The Ultimate Guide to Classic Game Consoles - Kevin Baker

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case, the shooting gallery pack with an electronic rifle and some additional games. Using the system is pretty basic. Stick an overlay onto your television screen to create an environment, pop in a cartridge and use the controllers to send your little square up and down or right and left. Some games used other accessories like fake money or dice to complete the ruse.

      Home Pong Revolution

      The Odyssey took years to create and even longer to reach the public market. Ralph Baer was one of the genius minds behind the console and oversaw it from it's final revisions in 1968 until it was finally picked up and distributed by Magnavox in 1972. Although coveted by youngsters across the country, the Odyssey was quite expensive, starting at $100 plus $25 if you wanted the rifle. Few households had the income to afford such luxuries. Also, due to some lacklustre marketing in Magnavox stores, sales were relatively low initially.

      7 – Ping-O-Tronic

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      Play-O-Tronic CC Image – Wikipedia – David Orban

      Developer: Seleco (Zanussi)

      Release Date: Ping-O-Tronic late 1974, Play-O-Tronic 1976

      Origin: Italy

      Initial Price: 28,800 Lira

      CPU: AY-3-8500

      Built-In Games: 3 initial games - Tennis, Squash & Attract. 6 games for the Play-O-Tronic

      Ping-O-Tronic

      It may surprise you that an Italian furniture company was responsible for the Ping-O-Tronic.

      Zanussi started their venture into producing this game system back in 1974 with the analogue version of Ping-O-Tronic. While the sales were good, the real breakthrough came a few years later when they released the follow-up, the Play-O-Tronic. Both versions are now considered video console classics sought by collectors around the world. The games consisted of:

      -Tennis

      -Squash

      -Solo & Attract/Automatic

      The Attract and Automatic versions do not require players. This is somewhat of a curiosity, but this feature did have a practical use as it was used by stores to show the game, without having to have employees play it.

      Play-O-Tronic

      The Ping-O-Tronic is one of those classic designs based on a more analogue type system than the computer models that came about later. The components consisted of around 50 transistors and three TTL chips. The graphic objects displayed on the screen, the paddles, ball and boundaries along with the sync signals were generated through the one-shots and flip flops of the transistor. The TTL chips essentially combined each signal so that the game could be played. This meant that the motion of the ball, movement of the paddles and the defections that occurred could be regulated.

      While there are nine reported models of the Ping-O-Tronic, all of them are grounded on the original design. While very little is known about the original model, it can be said that the follow-ups, particularly the PP-2 are only subtly different in their components.

      The paddles themselves could be adjusted for size from very small to very large and the box could easily store all the components. The later models of the Ping-O-Tronic included a variant known as the 'Gun-O-Tronic' which turned the game into a target shooter. The ball is larger when playing in 'gun' mode, but the overall concept is still the same.

      The differences between each of the systems can be rather hard to date unless you look at the electronics themselves. Each of the chips inside for example has its own printed codes that can be researched to find out in which units they were used, but even then the chips may have been older ones incorporated into newer models. The addition of the Gun-O-Tronic however does act as a separation point from the earlier models to the later ones that they developed.

      The Ping-O-Tronic and the Play-O-Tronic represent a unique time in the gaming market where even an Italian furniture company dared to enter this highly competitive fledgling industry and helped shape what was to come.

      8 – Coleco Telstar

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      Coleco Telstar CC Image – Wikipedia – Maddmaxstar

      Developer: Coleco

      Release Date: 1976

      Origin: U.S.A.

      Initial Price: $50

      CPU: GI AY-3-8500

      Built-In Games: 3

      When most gamers think of Coleco I am pretty sure that the majority will think of the ColecoVision. The more powerful rival to the Atari 2600 (which had a tremendous port of Donkey Kong by the way). Anyway, it may surprise you to know that before this happened Coleco actually released 14 home consoles in the late 1970s. Now these of course were really, I guess you could say 'Pong Clones', but each one did have a few little differences here and there. Here we are going to look at the various Coleco Telstar home consoles that were released.

      Telstar (1976)

      This first Coleco Telstar console boasted three Pong games. Tennis, Handball and Hockey, which were the games you could play using the console's built in paddle controllers.

      Telstar Classic (1976)

      The Coleco Telstar Classic was exactly the same console as the original Telstar, but with one difference. The actual console had a wooden finish to it.

      Telstar Deluxe: Video World Of Sports (1977)

      This console was virtually the same as the two released before it, but it was given a new cool name and the colour of the console was changed. The Telstar Deluxe was made for the Canadian market.

      Telstar Ranger (1977)

      Now this was something different. While the other three were all pretty much the same, the Coleco Telstar Ranger console really did kick things up a notch. It still included the other three pong games, but a fourth was added called Jai Alai (a weird game which sounds like it's from the Thai language, where you throw and catch a ball against a wall) That was not the main selling point however.

      The Telstar Ranger also included, separate from the console, paddle controllers, but the real big deal was the inclusion of a light gun. This added two more games to the console with skeet shooting and target shooting. The look of the console also changed as it now had a black and white casing.

      Telstar Alpha (1977)

      This one is a real classic and it sold in huge quantities. The main reason for this was because it was so cheap. This was a kind of budget model. It did have the four different pong variations like the Telstar Ranger had, but did away with the light gun and the detachable paddle controllers.

      Telstar Colormatic (1977)

      This was a more upmarket version of the Telstar Alpha. The Coleco Telstar Colormatic had detachable paddle controllers and now you could play the four pong variations in glorious colour.

      Telstar Regent (1977)

      Not much to say here as it's exactly the same as the Coleco Telstar Colormatic, but it no longer played in colour and the casing was a different colour as well.

      Telstar Combat (1977)

      This bad boy here is no pong clone console. Nope, this one lets you play tank games and it has a really cool controller that has two large joysticks for each player to control their tank. The console has four different variations of the tank game. The casing is really cool as it is green and has a nice military look to it.

      Telstar Sportsman (1978)

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