The Gakken Compact Vision TV Boy is an oddball gaming console. If the Famicom and SG-1000 being released on the same day was an unfortunate coincidence for Sega, the release of the TV Boy must be classified as an embarrassing misstep for Gakken. It was released three months after the Famicom and carried none of the bells and whistles.

The form factor didn't do it any favors. It has a handlebar on the left-hand side, and a wide-handle style joystick on the right. It had two buttons and a power switch. Still, while it probably was on very few kids' Christmas wish lists in 1983, it has a unique charm to it in retrospect.

The system might have gained some traction were it released a year earlier, but this was definitely rooted in the "blips and beeps" era of game consoles, released after consoles started producing FM sound. For graphics, it had the Motorola 6847, as used in the NEC PC-6001 and Tandy Color Computer, and had a fixed video mode that could only display four colors (from a palette of 9) at one time.

Here it is playing Frogger, which I received when I bought the system. It uses the green/yellow/blue/red palette I strongly associate with PC-6001 games. For only being able to display over RF, it has quite a crisp, clear image.

The cartridges are wide and stubby, similar to the Famicom cartridges, but maybe 25% smaller overall. This is the most brutal version of Frogger I've ever played. The timing of the visual cues when jumping on the turtles is such that you can't always determine if they are the diving turtles or the regular ones that stay above water. And other versions give you a short warning before the turtles dive, but this one doesn't, just *clunk* they're gone and you're dead. But even worse, I thought I was dying randomly, but it turns out I was running out of time! They give you about half the time to get across compared to other versions of the game. It's quite hard!

The box has blemishes here and there, but for its age, it appears very well kept.