Terebikko

Background

The Terebikko (てれびっこ) is an interactive VHS console game system released in Japan by Bandai in 1988, aimed at young children. It's form takes that of a telephone, with players interacting over the telephone-shaped microphone peripheral and pressing one of its 4 buttons during prompts. 8 licensed titles have been released for the system, including known franchises such as Super Mario World, Dragon Ball Z, Soreike! Anpanman, Sailor Moon, and Moomins. A clone of the console was manufactured by Mattel in 1989 as the See n' Say Video Phone with different games. Bandai discontinued the console in 1994, succeding it with the Playdia.

Logo (1988-1994)

Visuals: Over a gray background, two blue eye shapes fade in from the screen. The eyes blink before these move, as a mouth appears below. The face then zooms out to reveal the corporate character of the platform, in green and blue colors, having a TV-shaped face and a phone at the left side. The character taps its feet as the background turns into a yellow shade. The character bounces, as its phone flies away into the left. After a while the character notices the flying phone, looks at it and grabs it into its place. The character smiles back, as it moves away with its parts floating around quickly into the left. Sparkles appear in the right side, bringing the blue text "てれびっこ" (with the two dots of the び being green).

Technique: Cel animation.

Audio: A bunch of filtered high-pitched synth notes at the beginning, following a playful synthpop theme. Blings are heard when the sparkles appear, followed by a shining, echoing synth arpeggio.

Availability: Seen on the few titles released for the system after the calibration sequence. Finding physical VHSes of these games are rare however and should be mostly obtained as imports.