
Between 1976 and 1978, over a million Coleco Telstar online game consoles have been offered. The Killer App that made them so fascinating? PONG. Yep, the ones two paddles bouncing a ball round a blocky tennis court docket have been the entire rage and helped bring in a brand new generation. And as [Dave] of Dave’s Storage displays us in the video under the spoil, the bringing the outdated console again to lifestyles proved more practical than anticipated!
Fortunately, the console is constructed round what [Dave] rather aptly calls “PONG on a chip”, the Common Software AY-3-8500 which used to be designed to make mass manufacturing of consoles conceivable. The chip if truth be told incorporates a number of video games, even supposing PONG used to be the one one in use at the Coleco.
After putting off the CPU from the non-functional console, [Dave] breathed lifestyles into it through offering a 2 MHz clock sign that used to be generated through an Arduino, of all issues. A normal 2N2222 amplifies the audio, and a snappy energy up confirmed that the chip used to be running and producing audio.
Video is neatly sorted simply because it used to be within the authentic design, through combining more than a few alerts with a 4072 OR gate. With more than a few video components and synchronization patterns blended right into a composite video sign, [Dave] used to be in a position to look the sport on display screen, however then learned that he’d wish to design some “paddles”. We’ll go away that as much as you to observe within the video, however be sure you test the feedback segment for more info at the design.
Is a breadboarded PONG console no longer unfashionable sufficient for you? Then take a look at this old skool mechanical model that used to be discovered languishing in a thrift retailer.