Philips VG5000

The VG5000μ is a computer created by Philips in 1984. It was manufactured in Le Mans by Radiotechnique (RTS) and marketed under the Philips, Radiola and Schneider brands.

Not compatible with any other machines, it offered VG5000 BASIC (derived from Microsoft BASIC-80) as the operating system upon boot, with Logo available on cartridge.

Graphic ability was limited to a semigraphic symbol display, with the equivalent resolution of 320 x 250 pixels in 8 colors.

It had some hardware compatibility with the Philips VG 8000, such as power supply connectors, cassette player interface and cartridges.

History

Aimed at schools, it was unsuccessful and production ended in 1986. 300 000 units were sold in 1984 according to an internal Philips report, with 500 000 predicted for 1985. There are about forty games available for the system.

As of 2022, enthusiasts remain active in developing new homebrew software and emulators for the system.

Peripherals

Several peripherals were developed to support the VG5000μ operation:

• VY0030: cassette player
• VG5200: joystick interface
• VU0001: joystick (see Magnavox Odyssey 2)
• VU0011: RF modulator
• VU0022: power supply
• VG5216: 16KB RAM memory expansion with joystick and printer ports
• VU0031: 16KB RAM memory expansion
• VW0010: 40 column printer
• VW0020: 80 column printer
• VW0030: 80 column printer

Specifications

• Boot screen with VG5000 BASICZilog Z80A processor running at 4MHz
• RAM: 24KB, including 16KB of system memory (expandable to 48KB) and 8KB of dedicated memory for the video processor
• ROM: 18KB, including 16KB containing the VG5000 BASIC (derived from Microsoft BASIC-80) and 2KB of character bitmaps built into the video processor
• Video processor: SGS Thomson EF9345P
• Graphics: semigraphics based on 8 × 10 pixel characters (equivalent to 320 × 250 pixels) in 8 colors
• Sound: 1 voice, 5 octave range
• Keyboard: Built-in 63 keys AZERTY keyboard with BASIC keywords
• Ports: DIN5 cassette player connector (1200/2400 baud), DIN8 SCART connector
• Expansion: 2×25 pins bus connector

List of video games

There are 33 commercial video games for Philips VG5000.

External links