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History
Bandai was founded on 5 July 1950 in Asakusa, Tokyo, by Naoharu Yamashina as Bandai-ya (萬代屋). The name comes from a Chinese phrase meaning “eternally unchanging.” The company began as a small toy distributor, selling celluloid dolls, metal toys and rubber swimming rings. Its first original product, the Rhythm Ball, appeared the same year.
In the mid-1950s Bandai introduced an industry-first quality-guarantee system and expanded into metal model cars. The company was renamed Bandai in 1961 and began overseas sales, opening a New York office.
The real breakthrough came in the 1960s and 1970s through character toys. Success with Astro Boy figures was followed by major hits under the Popy subsidiary, including the Kamen Rider transformation belt (1971) and the die-cast “Chogokin” Mazinger Z robots (1974).
In 1977 Bandai released its first Pong-style console, the TV Jack 1000. By 1978 the company had followed it with the TV Jack 1200, TV Jack 1500 and TV Jack 3000. Bandai then introduced Japan’s first cartridge-based system, the TV Jack 5000 (also known as the TV Jack Add-On 5000).
The 5000 series used cartridges that each contained a dedicated chip holding the complete game logic—commonly referred to as “Pong-on-a-chip.” This design allowed the console to be expanded with new games after purchase. Although innovative, the cartridges were expensive to manufacture because they required relatively complex electronic components.
Meanwhile, true ROM-cartridge systems were already becoming established in the West. Bandai recognised that it needed to move quickly to a programmable ROM-based platform if it wanted to remain competitive in the growing home-video market.
Development of what was initially called the TV-Jack 8000 began in 1978. Because Bandai had little prior experience designing a microprocessor-based system, the project required significant research and development investment. After roughly a year of work the console was unveiled at the Tokyo International Toy Fair under the new name Super Vision 8000. An optional keyboard was planned so the machine could also function as a simple computer, but this accessory was never released.
Release
Released in December 1979, the Super Vision 8000 came bundled with Missile Vader, the only game available at launch. Marketing emphasised the advantages of the new ROM-cartridge format, promising cheaper software and virtually unlimited potential for new titles.
The heavy investment in research and development pushed the retail price to ¥59,800. While this was roughly comparable to Epoch’s Cassette TV Game (a rebranded Atari 2600), it was approximately twice the price of most other systems on the market at the time. Bandai hoped that a growing library of games would persuade customers the console was a worthwhile investment. However, the classic chicken-and-egg problem quickly emerged: the limited selection of titles hurt sales, which in turn made it unprofitable to develop additional software.
In a relatively short period Bandai managed to release six further games, but the increased selection was not enough to reverse the console’s fortunes. Later production runs were packaged with Beam Galaxian instead of Missile Vader.
Demise
Faced with disappointing sales, Bandai quickly abandoned further support for the Super Vision 8000. Instead the company turned to distributing established Western systems in Japan, including the Mattel Intellivision, Emerson Arcadia and Milton Bradley Vectrex. The Super Vision 8000 marked the end of Bandai’s original TV Jack console line; the company would not return to manufacturing its own home console until the Playdia in 1994.
Games
Only 7 games were released in its short life-span.
An eighth title, Super Tank, was cancelled.
Technical Specifications
- CPU: NEC D780C-1 (Z80-compatible) @ 3.58 MHz
- RAM: 1 KB
- VRAM: 3 KB
- Video: AMI S68047 (Motorola 6847 clone) – 256 × 192 (2 colours), 128 × 192 (2 colours), 128 × 96 (4 colours)
- Sound: General Instrument AY-3-8910 (3 channels + noise)
- Media: ROM cartridges
- Controllers: Two hard-wired controllers with 12-button keypads and joysticks
Collector Notes
The power supply of the Super Vision 8000 is proprietary and very weird. It used an input of AC 100V, 50/60Hz, 18VA and have a double output:
- Output A: DC 9V, 800mA
- Output B: DC 9V, 100mA
I was able to replace the power supply with two AC Converter Adapters with the following specs : DC 9V, 1A, 5.5mm x 2.1mm tip.