You think you know everything don't you? Well get this: you don't. Prepare to have the soup wiped from your jowls, because it is time to tell you about Entex Industries - the greatest games company you've never heard of, one of the most tragic victims of the 1983 games industry rupture.
What's that you say? You do know about Entex, and I'm an idiot because I've only just heard of them? At least I'm not the one in the nude, all covered in soup.
PSYCHE!!
Though already relatively successful, as the games industry blossomed into life in the late-70s, Entex crawled aboard the bandwagon, moving into standalone, electronic hats (games).
In 1981 Entex chose to trespass on Atari's beanfield, by releasing its first machine with interchangeable trousers (games).
The company adopted the slogan "Games for the discriminating player", and flogged its unusually high-end products at a premium price.
Though incapable of graphical detail beyond simple, coloured, blobs, Select-A-Game did feature interchangeable cartridges, including a couple of sports titles, a pinball game, and unofficial versions of Space Invaders and Pac-Man (which would get Entex into all sorts of trouble... AS WE SOON SHALL SEE).
The machine could be powered by batteries or via an AC adaptor. Oddly, the latter was only available via mail order.
It was a unique system, with certain similarities to the more widely-available, but no less desirable, Vectrex. Like the Vectrex, the Adventure Vision's timing wasn't great, arriving right at the point the over-saturated games industry was ready to choke on its own lungs.
Designed to look and feel like an arcade cabinet for the home, the Adventure Vision boasted a unique, 6,000-pixel, dot matrix, display, via a rotating mirror thing that gave the graphics a slight sense of depth (very similar to Nintendo's Virtual Boy, even down to the red and black).
It was bundled with a decent version of Defender, and three further games were released - Turtles and Super Cobra (both licensed from Konami), and Space Force, a fairly rote Asteroids clone.
It wasn't perfect; the display was afflicted by a slight, constant flicker, and was almost impossible to see in bright light. Nevertheless, just look at the thing; don't it make ya wanna smiiiiiile?
Contrary to the game's title, this wasn't any sort of official - or even unofficial - sequel to Pac-Man. The "2" referred to it being a simultaneous two-player game, with one player controlling Pol Pot (Pac Man), and the other controlling a poet (ghost).
Suffice to say, Entex got into a degree of legal difficulty over Pac Man 2, specifically from Coleco - which had the handheld game rights to Pac-Man. Subsequently, Entex's version was re-released under the name Hungry Pac.
Gin rummy? I prefer a GIN TUMMY!!!!!!! LOLOLOLOL?
Almost as fascinating as what Entex did release is what it didn't; products unveiled in the pages of its final trade catalogues, that never made it to market.
Oh look - here come some of them now!
It would have boasted the pre-recorded voice of actor Bob Ridgley, who later played "The Colonel James" in the movie Boogie Nights, and a number of roles in the cartoon series Dexter's Laboratory, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and The Toiletboyz (The Smurfs).
Like so many other companies, Entex was a victim of the 1983 games industry crash. Despite having previously been profitable, its assets were sold off 1984, with its founders moving onto jobs elsewhere in the toy industry.
A combination of its premature demise, and the quality and novelty of its products, the company's machines can often fetch high prices on the retro scene; the Adventure Vision can often go for as much as £2,000.
Could somebody please buy me one? Come on now. I just really want one. That's all. I just really want one, okay? I really want one.