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Thread: Before cartridges who had the nicest pong console?

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    Cherry (Level 1)
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    Default Before cartridges who had the nicest pong console?

    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?
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    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.
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    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.


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    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.

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    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).


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    Cherry (Level 1)
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    Quote Originally Posted by Lady Jaye View Post
    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?'
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    Default Atari Ultra Pong Doubles

    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

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    Quote Originally Posted by Lady Jaye View Post
    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.




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    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.


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    Quote Originally Posted by NoahsMyBro View Post
    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*

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

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

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    Quote Originally Posted by NoahsMyBro View Post
    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.

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    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.

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

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    I wish I could remember which one it is, but I have it hidden away somewhere....I remember being impressed by this unit because it made a pretty impressive psychedelic color pattern on screen at certain points (game over?). Obviously, it was not one of the black and white units. Certainly a later release in the Pong saga.

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    Coleco Telstar Arcade is the Cadillac of Pongs. Yes, it looks like it has carts, but you are switching out the Pong on a chip, so it's not programmable. This machine had it all.

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    Quote Originally Posted by rbudrick View Post
    I wish I could remember which one it is, but I have it hidden away somewhere....I remember being impressed by this unit because it made a pretty impressive psychedelic color pattern on screen at certain points (game over?). Obviously, it was not one of the black and white units. Certainly a later release in the Pong saga.
    Actually, that sounds more like the original Atari/Tele-Games Pong. It has this way of doing color where instead of each object just having a specific color, its color is determined by where on the screen it is, with the whole screen smoothly shifting from pink to green as you move across it. In game, this isn't as noticeable since the ball is the only thing moving, but inbetween games the system puts up this grid of blocks that drift across the screen changing colors as they go. It's a totally cool effect. I guess it was done as a sort of screen saver.

    Quote Originally Posted by Captain Wrong
    Coleco Telstar Arcade is the Cadillac of Pongs. Yes, it looks like it has carts, but you are switching out the Pong on a chip, so it's not programmable. This machine had it all.
    There was actually a whole string of pong machines released (mostly in Europe) that allow you to swap carts that contained different "pong on a chip" ICs and some of them had a lot more cartridges available than the Telstar Arcade. None of them had designs that could even begin to match the Telstar Arcade's triangle of badness, though.


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    There was actually a whole string of pong machines released (mostly in Europe) that allow you to swap carts that contained different "pong on a chip" ICs and some of them had a lot more cartridges available than the Telstar Arcade. None of them had designs that could even begin to match the Telstar Arcade's triangle of badness, though.
    Yeah, I've got some UK one somewhere. I have two carts for it, but I've never played it because I didn't have an AC adapter and there's probably PAL issues...I bet I could play through the video card, though.

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    It's not technically a Pong console, I really liked Atari's Video Pinball standalone. It had the first home version of Breakout - what more could a pre-2600/Odyssey 2 kid ask for?

    A friend of mine, ages ago, had the original "first edition" woodgrain model. Not the more common white, plastic model. I never owned one, unfortunately...

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    Well, I managed to pick up a pong machine today boxed complete. I have to say that overall I am impressed with the overall machine. Asthetically, it is a nice looking machine, with small controllers. Of my pong clones, it it so far my favorite. I still would have to say that the Good ol Pong by Telegames is hard to beat.
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