Japan's console gaming industry is born: Kikori no Yosaku / Baseball | NES Works Gaiden: Epoch-01

[NOTE: This is the first in a series of monthly bonus episodes on pre-NES Japanese console history, which was first uploaded a year ago for video patrons. To see more bonus episodes WAY in advance of their public release, check out patreon.com/gamespite!]

Pinning down a proper "first" in video game history can be a challenging proposition. The medium didn't evolve in rigid steps with clearly defined milestones; it shifted gradually, in strange and hard-to-classify fits and starts. But I feel confident in dropping a pin here, with the Epoch Cassette Vision, as the "first" proper console to emerge from Japan. Several Japanese manufacturers had produced dedicated consoles for years before Cassette Vision came along, and Bandai even manufactured one that accepted cartridges that worked like the jumper cards Magnavox included with the original Odyssey.

However, with Cassette Vision, Epoch produced the first game system to have been built from the ground-up in Japan that offered distinct software on standalone carts. It arrived a full two years before Nintendo's Famicom and Sega's SG-1000, and it presented a compelling mix of dated-but-entertaining games at a highly competitive price. The Japanese console games industry got its true start here, although it wouldn't become a true force to be reckoned with until the Famicom took off.

In NES Works Gaiden Epoch, I'll be exploring the history and design of the Cassette Vision library before moving along to the more robust Super Cassette Vision and the noble failure that was the Game Pocket Computer. Beginning with Kikori no Yosaku and Baseball, these games clearly hail from an era before Famicom; they're simple and primitive, but interesting nevertheless.

Production notes:

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Cassette Vision footage recorded from original hardware, modded for S-Video output by Christa Lee of Sound Retro Co. Super Cassette Vision footage recorded from original hardware via legacy RGB cable. NES/Famicom footage captured from ‪@analogueinc‬ Nt Mini; SG-1000 footage recorded from Analogue Mega Sg Video upscaled to 720 with ‪@atemsoft‬ xRGB Mini Framemeister.