Interview: Insight on the Videopac from former Philips folks!

[ubersaurus]

I've had the chance to guest host the Retronauts podcast a few times over the past year, and this was one of my favorite ones to record. I had the opportunity to interview Oscar Groosman and Ton Kemmere, formerly of Philips, about selling the Videopac in non-US territories, the Europe-only pieces of hardware, etc. Hope it is as informative for ya'll as it was for me!

 

https://retronauts.com/article/2201/retronauts-episode-588-videopac-insiders

[TomBeck]

Thank you for the info from this wonderful podcast. I didn't understand everything with my school English, but what I did understand was very interesting.

 

I also have wonderful memories of my Videopac days. Philips here in Germany has done a fantastic job in my opinion. With the Commander Rom Club, stickers, posters, postcards and much more. 

I had a lot of contact with the club but also with Philips directly, who had always dealt with me in a very friendly way. It should not be forgotten that I was about 12 years old at the time when I drew her attention to the flashing dots falling on the lines at Videopac 38 (Munchkin). I was supposed to make a VHS recording of it and from then on we had a lot of correspondence. They sent me several new Videopac 38 cartridges for testing, but they all had the same error. As a result, they suspected a serial error and wanted to check the program code, because the behavior of the game could not be found in any documentation.

 

With this little story, I just wanted to show how kind a multimillion-dollar corporation was to a child. They wouldn't have been able to answer at all. Therefore, I have only wonderful memories of that time, which is also the reason that I am still a huge Videopac fan and slowly reach my limits with my collection. And this podcast was like a little time machine back there.
Thank you very much for that.