My Vision by Nichibutsu

Console Name: My Vision
Original Name: マイビジョン
Release Date: May 9, 1983
Original Price: ¥39,800
Country of Origin: Japan
Manufacturer: Nihonbutsubun
Publisher: Chuo Sangyo / Kanto Denshi
Model Number: KH-1000
Number of Games Cartridges: 6
 

History
Japan Bussand Ltb, also called Nihonbutsubun, is a Japanese game production company founded in October 1970. The company, which started as a Juke Box rental business started to rent arcades in 1975. By 1978 they had produced their own arcade with Table Attacker which is a copy of the game Block Scraps and Moonbase which is a copy game of Space Invaders.

By the early 80s, Japan Bussand saw an opportunity to enter the home console market. At the time, only a few home console existed in Japan, with the Epoch Cassette Vision dominating the market. Strong of their arcade experience, Japan Bussand decided to create the console My Vision.

Release
Release on May 9, 1983, under the brand Nichibutsu the console was initially distributed by Chuo Sangyo (中央産業). The games were distributed by Kanto Denshi (日に関東電子), a company that distributed office automation equipment such as personal computers. As such, the console was only available in computer stores. Kanto Denshi, though their filial Logitech, was also responsible for the game development. By December 20th 1983, the My Vision was made available thought Kanto Denshi. It’s not clear if Chuo Sangyo also retained distribution right or Kanto Denshi became the sole distributor.

Game software support was handled by Uchida Service (ウチダサービス).

Demise
Upon release, the console was selling for ¥39,800. A very steep price compared to the cassette vision which retailed at that time for ¥13,500. Two months after the launch of My Vision, Nintendo and Sega both entered the cassette-based video game console market. The Famicom was sold at ¥14,800 while the Sega SG-1000 was being detailed at ¥15,000, Rapidly, the price was reduced to ¥19,800, but the My Vision was just not in the same league as the Famicom and the SG-1000. From the point forward, the console slowly felt into the obscurity.

The console itself had some huge disadvantage when compared to the Famicom. First, the controller. The which was more like a keyboard than a controller was not suited for action games. Also, with no second controller, the only way to play a game in two players was to have a second My Vision unit and use a link cable that would connect through a communication port  on the back of the unit. Another problem was the sound. The sound was produced by a speaker directly under the console instead of the TV. All these problems showed how much the console was archaic when compared to the new blockbuster from Nintendo and Sega.

Games
All games were released at the launch of the console and were sold for ¥4,500

 

五目ならべ 連珠
(Gozen Beetle)
ハナフダ
(Hanafuda)
マージャン
(Mahjong)
マスターマインド
(Master Mind)
リバーシ
(Reversi)
ツメショウギ
(Tsumeishougi)
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