Saturday, April 15, 2017

Gaming Ads: ASG Technologies and Asmik Corporation of America

ASG Technologies appears to have made a single game accessory called the Video JukeBox (VJ) that according to Sega Retro was never released. I cannot locate any additional information on the company beyond the five ads I have for the VJ. There is a company by the same name that operates today but it is unrelated to this ASG. It's surprising it would advertise so heavily but then not release the accessory, though the same has happened for games and it does look like a somewhat useless device. Based on the ads it's easy to see that the VJ was to be similar to a music jukebox; users were to load the VJ with six cartridges that connect to the Sega Genesis via the accessory's cartridge. Up to six VJs would have been able to link together to allow up to 36 cartridges to be loaded at one time and ready to select from a menu. At $49.99 each I can't imagine anyone buying too many of these as the only benefit appears to be not having to stand up to swap games. One ad states that the VJ was planned for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and Atari (presumably the Jaguar).

Japan's Asmik Corporation was founded in 1985 and later opened a branch in the United States aptly named Asmik Corporation of America. Asmik was a publisher and distributor of games for nearly 20 years. Even if you've never played Asmik's games, if you played games in the late '80s/early '90s then you'll likely recognize its pink dragon mascot named Boomer. He appears alongside the Asmik logo on many game boxes and starred in his own game as well. In 1998 Asmik joined Ace Pictures to create Asmik Ace Entertainment and today the company is known as Asmik Ace, Inc. There is a mention of games on the Asmik Ace website but they appear to primarily be a distributor of films and home video now.

ASG Technologies albums: Facebook - Google Photos
Asmik Corporation of America albums: Facebook - Google Photos


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