Compact Vision TV Boy was released by Gakken in 1983 in Japan for ¥8,800. The console was a commercial failure, mostly because the timing of its release was very bad. Nintendo Famicom had been already released into the market for ¥15,000 and was way more advanced. In addition, Epoch that was competing with Cassette Vision in the market, having a price at ¥13,500, had already launched Cassette Vision Jr., lowering the cost at ¥5,000. So there was a low cost console already into the market with smaller price and more games in its library of games.
As stated above, the bad timing combined with the strange appearance of Compact Vision TV Boy led to low sales and made the console extremely rare. The appearance of Compact Vision TV Boy is also very peculiar. The main controller is located on the right with a T shape when the fire button is located at the left of the T controller and can be fired with the thumb of the right hand. On the left there is the start button, while the console has only two more buttons, a red pause button and a red power on/off switch.
There are only 6 games released for Compact Vision TV Boy, each one sold for ¥3,800. The console itself isn't provided with a CPU. However, each cartridge has its own CPU and RAM. The known games of Compact Vision TV Boy are the following:
