Between 1976 and 1978, over a million Coleco Telstar online game consoles have been bought. The Killer App that made them so fascinating? PONG. Yep, the ones two paddles bouncing a ball round a blocky tennis courtroom have been the entire rage and helped bring in a brand new generation. And as [Dave] of Dave’s Storage presentations us in the video under the ruin, the bringing the previous console again to lifestyles proved more effective than anticipated!
Fortunately, the console is constructed round what [Dave] rather aptly calls “PONG on a chip”, the Common Device AY-3-8500 which used to be designed to make mass manufacturing of consoles conceivable. The chip in fact comprises a number of video games, even supposing PONG used to be the one one in use at the Coleco.
After eliminating the CPU from the non-functional console, [Dave] breathed lifestyles into it via offering a 2 MHz clock sign that used to be generated via an Arduino, of all issues. An ordinary 2N2222 amplifies the audio, and a handy guide a rough energy up confirmed that the chip used to be operating and producing audio.
Video is neatly looked after simply because it used to be within the authentic design, via combining quite a lot of indicators with a 4072 OR gate. With quite a lot of video components and synchronization patterns blended right into a composite video sign, [Dave] used to be ready to peer the sport on display, however then discovered that he’d want to design some “paddles”. We’ll depart that as much as you to observe within the video, however be sure to take a look at the feedback phase for more info at the design.
Is a breadboarded PONG console no longer unfashionable sufficient for you? Then take a look at this oldschool mechanical model that used to be discovered languishing in a thrift retailer.