The Entex Select-a-game is a handheld game system

Handheld game console

A handheld game console is a lightweight, portable electronic device with a built-in screen, game controls and speakers. Handheld game consoles are run on machines of small size allowing people to carry them and play them at any time or place...

 released in 1981

1981 in video gaming

-Events:* November -** The British video game magazine Computer and Video Games starts.** Game & Watch - released in Sweden.* Arnie Katz and Bill Kunkel found Electronic Games, the first magazine on video games and generally recognized as the beginning of video game journalism.-Notable releases:*...

 by Entex Industries

Entex Industries

Entex Industries, Inc. was a toy and electronic game manufacturer based in Compton, California. The company was active during the 1970s and 1980s.-Background:...

. Entex released six games for the system before they dropped support in 1982 in favor of the Entex Adventure Vision

Entex Adventure Vision

The Adventure Vision is a self-contained cartridge-based video game console released by Entex Industries in 1982. The Adventure Vision was Entex's second generation system...

.

Hardware

The Select-a-Game used a 7 x 16 vacuum fluorescent display

Vacuum fluorescent display

A vacuum fluorescent display is a display device used commonly on consumer-electronics equipment such as video cassette recorders, car radios, and microwave ovens. Invented in Japan in 1967, the displays became common on calculators and other consumer electronics devices...

 (VFD) array of large dots as the main display. It could display two colors, red and blue. These were combined with static overlays for each game. Together they made the display. The system was basically a display and controller for the games with no built-in processor

Microprocessor

A microprocessor incorporates the functions of a computer's central processing unit on a single integrated circuit, or at most a few integrated circuits. It is a multipurpose, programmable device that accepts digital data as input, processes it according to instructions stored in its memory, and...

 power. Each game cartridge contained a microprocessor programmed with the appropriate game code in it. In this respect, it was very similar to the concept of Milton Bradley

Milton Bradley

Milton Bradley , an American game pioneer, was credited by many with launching the board game industry in North America with Milton Bradley Company....

's Microvision

Microvision

The Microvision was the very first handheld game console that used interchangeable cartridges. It was released by the Milton Bradley Company in November . The Microvision was designed by Jay Smith, the engineer who would later design the Vectrex gaming console...

 system released a few years earlier.

The system could be powered by 4 C batteries

Battery (electricity)

An electrical battery is one or more electrochemical cells that convert stored chemical energy into electrical energy. Since the invention of the first battery in 1800 by Alessandro Volta and especially since the technically improved Daniell cell in 1836, batteries have become a common power...

, or by an external A/C power supply. The power supply was only available by mail-order, and as such is exceptionally hard to find today (but a common universal A/C adapter will work with the system).

Games

The games released for the system were:

• Space Invaders 2
• Basketball 3
• Football 4
• Pinball
• Baseball 4
• Pac-Man 2
  Pac-Man
  is an arcade game developed by Namco and licensed for distribution in the United States by Midway, first released in Japan on May 22, 1980. Immensely popular from its original release to the present day, Pac-Man is considered one of the classics of the medium, virtually synonymous with video games,...
  
  
• Battleship
  Battleship (game)
  The game Battleship is a guessing game played by two people. It is known throughout the world as a pencil and paper game which predates World War I. It was published by Milton Bradley Company in 1931 as the pad-and-pencil game "Broadsides, the Game of Naval Strategy".-Description:The game is...
  
  (not released)
• Turtles (not released)

Space Invaders 2 came with the system. In late 1981, Entex was sued by Coleco

Coleco

Coleco is an American company founded in 1932 by Maurice Greenberg as "Connecticut Leather Company". It became a highly successful toy company in the 1980s, known for its mass-produced version of Cabbage Patch Kids dolls and its video game consoles, the Coleco Telstar and...

, which held the licensing rights to handheld versions of Pac-Man at the time, for copyright infringement over their upcoming release of Pac-Man 2. The game was pulled shortly after release as part of the settlement. Because of this, Pac-Man 2 is the rarest game released for the system. The game cartridges play very similar to their hand held counterparts (Entex made quite a few hand held games such as Space Invaders 2, Basketball 3, Pac-Man 2, etc.).