Description

The Epoch Cassette Vision was a Japanese console from a company called Epoch. It was introduced in 1981, two years before the NES, for only 13,500 Yen.

The graphics of the Cassette Vision were pretty basic. The games are more beautiful than the Pong Machines, the Atari 2600 and Videopac, but not nearly as good-looking as the NES. In some ways, the console was a combination of a pong machine and a gaming console.

This was also reflected in its appearance. The console itself was looking a bit dated for the time. The rectangular gray main casing was constructed of plastic and incorporated a black inverted T faceplate highlighting the various button and toggle switches and controls. It had no detachable controllers. The controllers were built into the unit and different game options were located with sliders on the front of the console.

A total of 11 games released for this system. Most notable being Yosaku, Astro Command, Monster Mansion, PakPak Monster, Monster Block, Galaxian, Big Sports 12, Elevator Panic, Baseball and Battle Vader. Most were arcade clones of existing games.

The Cassette Vision was pretty popular in Japan, With approximately 400,000 units sold, the Cassette Vision was pretty popular in Japan. A second, even cheaper, version of the console was introduced in 1983 called the Cassette Vision Jr. This version was smaller and had detachable controllers. It could, however, not compete with the NES.