The Othello Multivision is a Japanese home console released by Tsukuda Original in July 1983. It is a Sega-licensed machine, hardware-compatible with the SG-1000: same Zilog Z80 processor, same Texas Instruments TMS9918A video chip and same cartridge slot.
Its peculiarity lies in its positioning: Tsukuda was a board game publisher, and the console was sold around the game of Othello — a reversi board built into the case, with a keypad of dedicated buttons rather than a plain joypad. Two models existed, the FG-1000 and then the FG-2000, the latter with a fuller keypad.
The machine's own catalogue is limited to a handful of Tsukuda titles, among them Othello, Guzzler and San-nin Mahjong, on top of the entire SG-1000 library, which runs directly. The console stayed confidential and Japan-only.
| Manufacturer | Tsukuda |
| Year | 1983 |
| Type | Console |
| Media | Cartridge |
| Controller | Mandatory |
Both cores are available on every board:
| Emulator | RPI3/RPI02W | RPI4/400 | RPI5/500 | OGA/OGS/RG351 | PC | RG353 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Libretro gearsystem | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Libretro bluemsx | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
gearsystem is the default emulator: it is the core specialized in Sega's 8-bit machines, and the only one of the two supporting CRT output. bluemsx comes second and emulates the wider Z80/TMS9918 family; it is the only one reading .omv files. Both cores are declared as high compatibility and high speed.
Netplay, softpatching and RetroAchievements are available on this system with neither core. A controller is mandatory; keyboard, mouse and light gun are not supported.
No BIOS is required for this system.
Put your games in:
/recalbox/share/roms/multivision/
Supported extensions per emulator:
| Emulator | Extensions |
|---|---|
| gearsystem | .mv .bin .sg .zip .7z |
| bluemsx | .mv .omv .zip .7z |
The .mv extension is the one used by Multivision dumps and works with both cores. SG-1000 games in .sg format are only read here by gearsystem: if a title refuses to start, switch emulator from the game menu, or put it in the SG-1000 system instead.
No game ships with Recalbox for this system: the folder is empty on first boot.