Archives for 2016

It was the 1980s, Dick Smith Electronics (DSE) stores were packed with people and stocked to the gills with an extensive range of components and electronic gadgets. We’re going back to a time when the brand’s adventure-seeking namesake was setting records with his helicopter, or pulling practical jokes on the nation with plans to bring icebergs to Sydney harbour. Video gaming hadn’t crashed yet, and during this time the home computer market was also starting to take root, with Commodore, Acorn, Apple and friends all competing for market share.

Due to the “off the shelf” nature of a lot of these early systems, you’d often see electronics manufacturers clone a popular system and release them under their own brand. DSE weren’t immune to this, ranging a number of rebadged or clone systems like the Dick Smith Cat (an Apple IIe clone), the System-80 (a Hong Kong made clone of the TRS System-80 Mark 1), or the VZ200 (VTech System 200), all sharing shelf space with juggernauts like the Commodore VIC-20. And beside them all was a system I never knew existed until recently: the Dick Smith Wizzard.

Released in 1982 for $295, the Wizzard was a rebadged version of VTech’s CreatiVision games system. At a glance the two integrated controllers and general design make it similar to Mattel’s Intellivision, which was still going strong at the time. One part joystick and one part keypad, the Wizzard’s two controllers fit neatly into recessed slots on top of the system when not in use. However a major difference is that when clipped in, the controllers form a fully-functioning QWERTY keyboard (although “functional” is debatable – the full-sized keyboard add-on was a must if you wanted to do any typing!). The unique controllers look great, but much like the Intellivision, the awkward shape and the ‘floating’ nature of the joystick make for a poor experience.

Even though it was predominantly cartridge-based, $89 would land you a tape drive add-on and was essential for any budding BASIC programmers who weren’t masochistic types that enjoyed re-typing their code each and every time! In addition to the tape drive, other add-ons included a 16KB RAM expansion and a serial/printer port adapter, but with VTech discontinuing the system around 1985, planned add-ons like the disk drive and modem never actually materialised.

Press Play On Tape!

Going under the covers, you’ll notice that the bulk of the components powering the Wizzard also drove a number of other popular computers and consoles of the time. In addition to 1KB of system RAM, processing duties are handled by the ubiquitous Rockwell 6502A running at 2Mhz, which is based on the same 6502 chip found inside the VIC-20, Apple II and BBC Micro! Video output is covered by another stalwart of the time, the Texas Instruments TMS9929, coupled with 16KB of video RAM. Found in systems like the Sega SC-3000, Colecovision and variants of the MSX, this chip enabled the Wizzard to push a respectable 32 sprites on screen at a maximum resolution of 256 x 192 pixels, all in 16 glorious colours (or 15 colours plus transparent if you want to get technical). For the sound and music, VTech chose a Texas Instruments SND76489 chip, which offers a fairly rudimentary 4 channels for software to play with, and whilst it’s no SID chip, it does the job.

The heart of a Wizzard

Another hardware oddity is the power supply. My first introduction to the Wizzard was a friend talking about how he was getting parts to rebuild a supply for this “Dick Smith thing”. The power supply is unlike any other system of the time, as it runs both 9v and 16v to the console! This means that if you break it or need to repair one, it’s going to make your life difficult – something to keep in mind if you want to hunt a system down!

Between the Wizzard, Atari 5200 and 7800, you’ve got obscure power supplies covered!

It’s only fair that given the Wizzard’s design influences the games library would also clone other popular arcade games of the time. All of the cartridge games were designed and developed in-house by VTech, although DSE did release a number of simple games of their own on cassette that required the BASIC interpreter to run. If you’re a completionist, then you’ll be happy to know that the Wizzard has only 16 cartridges in total – 14 games, a music maker and the BASIC interpreter.

The cartridges forgo complex art for a straightforward, but effective look

Retailing for $39.95 each, the line-up featured games like Crazy Chicky (Pac-man), Auto Chase (Rally X), Sonic Invaders (Space Invaders), Chopper Rescue (Zaxxon), Police Jump (Donkey Kong) and Locomotive (Burger Time). The quality varied, although most are still fairly serviceable versions of the games they’re based on. One difference worth mentioning is that several of the games (like Sonic Invaders and Crazy Chicky) actually feature cooperative multi-player modes, something Space Invaders and Pac-Man didn’t offer! Every game also came with game themed overlays for the joypads, which helped show which buttons on the joypad were required (and to drive collectors crazy in the hunt to find them!).

Mouse Puzzle challenges you to keep moving and avoid the cat. Easier said than done!

Cloning computers or games wasn’t without risk though, as sometimes the copy ended up being just a touch too close to the original for comfort. VTech discovered this with their release of Crazy Pucker, which features a round yellow blob travelling around a maze eating dots, avoiding ghosts and trying to do everything possible to avoid Namco’s attention. They failed. To avoid further legal issues, VTech would re-release the title as Crazy Chicky, turning the main character into a chicken who now laid eggs to fill the maze while avoiding the foxes trying to eat you.

Crazy Pucker on the left, Crazy Chicky on the right. Any similarities to Pac-Man are entirely intentional!

These days there’s a few ways to get your hands on a Wizzard, and none of which will get Luggage angry with you. Despite being a locally released system, they’re surprisingly uncommon to find for sale in decent condition with a working power supply (or at a reasonable price!). Games are a little more common, although tracking down both the cartridge, box, and overlays can prove to be a feat of magic in itself.

The overlays add flair, although aren’t essential

That leaves only one other option: emulation. If this interests you, I’d recommend spending some time looking at Luca Antignano’s excellent website CreatiVEmu, which is dedicated to all things CreatiVision (aka. The Wizzard). Luca has a wealth of information on the various versions of the CreatiVision, including emulators and everything else you’ll need to know to get running.

FunnyMu makes emulating the Wizzard easy, with plenty of built-in info for every game

As a Wise Man once said, “Do you not know that a man is not dead while his name is still spoken?”, and I’m a firm believer that this also applies to classic computers and consoles. The Wizzard stands as a unique and interesting piece of Australian video gaming history, and owning, emulating, or even just reading about it ensures the Wizzard’s legacy lives on.

Thanks for keeping it alive!

Police Jump is an enjoyable take on Donkey Kong

Adding 2 player co-op to the well known classic, Sonic Invader was the Wizzard’s pack-in game

Air/Sea Attack

Featuring a drain comparable to Pin·Bot, Astro Pinball has your silverball fix covered!

Two panels either side allow usage of the controllers while the keyboard is attached

The Wizzard’s voice

Additional images and higher quality versions of the images from this article can be found here.

Special thanks to Tim H. for helping with photos, and Damian A. for his loan of additional hardware.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Aaron Clement
Tassie based retro gaming guy. Father of 3 and married to the very tolerant Kellie Clement. Coffee powered!

Follow Aaron Clement on Twitter and Instagram