Last Pong Console(s)?

[King Atari]

Not that I ever didn't like 'em, but a recent re-invigoration of Pong console fervor on my part (finding a Wonder Wizard at a thrift store will do that to you) got me searching, reading, etc. etc. etc. A mention of the Bentley Compu-Vision and that inexplicably-late release date of 1983 perked my figurative ears up; any Pongs beyond 1977/1978 and/or that 1st video game crash seems somewhat 'late' to me, but one released in 1983? When the 2600, not to mention the 2600's competitors, along with its successor - and never mind the various home computers out there - had long made dedicated Pong consoles way, waaaaay obsolete? That's kinda mind blowing to me! (And that's not even taking into account the veritable quantum leap between Pong-era coin-ops and what was out there by '83!)

So, not counting newer "retro releases," just what could be considered the latest or last Pong console(s)? I'm coming from mainly a U.S. perspective here, but I'd certainly love to hear about examples from elsewhere in the world, too! A dig though OLD-COMPUTERS.COM brought up these two specimens: the aforementioned Bentley, and this DMS Telesports Mini, which also hails from 1983. I could have easily missed some others though; there's a lot to take in on that site! Are there any other Pong consoles from the same general time frame? (roughly, I don't know, 1980-1984, I guess? Or, dare I ask, beyond?!)

[+wongojack]

Cool topic.  I don't have any info for you, but I'm interested in the responses.

[King Atari]

20 hours ago, wongojack said:

Cool topic.  I don't have any info for you, but I'm interested in the responses.

It's funny; I'm pretty much always a sucker for late or otherwise "transitional" media releases. The 2600 games of the late-80s/early-90s, big time movies officially being released on VHS when that format was basically dead mainstream-wise in the mid-to-late-00s, stuff like that. And yet, I don't think I ever really thought about 'late' Pong consoles - not until I read about the 1983 Bentley here on these very forums the other day, that is. I guess I always just sort of figured they vaguely "stopped" around the time of the Channel F, RCA Studio II, and of course the 2600.

Edited July 7, 2020 by King Atari

[masschamber]

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?

[King Atari]

1 hour ago, 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?

Very interesting, thanks! Those kits sound cool, but maybe more like specialized, hobbyist-type things than what I was thinking of. While I know such kits were available even back in the day, I was thinking more along the lines of (ostensibly) mainstream console releases; ones with unique casings/branding/etc. that were pushed on consumers by whatever company was trying to cash in.

Good question about the AY-3-8500; I wonder if there was an overstock being liquidated or something, which is why there were Pong systems showing up as late as '83 - the chips could be had really cheap? I still have a hard time believing these consoles would be worth the effort, although the Bentley seems to be plentiful enough on eBay - I wouldn't be surprised if they were given away free with RVs or whatever like the ubiquitous Bentley portable black & white TVs were. (If your thrift shops are anything like mine, they're still relatively common.) Plus, I think I saw on some site somewhere while doing research that the Compu-Vision only sold for $25, though I have no idea if that's true.

Edited July 8, 2020 by King Atari

[Voxel]

I can try and answer your question for here in the UK, with regards to the Pong clones.

 

We did not have Atari to give us Pong and even when Atari left Pong (circa 1977) and pursued their VCS, we could not afford the Atari VCS (until around 1981), when the price came down.  Even so, with the Europeans we held onto Pong (via the clones) until the late 1970's when inferior rivals (to the VCS) were released. (I'm not referring to the Interton/1292/Philips Videopac consoles).

 

These new consoles were from the development of General Instruments work.  We can see from the Gimini catalogue (1978) that the AY-3-8500 had been superceded, so not surprisingly the glut of Pong clones on the market by 1979 would stir General Instruments to focus on their newer IC's.  This would provide us the new line of Pong style clones.

Link for Gimini:
http://www.pong-story.com/GIMINI1978.pdf

 

We had brands such as Audiosonic, Prinztronic, Acesonic, Radofin, Adman and Binatone.  These brands released consoles known as the PC-50X family.

I'll post a link to cut my story short:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PC-50x_Family

 

From my own consoles, I'll mention the Radofin tele-sports IV (1978), it was part of the PC-50X family, of which there were many, much like the multitude of AY-3-8500 based Pong clones before it.  The games were interchangeable, where the "game" was in the cartridge and the console was the interface to the TV and the controllers.  

 

There is reason that surplus AY-3-8500, that did not make it into a Pong clone could have gone into a "Fundamental" cartridge for the PC-50X variants as General Instruments changed their focus to the newer developments of Pong/Tennis, as Atari shifted their focus from Pong to the VCS, however the "Fundamental" cartridge is rare.

[+Stephen]

Does anyone know if the AY-3-8500 has been decapped?

[King Atari]

2 hours ago, Voxel said:

I can try and answer your question for here in the UK, with regards to the Pong clones.

 

We did not have Atari to give us Pong and even when Atari left Pong (circa 1977) and pursued their VCS, we could not afford the Atari VCS (until around 1981), when the price came down.  Even so, with the Europeans we held onto Pong (via the clones) until the late 1970's when inferior rivals (to the VCS) were released. (I'm not referring to the Interton/1292/Philips Videopac consoles).

 

These new consoles were from the development of General Instruments work.  We can see from the Gimini catalogue (1978) that the AY-3-8500 had been superceded, so not surprisingly the glut of Pong clones on the market by 1979 would stir General Instruments to focus on their newer IC's.  This would provide us the new line of Pong style clones.

Link for Gimini:
http://www.pong-story.com/GIMINI1978.pdf

 

We had brands such as Audiosonic, Prinztronic, Acesonic, Radofin, Adman and Binatone.  These brands released consoles known as the PC-50X family.

I'll post a link to cut my story short:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PC-50x_Family

 

From my own consoles, I'll mention the Radofin tele-sports IV (1978), it was part of the PC-50X family, of which there were many, much like the multitude of AY-3-8500 based Pong clones before it.  The games were interchangeable, where the "game" was in the cartridge and the console was the interface to the TV and the controllers.  

 

There is reason that surplus AY-3-8500, that did not make it into a Pong clone could have gone into a "Fundamental" cartridge for the PC-50X variants as General Instruments changed their focus to the newer developments of Pong/Tennis, as Atari shifted their focus from Pong to the VCS, however the "Fundamental" cartridge is rare.

 

Terrific, thank you!

According to that PC-50x page, the series ran until 1982. But you know, despite the 1978 notation, that Acetronic Tele-Sports IV console sure seems like it's going for a Sega SG-1000 look to me. If that was the case, that would it put it closer to 1983, right? (Not that I'm doubting you or that page of course; just an observation. Maybe it's a coincidence, or maybe the later SG-1000 was aping the Tele-Sports IV design. I dunno.)

[+Stephen]

3 hours ago, Stephen said:

Does anyone know if the AY-3-8500 has been decapped?

Should have googled first.

https://nerdstuffbycole.blogspot.com/2018/01/reverse-engineering-ay-3-8500-part-1.html

[Schnurrikowski]

Prolly it's AmeProd TVG-10, a Polish product based on the infamous AY-3-8500. The production run was cancelled in 1984 as it seems: https://gadzetomania.pl/3295,telewizyjna-video-gra-z-polski-bajty-z-broda

Edited July 9, 2020 by Knurrikowski

[Schnurrikowski]

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. 

[King Atari]

2 hours ago, Knurrikowski said:

Prolly it's AmeProd TVG-10, a Polish product based on the infamous AY-3-8500. The production run was cancelled in 1984 as it seems: https://gadzetomania.pl/3295,telewizyjna-video-gra-z-polski-bajty-z-broda

Interesting. I looked it up, and while it does seem like production ceased at the amazingly late date of '84, I'm getting various answers as to when the console was first released. Seems like it came out anywhere from 1978 to 1981? Granted, any of those years would qualify as a "latter era" product to me (coming from a U.S. viewpoint, anyway), but a little different from what I meant with the original question.

In other news, I now have some questions about that DMS Telesports Mini I mentioned in the original post. It seems like it was first released in the late-70s by Radofin, but it also seems like the DMS version was a legitimate release/re-branding, apparently from 1983. I'm confused; if the DMS version was simply a newer re-brand, that blurs the lines a little bit. Though, I guess the specifically different company & release date would be enough to qualify. (I still acquiesce to OLD-COMPUTERS.COM on the issue; they'd know better than I do.)

[BassGuitari]

I'm not really able to contribute to the topic directly, but on a related subject, some of the later games that came out at the tail end of the '70s lingered into the early '80s as budget-priced alternatives to cartridge-programmable systems. The 1980 JC Penney Christmas catalog featured Coleco Telstar systems alongside the Intellivision and Atari Video Computer System, for example, and the 1981 Montgomery Ward Christmas Catalog includes the Telstar Marksman next to the Bally Arcade and APF MP1000. Radio Shack still stocked TV Scoreboard systems at least as late as 1983, advertised with the likes of their Tandyvision system.

 

It's probably not a stretch to figure that Magnavox dealers might have still had a few of the later Odyssey units past the turn of the decade, either. Or that latter-day Atari units like Ultra Pong and Video Pinball could still be found in clearance aisles.

[Voxel]

19 hours ago, BassGuitari said:

It's probably not a stretch to figure that Magnavox dealers might have still had a few of the later Odyssey units past the turn of the decade

You'd be right, we had it in the UK as the Philips Videopac, here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philips_Videopac%2B_G7400

[BassGuitari]

3 hours ago, Voxel said:

You'd be right, we had it in the UK as the Philips Videopac, here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philips_Videopac%2B_G7400

I meant the dedicated systems like Odyssey 2000, Odyssey 3000, or Odyssey 4000. ? Maybe even some of the older ones that individual stores may have still had kicking around.

 

I would certainly hope Magnavox/Philips dealers carried Odyssey 2 and Videopac in the early '80s! ?

[Magmavision2000]

According to the list on Pong Story, the last Pong Consoles were released in 1983, but there could always be some obscure console released by some obscure company later than that. 

 

I find it kind of funny that the same when the Famicom released, which was at the time one of the most advanced systems ever, there was also clones of an 11 year old game coming out.

[BassGuitari]

3 hours ago, Magmavision2000 said:

I find it kind of funny that the same when the Famicom released, which was at the time one of the most advanced systems ever, there was also clones of an 11 year old game coming out.

The PlayStation 5 is just around the corner, and we still see new Famiclones all over the place--how's that for an age differential? ?

 

(Isn't the Master System still being produced in some guise in Brazil, too?)

[King Atari]

On 7/9/2020 at 8:35 PM, BassGuitari said:

I'm not really able to contribute to the topic directly, but on a related subject, some of the later games that came out at the tail end of the '70s lingered into the early '80s as budget-priced alternatives to cartridge-programmable systems. The 1980 JC Penney Christmas catalog featured Coleco Telstar systems alongside the Intellivision and Atari Video Computer System, for example, and the 1981 Montgomery Ward Christmas Catalog includes the Telstar Marksman next to the Bally Arcade and APF MP1000. Radio Shack still stocked TV Scoreboard systems at least as late as 1983, advertised with the likes of their Tandyvision system.

 

It's probably not a stretch to figure that Magnavox dealers might have still had a few of the later Odyssey units past the turn of the decade, either. Or that latter-day Atari units like Ultra Pong and Video Pinball could still be found in clearance aisles.

 

Oh, I wouldn't be surprised in the least to see these things being clearanced well into the 80s. After all, they may have technically been obsolete, but they were still "home video games" at a time when such things were hot. For lower-income families, I imagine they were at least better than nothing. (Plus, out-of-date or not, I imagine the companies would have liked to see some kind of return on their product.)

 

The thought of a Coleco Telstar Arcade sitting alongside the 2600 and Intellivision as if it really 'belonged' is one I'm totally digging. (Especially since, if push came to shove, I may very well name the Telstar Arcade as my favorite Pong console.)

 

7 hours ago, Magmavision2000 said:

According to the list on Pong Story, the last Pong Consoles were released in 1983, but there could always be some obscure console released by some obscure company later than that.

 

Do you mean this rarity list here at Pong-Story, or is there another list I'm not seeing? That rarity guide makes for a nice starting point, but I'm not sure how complete or accurate (or up to date) it is. I don't see the DMS listed at all (though I could easily be missing it), and the Bentley is notated as a EU release; while I have no idea if there was a corresponding European version, it was most definitely a US release from everything I've seen.

 

(Wait, is that Bentley the same as the British car manufacturer? I saw a YouTube comment that stated it was, but I just pulled down my boxed Bentley portable TV and boxed Super 8 all-in-one projector, and they both claim Bentley Industries Inc., Los Angeles. And at least according to the boxes, manufactured in Taiwan. If the companies weren't related in some way, maybe that's where the confusion is coming from in that listing?)

 

7 hours ago, Magmavision2000 said:

I find it kind of funny that the same when the Famicom released, which was at the time one of the most advanced systems ever, there was also clones of an 11 year old game coming out.

 

Ah, that statement right there gets at the very heart of what this topic is all about!

 

Edited July 11, 2020 by King Atari

[Schnurrikowski]

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.

[King Atari]

10 hours ago, Schnurrikowski said:

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.

I noticed some errors as well. Like I said, the list makes for a nice starting point, but its accuracy is suspect.

[slydc]

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

 

Here's a picture of the console:

 

[masschamber]

2 hours ago, slydc said:

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

 

Here's a picture of the console:

 

The arrogance, thinking it could take on dendy

[Schnurrikowski]

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?

[slydc]

56 minutes ago, Schnurrikowski said:

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

Hi Schnurrikowski,

 

Good question. It was written on a web site that this one came out in 1992, but i only report what was written. The best to be exactly sure

that a game console came out a specific year is either to open up the game console and check the major components for a year or a stamp-date

(example: 4378 - which means 43th week of 1978).

 

But if you want proof, there is one "Leader" that is/was (don't know if it's still active) auctioned on bloshinyjrynok.ru and has five pictures. And this

one has a name translated which is called "Leader Play Lider" (cool, first time i see this variation!) and the date is on the back on the console which

is "1993" !

 

The title of the auction is "Телеигра Лидер Play Lider Тенис" which translates to "TV Game Leader Play Lider Tenis". The seller's name is Ludmila

and wrote this as a description of the article: "I sell the TV game Leader (Play Lider) Tenis. Production of NPO Energoavtomatika Pyatigorsk

experimental plant. Year of release 1993. Working condition. Plus the second console is out of order."

 

If anyone wants to check out the auction page (while it's still displayed on the site), just go here:

http://bloshinyjrynok.ru/items/teleigra_lider_play_lider_tenis_14371

 

And before someone makes a pun, i'll do it right away..."Take me to your LEADER!"

 

Oh and finally found the web page which indicated the "1992" reference:

http://www.rw6ase.narod.ru/00/wideo/lider.html

 

Edited November 9, 2020 by slydc

[Schnurrikowski]

Thanks! Wow, 1993. Creepy