The 1292 Advanced Programmable Video System is a second-generation home video game console released by Hong Kong company Radofin in 1979. It is part of a group of software-compatible consoles which include the Interton VC 4000 and the Voltmace Database. The 1392 Advanced Programmable Video System included its power pack inside the console instead of an exterior power pack.

Specifications

• CPU: 8-bit Signetics 2650AI at 0.887MHz

• Programmable video interface: Signetics 2636N at 3.58MHz. This chipset was less powerful than the later model Signetics 2637N used in the Arcadia 2001.

• Data Memory: 43bytes

Graphics

• Sprites: 4 single colour sprites (1 can be 8 colours)

• 1 score line displaying 4 BCD digits

• Background consisting of a series of alternating lines

Misc

• Games cartridges use a 2KB or 4KB ROM, with the exception of Chess II which uses a 6KB ROM.

• Very basic arcade machine sound

User programming

An expensive £49 (equivalent to £288.01 in 2025 pounds) Hobby Module was available which had a monitor program in 2K of ROM, and 2K of RAM (256 bytes of scratchpad RAM for the monitor and 1792 bytes of RAM for user programs). It had a 5-pin DIN socket to allow software to be saved to a cassette tape player. This converted the unit into halfway between a home computer and an ordinary gaming console.

The user was expected to write the programs in Signetics 2650 assembly language on paper, hand assemble each instruction, and then enter the resulting hexadecimal machine code a byte at a time.

Released versions

The console was produced by different companies and sold with different names. Although all variants have identical computational hardware, changes to the dimensions of the cartridge slot on some variants result in cartridges not always being interchangeable between systems. The following is a table of the console variants grouped by cartridge compatibility.

Games

Although, not much information is known about the release dates of the cartridges, the total number of the games should be 59 (33 games released by Radofin between 1977 and 1978, 19 games for the Interton VC 4000 and compatibles after 1978, and 7 more games released around 1980).

References

External links

• IGDB.com entry & 1292 APVS games list (With accurate explanation for misconception of the earlier 1976 release)

• SHAMELESSLIFE wordpress blog entry for details for 1292 APVS & Interton VC 4000

• Video Game Console Library entry for the 1292 APVS / VC 4000 family

• Arcade Italia entry for MAME compatibility

• Museo del Videojuego Radofin 1292 and 1392 information and game list in Spanish