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Action Max logo blue
"The first real action game system."

This is a very unique machine, the kind of crazy shit that could have happened only in the 1980s. You've heard of those LaserDisc-based consoles like the LaserActive and the Halcyon. Bah, who needs fancy schmancy LaserDiscs? You have a perfectly good VHS player already! It can do those interactive movies, except... well, a lot less interactive. It's no surprise that the Action Max was created by Worlds of Wonder, the toy company that made "Teddy Ruxpin" and "Lazer Tag". Its games, if you can even call them that, came in video tapes, and the only control system was a light gun (or two for multiplayer). The machine could detect if you hit the targets in the video, and that's it. There was no interaction other than counting your points. You couldn't really win or lose the game.

Only five tapes were released for it. A positive side of this system is that it's easy to get all the games, see the "list" below to know why.

The list[]

Box Art Title Genre Description
Action Max VHS Collection cover Action Max VHS Collection Lightgun What, just one item in the list? Yes, it is not likely to ever need more than this anyway: Good Deal Games put all the five Action Max tapes in a single DVD (which makes no difference for the system, its sensor simply detected the flashing signal on the screen). You can buy it pretty cheap here.
Third Generation
Consoles Action Max - Atari 7800 - Amstrad GX4000 - RDI Halcyon - View-Master Interactive Vision - Sega Master System - Nintendo Entertainment System - Casio PV-1000 - VTech Socrates - Epoch Super Cassete Vision
Computers Mattel Aquarius - Acorn Archimedes - Commodore 64 - Amstrad CPC - Fujitsu FM-7 - Apple Lisa - Apple Macintosh - Microsoft MS-DOS - ASCII MSX - ASCII MSX2 - IBM OS-2 - NEC PC-88 - NEC PC-98 - Amstrad PCW - Sinclair QL - Commodore VIC-20 - Sharp X1 - Sinclair ZX Spectrum