Before cartridges who had the nicest pong console?

[courtesi96]

Title says all. I've been getting nostalgic watching all the pong commercial videos and thought about getting one. However there is quite a range of pong consoles out there. What are the better ones?

[NoahsMyBro]

I don't know which were the nicest, but I remember thinking the one I had was far and away the nicest Pong you could get. Of course, I probably didn't know about most of the others, and was only 7 or 8 years old, so I didn't know anything.

Having said that, I still think I had a very nice Pong set. I think it was called the Unisonic 2000.

I found it here: http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?...ayphotohosting

Also: http://www.vidgame.net/PONG/tourny2000.htm

I thought this was a cream-of-the-crop Pong. Of course, being kids my brother and I tended to leave the controllers out, on the floor, and sooner or later the knobs broke off of both controllers after being stepped on. Over the last decade or so, every time I've seen one of these units in person or online, the knobs are broken, so I'm guessing this was a common occurence. After the knobs broke off there was still a small stub of metal that could be used easily, so we still played the game a lot.

[Sweater Fish Deluxe]

I think the Atari ones are really the best. Or actually, the Tele-Games versions are usually a little nicer in terms of physical design, in my opinion. The only three pongs I have any more are all from them.

First, I've got the original Tele-Games C-100 unit from 1975, this is just historical and also has this pseudo-color things going on that's way cooler than the later units with "real" color.

Second, I've got a Tele-Games Speedway IV. In addition to the Street Racer-esque game, which is cool as a bonus, this ones got all the pong variations you could ask for. It also has four modular controllers depite keeping the same basic design as the C-100 units.

Lastly, there's the Tele-Games Breakaway unit that has breakout and video pinball on it, though no pong at all. This is actually my favorite pong.

Magnovox Odyssey series of pong units are also kind of cool since they actually have three anaolg knobs for controlling horizontal and vertical movement as well as "english" on the ball. That would have been way cool if it were easier to control (a mini trackball for movement together with a single knob for english would have been perfect). The units are also totally huge and not very pretty.

Other than the systems form Atari and Magnavox, almost every pong system you see is actually going to have exactly the same internal design based on the famous pong-on-a-chip from General Instruments. This includes the Coleco Telstar, Radio Shack, APF, Wonder Wizard, etc., so it's just a matter of which case design you like best and whether you want the lightgun games to be available.

There's also a handful of really unique pongs from unheard of companies, some of which had totally unique designs or were even hand soldered, but those are all really rare. I've never seen any of them in in the wild. Check out http://www.pong-story.com if you haven't already.


...word is bondage...

[MachineGex]

I don't know the name of it but we had one that was a four player pong system. That was fun because more people could play.(<---Obvious statement of the year) I am pretty sure it came from sears, like all my xmas presents from the 70's.

I did find my old Magnavox 3000 pong system(still in the box), although it is only a 2 player. My 4 year son thought it was really cool for about 2 days. I still love playing most any system from the 70's.

[Lady Jaye]

I thought the question was about visual design. Because I would have answered Nintendo's Color TV Game 6 (which was a nice orange hue, known as Spice Orange among the Gamecube hues).

[courtesi96]

I thought the question was about visual design.

I'm sorry I should have been more specific

Visual design is great; but also important is reliability, video/image quality, controllers.

Controllers can be built into the console and I'm ok with that. Wired controllers are also ok as long as the cord isn't crazy short. I've seen some wired pong controllers so short I'd often say to myself, 'why bother?'

[Sweater Fish Deluxe]

I thought the question was about visual design. Because I would have answered Nintendo's Color TV Game 6 (which was a nice orange hue, known as Spice Orange among the Gamecube hues).

Or American cheddar among the cheese hues.




...word is bondage...

[Icarus Moonsight]

It was so long ago, and I was very young, 2 years old tops. My dad borrowed a Pong game from a friend he worked with for a while. All I remember is that it was monochrome green and the dials were built-in with the monitor it played on. My very first experience with anything video game and I can barely remember the details... sad. Sentiment is mostly why I think this one is best. If I found something similar in the wild and I got the tingles of faint memory when I saw it, I'd snatch it up in a heartbeat.

[Nikademus1969]

Having said that, I still think I had a very nice Pong set. I think it was called the Unisonic 2000.

I found it here: http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?...ayphotohosting

That's the one my family had! I liked the sliding controls.

Heh...when we got bored with the actual games, my brother and I would use it as the control panel for our "spaceship" blanket forts *lol*

[Lerxstnj]

This is the one I owned as a kid...

http://www.vidgame.net/PONG/TELSTAR.html

[boatofcar]

I too thought this was about the visual aspects of Pong consoles.

I think I've owned two of the worst pong systems ever, the Odyssey 3000 and the Wonder Wizard. The build quality on both of those was awful.

[debian4life]

Coleco Telstar was my first ever video game ever played, so it will always have a place in my heart.

[NES_Rules]

I don't know which were the nicest, but I remember thinking the one I had was far and away the nicest Pong you could get. Of course, I probably didn't know about most of the others, and was only 7 or 8 years old, so I didn't know anything.

Having said that, I still think I had a very nice Pong set. I think it was called the Unisonic 2000.

I found it here: http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?...ayphotohosting

Also: http://www.vidgame.net/PONG/tourny2000.htm

I thought this was a cream-of-the-crop Pong. Of course, being kids my brother and I tended to leave the controllers out, on the floor, and sooner or later the knobs broke off of both controllers after being stepped on. Over the last decade or so, every time I've seen one of these units in person or online, the knobs are broken, so I'm guessing this was a common occurence. After the knobs broke off there was still a small stub of metal that could be used easily, so we still played the game a lot.

I'll second the Tournament 2000, it's got I think 5 different versions of pong plus skeet which you use the lightgun for, which is definitely fun. Plus, the thing looks sweet with all the different knobs and switches in the aluminum case.
Mine still has both knobs, so you can find them with the knobs too.

[Kaboomer]

This was my favorite. I never had it back in the day, but found one boxed in great condition at a swap meet and had quite a few drunkin Pong tourneys. Great four player action and cool psychodelic colors.

http://www.atarihq.com/museum/miscatari/ultrapongd.html