slydc

April 14, 2019

Hi Zack, same here! Oh and it's Sylvain but it's easier to write Sly (or say it..lol).

Exactly! By connecting the vertical ball with the vertical pot of player 2, this gives you a "robot" mode. But i must

apologize as i was wrong (well semi-wrong) as i tested this back in March 23, 2013 and not 3 years ago as i've

checked my notes this morning. The first test i've did was putting a jumper to connect the vertical ball with the vertical

pot of player 2. It works but... when player 1 hits the ball, player 2 (now robot) jumps instantly to the position of the ball

and you have 2 blind spots (upper screen and bottom screen) that the robot doesn't go.

This was my first try and after a couple more tries, finally got the robot to scroll very smoothly (and not jumping) and

has very small blind spots by the next day. After that, connected player 1 the same way for player 2 (robot) and

seeing the Odyssey play versus itself was pretty cool!

Oh and for future projects, you should take one of the pins of J2 (cart port) that not in use and ground it has the

team at Magnavox back then forgot to ground the cartridge port, so if you need a ground you either take if from

the ACC port (pin#4) or from the AC adaptor input. Talked about this with Mr.Baer (before he departed) and he

too agreed that this makes sense.

So take pin#1 of the cartridge port as it is not connected in either BLAK and BK12 models and ground it.

This will be very helpful for future projects (and less fuss too).

April 14, 2019

Hi again Mr.Horton,

It's been quite a while we haven't spoken (err..written). The last time, you were asking about scans and the source code

of the OdySim. I'm glad that someone else is also trying to preserve the Magnavox Odyssey and like Chris, i would also

be interested in a copy of your 3 games and controllers.

For those who doesn't know, card #8 and the unreleased #11 are almost the same, the only difference between the two

is that the width of the wall in card #11 is half compared to card #8. So if your Odyssey is opened, plug in card #8 and

after variate the pot R17 (Wall Width) on the Wall Generator board, you can resize the width of the wall as you like (very

thin to very large).

And if anyone wants to play versus the game console (vs AI or Robot, etc...), you only need one..yes, ONE jumper to

be able to play vs the Odyssey itself (i implanted the AI on the OdySim in the same manner for the "jumper"). But when

playing vs the game console, it is unbeatable (it follows the ball like a cat with a laser pointer...lol!). Discovered that

option while toying around on a real Odyssey three years ago.

So if the price is good, sign me up for the 3 games and accessories!

April 5, 2019

Hi Shawn,

I would love to help out but i have sold my Kid Vid lot a few years ago to a fellow game collector. The dumps of the tapes

that are available are made and modified for the Z26 emulator so these won't work on the real Kid Vid tape deck.

I did dumps of these tape so long ago that i don't think i still have them (multiple hard disk crash over the years) and sadly,

i have never had the chance to try out any tape decks if they could be compatible or not.

The only thing that was preserved from my Kid Vid lot are the scans of the manuals in PDF format, which if i would still

have them, i would rescan them to 600dpi for better preservation.

And lastly, the schematic of the Kid Vid cable i did is good since i have made a replica for Sandy Huner back then in 2001.

But, you still can play the Smurfs Save the Day cartridge without the Kid Vid as someone documented how to play

all three games by flipping certain switches on a 2600 system.

Sorry if i can't be more helpful than that.

March 30, 2019

The Tele-Games Pong unit you have is one of the first ever model, as it has silver borders and then decided to scrap that for production costs and

how to tell if you have an early version ? very simple, the On/Off switch has it has "Atari" written on it and Sears didn't liked that so they just taken

off the plastic cover switch for another production cost.

So any "Atari" on/off button are from the first batches produced. And as for the carrying/traveling case, this one was made by an "unknown as yet"

third-party as it wasn't officially sold by Sears and Atari. Same thing as a carrying/travelling case for the Atari 2600 and the carrying case for the

Magnavox Odyssey (1). Robotkingnes (aka magnavoxodysseyspecialist on Ebay) had a carrying case and a Sears Tele-Games Pong with the

"Atari on/off switch" (back in May 13, 2010) and the serial number was 59423.

S hats off to you John, you just brought one of the earliest Tele-Games Pong model (as it has a silver lining) !

March 10, 2019

Found these two documents while at Hagley today looking through the Richard Peterson papers. Looks like theyre game development papers for two unreleased Studio III games, but thats all I got. Neither seems to be on any tapes so it seems possible that they just never got started.

Cool find ubersaurus!

The Blockout game exists for the Chip8 and Chip8X

The picture is from the Emma02 web site (https://www.emma02.hobby-site.com/vip.html)

Hope Marcel won't mind!

But as for the Soccer game, never saw it on Chip8. This game must be quite slow if there is two

teams of 11 players on screen but would have been a great game to had (or have ?! ... if any

homebrewer is up to it =) ).

March 10, 2019

All the European & Australian clones were made by Conic, but a casing can and/or could have been made by a different company.

A good example would be the Academy Apollo 80 which is more "square" than the Conic M1200. Maybe it was Conic who have the casing

as per asked specific...for that who knows...?!

The Conic M1200, Mustand 9016, Sheen M1200 and Trevi M1200 have the same casing. The Hanimex and the Soundic have both the same

casing BUT have have a slight difference with the boards, the Soundic has the built-in games but the Hanimex version doesn't have the built-in

game, that's why it came with the "Grand Pack" cartridge.

And finally, the Toshiba Visicom COM-100 is a unique clone and the RCA Studio II of course!

But did you know that there is 3 prototype Studio II/III clones ?

First the Victory-III prototype featured in Creative Computing Sept/Oct 1978 issue (page 39):

https://archive.org/details/CreativeComputingbetterScan197809/page/n39

Second, the RCA Video-Mate Electronic TV Games:

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/209519-rca-studio-ii-gold-mine-an-interview-with-the-studio-2-production-manager/page-47?do=findComment&comment=3872331

And third, the Toshiba prototype:

See the weird triangle thing in the down-left corner ? Wait, here's a zoom-in:

Well this prototype has a CDP1802 cpu and play the game Bowling so pretty sure that

the prototype of the Toshiba Visicom.

I don't remember where the hell i've got those two pictures (comes from a Japanese magazine)

and that prototype was shown at the 1976 electronic show (in Tokyo ?).

The only mention of this prototype on the web is here: http://www.ne.jp/asahi/cvs/odyssey/videogames/never/nrsystems.html

And beside the very (same) small picture, here's the translation:

Okura Shoji's video game (from the '76 electronics show)

* Perhaps this is a different version of RCA Studio II (see ⇒ Vidicon system section)

At that time, Okura Shoji was RCA 's Japan' s agency, and the installed CPU was the same.

So that's it for now...! =)

--- Sly DC ---

March 7, 2019

I never wondered what "MPT" stand for but now... (lol!)

Exact, the Conic or Sheen M1200 are identical except for the company name label. Conic made various OEM game console, especially Pong consoles.

I think they have made at least 15 different models back then. Not only Conic made OEM version, also Radofin, Sands, etc..(just to name a few) made

EOM version and sold them to other companies. Hence, that's why there's more than 1,000 Pong consoles worldwide and because of that, that gave the

first videogame crash (in 1977) and thanks to Fairchild, Atari, Bally and of course RCA, the crash hadn't much impact as the one in 1983 thanks to

"game cartridges".

BTW, Hanimex wasn't a a company that produced game consoles, but was in fact a videogame consoles distributor as Hanimex had a worldwide

distribution network for their well known cameras and accessories.

This was repeated with the Interton VC 4000 clones as those were made by Radofin, but that's another story as we are drifting off the main subject.

--- Sly DC ---

March 6, 2019

If you wanna see what the game console looks like (the Studio III prototype) which was shown at the CES, check post #283:

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/209519-rca-studio-ii-gold-mine-an-interview-with-the-studio-2-production-manager/page-12?do=findComment&comment=2738151

And you are absolutely right about Conic, it was them who made those European clones and they had at least two affiliates: Accurate Electronics

Ind. LTD (US division) and also Soundic, which the office of Soundic was in the same building as Conic! The address of Conic was:

12/F Conic Investment Building, 13 Hok Yuen Street, Hung Hom , Kowloon, Hong Kong

And as for Soundic:

Soundic Electronics, Ltd. of Causeway Bay, Hong Kong.

11/F - Conic Investment Building,

13 Hok Yuen St.,

Kowloon, Hong Kong.

Raymond Ho, Director

(Only one floor below Conic!!)

And more info:

Soundic Electronics Ltd. (Hong Kong)

[Owned by Conic Investment Co.]

Started: July 2, 1975

Dissolved: October 5, 1990.

And the "Conic" trademark was owned by: Chee Yuen Industrial Co. Ltd., 36 Tai Yau St., San Po Kong Kowloon, Hong Kong

which was first used in Dec.31, 1974.

And finally, the picture of the building:

b96b5dc10ec323db0117cf0800058309-800_1.j

Picture from: https://www.hongkongoffices.com/en/conic_investment_building/1461/building_info

P.S: I love the name of the ownership described on the web page ( Ownership: Big Landlord ....LOL!!!!)

January 18, 2019

You're welcome!

And yes for your question, you absolutely need to ground both signals (audio & video).

January 17, 2019

Hi there,

If you have some electronic know-how then you can download or read the Odyssey 4000 service manual here: https://archive.org/download/MagnavoxOdyssey/Magnavox%20Odyssey%204000%20Service%20Manual.pdf

Or simply, connect on IC2 pin#5 for Video output and connect on IC1 pin#13 for Audio output. Voila! Simple as that.

And to anyone reading this, i have uploaded many Magnavox Odyssey game manuals and service manuals

here: https://archive.org/download/MagnavoxOdyssey

January 11, 2019

It was very common back then. All Pongs I've seen had realistic or semi-realistic guns. At least the European ones... and the Soviet ones

Fun fact :

the Odyssey gun was made BEFORE the console, for an electronic target game.

Made by... Nintendo. Yep.

I agree with CatPix as many of Pong consoles had realistic/semi-realistic guns back then.

Also, some Coleco Telstar guns like the Telstar Ranger, Telstar Arcade, Telstar Gemini, etc...were made by Nintendo.

(source: Geek Vintage web site (http://www.geekvintage.com/coleco-telstar-arcade-hardware.php)

So this is weird...the very first Nintendo venture in video games were "guns" (ok..toy guns or light guns)

before themselves sold their own Pong consoles.

January 11, 2019

Never heard of an Odyssey clone. Plenty of Odyssey²clones tho.

Love that shade of blue, & it's still shaped like an old Pizza Hut building.

Mind if I copy a pic from your blog to this forum?

Well, there is a few clones of the Odyssey(1) like the Telematch de Panoramic, Kanal 34, etc...

Mium...(Pizza Hut)...you're making me hungry! LOL!!!

And no problem if you want to copy a picture, they all comes from Ricardo Saucedo.

January 1, 2019

Hifolks,

I know i don't post here quite often but since we are starting a New Year today, what about sharing information regarding an unknown (but will be now known as today) Magnavox Odyssey clone called the "Videojuel".

I won't copy and paste what i posted on my blog so here's the link to read about it:

https://odysim.blogspot.com/2019/01/happy-videojuelerr-new-year-everyone.html

And happy New Year everyone! =)

--- Sly DC ---

August 6, 2018

You forgot to mention how to access the Tennis game by pressing "SELECT".

Can anyone convert this CAS format into an ATR format ? (like Roger Rabbit would say: Ppppllleeaaasseee ?!)

August 3, 2018

Hi Mclaneinc,

Thanks for .xex game but i already got this one on my UNOcart. And yes, it is a very good

version of Pong which is quite close to the AY-3-8500-1 Tennis game.

And CharlieChaplin gave a link to a game called "Just Pong!" which is so close to the version

i'm looking for (Thanks for the link CharlieChaplin! ) and that Bocianu has a gitlab link: https://gitlab.com/bocianu/justpong

And see Just Pong! in action here:

August 3, 2018

Wow! Never thought that so many people would answer, let alone making research for the game and author.

Thanks a millions guys! =)

So all the links, hints and e-mails are dead ends ? Let's see if the author will answer back on Youtube one day

because his Pong game would be a great assets to the Atari 8-Bit archive.

And thanks you tane for the "Fronton" (aka Squash/Handball) game, i tried it and it's a very good game and

especially very smooth playing. Would be great to have it in ATR or XEX format.

August 1, 2018

Hi folks,

I've just stumbled upon this Youtube video:

and there was a link to download the game but the link doesn't work anymore

I've tried to search for it (even under rocks..lol) but alas this game is nowhere to be found,

so does anyone here has downloaded it before the link went to the twilight zone?

Thanks in advanced! =)

--- Sly DC ---

June 1, 2018

The Unisonic Champion 2711 is emulated in MAME for at least 2 years now and all the cartridges has been dumped.

You can read some informations here: https://discreteconsoles.blogspot.com/2016/06/unisonic-champion-2711.html

February 16, 2018

The game "Most Dangerous Game" does exist for the chip8, see here:

But it was done by Peter Maruhnic.

July 19, 2017

Picked up another cheap pong console at a thrift store yesterday:

This one is from the italian manufacturer RE-EL (Reggiana Elettronica), B&W, based on the AY-3-8500 and doesn't have the lightgun games. There are 3 option switches (angle, speed, bat size) plus power and reset. There's no "serve" button and the ball is always served automatically. The power supply is integrated in the console, so it takes 220V AC directly. There's no option for battery operation and the big compartement on the back is used to hold the controllers and cables when the console is not in use.

IMG_0156.JPG IMG_0159.JPG IMG_0163.JPG IMG_0158.JPG IMG_0160.JPG IMG_0161.JPG

I couldn't tune the channel (All I could get was a very distorted and rolling image, as if the sync signal was missing. So I tried the composite mod (without amplifier, this time I just picked the signals directly from the IC like suggested by slydc in post #4) and it worked, which indicates the problem was in the RF modulator circuit. The mod was very simple, as the 4 video outputs and sync were already connected together on the board and all I had to do was to isolate them from the following rf circuit by desoldering and lifting one lead of a resistor and solder the video cable there. Same for the audio (a cap was the component that I needed to disconnect in this case).

I then desoldered the rf cable and, since the case is almost empty, I secured it to one of the screw post with a zip-tie, so it won't get lost and it will be easy to revert the console in it's original condition if needed (I didn't drill or modified the case in any way). I also replaced the 470 uF cap in the power suply circuit and disassembled and cleaned the two paddle pots (they were so dirty that the games were totally unplayable).

Now it works like a charm!

Glad to see i could be of any help!

July 18, 2017

Don't want to burst your bubble but there is a minimum of 1,000 dedicated consoles & Pong consoles worldwide.

The only guy i know who has a bit more than 800 Pong consoles is Adrian Scheel and his web site (pong-picture-pages)

has been offline for quite a while.

July 18, 2017

I have the Coleco Telstar Colortron which uses the AY-3-8510-1 chip...the 16 pin one. Is this mod possible on this chip? If so what pins? I tried tracing the circuit back from the RF modulator, but I didn't get enough of a signal there to drive a TV...I didn't hook up the oscilloscope yet...if I do what should I look for as a video signal?

Hi youbecha,

Yes it is possible to mod this chip (same as the AY-3-8512-1) as i did it on my Telstar Colortron (i've made a video on Youtube:

) P.S.: It's just a video showing the games, no info on how to do a mod.

So to make a video output on this chip, you can use any of the circuits which "boost" the video signal BUT... you need to invert the video signal

to get a proper signal. Instead of getting the output from the "Emitter" of a transistor, take the output from the "Collector" as this inverts the signal.

You'll get a video signal but it will be a bit blurry as i still haven't "fine-tuned" or "tweaked" this mod. OH and you'll also need to take the signal directly

from pin #11 and unsolder or cut the parts (resistor & capacitor) before the circuit goes to the RF modulator, as these can generate noises or darken

the signal.

BTW, there is only three Pong consoles which have these special "16-pins" chips: The Coleco Telstar Colortron (AY-3-8510-1), the Coleco

Telstar Marksman and the Sears Gunsligner II (both uses the AY-3-8512-1).

And here's the pinout of the AY-3-8512-1 made by a Russian fellow:

July 11, 2017

Damn my %??&&*? computer!!! (Yes, it's a piece of junk)

I had a big text all typed then the computer froze and closed firefox, so all the text i've typed is gone.

But they say a picture is worth a thousand word, so here's 2,000 words...LOL!

Atari Tank I (was going to be sold by Sears):

https://ibb.co/nouw9a

And Atari Tank II:

https://ibb.co/m5ZA2v

And while at it, another 1,00 words:

https://ibb.co/iRva2v

And please no TANK very much!!

July 11, 2017

Hi again folks,

@Dastari Creel: Thanks! =) I hope that you have 20 years to spare to know everything about Gen 1 consoles because i've

been gathering information about the 1st Generation (Pong consoles, Pong systems, dedicated consoles, etc..) and i've still

have some unanswered questions. If you check on archive.org, there is a section called "Download Options" and you can

download in PDF or even in Torrent (as others formats).

@pboland: Flashback 7 years ago to this: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/168304-the-little-brother-of-the-intellivision-unisonic-champion-2711/

If anyone clicks on the link, i've wrote all the information i had about the Magnavox Odyssey 5000 back then and here's some new

information i've found in the last 7 years:

The Odyssey 5000 was previously called the Odyssey 4000! Really! But it's number model was BH7530 (the actual Odyssey 4000 released model

is BH7511) ans was to be sold under $100 in 1977. Check out "Video games" book by Len Buckwalter at page 140 as the games describes are

exactly the same games for the Odyssey 5000.

In the book "The Personnal Electronics Buyer's Guide" by Charles & Roger J. Sippl on page 84, it also mentions that the Odyssey 5000 had

4-players capability and finally in "Weekly Television digest with consumer electronics Vol.17 part 2 on page 31, it mentions that the Odyssey 5000

was FCC approved! So this proves that at least one prototype exists and i'm betting that the person who tested for FCC approval was an engineer

at Sanders Associates since M.Baer did see the game console on September 7-8 1977 (at Sanders of course).

For reading (or download) the book by Len Buckwalter, go here: https://archive.org/details/VideoGames_201704

and another great book that i was looking for the past 12 years and finally discovered last night(!) that it was scanned

on archive.org by the same guy, the book: Gametronics Proceedings: https://archive.org/details/GamtronicsProceedings

This is a must read folks! It has so many historical references and pictures. Same as the book by Len Buckwalter, this one

too is a must read if you wanna learn about the 1st Gen (and a bit of the 2nd Gen also).

@BassGuiteri: These old game consoles (100, 200, 400 and 500 - not the 300 since it has a dedicated AY-3-8500-1 chip)

can jitter, ball serve not functioning, etc...as the components are getting old but usually, a good cleaning corrects 75% of

most "bad behaviors".

And finally, just for fun, some people were looking for information regarding the Odyssey 5000 almost 10 years ago:

http://videopac.nl/forum/index.php?topic=361.0

July 10, 2017

I have all the Magnavox service manuals you're looking for as i have acquired them about 3 months ago. And as pboland mentioned, you can

get all the Magnavox service manuals in the book: "How to repair video games", like on Upay:

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/How-to-Repair-Video-Games-Goodman-/370276255664?hash=item56362f47b0:g:QOIAAMXQC-tTDVur

I will scan all the Magnavox service manuals soon and upload them on www.archive.org so that everyone can get a copy.

Both Odyssey 100 & 200 are combined in the same service manual as YF7010 (Ody100) and YF7015 (Ody200), after it is

the BG7500 (Ody300), BG7516 (Ody400), BG7520 (Ody500), BH7510 (Ody2000), BH7514 (Ody3000) and finally BH7511 (Ody4000).

As for the Odyssey 5000, I know a prototype exist as M.Baer saw it and tested it, which this console had a MM57106 plus a

Signetics MUGS-1 which had 2 games inside (Tank & Helicopter). But trying to find a schematic of the Odyssey 5000, i would say:

Good Luck! =)

I have the pinout of the MM57106 (MM57186 in Europe) somewhere in my personal notes, but for the MUGS-1...that's a mystery to all of us!

And if this interest anyone, i have a blog (http://discreteconsoles.blogspot.ca/) which features how to A/V mod a Odyssey 100/200/400/500.

And it's very, very easy to do!

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