1982 · Entex · US · handheld
Entex Adventure Vision
A self-contained console with a spinning-mirror LED screen and exactly four games.
A curiosity Trivial to run ▶ Watch on YouTube ↗
Image: Rik1138 · CC BY-SA 4.0
Entex's 1982 tabletop oddity: a self-contained console with its own red-LED display, drawn one column at a time onto a spinning mirror so your eye assembled the whole picture. Clever, fragile, and released just as the market collapsed.
Only four cartridges were ever made — Defender, Super Cobra, Turtles and Space Force — which makes a complete set a collector's trophy today.
What it cost
only about 7% of a month’s pay in 1982 · about $260 today
| US launch list price ($79.99 with Defender) |
$79.99 (1982)
Mechanical spinning mirror raster display with 40 bright red LEDs. |
|---|---|
| Typical street price | — No verified mass-market street price recorded yet. |
| Units sold | ≈50,757 estimate Exactly 50,757 units manufactured by Entex. |
Why it mattered
It is a museum piece: an early attempt at a self-contained cartridge handheld with its own screen, years before Nintendo's Game & Watch found the formula that worked. Its failure maps a dead end on the road to the modern handheld.
Emulating it today
| Emulators | MAME (advision driver) |
|---|---|
| Setup effort | Trivial to run (0 on this site's scale) |
| Controls | A standard modern controller covers the ordinary controls, though unusual accessories may need custom mapping. |
| Runs on a handheld | Yes |
The emulator names above are starting points, not a promise that every title or accessory behaves identically. Computer platforms usually add model selection, disk handling and keyboard setup even when CPU emulation itself is mature.
Firmware
This system needs no firmware file. Install an emulator, open a game, and it runs.
How many files you need: none to go and find. No separate firmware file is needed for an ordinary setup.
Firmware details checked 2026-08. Emulator requirements change — see Libretro documentation for the current list.
Where the software is
Preservation catalogues describe verified dumps; they do not grant permission to download commercial software. A curated, correctly matched set is easier to use than an undifferentiated archive.
Copyright: Commercial software remains copyrighted unless its owner explicitly released or relicensed it. Homebrew, public-domain programs and current reissues should be treated separately from abandoned commercial titles.
This site names preservation projects and explains what they are. It does not link to ROM downloads.
Where to start
- Defender 1982 shooter
- Super Cobra 1982 shooter
- Turtles 1982 maze
- Space Force 1982 shooter
One of only four cartridges ever made for the machine.
The verdict
A curiosity worth ten minutes for the spinning-mirror display; there are only four games to see.
There is no library to speak of — emulate it to say you have, not to play.
- Worth it if
- Players curious about obscure handhelds and willing to learn how the original machine worked.
- Not for
- Anyone who wants a large, instantly accessible library and no model, firmware or control decisions.
Scored 2/5 for fun today and 3/5 for historical importance. Those two scores decide the label at the top — a machine can matter enormously and still be no fun.
Read more & watch
This page is 50% complete against the facts we try to record for every system. Gaps are shown as gaps.