It's true! (Also, Acetronic/Radofin Video Games)

From: Alexios Chouchoulas <alexios_at_vennea.demon.co.uk>
Date: Sun Apr 6 18:32:27 1997

  Ok, I admit it. You really *can* find more stuff these few weeks. I went
to car boot sale today and got three machines (five, were I willing to shell
out for two C64Cs with a floppy drive and a PSU between them).

  I'm not the proud owner of a Spectrum 48k (at last!) in mint condition and
a Spectrum +2A in even better shape. I actually got the +2A at half the
price of the 48k -- 5 pounds for the +2A (around $7? Not sure) as opposed to
10 pounds for the 48k. There was another +2A for sale at the outrageous
price of 15 pounds (at least I *hope* I heard 15 -- at that noise level, it
could have been -gasp- 50).

  Anyway, enough about the Spectra (sic). :-)

  There's another find I might need a little help with. It's not strictly a
computer, it's a video game (Video Entertainment System, as it says on the
front panel). Specifically, an Acetronic MPU-1000. The PCB has a Radofin
label on it. There are two analog joysticks with two red fire buttons and a
12 button keypad each. They're connected to the unit with spiral cable (no
plugs). The controllers are designed to take overlays to give meaning to the
12 unmarked keys. I don't have any overlays, but there are four carts:
Invaders, cart #1 (Olympics -- actually a more or less standard set of
Pong-like games), cart #11 (Super Maze -- remember A-Maze-ing on the TI? It's
very similar. Analogue control of the players is quite tricky), and cart #13
(Circus -- I haven't figured this one out yet due to the erratic behaviour
of one of the controllers [read: vertical axis doesn't work properly, fire
button won't]). The cartridges claim to be "suitable for Acetronic, Radofin
1292 & Prinztronic microprocessor systems".

  Does anyone have any ideas about this? Is it common or uncommon? The name
Radofin was familiar, after a bit of research it turns out it's the company
that bought the rights to the Aquarius. Any technical information would be
welcome, since I can't identify either of the LSI ICs on the PCB (yes, two
of them).

  Oh, by the way, in the highly unlikely case this is amazingly rare and the
only one left on the planet (unlikely because at least another person on the
WWW has one, albeit an MPU-2000), I obtained this at the silly price of 2
UK pounds. The previous owners seemed a bit amazed at the fact that someone
might actually be *INTERESTED* in that piece of junk. Can't complain,
really. :-)


Thanks,
Alexios

--------------------------- ,o88,o888o,,o888o. -------------------------------
Alexios Chouchoulas '88 ,88' ,88' alexios_at_vennea.demon.co.uk
The Unpronouncable One ,o88oooo88ooooo88oo, axc_at_dcs.ed.ac.uk
Received on Sun Apr 06 1997 - 18:32:27 BST