The Watara Supervision, also known as the QuickShot Supervision in the
UK, is a monochrome
handheld game console, originating from
Asia, and introduced in 1992 as a cut-price competitor for
Nintendo
is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles.
Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produce ...
's
Game Boy.
It came packaged with a game called ''Crystball'', which is similar to ''
Breakout''. One unique feature of the Supervision was that it could be linked up to a television via a link cable. Games played in this way would display in four colors, much like Nintendo's
Super Game Boy add-on for the
SNES.
A full color TV link was also in the works, but because of the Supervision's failure to make a major impression among gamers it was cancelled, along with the games which were in development for it.
Though the machine garnered some attention at launch (mainly due to the low price for the machine and its games, which many felt might enable it to make inroads into Nintendo's market share) it was ultimately unsuccessful in unseating the Game Boy from its position as the world's most popular handheld. Reasons commonly cited are the poor quality screen which was prone to blurring and made following the action difficult, a general lack of games and the simplistic nature of those that were released.
Yet another problem was that most of the games that were available were developed in
Taiwan or
Hong Kong, meaning that fans of big-name Western and Japanese developers were underwhelmed by the apparent lack of support from these companies. Only a tiny handful of games were developed by third parties, including
Sachen and the British developer
B.I.T.S. Up against Nintendo's list of popular franchises (
Zelda,
Mario,
Metroid
is an action-adventure game franchise created by Nintendo. The player controls the bounty hunter Samus Aran, who protects the galaxy from Space Pirate (Metroid), Space Pirates and other malevolent forces and their attempts to harness the powe ...
) and those of its third parties (
Castlevania
''Castlevania'' (), known in Japan as is a gothic horror action-adventure video game series and media franchise about Dracula (Castlevania), Dracula, created and developed by Konami. It has been released on various platforms, from early system ...
,
Mega Man
''Mega Man'', known as in Japan, is a Japanese science fiction video game franchise created by Capcom, starring a series of robot characters each known by the moniker "Mega Man (character), Mega Man". Mega Man (video game), The original game w ...
) - all of which eventually surfaced on the Game Boy - the Supervision's games were of little interest to most.
Marketing
The Watara Supervision's main marketing point was its low price; the Supervision was US$49.95 in 1992
while the Game Boy was US$89.99. Games for the Supervision were also much cheaper than Game Boy games,
and advertisements emphasized this price difference, with one British ad for the Supervision calling it "the affordable hand-held games machine".
It was also bundled with headphones, batteries, and a ''
Breakout''
clone
Clone or Clones or Cloning or Cloned or The Clone may refer to:
Places
* Clones, County Fermanagh
* Clones, County Monaghan, a town in Ireland
Biology
* Clone (B-cell), a lymphocyte clone, the massive presence of which may indicate a pathologi ...
titled ''Crystball''.
To keep their costs down, Watara farmed out the international marketing and distribution to third parties leading to various versions including the QuickShot Supervision, Travell Mate, Hartung SV-100, and
Electrolab in
Argentina, under two different models: the Supervision (in a form factor resembling
Nintendo
is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles.
Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produce ...
's
Game Boy) and the Hipervision. In
Taiwan and
Hong Kong, it was released as the 泰可BOY (Tiger Boy).
The QuickShot version differed from the original Watara format by having the console body split into two parts enabling the screen to be tilted in relation to the control section.
This version was also the initial release in North America, although without the QuickShot branding.
In the mid 1990s, the Supervision was once offered as a final prize on the television game show ''
Legends of the Hidden Temple
''Legends of the Hidden Temple'' is an American action-adventure TV game show that broadcast from 1993 to 1995 on Nickelodeon. Created by David G. Stanley, Scott A. Stone, and Stephen Brown, the program features a fictitious temple, "filled w ...
''
(as well as ''
Masters of the Maze
''Masters of the Maze'' is a children's television game show that aired on the Family Channel from August 29, 1994 to September 15, 1995. After the last episode aired, the show went into reruns until September 22, 1996. The first season was hos ...
''). It was also offered as a prize on the premiere of the similarly short-lived ''
The New Price is Right'' in 1994.
![Watara Supervision](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/Watara_Supervision.jpg)
Quickshot's UK version of the Supervision was heavily featured for a time on
ITV
ITV or iTV may refer to:
ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of:
** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
's gaming show ''
Bad Influence!''
Presenter
Violet Berlin
Violet Berlin (born 2 January 1968) is a British television presenter, producer and script writer for films, games and immersive experiences, best known for her pioneering coverage of innovative technology and video games.
Career
Berlin first ...
could be seen playing a Supervision in many of the show's publicity photos.
History
A prototype of the Supervision was exhibited at the Winter
Consumer Electronics Show
CES (; formerly an initialism for Consumer Electronics Show) is an annual trade show organized by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA). Held in January at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Winchester, Nevada, United States, the event typi ...
in 1992.
The Supervision was released before Christmas 1992 with eighteen launch titles,
and it was advertised that fifty games were released by November 1992.
The Supervision's game library was criticized for being 'too simplistic' compared to that of other consoles, which outweighed the value of their budget price, which ranged from US$8.95. to US$14.95 per game.
One critic from ''
Electronic Games'' said in respect to the Supervision that "it is still possible to be disappointed in a game that costs under fifteen dollars".
Soon after the Supervision's release, the Game Boy Basic packaging option was announced, which made the Game Boy more affordable, costing only ten dollars more than the Supervision; this undermined the Supervision's 'budget' marketing strategy.
Similar to the functionality of the
Super Game Boy, the Supervision can be connected to a television to allow for a larger screen to play on.
A
peripheral
A peripheral or peripheral device is an auxiliary device used to put information into and get information out of a computer. The term ''peripheral device'' refers to all hardware components that are attached to a computer and are controlled by the ...
that would add color support to games was planned for release in the latter half of 1993, but was never released.
The Supervision was distributed in the US by Goldnation,
and in France by AudioSonic.
More third-party games were planned for release for the system in 1993 but never materialized, including movie licences such as ''
Rambo'' and ''
Terminator''.
Technical specifications
*
CPU
A central processing unit (CPU), also called a central processor, main processor or just processor, is the electronic circuitry that executes instructions comprising a computer program. The CPU performs basic arithmetic, logic, controlling, and ...
: 8-bit
65C02 processor, running at 4 MHz
*Screen: 61 mm × 61 mm (2.37 inches × 2.37 inches), 160 × 160
pixels, 4 greys
LCD
A liquid-crystal display (LCD) is a flat-panel display or other electronically modulated optical device that uses the light-modulating properties of liquid crystals combined with polarizers. Liquid crystals do not emit light directly but in ...
.
There was no hardware video acceleration, graphics had to be drawn by software to a
framebuffer.
*Sound: 2 Tonal and 1 Noise Channel plus additional audio DMA stereo output channel. Built-in speaker and headphone jack with stereo earphones included.
*Power: 4 × AA
batteries
Battery most often refers to:
* Electric battery, a device that provides electrical power
* Battery (crime), a crime involving unlawful physical contact
Battery may also refer to:
Energy source
*Automotive battery, a device to provide power t ...
or 6V AC/DC adapter
*Communication port: Two Player Link using
DE-9
The D-subminiature or D-sub is a common type of electrical connector. They are named for their characteristic D-shaped metal shield. When they were introduced, D-subs were among the smallest connectors used on computer systems.
Description, no ...
connector.
*Cartridge port
*Controls for 1 Player
*TV adapter (optional)
*Tiltable Screen (2 positions)
List of games
Main titles
Multi-game titles
* ''Block Buster/Cross High''
-in-1(1992)
* ''Hash Block/Eagle Plan''
-in-1(1992; developed by Bon Treasure)
* ''Hash Block/Jacky Lucky/Challenger Tank/Brain Power''
-in-1(1992)
Homebrew
As of 2020, the first aftermarket game Assembloids by PriorArt is available for the Supervision.
Preservation
Like many consoles, the Watara Supervision has lived on through
emulation (see
MESS
The mess (also called a mess deck aboard ships) is a designated area where military personnel socialize, eat and (in some cases) live. The term is also used to indicate the groups of military personnel who belong to separate messes, such as the o ...
).
Cowering's
Good Tools includes a tool called GoodSV, which catalogues 69 Supervision games as of version 3.27.
References
External links
Syd Bolton's "World's First Supervision Page"Supervision: handheld of the less fortunateWatara rewritable multigame cartridge
{{Handheld game consoles
Fourth-generation video game consoles
Handheld game consoles
Monochrome video game consoles
Products introduced in 1992
65xx-based video game consoles