Germany-based Interton was originally a hearing aid manufacturer in the early 60’s, and still produces them even to this day. While it may sound odd that such a company would dabble with video games, in the early days of home console development, there were few industries up to the task of manufacturing such devices. While a great deal of early tech was
birthed from within the military, companies such as Fairchild Camera and Instrument and Emerson Radio also helped form the home console industry with systems such as the Channel F and the Arcadia 2001 respectively. This is well before the toy companies such as Mattel and Coleco joined into the fray.
Interton’s first consoles were released in 1976 and 1978, and both were dedicated PONG clone units branded the 3000 and 3001. Certainly nothing to get excited about. The Interton VC 4000, however, is an interesting little 8-bit system that had much more to offer. The VC 4000 was launched in 1978, but it was actually developed as early as 1974. This explains its ties to the 1292 APVS family, a group of programmable video game systems developed by a fellow German partner company by the name of Radofin. The systems had similar specs and might have
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Michael Thomasson is one of the most widely respected videogame historians in the field today. He currently teaches college level videogame history, design, and graphics courses. For television, Michael conducted research for MTV's videogame related program Video MODS. In print, he authored Downright Bizarre Games, and has contributed to nearly a dozen gaming texts. Michael’s historical columns have been distributed in newspapers and magazines worldwide. He has written business plans for several vendors and managed a dozen game-related retail stores spanning three decades. Michael consults for multiple video game and computer museums and has worked on nearly a hundred game titles on Atari, Coleco, Sega and other console platforms. In 2014, The Guinness Book of World Records declared that Thomasson had “The Largest Videogame Collection” in the world. His businesses sponsor gaming tradeshows and expos across the US and Canada. Visit www.GoodDealGames.com.
