Comprehensive List of Gen 1 Consoles

[Dastari]

One thing that has really surprised me is that there doesn't appear to be a comprehensive list of Gen 1 consoles. Everything that I've found online is incomplete and a few places are actually incorrect due to people misunderstanding what generation a particular console is. It also doesn't help that based on what wikipedia page that you're looking at the number of consoles varies considerably.

Thankfully, someone turned me on to a book on Video Games written in the 1970's that has a fairly decent list. Between that I've come up with the following list. I'd appreciate that anyone who knows of any errors or omissions in this list would comment, so that I can create a comprehensive list.

Domestic:

APF:
TV Fun Model 402
TV Fun Model 405
TV Fun Model 406
TV Fun Model 442
TV Fun Model 444
TV Fun Model 500

Atari:
Pong
Pong Doubles
Sears Pong IV
Super Pong
Super Pong Ten
Ultra Pong
Ultra Pong Doubles
Stunt Cycle
Video Pinball
Sears Speedway
Sears Speedway IV

Calfax:
Bag-a-Tel

Coleco:
Telstar
Telstar Classic
Telstar Deluxe
Telstar Ranger
Telstar Alpha
Telstar Colormatic
Telstar Regent
Telstar Sportsman
Telstar Combat!
Telstar Colortron
Telstar Marksman
Telstar Galaxy
Telstar Gemini
Telstar Arcade

Conic International:
TVG 101-4
TVG 102-4

Concept 2000:
Nose T' Nose
Four-Way Video Game

Entex:
Tele-Pong

Executive Games:
Face-Off Hockey/Soccer

Fantasia:
Fantasia 101

Federal Transistor Co:
Video Sport

General Home Products:
Gulliver Triple Challenge
Wonder Wizard
Wonder Wizard Bull's Eye
Wonder Wizard Sharp Shooter
Wonder Wizard Scoreboard
Wonder Wizard (May have had a name but unknown?) Model 7709

Heath Co:
Heathkit

Intercon Marketing Corporation:
Colorgame

Lafayette:
Tournament 2000

Lloyd's:
TV Sports 801
TV Sports 802
TV Sports 813

Magnavox:
Odyssey
Odyssey 100
Odyssey 200
Odyssey 300
Odyssey 400
Odyssey 500
Odyssey 2000
Odyssey 3000
Odyssey 4000
4305 (Ok, this is a TV, but the console was built in, so I think it counts.)

National Semiconductor:
Adversary

Olympus Electronics:
TV Sports 77

Quadtronics:
Quadtronics Model Q376
Quadtronics Model Q476

Radio Shack:
TV Scoreboard

Richochet Electronics (Other reference says Microelectronics Systems):
Color TV Game
Super Pro
Challenger
Champion
Formula 500
Richochet 8

Santron:
Gorilla Game Model TG-101
Gorilla Game Model TG-201

Tele-match:
3300R
4400
6600
7700

Unisonic:
Sportsman T101
Tournament 100
Tournament 102
Tournament 150
Tournament 200
Tournament 1000
Tournament 2000
Tournament 2501
Olympian 2600

Universal Research Labs:
Video Action
Video Action II
Video Action III
Video Action IV (Indy 500)

Venture Electronics:
Video Sports VS-1
Video Sports VS-5
Video Sports VS-7

Foreign:

Binatone:
TV Master MK IV

Commodore:
TV Game 2000K
TV Game 3000H
Colorsport VIII

Epoch Co:
TV Tennis Electrotennis

Granada:
Colorsport VIII

Interton:
Video 2000
Video 2400
Video 2501
Video 2800
Video 3000

MBO:
Tele-Ball
Tele-Ball II
Tele-Ball III
Tele-Ball IV
Tele-Ball V
Tele-Ball VI
Tele-Ball VII
Tele-Ball VIII
Tele-Ball IX

Nintendo:
Color TV Game 6
Color TV Game 15
Color TV Game 112
Color TV Game Block Breaker
Computer TV Game

Philco Ford:
Telejogo
Telejogo II

Philips:
Tele-Spiel ES2203
Tele-Spiel ES2204
Tele-Spiel ES2218
Tele-Spiel ES2208
N30
Odyssey 2001
Odyssey 2100

VEB Kombinat Mikroelektronik Erfurt:
BSS 01

Videomaster:
Strika
Strika 2
Colourscore
Colourscore 2
SuperScore
Sportsworld
VisionScore
ColourShot

Videoton:
TV jatek

Zanussi:
Ping-o-Tronic

[AdamAnt316]

Cool list! Does the Bentley Compu-Vision (http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=3&c=1026) count? I know it was released around the time of the second Video Game Crash, but it uses the standard GI AY-3-8500 'Pong-on-a-chip' IC, and is basically a first-gen system released about seven years too late.......... :roll:
-Adam

[WelcomeToTheNextLevel]

Wow, 138 Gen 1 consoles. It's interesting to see some future big names in video gaming in there (Atari, Nintendo, Commodore, Coleco to a lesser extent) and so many companies I've never heard of.

Also the majority of these consoles popped up in just a couple years (~1975-1977). It's easy to see why the PONG market was saturated by 1977. By 1979, the Atari 2600 (then VCS) would clear this PONG craze away.

AVGN once made an episode about PONG consoles, he said, and I quote "That's why they made a home PONG console, so you could play it at home. And then, there was another one. And another one. And another one. AND ANOTHER ONE! AND ANOTHER ONE! AND ANOTHER ONE! There was like 9 million fuckin' PONG consoles!"

[Dastari]

Cool list! Does the Bentley Compu-Vision (http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=3&c=1026) count? I know it was released around the time of the second Video Game Crash, but it uses the standard GI AY-3-8500 'Pong-on-a-chip' IC, and is basically a first-gen system released about seven years too late.......... :roll:
-Adam

From everything that I see, it appears that the date that the system was made is what counts for generation, even if the tech is old tech. That's why the Atari Flashbacks are considered part of later generations even though they are dedicated console systems, which should put them in GEN 1. That's an interesting philosophical point, though, and one which I need to think about.


Wow, 138 Gen 1 consoles. It's interesting to see some future big names in video gaming in there (Atari, Nintendo, Commodore, Coleco to a lesser extent) and so many companies I've never heard of.

Also the majority of these consoles popped up in just a couple years (~1975-1977). It's easy to see why the PONG market was saturated by 1977. By 1979, the Atari 2600 (then VCS) would clear this PONG craze away.

AVGN once made an episode about PONG consoles, he said, and I quote "That's why they made a home PONG console, so you could play it at home. And then, there was another one. And another one. And another one. AND ANOTHER ONE! AND ANOTHER ONE! AND ANOTHER ONE! There was like 9 million fuckin' PONG consoles!"

Yeah, I'm kind of amazed by how many there are myself. Someone on Atariage has added a few more as well, although I'm going to wait a bit before re-releasing the list to see if I get any more.

The funny thing is that the original Odyssey did a lot more than play Pong. They really tried to create system that did a lot of things from shooting games to educational games to maze games to gambling games. Yeah probably a third of them were Pong-style games, but at least it did more. It's just that most of what followed after it were far cheaper systems that only played Pong. Towards the end of Gen 1 you see some interesting things like shooting games coming back and you see some racing game or tank war style games, but it was mostly Pong clones until the Channel F and the 2600 came by.

[Dastari]

Update:

I've discovered a better reference here. I find the Pong Story website difficult to navigate. It's not incredibly user friendly, but it looks like David Winter has created his own comprehensive list, which shows me how little we all know about Gen 1.

http://www.pong-story.com/mypongs.htm