APOLLO 2001 by Enterprex...Whats the history?

[The MilkMan]

I picked this little game up at the Goodwill for $1.99. Never heard of it, never seen it before, but it looked interesting, and the price was right. It's complete in the box: instructions, warranty card, styrofoam inserts to hold console in place...

 

It's kind cool. You have the option of pluging it in, or running off of batteries. The sound is produced from a squawking speaker built-in the console. And you hook it to the TV via an RF cable.

 

Yep, it's the typical pong format with your choice of 1)Single player 2)Tennis 3)Hockey 4)Handball or Squash..as it's described on the box.

 

Even these slider "paddles" were victim of the "jitters". But a quick shot of electric motor cleaner did the trick.

 

It even had the original price tag. From Richman Gordman at a whopping $29.99. Date on the box says '78.

 

Anyone have one of these? Rare? Common? Whats the story?

[surfnmadness]

Manufactured in 1977, 4 games, dedicated pong console.

 

I do not collect them so I do not have pricing on it's value.

[tkarner]

I had one. It was given to me by a neighbor when he upgraded to a

Sears 2600. As for value, no idea. But until now, it was the only one

that I've ever seen so it can't be too common. Its best feature is the

linear sliders to control the onscreen paddles. Makes much more sense

to me from an ergonomic standpoint. The onscreen paddles move

linearly so the input device should be linear too. When the slider is at the

top of its stroke, the paddle is at the top of the screen. Simple. Whoever

decided that linear onscreen movement should be directed with rotational

input? Sure it's more versatile because you can design games with

vertical and horizontal movement. But I'm talking about dedicated Pong

machines here, all they had was vertical movement. But what made it so

attractive to me is probably what killed its sales. The masses had

probably grown accustomed to rotating knobs instead of levers and

wondered "what's this?" when they saw this in stores.

[Ze_ro]

This really should be over in the "Pong, Etc." Forum.

 

--Zero