American Video Entertainment, formed in 1990, was an American publisher of unlicensed Nintendo Entertainment, releasing around 18 games between 1990 and 1992, plus a few that went unreleased. As if that wasn't quite an archievement, they are also known for their battles with Nintendo, like the 1991 antitrust lawsuit, seeking $105 millions in damages, even though they were likely to "only" suffer $35 million in damages, claiming that Nintendo tried to prevent unlicensed games from running on the Nintendo Entertainment System and thereby violated American law.

The lawsuit was settled some 3 years later under a "secrecy order", meaning we do not know the outcome of the lawsuit. Richard Frick did mention in an old NESWORLD interview that their chances of winning the lawsuit declined due to a number of factors, so the lawsuit most likely ended in Nintendo's favour.

American Video Entertainment also had plans to publish games for the SEGA Genesis, however as NES sales kept declining, nothing happened to that idea - and that brings us to the story of this article. Because in a last ditch effort, American Video Entertainment decided to release a NES Multicart with no less than 30 games on it, with a retail price of $149.95, called MaxiVision 30 in 1 and to be launched in June 1992.

American Video Entertainment put 30 games into the MaxiVision cartridge, which packs its multi-game fun into 24 megs. MaxiVision is due out in June. Twenty-five of the 30 games have been available in their own carts from Color Dreams, American Game Cartridges, and AVE. MaxiVision will cost $149.95. Again, AVE says price per game is where the value is. GamePro, May 1992

The company would go on to create an infomercial featuring wrestlers like Mr. Wonderful and Hulk Hogan. 6 teams would compete against each other in some of the games features on the 30 in 1 cartridge.

According to Phil Mikkelson, the infomercial only aired once and didn't sell any products. 

The following is my own take on what happened next as there is, as far as I know, no official word from American Video Entertainment on what happened. So the 30 in 1 did not sell, maybe the $149.95 price tag was just too steep for anyone to catch on that late in the NES's life. I believe American Video Entertainment simply decided to cut the number of games in half to reduce the cost, and the Maxi15 Game Cartridge "Volume 1" as we know it was born. Why do I think so? Well Richard Frick mentioned in the interview with NESWORLD back in the day that they had enough games to make a Volume 2.

Sure, American Video Entertainment did run into some licensing issues with 2 of the games on the Maxi15, Pyramid and DoubleStrike from Sachen, where they might have had some multicart licensing issues. To my knowledge they did not have any issues with the games licensed from Color Dreams and American Game Carts Inc. 

Revision A of the Maxi15, featuring 2 Sachen developed titles that would later be removed due to licensing issues.	Revision B of the Maxi15, Pyramid replaced by Blackjack (AVE) and DoubleStrike replaced by DeathRace (AGCI).

 So the cartridge exists in two variants in the US and even Australia saw a release of both variations by Home Entertainment Suppliers.

Unfortunately I have not been able to find the US retail price for the Maxi15, but a UK ad from the time had a retail price of £59.99 which would equal to about $85 (US) at the time.

As we know, Volume 2 never saw the light of day, it was just too late I guess. But back to the Infomercial and the 30 in 1. Oddly enough the Infomercial shows an advertisement for the 30 in 1 in a Tengen type cartridge shell, the games used on the show however would be using American Video Entertainment's own cartridge type. A total of 8 carts were shown at the infomercial, this could be the number of carts ever in existance while the Tengen one used was merely a mockup, but that's again just pure guessing from my side.

While at least one or two are in the hands of Richard Frick, one owned by Michael Elson (also featured in the Infomercial) the whereabouts of the remaining carts is unknown. With that said, at least one has surfaced. Way back in 2018 I received a few pictures from a user on facebook. His name is very unique and when I tried to contact him again, although a few years later, my messages went unanswered. So I have decided to remove his name, but will add it upon request from the owner of the cart.

So without futher ado... here's is the MaxiVision in all it's glory, and not just a screencap from the Infomercial.

The label art on the cartridge is really awesome and what a shame they were not able to tweak it a little so it would say 15 in 1 instead of the much impressive logo they went with. Next up let's have a look at the game menu.

Notice that the game was still in a prototype stage even when these competition carts were made. Slot 14, Menace Beach is still lacking details about the game. The list of games on the MaxiVision 30 in 1 is as follows:

F-15 City War
Puzzle
Tiles of Fate
Krazy Kreatures
Double Strike
Dudes With Attitude
Venice Beach Volleyball
Ultimate Soccer
Deathbots
Rad Racket Tennis
Mermaids of Atlantis
Wally Bear and the No! Gang
ShockWave
Pokeblock
Deathrace
Captain Comic
Robodemons
King Neptune's Adventure
P'radikus Conflict
Pesterminator
Castle of Deceit
Moon Ranger
Challenge of the Dragon
Solitaire
Secret Scout
Baby Boomer
Chiller
Dudes II

It's worth noting that most of the games removed were Color Dreams games, maybe to reduce the licensing cost for the Maxi15. Also Dudes II is actually the working title for Trolls on Treasure Island and Pokeblock was the original title for Stakk'M, which by the way never saw a release as a stand alone game.

The MaxiVision 30 in 1 would have been the ultimate cartridge for unlicensed games, if you don't count in Tengen. I have to be brutally honest and say that this has been my holy grail for years, but I never managed to track one down, and by now it's just too late.

It is also worth mentioning that the intro and menu, well the entire rom compile, was created by Odyssey Software, of Deathbots, Moon Ranger and last but not least, Cuestick fame.

Salute to American Video Entertainment for making collecting and the history of the Nintendo Entertainment System so much more fun, the same goes for all the other unlicensed companies that tried their luck on the NES. Yeah so most of the games weren't that great, but the history is just awesome, and I wish I would've/should've spent more time chasing the stories that may be long lost by now.

Thanks for reading and thanks to the guy who sent me the pictures of the MaxiVision 30 in 1, it's awesome to know that there is at least one floating around out there.

Again, thanks for reading :-)