From the Microvision FAQ, copyright Joe Huber. . .
Microvision was introduced by Milton Bradley in 1979. Designed by Jay Smith (who later designed Vectrex), Microvision combined the cartridge interchangability that was propelling Fairchild and Atari into the forefront with the portability that had helped Coleco and Mattel sell millions of hand held games. While the idea was fine (witness the success of Gameboy and Game Gear), the timing and support were not. After some initial success (grossing $8 million in its first year of production, and boosting Smith Engineering into a million-dollar operation), and an initial release of seven cartridges (including Block Buster, which came with the unit), Milton Bradley rolled out just two new cartridges in 1980, and a final two in 1981. With a small library, no tie in to a home unit, and a screen resolution that provided little ability to produce meaningful graphics, Microvision soon became little more than a memory. [end of included FAQ material]
The Microvision's main unit was just an LCD display, a paddle controller, and a membrane keypad. Each cartridge contained the program ROM as well as the microprocessor, all on the same chip!
Dennis Brown, dgbrown (at) pixesthesia (dot) com, creator and maintainer. E-Mail me with corrections and additions. All contents copyright 2006, Dennis Brown. All trademarks are properties of their respective companies.
