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Entex Select-A-Game

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Entex Select-A-Game
ManufacturerEntex Industries
TypeVideo game console
GenerationSecond generation
Release date1981; 43 years ago (1981)
SuccessorEntex Adventure Vision

The Entex Select-a-game is a handheld game system released in 1981 by Entex Industries. Entex released six games for the device before they dropped support in 1982 in favor of the Entex Adventure Vision.

Hardware

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The Select-a-Game uses a 7 x 16 vacuum fluorescent display (VFD) array of large dots as the main display.[1] It can display two colors, red and blue. These are combined with static overlays for each game. Together they make up the display. The system is basically a display and controller for the games with no built-in processor power. Each game cartridge contains a microprocessor programmed with the appropriate game code in it. In this respect, it is very similar to the concept of Milton Bradley's Microvision system released a few years earlier.

The system can be powered by four C batteries, or by an external A/C power supply. The power supply was only available by mail-order.

Games

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The games released for the system are:

Space Invader 2 came with the system. In late 1981, Entex was sued by Coleco, which held the licensing rights to handheld versions of Pac-Man at the time, for copyright infringement over their upcoming release of Pacman 2. The game was pulled shortly after release as part of the settlement. Because of this, Pacman 2 is the rarest game released for the system. The game cartridges play very similar to their hand held counterparts (Entex made quite a few hand held games such as Space Invader 2, Basketball 3, Pacman 2, etc.).

References

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  1. ^ "10 Classic Portable Games of the 1980s". PCMAG. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
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