Found a brand new, unused Pong console from 1979 in an Edinburgh charity shop for 20£
Submitted 3 weeks ago by TimeNaan@lemmy.world to retrogaming@lemmy.world
https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/163773b6-2309-4a09-9a67-12dec3394da9.jpeg
Comments
TimeNaan@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
InvertedParallax@lemm.ee 3 weeks ago
Might need recapping, think vblank and blank are drifting.
ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org 3 weeks ago
Mmm… realistic
TimeNaan@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Colour is also not very accurate… unless they mean a single color, green.
shalafi@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Was it meant to run on an NTSC TV?
Treczoks@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Unlikely. It is spelled “Colour” on the box, implying this would be for the UK market.
moopet@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
No, Radofin was a UK-only brand.
Redkey@programming.dev 3 weeks ago
Found in an Edinburgh charity shop, so while it’s not impossible, it’s unlikely.
db2@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
TimeNaan@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Obviously but it is a Pong Console, it’s the category started by the original Pong.
This one has a bunch of additional games too.
I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
According to the box, it is noticeably missing Pong.
HubertManne@piefed.social 3 weeks ago
we had an all black console that is like halfway between that the whats in the OP. it had wired controllers and 4 versions that you cycled through to choose. I think it was pong, doubles pong, hockey, doubles hockey. hockey being pong where you had to get it in the goal in the 20% of the middle of your opponents end but the other 80% was just like the side walls.
moopet@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
I have a Binatone one in a crate here with essentially the same selection of games on it. It was a really common thing to clone, there was one chip that played them all.
Shezzagrad@lemmy.ml 3 weeks ago
Was not expecting to see my city here.
TimeNaan@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Honestly, I envy you, Edinburgh is incredible.
Btw, there’s a second pong console for a similar price in that charity shop, if you’re interested and if nobody’s got it yet :)
Shezzagrad@lemmy.ml 3 weeks ago
Thank you, Edinburgh is a beautiful and lovely little city, i reslly hope you enjoyed it. Which charity shop was it may I ask?
ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org 3 weeks ago
What do you mean, Edinburgh? The city in question is Prague. See the console brand, it’s from Prague 16 (Radotín).
BTW the Czechoslovak electronics brand TESLA also made a crappy Pong console using a presumably stolen chip design.
Treczoks@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I wonder about the “Colour”. Did they actually use the different video outputs of the AY-3-8500 chip for controlling different colour signals instead just joining them as a luminance signal?
For those too young to know: The AY-3-8500 (or AY-3-8500-1 fo NTSC) chip is at the heart of almost all of those pong-type consoles. It has a number of different (but synchronized) video outputs for left player, right player, ball, numbers, and playing field, and most consoles just or’ed them together into luminance (Y) to make a simple B&W image. You could route some signals to the R-Y and/or the B-Y signal to give them some basic color, e.g. if you sent the “ball” signal both to the luminance and the red (R-Y) channel, you would get a red ball. All this needs are a handful of simple logic gates.
TimeNaan@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Treczoks@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
It basically tells you that you can basically tone the “colourness” (i.e. the brightness of the colours) up and down, which was a normal control (like brightness and contrast) back then. This is not about being able to make a red playing field green by some setting on the TV. You just had some potentiometers to play with the pre-amplification of the luminance and colour signals.
What could be in the instructions would an explanation of the games telling you that e.g. the playing field is green and the ball is red or somesuch, then they actually did a (rare) “colour implementation” of the circuit.
If you are interested, there is a number of interesting documentations on this pong chip on the net.
Blackmist@feddit.uk 3 weeks ago
I had a black and white version of this.
All the games were basically the same apart from the target shooting game.
waigl@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
ddash@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
Really good condition, brand new and unused is taking it a bit far.
TimeNaan@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
No I mean it literally, it was wrapped in all the factory plastics and has literally zero wear and tear. It might have been taken out of the box but maybe used once or not at all.
noughtnaut@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Check the capacitors anyway please.
makingStuffForFun@lemmy.ml 3 weeks ago
Damn. If you’d kept it wrapped, you might have been able to sell that for a LOT of money
Iamsqueegee@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
How long did it take to download 45 years of updates?
ramenshaman@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
The very first pong game system did not use software, which blows my mind. OP’s does not appear to be the same version but it’s possible this it also does not use software.
Squizzy@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Am I too stupid…how did it work?