I found this unusually long PONG console on ebay recently, there were two of them listed at the same time, but only this one had the gun controller, the other was in its original box though. I should have bought both, but I didn't
The Videomaster Superscore VM8 was released in the UK in 1976 and utilises the common AY-3-8500 chipset. It was sold as a kit you could assemble yourself, or fully built. This console was also sold via the Prinztronic brand in Dixons as the Prinztronic Tournament, albeit with the sound option swapped to ball return angle
It's L O N G and flat, feels quite sturdy though, some of these PONG's do feel cheaply made and would break or shatter if dropped or hit, this one feels like a late 90's Nokia. The battery compartment is underneath at the top left
The metal plate has a golden tint to it, like a Mattel Intelivision, looks quite nice, and offers the normal array of PONG options including reset, game select with six games, ball speed and bat size, then sound on/off and power. As is common with the PONG's of the era the sound comes from the unit itself, rather than through the TV. There was no sound carrier so the TV would output white noise which made it necessary to turn the volume down. This may have been for compatibility between PAL regions which used different sound carriers but the same video standard, but more likely for cost reasons
The games are Tennis, Football, Squash, and Solo, the two options AUX 1 and AUX 2 are the gun games which can be selected but cannot be played without the gun connected
Despite looking like the console has wheels, these are the player controls, they are not infinite scrolling like a mouse wheel, but do have a definite stop at each end
On the right side are the external controller ports, I only have one controller at the moment. and the RF lead
On the left side is the port for the rifle attachement, it kinda looks a bit like USB, but it isn't. It's just a small card edge connector with five contacts on one side
I discovered it still had one C cell in it, and it had become a bit crusty, but the consoles battery terminals were untouched
The console needs six C cells to function, and the battery cover only allows one battery to be inserted at a time. Which may be an issue if the farthest battery from the opening leaks and gets stuck
Typical Belling-Lee plug from the era
The controller is very small and shiny and features has a rotary dial
The back of the controller and cable exit. It has a 2 pole 2.5mm jack plug on the other end which I forgot to get a photo of
The rifle attachemnt doesn't look like a real gun this time, unlike some other systems, it looks more like a phaser from popular sci-fi shows like Star Trek
The gun from different sides, the sight guide at the back of the gun is on a spring which retracts into the body, which makes me think there was an attachment that clipped on which is missing here
Normal light sensor which can tell when it's pointed at a white object on the screen, or the dark background
Close up of the trigger
The plug, it can clip on to the edge conector both ways, so a top indicator needed to be added, as the contacts are only on one side, neither the console or gun will be damaged if connected upside down
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