]

I would consider the following European computers to have a reasonably sized gamebase:

 

Acorn BBC Micro

Acorn Electron (little brother to the Beeb, often the same game recorded for both on flip sides)

Amstrad/Schneider CPC series

Oric-1 and Atmos

ZX Spectrum with variants

ZX-81 (to some degree)

The systems I'm unfamiliar with or unsure about how many third party publishers made games for them would include the Thomson models, the Dragon 32/64 and the Sinclair QL.

 

All other oddball systems including those CatPix already mentioned, plus Matra Alice series, COMX, Newbrain etc (not considering imported, rebranded systems) probably are more for die-hard computer collectors than for someone looking to extend their supply of gaming platforms.

 

As for Olivetti, I think they only cloned other systems (e.g. Thomson, BBC Master) and made PC compatibles on top of that, but I might be missing out on something.

 

The thing is of course that Europe isn't particularly littered with either of the above, even the more common machines.

 

While you're looking, keep an eye for MSX computers too. Although they're mostly Japanese, in parts of Europe they had a following and tend to be somewhat available, far more than in the US. Of course you have already taken in consideration any PAL/NTSC and 115/230V issues in your search, so those would be non-issues to you.

[CatPix]

About clones, it's a bit of a mess for the 1292 APVS family; as it appears today that this family was created by Philips and sold "as is" to various European electronic manufacturers;

It's likely that Raodfin and Interton where the most prominent buyers of licences from Philips (and maybe SOE in France but those are so rare, I only know of two models actuall existing). Radofin then would have sell their console model to other brands.

As such, those systems aren't "clones" but licenced copies; and while the Radofin is the oldest model, other models like the Acetronic ones are as "original" as a Sears Video Arcade is an original Atari.

 

For computers, The Thomson series and the Exelvision enjoy a fairl solid collection of games. The drawback might be, for you, that alot of those games are either copies of more famous games, and even more are "French originals" that are unknow outside France.

Examples include "Marche à l'ombre" featuring the Frnech singer Renaud Séchan, Billy la Banlieue (on CPC), and the famous "l'Aigle d'or" (the golden eagle) an advenure ggame on Oric-1, Thomson and later CPC and MS-DOS

 

 

 

[walterg74]

Thanks guys, will add to my list...

 

MSX Computers I'm aware of (and in fact I have 2 identical ones of the model that was made in my country, the "Talent DPC-200"). It-s kinda nice looking... I might try to get a different one but *sometimes* they pop up in our local ebay or also I could get some from Brazil which is fairly close and I've even spotted a few MSX2s there...

 

The most popular ones when I was growing up were the C64, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad, MSX and Ti-99 for 8 bit. Of those the Amstrads and ZXs were the ones that were almost non existant. Mught try for some ZX 128 or +2/+3 etc. but also seeing what else is interesting.

 

For 16 bit Amiga and ST. Have 1 ST (think it-s 1040STFM) but several PAL Amigas (500+, 600, 1200, CD32) and 1 US Amiga (1000). Maybe a different ST...

 

Consoles not sure what was easier in Europe.. maybe Master System?

[lushgirl_80]

The Acetronic MPU 1000 is a European console.

[CatPix]

And it's part of the 1292 APVS family.

[lushgirl_80]

Yes i already knew that.

[high voltage]

Did Germany bring out a computer during the 80s? Schneider doesn't count, it's just Amstrad for Germany.

 

I know Germany had the first console wit analog controllers and keypad with overlays Interton VC 4000 1978.

Edited August 27, 2015 by high voltage

[high voltage]

Thanks guys, will add to my list...

 

MSX Computers I'm aware of (and in fact I have 2 identical ones of the model that was made in my country, the "Talent DPC-200"). It-s kinda nice looking... I might try to get a different one but *sometimes* they pop up in our local ebay or also I could get some from Brazil which is fairly close and I've even spotted a few MSX2s there...

 

The most popular ones when I was growing up were the C64, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad, MSX and Ti-99 for 8 bit.

Ti-99 =16 bit

[high voltage]

Whilst Frank Sinatra advertised the Odyssey in USA, in UK Kevin Keegan was the first celebrity to endorse a Pong console.

[carlsson]

I'm no expert on the domestic German computer market, but of those I know there were the East German Robotron series and the Apple ][+ clone Basis 108 (and a few more models, I think). If there were any more home computer/gaming oriented systems that were unique designs, at least they didn't make any impact internationally.

 

Then again Sweden doesn't have much to add either. We had a rather big computer industry topping off with the Luxor ABC-80 and 800 series and the school computer Compis, but neither has any particular gamebase. The ABC-80 is relatively easy to come across, but requires a custom B&W television or a rather rare RF modulator box.

 

As for consoles, the Master System had a strong following in the UK, not sure about mainland Europe where NES tended to win bigger market shares than on the British isles. Of course in the league of oddballs, you have the Creativision which almost exclusively exists in PAL meaning you'd find it in Australia or parts of Europe, but it tends to be somewhat rare and pricy.

 

Walter, are you already checking what's available on eBay UK, eBay DE, eBay FR, eBay IT and all other markets? Due to how eBay works, even if the seller offers to ship internationally, auctions often don't appear on every site unless you pay extra for the exposure, so it really could pay off to check each site separately. I imagine if your brother will find anything at all, either he needs to check the auction sites, perhaps try to join some local Facebook groups or of course go to one of the retro gaming events that seem to take place at least bi-weekly somewhere across the continent. Will he travel around or be based in one country? I suppose seeking some event with a retro market might be a good place for selection, although sellers usually know what their stuff is worth and the odds are slimmer than on online auctions to make really good deals.

[CatPix]

I know Germany had the first console wit analog controllers and keypad with overlays Interton VC 4000 1978.

That's more England with the Radofin 1292 APVS that was released in 1976

There is an ongoing dispute on some IRC channels and obscure forums between Germans and English as they claim that Interton first prototyped the console in 1974, therefore making the Interton the first European console (and also beating the Channel F as being the first console using a CPU and ROM interchageable cartridges) but of course the British says that what count in the release date and on this, the Radofin definitively win

 

Anyway Germany is almost certainly the first European country (or as well, the first country outside of North America) to see a console sold, as the ITT-Schaub-Laurentz Odyssee was released in 1973 there.

[darthkur]

If you don't have one already a Philips Videopac+ G7400 would be a nice addition to your collection. I'd sure like to have one. The Commodore Plus 4 / C16 computers were popular in Europe, much more so that here in the US. There's also the Enterprise 64, there's also a 128 version, an UK computer which only had real success in Hungary. It's fairly rare and rather pricey. Both the Sinclair Jupiter Ace and the Sinclair QL had games made for them but not near enough to be considered extensive. There's also the Sord M5, although being a Japanese computer, was released in the UK as the CGL M5.

Other than that Carlsson and CatPix has mentioned everything else I was going to.