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Welcome back to the ValorosoIT channel, the channel dedicated to retrocomputers and vintage electronics. I'm at Varese Retrocomputing 2023 together with Andrea Contato, who brought here a series of objects that he will talk about. I'm also here to represent RetroEdicola Videoludica, a cultural association from Bergamo. Since we are from Bergamo, we brought with us some material produced in Bergamo between the end of the 70s and the beginning of the 80s, because not everyone knows that in Bergamo there was an industry that produced video games. It made consoles, exactly.
Italy, in its time, also had its own productions. Unfortunately now they do everything elsewhere... however, once upon a time, we also had production in Italy.
We produced them: there was this Cabel, which was based in Curno, in the province of Bergamo, which produced various consoles between approximately 1977 and 1983. Then, starting from '83, it disengaged, but produced seven different consoles, including models and revisions. 7 different consoles! You have some here, I see!
I only brought a few: we have the Lem 2000, we have the Universal Game Computer…
The LEM 2000 is from 1979, the Universal Game Computer is from 1982.
We have the Telegioca, which is from 1977. And we have the Sirius, which is a 1983 prototype that never went into production.
Then we have the intruder! We have the Mesaton, produced in Milan by Mesa2.
Is it always Italian? Yes, it's always Italian. Among other things, a very nice thing is that the Mesaton and the Universal Game Computer, despite their very different appearance, are the same on the inside. They have the same Philips technology. For example, this here is a video game, right?
Sure, it's a video game console. And here the various game ROMs are linked above. It's a cheap way to make cartridges. It is a very artisanal production. The founder of what would later become Mesa2 carried out this clandestine operation without the knowledge of his main financier: he also built the consoles in the back room, with the means at his disposal. However, he sold 1400 pieces. Not a few.
And so the various ROMs for the various games were inserted into this Textool socket and they could be started.
Exact. Then, however, two years later, with very different means, Cabel Electronic of Curno created more elegant cartridges, but inside the software is the same. But which consoles do those cartridges connect to?
On this one. They have a central compartment that is identical to this one.
I see you have some books here. Do you want to tell us a little about what you do besides collecting?
In addition to collecting, together with my friends at RetroEdicola Videoludica, I write.
Are these books written by you? This book that just came out. Since we were talking about Cabel, which is a company from Bergamo, it was important for me to write the history of this company. We created this book that deals with the entire epic. In essence, six years in the video game industry for an Italian company is not a short time. This is the Cabel epic, which ran from 1977 to 1982. It tells of the beginnings and then the decline. Cabel closed in 2001.
Ah, it lasted a long time!
Yes, the founder got old and retired from work, so the company closed. Once the video game adventure was over, they continued to make cathode ray tube televisions and monitors, but LCD displays ousted them from the market.
Something like this also happened to Mivar. Yes, the epilogue is the same and the years are more or less the same.
We also reprinted Cabel's 1982 Christmas catalogue. It's very 80s in terms of graphics, it's beautiful! Then I brought the first two volumes of the video game series, dedicated to the general history of video games. The first volume covers the origins up to 1979, while the second covers the period from 1980 to 1984. Three more volumes will follow, one per year. The first will be published this year, and the other two will be published in the following two years. Finally, my strong point is the biography of Richard Garriott, the creator of the Ultima series.
This? Yes, exactly, that.
The edition is in English and Italian. However, all my books are available on my official website: www.andreacontato.com.
Okay. Can I advertise progress? Done! Okay, you can!
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