A look at the PONG consoles I have in my collection Long before Call of Duty, Minecraft, or even Sonic the Hedgehog. There was Pong. Using only straight while lines, square balls, the occasional BEEP, and most importantly, your imagination. You could be at Wimbledon, or even at Wembley Stadium scoring the winner in the last few seconds of the game. Pong first hit the home in 1972 with the first arcade console arriving a little later, in the US at least. In the UK we had to wait until 1973 to get our hands on them. Soon a number of manufacturers were churning them out, all pretty much the same, just differing in case styling. However colour backgrounds soon arrived, then different games arrived (based on the same white lines and square balls) There were four different technologies behind the PONG consoles, the very first used analogue components, which could be affected by being in close proximity to humans or the television which caused unstable lines and other strange effects on screen. Next came digital circuits using logic gates and these produced a much more stable image on the screen. The most common were the dedicated PONG on a chip models, using an integrated circuit from companies like General Instruments these were much simpler in design, and therefore cheaper to produce as almost all the circuitry was on the chip, but this made all the models look, sound, and play the same, differing only in case design. There were lots of revisions of the PONG on a chip which offered more games and even colour backgrounds Eventually microprocessors started to appear which could run early primitive software Eventually along came the PC-50x range with interchangable cartridges which featured games other than PONG, like Breakout and simple racing games Which of course, were sold separately. There are 30 pong consoles in the museum
Teleng Colourstars
Here is a Teleng Colourstars pong clone, it's missing the controllers and game cartridges, so it is useless at this time, although I have since bought a controller and a cartridge
Grandstand 4600
This Grandstand 4600 Pong clone is more or less complete, the rifle attachment is missing some parts, but may still work. I do have the original box for it, but it's in a very poor condition. This has a chance of working, so I will be testing it soon...UPDATE: Yes it does to a degree.
Binatone TV Master Mk 8
I had one of these when I was little, and now I have another... It was listed as "not working", I wonder if it's to do with the "Back Porch" problem that the ZX80 and ZX81 suffer from?
Videomaster Visionscore VMVI (X2)
A £10 Facebook Marketplace and a 60 mile round trip gamble, did it pay off..? I have two now
Grandstand 3000
Another Ebay find, untested and cheap
Binatone TV Master Mk 4 (X4)
Two very cheap Ebay "untested" punts that didn't work too well. Then later, another eBay purchase
Binatone Colour TV Game Mk10
I briefly became obsessed with Pong consoles and bought a load of them for pennies
Adman Grandstand 3600
I briefly became obsessed with Pong consoles and bought a load of them for pennies
Grandstand 6000
I briefly became obsessed with Pong consoles and bought a load of them for pennies
Grandstand Cartridge
I briefly became obsessed with Pong consoles and bought a load of them for pennies
Interstate V-11
I briefly became obsessed with Pong consoles and bought a load of them for pennies
Prinztronic Videosport 800 Colour
I briefly became obsessed with Pong consoles and bought a load of them for pennies
Prinztronic Micro 5500
Bought on a day out in Swindon from Retro Gamez HQ
Radofin Tele-sports III
Bought on a day out in Swindon from Retro Gamez HQ
Tandy Electronic TV Scoreboard
Popped in to Retro Bristol and saw this
Acetronic Colour TV Game
£5 from Revival Games
Acetronic Tele-sports IV
£5 from Revival Games, same as the Prinztronic Micro 5500 above
Ingersoll Colour Match
£5 from Revival Games, another hand-held Pong TV game
Teleplay Colour Programagame
£5 from Revival Games, same as the Teleng Colourstars above
Tandy TV Scoreboard
Only £15 from a local reclamation/second hand shop, it's in very good condition but I haven't tested it yet
Binatone TV Master Mk10
Another day, another one of Binatone's Pong consoles
Grandstand Match of the Day 2000
This is smaller than it looks, but it's sure cute
Videomaster Strika
Is it Strika, Striker, or something else entirely? Who knows?
Shira AU-807 Pong
Teeny tiny Pong console
Decca Sport TV Game
Look at this unit, I picked it up from Retro Bristol and it is a beast
Binatone TV Master Mk6
The Mk6, it comes between the Mk4 and the Mk8, has six games, see the naming pattern
Binatone Colour TV Game
Looks like the Mk4, but colour
Grandstand 3600 MkIII
Turns out this is the later version of the Mk2 above
Grandstand Colour Programmable
Found on Vinted, seems similar to the Grandstand Cartridge above
Videomaster Superscore
A LONG PONG console from 1976
The dark area
I hope you all find this as interesting and as nostalgic as I do.
And if you do, why not check out the next page in my retro museum... Printers
Or to quicky jump to another room of the museum, click or tap on Rooms at the bottom of this screen
Special thanks to my long-suffering partner Denise for putting up with all this "nonsense".
No cats were unnecessarily annoyed during the creation of this site
Well, maybe Rose was annoyed for a brief moment because the dog is interrupting their nap as the human didn't take him out for a walk because he was busy testing a Grandstand 6000 Pong console... CATS!
H - STOP in INPUT, 563:1
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