Atari Video Pinball console (1978). Why no love?

[DarthDuke]

I was, and still am, a big fan of pinball games, so I'm surprised that we never had this console when I was a kid. I think I would have liked it better than the Pong console we had. Pong was fun, but only when I had one of the very few friends and relatives over who were gracious winners and didn't make me feel miserable every time they beat me at a game.  At least with pinball, you can play it by yourself.  If I saw one of these Pinball consoles out there now, I'd certainly give it a try as long as it didn't cost a small fortune. 

I have Video Pinball and now Midnight Magic for the Atari 2600 and they are pretty fun versions of Pinball. 

You are right, it is rather odd that even in articles about obscure and rare video game systems, one rarely sees this Atari Pinball console mentioned. 

[Flyindrew]

1 hour ago, BassGuitari said:

Nice! I love the Odyssey 500. The only ball-and-paddle system that had player graphics instead of just blocks!

 

(They were really just stylized, re-shaped blocks, but still. 😜)

That was my very first game system. Though primitive by todays standards, I remember my friends an I clicking the selection switch between hockey, tennis and handball and being entertained for hours. I wonder if there is a place that does repairs on this ancient console?

[Video]

If I found pinball in the wild I'd certainly pick it up, even today pinball is a favorite, fairly rare genre, but with today's graphics many are hard to follow with to busy graphics and to small and fast moving balls.

 

To Zonie, its been a couple years, but I used to get weird magazines, things like scientific unlimited, and hammecher schlimmer (sp?) And they had all kinds of weird stuff, including things like pong, or even noac kit systems that you could buy and put together yourself. Maybe in the last few years they finally stopped making them, but while not common, and through oddball sources, there are things like this available, at least into the teens era.

 

Now "kit" may be a bit wrong, the versions I saw involved you assembling it yourself, but I think largely the board was pre assembled, no solder jobs. I'd love a complete DIY kit that has through mounted boards, and chips (and chips as separate pieces) you assemble completely yourself, but I don't know if those exist. I'm sure the modern ones use r pie computers or some such, don't know if the pong "chip" is still made or not (it was a common part in the 70's and many consoles by various vendors actually used the same chip) Google says 6502 is still made, apparently by the millions today, so who knows.

 

Unfortunately pong kit on Google or Amazon just goes to beer pong type things, ping pong balls and solo cups, sorry. Even visiting websites direct doesn't help, maybe ill order a catalog, sometimes the truly oddball stuff is only there.

[+x=usr(1536)]

On 2/19/2024 at 8:39 AM, Flyindrew said:

One of the very first game consoles I owned as a kid was the Atari Video Pinball console. You never hear a peep about this console anywhere in the retro community nor in any of Atari’s recent compilations. Zero mention was made of this unit in Atari 50. This is a shame and wonder why this is the case?

 

The dedicated consoles never really seemed to attract the same following as the cartridge-based ones, so it's understandable that it may have been omitted (or overlooked).

 

IIRC, it was Atari's last dedicated console.  Understandable, given that by the time Video Pinball came out in 1978, the 2600, Odyssey², Fairchild Channel F, and Bally Astrocade (in addition to others) were all cartridge-based and clearly demonstrating that that would be the way forward.  Video Pinball filled a niche for Atari in that it was a machine at a sub-2600 price point - but it was a shrinking niche.  Technology just moved on.

 

On 2/20/2024 at 3:36 PM, Zonie said:

I have one. A brown one. I found it in the wild for like $15. It works. It also inspired my current home built controllers to have paddle buttons on the side.

 

There's a brown one around here somewhere that I've had for some 20-odd years.  Although it's a good system and the games play well, I just don't tend to use it very much.

[littleman jack]

A friend of mine had one when we were kids. We had a blast on that thing. We also played 2600 at another friend's house, Intellivision at another friend's house, and 800 at my house. The systems were too expensive at the time, as well as the tradition being set, so each household could only afford one system. Unlike today, where people have multiple systems at once. 

 

The Video Pinball console definitely got eclipsed by the rise of the 2600 and then later other newer systems. But it was well built and is still fun today.

[BIGHMW]

I’d pay someone a good sum to put together a ROM of all 7 variants of the C-380s games and put it out for the 2600 and I just checked eBay there are still plenty of C-380 Video Pinball units available and I also, was first introduced to Breakout via the Video Pinball console back in the late 70s at Michaels toy stores in the Northridge Mall (next to The Casual Gourmet and Hickory Farms) down in LA growing up as a kid then.

[+x=usr(1536)]

On 3/19/2024 at 10:00 PM, BIGHMW said:

I’d pay someone a good sum to put together a ROM of all 7 variants of the C-380s games and put it out for the 2600

https://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-2600-vcs-stunt-cycle_11881.html

 

https://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-2600-vcs-video-pinball_7744.html

 

https://www.atarimania.com/game-video-olympics_s6764.html

 

https://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-2600-vcs-combat_8536.html

 

That should cover about 5 of the 7.  For Touch Me and Video Music, best of luck.

 

I kinda don't understand the point of combining them into a multicart (which it sounds like you're suggesting), but, hey, let the boat be floated...

[+wongojack]

2 hours ago, x=usr(1536) said:

 

https://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-2600-vcs-video-pinball_7744.html

 

Not sure if I am tracking here, but are you suggesting that this is the same as the stand-alone Atari Video Pinball?  It looks simply like the version that was specifically released for the VCS.

[BassGuitari]

12 minutes ago, x=usr(1536) said:

https://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-2600-vcs-stunt-cycle_11881.html

 

https://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-2600-vcs-video-pinball_7744.html

 

https://www.atarimania.com/game-video-olympics_s6764.html

 

https://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-2600-vcs-combat_8536.html

 

That should cover about 5 of the 7.  For Touch Me and Video Music, best of luck.

 

I kinda don't understand the point of combining them into a multicart (which it sounds like you're suggesting), but, hey, let the boat be floated...

He was talking about the games contained on the Video Pinball console, not every standalone console and handheld Atari released. The point would be because the games on Video Pinball (and the various Pongs) are meaningfully different from the iterations that appeared on VCS cartridges. 🙂 

 

Breakout would be a little redundant; it's essentially the same as the VCS version but with fewer colors and variations (and the variant with the missing middle layer is a hop, skip, and a jump away from Super Breakout). But there are no other pinball games on the VCS that play like Video Pinball, and no Pin-Paddle games at all, to my recollection. And even Video Olympics doesn't have Rebound.

 

Speaking of Video Olympics, while it does have a lot of Pong variations, it doesn't replicate the Super Pong or Ultra Pong consoles. It's missing Super Pong's Solitaire/Handball/Basketball game (with paddle-adjustable wall height) as well as Catch. The visuals and scoring differ as well, but that's more superficial. Some of the Ultra Pong game variations--as well as its psychedelic backgrounds--are also not present.

 

[+x=usr(1536)]

30 minutes ago, wongojack said:

Not sure if I am tracking here, but are you suggesting that this is the same as the stand-alone Atari Video Pinball?

 

Nope.  Just making the point that there's an already-existing Video Pinball variant available on the 2600.  I'm aware that it's not exactly the same as the dedicated console  

 

30 minutes ago, wongojack said:

It looks simply like the version that was specifically released for the VCS.

 

Correct.  It was in response to the following:

 

On 3/19/2024 at 10:00 PM, BIGHMW said:

I’d pay someone a good sum to put together a ROM of all 7 variants of the C-380s games and put it out for the 2600 

 

However, my response was predicated on having misread the post to which I was replying.  More:

 

9 minutes ago, BassGuitari said:

He was talking about the games contained on the Video Pinball console, not every standalone console and handheld Atari released. The point would be because the games on Video Pinball (and the various Pongs) are meaningfully different from the iterations that appeared on VCS cartridges. 🙂 

 

You are correct.  When I read the following:

 

On 3/19/2024 at 10:00 PM, BIGHMW said:

all 7 variants of the C-380s games

 

It was somehow taken to mean all of the standalone consoles, not just Video Pinball.  Straight-up case of reading miscomprehension on my part.

[Flyindrew]

1 hour ago, x=usr(1536) said:

 

Nope.  Just making the point that there's an already-existing Video Pinball variant available on the 2600.  I'm aware that it's not exactly the same as the dedicated console  

 

 

Correct.  It was in response to the following:

 

 

However, my response was predicated on having misread the post to which I was replying.  More:

 

 

You are correct.  When I read the following:

 

 

It was somehow taken to mean all of the standalone consoles, not just Video Pinball.  Straight-up case of reading miscomprehension on my part.

While I was eluding to the stand alone 1978 Video Pinball console, it would be kinda cool if there was a 2600 ROM cart that contained all the games from that stand alone unit but it would be dependent on playing with a joystick/joypad that had 2 buttons to simulate the flipper buttons on the console. 

[BassGuitari]

20 minutes ago, Flyindrew said:

While I was alluding to the stand alone 1978 Video Pinball console, it would be kinda cool if there was a 2600 ROM cart that contained all the games from that stand alone unit but it would be dependent on playing with a joystick/joypad that had 2 buttons to simulate the flipper buttons on the console. 

Or a paddle in each hand. 😉

 

EDIT: Or actually, why not both? Use paddles in one controller jack for Rebound, Breakout, and Paddle Pinball, and use the other controller jack for Flipper Pinball with a joystick (or better yet, a Starplex or Track & Field controller!).

Edited March 22 by BassGuitari

[ledzep]

7 hours ago, Flyindrew said:

While I was eluding to the stand alone 1978 Video Pinball console, it would be kinda cool if there was a 2600 ROM cart that contained all the games from that stand alone unit but it would be dependent on playing with a joystick/joypad that had 2 buttons to simulate the flipper buttons on the console. 

 

I'm sure this is obvious to most MAME users, but is it possible for MAME to emulate those stand-alone games or is the circuitry just too simplistic or lacking of CPU type microchips?  I thought there were a few arcade games that hadn't been added to MAME for such a reason, some daughter board or something that wasn't a typical type of board that could be reverse engineered or whatever the process is.

[+x=usr(1536)]

1 hour ago, ledzep said:

I'm sure this is obvious to most MAME users, but is it possible for MAME to emulate those stand-alone games or is the circuitry just too simplistic or lacking of CPU type microchips?  I thought there were a few arcade games that hadn't been added to MAME for such a reason, some daughter board or something that wasn't a typical type of board that could be reverse engineered or whatever the process is.

 

Short answer: yes, they could potentially be added.

 

Longer answer: doing so is a pain.  Starting off with full schematics or a board in front of you is necessary, because every component on that board has to be described in Netlist format.  Netlists essentially describe the circuit to MAME, which then has to figure out how each component interacts in order to create a working bit of software.  Oh, and they're typically a pig for performance.

 

That's the 90,000-foot view, but it should give some idea of what's involved, at least.