Pour conclure, la Foire au Questions de l'ami Sylvain (sylvaindc@-antispam-videotron.ca) sur http://www.chez.com/slydc/ )
Version SV.02 - June 2001
O.K.,Here's the legal stuff: Copyright
(c)2000-2001, Sylvain De Chantal
All rights reserved. This document may be copied, in whole or in part, by any
means provided the copyright and contributors sections remain intact and no fee
is charged for the information. Contributors retain the copyright to their
individual contributions. The data contained here in is provided for
informational purposes only. No warranty is made with regards to the accuracy of
some informations.
Additional contributions IS welcome, please send additional informations, opinions, and comments to : mailto: "sylvaindc@videotron.ca"
Where to get this F.A.Q.:
Welcome to the Watara Supervision F.A.Q.
The Supervision was first sold in 1992. Trying to compete with the Game Boy by offering a very low price on the unit and games, they thought that they could had taken a piece of the market with their system. Similar to the Game Boy in hardware and design, it has some advantages: the screen has a better resolution and a bigger size, the console could be bent (well some Supervisions) to adjust the screen preventing unnecessary wrist torsion. It also has a better stereo sound using an extra DMA channel.
Very few people know that Watara made an agreement to be sponsored on the TV show "The Price Is Right" (Come on down! You're the next contestant to win a Supervision!! LOL!!), so that Watara could advertise their ads on national TV and giving away from time to time as prices. Unfortunately, trying to detrone the Game Boy (or the Game Gear too) was a dead end. Even with it's TV-Link and games that was available for very less than the others Hand-Held systems, it didn't cut it. It wasn't the lack of publicity nor the quality of the console that flopped the Supervision, it was their games of poor quality. There are a few that are "gems" but mostly, the games didn't come close to what was available on the market. The SuperVision includes one game (Crystball), 4 "AA" batteries, and small stereo headphones. The is also another packaging that exist, the box for the Watara is different (with brown background) and comes with the game "Classic Casino".
But not known to many of us collectors, the Supervision was available pretty much around the world. Here's a list of Supervision that were available around the world:
So for now, we have 11 variation of Supervision. Is there any more?
Other Note: I already posses six different Supervision: The Quickshot, The Videojet, the Audio Sonic GB-2000 model, the Hartung, the ?? Boy and the Magnum (all 3 colors). If anyone has any other Supervision i don't have, please e-mail me. Thanks!
| Name |
W/M/B |
Q |
Hartung |
A |
Vini |
| 2-In-1-A* | x | SV10024 | 31695 | ||
| 2-In-1-B* | SV10033 | 31694 | |||
| 4-in-1* | x | ||||
| Alien | 2109 | SV10010 | 31660 | ||
| B52 Battle | x | ||||
| Balloon Fight | 2147 | ||||
| Block Buster | x | SV10001 | 31656 | ||
| Brain Power | SV10023 | 31679 | |||
| Bubble World | 2162 | ||||
| Carrier | 2107 | x | SV10004 | 31658 | |
| Challenger Tank | 2115 | SV10013 | 31665 | ||
| Chimera | 2118 | x | SV10016 | 31667 | |
| Chinese Checkers | 2130 | x | SV10038 | ||
| Classic Casino | 2200 | ||||
| Climber | 2164 | ||||
| CrystBall | x | x | x | x | x |
| Dancing Block | x | x | SV10030 | 31683 | |
| Delta Hero | x | SV10040 | 31680 | ||
| Dream World | 2137 | ||||
| Eagle Plan | 2108 | SV10005 | 31659 | ||
| Earth Defender | 2134 | ||||
| Fatal Craft | x | x | 31681 | ||
| Final Combat | 2141 | SV10031 | 31684 | ||
| Galactic Crusader | 2129 | SV10029 | 31667 | ||
| Galaxy Fighter | 2187 | ||||
| Grand Prix | x | SV10021 | 31671 | ||
| Happy Pairs | 2142 | SV10035 | 31685 | ||
| Happy Race | 2127 | SV10027 | 31675 | ||
| Hash Block | 2101 | SV10002 | 31665 | ||
| Hero Hawk | x | ||||
| Hero Kid | x | SV10011 | 31662 | ||
| Honey Bee | x | SV10018 | 31670 | ||
| Jade Legend | 2191 | x | |||
| Jaguar Bomber | 2123 | SV10025 | 31673 | ||
| John Adventure | 2143 | SV10036 | 31686 | ||
| Journey To The West | 9601 | ||||
| Jugglers | 2163 | x | SV10043 | 31692 | |
| Kabi-Island | 2177 | ||||
| Kitchen War | 2170 | ||||
| Kung-Fu Street | x | ||||
| Linear Racing | 2112 | x | SV10007 | 31663 | |
| Ma Jong | 2116 | SV10012 | |||
| Magincross | 2154 | SV10039 | 31690 | ||
| Matta Blatta | 2125 | SV10020 | |||
| Olympic Trials | 2124 | SV10019 | 31672 | ||
| P-52 Sea Battle | 2106 | SV10006 | 31657 | ||
| Pac-Boy And Mouse | x | x | SV10008 | 31661 | |
| Pacific Battle | 2133 | ||||
| Penguin Hideout | x | SV10032 | 31687 | ||
| Police Bust | SV10014 | 31668 | |||
| PoPo Team | 2148 | SV10037 | 31690 | ||
| Pyramid | 2150 | ||||
| Recycle Design | 2138 | SV10041 | 31682 | ||
| Scaffolder | 2174 | ||||
| Soccer Champ | SV10034 | 31691 | |||
| Sonny X'Press | 2193 | ||||
| Space Fighter | 2120 | SV10017 | 31669 | ||
| Ss-Snake | 2114 | SV10009 | 31664 | ||
| Super Block | x | x | SV10022 | 31678 | |
| Super Kong | 2149 | SV10042 | 31689 | ||
| Super Pang | x | SV10028 | 31676 | ||
| Tasac 2010 | 2126 | x | SV10026 | 31674 | |
| Tennis Pro '92 | 2117 | x | SV10015 | 31666 | |
| Thunder Shooting | 2178 | ||||
| Treasure Hunter | 2165 | ||||
| Untouchable | 2171 | ||||
| USA Sea Battle | |||||
| Witty Kitty | 2166 |
* 2-in-1-A Games: Hash Block/Eagle Plan
* 2-in-1-B Games: Police Bust/Magincross
* 4-in-1 Games: Hash Block/Jacky Lucky/Challenger Tank/Brain Power
Well this won't be a big section since there's only two accessory that was made for the Supervision. The first one is called the "TV Link". This awesome device let's you play the Supervision on a TV !! It displays in color, well 4 color actually like the Super Game Boy and not full screen like some people think.
Also they was supposed to be released a Color-Link in full color but due to low rate sells of the Supervisions and carts, it was never released. Two games were in progress but also where never released:
Rambo and the Terminator.
The Second accessories in a Carrying case which a picture can be seen on the Web Site of Syd Bolton. The Carrying case is black with a yellow strap for carrying and a patch in similar leather with the name "Supervision" on it.
Yes, you are not dreaming. There is a Supervision emulator being done as you read this. It's still in a very early stage but be sure that it will eventually be available to test it out pretty soon (i hope!). In case that you are wondering what is the name or person(s) that is/are working on this emulator, many of you already knows the name of this legendary emulator: the Multi Emulator Super System or simply the M.E.S.S. (http://mess.emuverse.com/main.html).
Heres the work-in-progress (WIP) about the Supervision emulator part:
very preliminary support (plays Crystball and Delta Hero) with no sound support, no serial port, no tv adapter support, work stopped until more cartridges are available
Pinout of cartridge : mess/messroms/svision.txt
And here's some informations from the "messroms.txt" file: messroms.txt
svision.txt info for building an adapter for supervision cartridge to 27c4001 eprom pinout
Watara Supervision Cartridges
look into mess/messroms/svision.txt for building an adapter
Seems that they never included the text file that has the pinout for the adapter. I tried to e-mail PeT at this e-mail adress:mess@atanet.at
but my e-mail was sent back to me. So if anyone from the M.E.S.S. read
this FAQ, please contact me so i can add the informations so that some few folks aou there could aid you dumping some carts to get the emulator better developed.
Oh and please people, don't ask me or the guys of M.E.S.S. where to get some ROMS for playing with the emulator. I don't know (and them too)
where to get the ROMS and i don't have any. Don't be a freaking lamer and and start bitching about the emulator or the ROMS, just be patient like so many of us. If you can't wait playing some games, then get yourself the real thing, 'nuff said.
Some thinks that the Supervision is associated with the same company that made carts for the Atari 2600 in europe and some carts for the Nintendo Entertainment system. Well it's not true. Nintendo looking cart today called "Supervision" Entertainment Game Cartridge, are shaped exactly like a Nintendo NES cartridge. On the back is a list of 52 games that are on the cartridge. They are other Multi-Carts available by Supervision too.
Here's some few Service Centers adress which at the time, you could have send your Supervision for repairs. I don't think these adress are valid now these days but if one works, please let me know.
Electronics Netherland bv:
Tijnmuiden 15/17/19
1046 AK Amsterdam Sloterdijk
Tel: (020) 139960
SA Electronics Belgium NV:
Brixtonlaan 1H
1930 Zaventem
Tel: (2) 7208945
Audio Sonic France:
103/115, Rue Charles Michels
93200 St.Denis Cedex 1
Tel: (01) 42433622
I received an e-mail from "Matt Knudson" the 10th of march 2001. I replied to his e-mail but never got back a reply, pity since he could have some valuable informations. Check out the e-mail :
From: "Matt Knudson" <knudson98@???.com>
Subject: Supervision
Date: 10 march, 2001 00:04
I came across your Supervison site and was very impressed. I was a dealer of the Supervision (Watara Version) and games in the Salt Lake area for a couple years in the early 90's. I sold about 20 of the units to friends and family and about 50 games. I still have 2 units (1 stopped working for some unknown reason) and about a dozen games, some still sealed in original packaging. Let me know if you need any additional info on what I have.
Thanks,
Matt Knudson
801-xxx-xxxx
Damn....geeting the inside story from a dealer would have been great!
Well, if you Matt, ever read this FAQ, please contact me (if you're still out there of course!).
Here's a review by Ed Dille that was published in Electronic Games
Magazine in November 1993:
The Hall of Fame: East Meets East
SuperVision
Watary Industries Limited
Distributed in the U.S. by Goldnation
(U.S.A.), Inc.
Hong Kong has been a hotbed of electronic gaming activity since the early '80s, when this author first browsed the streets of Kowloon.
Although not as congested as Tokyo's Akihabra district, there had already developed a tremendous interest in video and computer based gaming. Unfortunately, due to inadequate trade and copyright law enforcement, Hong Kong's marketplace suffered from a maligned reputation
revolving around software piracy. As such, it is not surprising that it has taken almost ten years for companies such as Watary Industries to emerge in the Western marketplace in direct competition with one of the Japanese giants, Nintendo. However, Watary has a new flagship item, and it should make the competition with the "Big N" quite exciting for the next few months. The product is SuperVision, and it is targeted squarely at capturing the exiting Game Boy market.
SuperVision has a very slight technological edge over the Game Boy, but it does offer some unique design features. The first of these is a bendable midsection which allows the player to easily adjust the angle of the LCD screen. This feature offers two immediate advantages: the ability to eliminate glare without moving one's head at odd angles and the freedom to alter the balance point of the unit to make long play sessions less painful to the wrists. SuperVision also offers the largest display in the handheld market, eliminating the need for a follow-up attachment like the lighted magnifier utilized with Game Boy. Bravo to SuperVision for having the foresight to think of player eyesight. Another feature which will be appreciated by ergonomically concerned and point players alike is the design of the control buttons and rocker panel.
Both A & B buttons are 1.5 times the size of the Game Boy and slightly more separated, minimizing the chance of hitting the wrong one inadvertently in a moment of passion. The rocker panel is also larger and features raised knobs at the control points, ensuing more positive directional control.
The similarities between the units are actually greater than the differences like Game Boy, SuperVision offers a two player link for head-to-head competition as well as full stereo sound output. The latter has four tonal and one noise channel like Game Boy, but adds a separate channel for Audio DMA output. Both units use VLSI processors and 8-bit MPU video chip controllers.
SuperVision's controller is capable of 160 x 160 resolution versus 160 x 144 for the Game Boy, but the visual difference is negligible. Given the large degree of equivalency in terms of technology, one might reasonably ask why they should purchase SuperVision either in addition to or in lieu of Game Boy, which has an available library of 215 cartridges at the time of this writing. Watary has two strategies to address inherent consumer skepticism. The first of these involves unit pricing. SuperVision is currently being test marketed at $49.95 with one included game, Crystball (more on that later). Interestingly, Nintendo of America recently announced a new packaging option called the Game Boy Basic. Priced at $59.95, the package includes the base unit and batteries only. When questioned as to the timing of the announcement, Nintendo representatives denied that their marketing plan was influenced by the introduction of Supervision to the U.S. market. Individual Supervision games will be priced from $8.95 to $14.95. This pricing directly targets consumers who are irritated at spending $30 and up for individual games, many of which are mastered by their adept offspring in a week or less.
If you have a web page or site that talks about Supervision, please let me know so i can add you in the links, thanks!
Thanks and see you in
the next version !!!
Copyright(c)2000-2001, Sylvain De Chantal, "sylvaindc@videotron.ca"
Come visit the Supervision Museum: "http://slydc.20m.com/supervsn.htm"