[Atari VCS marketing]

Hi Guys! Is there any specific literature concerned with Atari's advertising campaign (US and Europe) for the VCS from 1977 onwards?

[Albert - new colorful game for Atari]

Top notch msx and gfx ... and the game is finished

[Earliest Atari 400/800 ads?]

8 hours ago, hunmanik said:

These same ads had previously appeared on pp. 54-55 of Merchandising, vol. 4, no. 1, January 1979.

I found another early publication: Intelligent Machines Journal, Februar 7, 1979. It seems we see Atari 400 and 800 versions as presented on CES in January.

 

[Earliest Atari 400/800 ads?]

The FCC approval was in August.

[Earliest Atari 400/800 ads?]

While doing some research I stumbled across two ads for Atari 400 and 800 published in Interface Age ... from May (!) 1979. Although the design looks final there are some minor differences. Are there any older ads?

 

[Trying to make some PoKEY music!]

3 hours ago, VinsCool said:

 

 

Now, THAT I call a nice rendition! You are a genius. Big thumbs up!

[Images generated by RastaConverter]

10 hours ago, amarok said:

Parrot, 47 colors.

 

 

amarok_parrot.xex 22.15 kB · 10 downloads

Amazing! Perhaps you could change the background-color a bit?

[games that use data compression (before 2K)]

6 hours ago, xxl said:

what games released before 2000 used data compression?

 

1. Technus (PowerPacker)
2. Conan (RLE)

Not exactly a game but the Chaos system to be used with modified tape drives (up to 6000 Bit/s) uses compression.

[Last Pong Console(s)?]

On 11/25/2020 at 10:02 AM, slydc said:

What is the fun of revealing all the details, it is more fun to try to find the answer(s). I have read the book 4-5 years ago and

i surely don't remember all the pages by memory (especially at my age....LOL!!!!).

 

As for the book in Hong Kong, i will have to dig rrreeeaaalll dddeeeeeeppppp in my archives, somewhere between 10 to 15 years.

That....may take a while to find the details but one thing i remember is i found out about this book by searching Google Books.

[MINE-MINE-MINE!! Look what I got off eBay ;)]

13 hours ago, high voltage said:

 

That is what they do with these kind of games, and some idiot paid 114,000:

 

You should be careful with your harsh comments. The game under question is an extremely rare test marketing version.

 

Full story can be found at arstechnica website.

[Last Pong Console(s)?]

8 hours ago, slydc said:

"Pong et la Modialisation: L'Histoire économique des Consoles"

I own that book already (it's not that new). Do you have some page numbers at hand that confirm your claims?

 

What is the title of the other book you mentioned but could not get?

[Last Pong Console(s)?]

3 hours ago, slydc said:

All game consoles (Pong-type) manufactured in Hong Kong came out in 1977-1978 and they ended production by 1979/80

I have a pong console made in Hong Kong in my collection that was manufactured in 1976.

 

Also, what makes you sure that the production was ended in 1979/80?

[Last Pong Console(s)?]

Thanks! Wow, 1993. Creepy

[Last Pong Console(s)?]

14 hours ago, slydc said:

The last "Pong" to be released was in Russia called the "Лидер" (aka "Leader") in 1992! (No ?"@% joke!)

Very interesting. What makes you sure it's from 1992?

[Home Pong console before Atari's in 1975?]

On 4/22/2020 at 6:38 PM, Serguei2 said:

I thought Pong consoles were started after Atari released it in 1975 for home but it's seem someone released a home version in 1974?

Atari Home Pong was the first one with dedicated LSI-chip (LSI = 'large scale integration').

[Last Pong Console(s)?]

On 7/11/2020 at 7:19 PM, King Atari said:

Do you mean this rarity list here at Pong-Story,

There are some errors in that list, e.g. Interton Video 3000 was released in '76, Odyssee by ITT Schaub Lorenz was released in 1973.

[Images generated by RastaConverter]

On 10/20/2020 at 11:10 PM, amarok said:

Monarch butterfly, 68 colors.

 

 

amarok_butterfly.xex 21.93 kB · 21 downloads

Wow, outstanding! Thanks!

[Atari 8bit in China and/or Japan]

On 10/5/2020 at 5:00 PM, carlsson said:

Sorry for the extreme necrobump, but while browsing Japanese computer magazines, I found an advertisement for the Atari 400 (198,000 yen) and Atari 800 (298,000 yen) going back to April 1980!! I haven't really seen any older reference than so, and given the computers were released in the US in November 1979, I wouldn't expect them to reach Japan much sooner as well.

https://archive.org/details/Io19804/page/n37/mode/2up

That's indeed interesting news. Thanks for sharing!

[RIP Curt Vendel]

I am shocked! RIP, Curt. 

 

Anyone knows what happened?

[Felt like posting a random Pokey tune. might delete.]

I like both, composition and instrumentation. Thanks for the superb tune!

[Images generated by RastaConverter]

19 hours ago, drpeter said:

 Wow, that looks fantastic!

[MB Microvision - Intel 8021 inside?]

Update: The US patent No. 4,359,222 entitled "Hand-held electronic game playing device with replaceable cartridges" by Smith et. al. mentions the Intel 8021.

[MB Microvision - Intel 8021 inside?]

Thanks for the info. I found some hints: Sean Riddle claimed to have 8021-dumps of three different Microvision games. Best regards, Knurri

[MB Microvision - Intel 8021 inside?]

Hi! I stumbled across several websites and retro magazines with hardware specs of the Microvision handheld made by Milton Bradley. I tried to verify that there was indeed an Intel CPU, namely 8021, included in earlier versions of the handheld. But I couldn't find anything that proves the Intel version. Old magazine reports from 70s/80s, service manuals or even plain pics of a circuit board showing the Intel chip - nothing came up. Was there really such a version or is this just another urban legend? Any help appreciated! Best regards, Knurri

[Last Pong Console(s)?]

On 7/8/2020 at 2:49 AM, masschamber said:

the question is when did the ay-3-8500 stop being produced, also radio shack (and probably others) were producing pong electronic kits all the way into the early 2010s and I'm pretty sure some companies still make them, do those count?

I wrote the article about the AY-3-8500 in German Wikipedia (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/AY-3-8500) not so long ago. I was not able to find anything about the production stop of the chip - and I did a LOT of research.