The Ultimate Guide to Classic Game Consoles. Kevin Baker
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Название: The Ultimate Guide to Classic Game Consoles
Автор: Kevin Baker
Издательство: Ingram
Жанр: Компьютерное Железо
isbn: 9781456617080
isbn:
Atari agreed to the terms even though they lacked the manufacturing power to do this. So they went out and bought a huge manufacturing plant to meet the huge demand. Atari were able to meet the demand that was set for them in time for the Christmas 1975 season.
The first units that came off the production line in 1975 were branded with the Sears Tele-Games logo. Atari would re-release the Sears Tele-Games system with their own branding on it, in 1976.
6 – Magnavox Odyssey
Magnavox Odyssey CC Image – Wikipedia – Evan-Amos
Developer: Magnavox
Release Date: 1972
Origin: U.S.A.
Initial Price: $99 USD
CPU: None
Games Released: 28
Oh the days of simple home gaming! Remember the original grey Nintendo with Duck Hunt and Mario? Or the even earlier Pong on Atari? Well, before Nintendo, before Atari, there was the first original home gaming console – the Magnavox Odyssey. This innovative ground-breaker was the first wide-scale commercial attempt at convincing the public to play games in the comfort of their own homes.
With twenty-eight different game cartridges released and a slew of colourful overlays for your television screen, the Odyssey was a huge step up in home entertainment. You could play tennis, hockey, football, and try skiing in the comfort of your own living room. There were also some more creative games like submarine, haunted house, and geography options. Today, we look back at this technology and see a blinking square going back and forth between two other squares; but in the 1970s, this was a huge advancement.
Overlays and Accessories
The equipment involved looks pretty basic - a large box that holds the system brains, two bulky hand controllers, an RF cable, a switch box and six cartridges. There were a number of different upgrades available as well, including a special carrying 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
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
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 СКАЧАТЬ