Vintage Consoles: Color TV-Game

The Color TV-Game series of consoles was the first hardware produced by Nintendo.

There was 5 iterations released between 1977 & 1980 exclusively in Japan. Each console had one game with each game having different ways to play.

The first version, the Color TV-Game 6 was a Pong clone called Light Tennis with 6 game modes ranging from standard tennis to a mode where you have to avoid obstacles with the ball.

The second version, the Color TV-Game 15 was again Light Tennis but with 15 game modes over its predecessor’s 6. This second version now had detachable wired controllers.

The third Color TV-Game, the Racing 112 featured a steering wheel and gearstick attached to the console and was a top down racing game where the player had to avoid oncoming traffic. https://i.imgur.com/YYCYGIe.jpg

The next system was the Color TV-Game Block Kuzushi. The game was developed by Shigeru Miyamoto and is a home console version of Breakout. The Color TV-Game Block Kuzushi is notable as being the first hardware to be produced solely by Nintendo. The Game 6 & 15 were co-developed with help from Mitsubishi.

Finally Nintendo released the Comluter TV Game in 1980 which was the home version of Computer Othello which was the first video game developed by Nintendo for arcades.

In total more than 3 million of the various iterations were sold and are the best selling first generation home consoles. Nintendo would take what they learned from these consoles and go on to release the Family Computer in Japan in 1983 which those of us in the west know as the Nintendo Entertainment System.