Telstar Arcade - Is it a true programmable console?

[NeoZeedeater]

The Telstar Arcade often gets left out console timelines and I'm wondering why. It says "programmable" on the box so I figure it belongs with the other programmables and not with the home Pongs, earlier Telstars and other dedicated systems.

Is there some technical reason I'm missing or is the limited number of games the reason it usually gets excluded?

[Captain Wrong]

It's not programmable. Each of the game carts is actually a different "pong on a chip" variant. The guts to the system are little more than connections to the power, AV and controllers. There's no internal processing.

[NeoZeedeater]

Thanks. That makes sense. The box must have false advertising on it then unless they meant something else.

[Ed Oscuro]

It's not programmable. Each of the game carts is actually a different "pong on a chip" variant. The guts to the system are little more than connections to the power, AV and controllers. There's no internal processing.

Interesting, I thought the chips merely activated a chip in the console. The Telstar Arcade, despite its lack of prorgrammability, was one of the first consoles to use "a dedicated game chip" (nice link).

[Captain Wrong]

It's not programmable. Each of the game carts is actually a different "pong on a chip" variant. The guts to the system are little more than connections to the power, AV and controllers. There's no internal processing.

Interesting, I thought the chips merely activated a chip in the console.

That's kind of how the Odyssey worked, but no, the Telstar Arcade doesn't have anything without a game cart. It was quite clever (or deceptive, depending on how you look at it) of Coleco to make this the way they did. They got to ride the coattails of the then "next gen" which was programmable carts without actually creating new technology to do so. It was the Cadillac of Pong machines, but, at the end of the day, it was still a Pong type console.

The thing I remember most about our Telstar Arcade, aside from it actually being a ton of fun back in 1978, was the carts were kind of a bitch to change. There was a little lever that would stick and it made the whole thing more difficult than necessary to switch them out.

For strictly nostalgia, I'd love to have one again but I'd never pay what they go for. Same with the original Odyssey.

[Aswald]

Still, it was a cartridge system. The fact that the games in question were limited to crude gun games, racing games, and pong-style games did not really change that. For example, was not a crude form of Super Breakout possible?

[Ed Oscuro]

Still, it was a cartridge system. The fact that the games in question were limited to crude gun games, racing games, and pong-style games did not really change that. For example, was not a crude form of Super Breakout possible?

I would imagine they could actually do nifty things with the console - but they were limited by the fact they only wanted to sell cartridges with the general instruments pong chips; no R&D to make it happen.

[Captain Wrong]

Still, it was a cartridge system. The fact that the games in question were limited to crude gun games, racing games, and pong-style games did not really change that. For example, was not a crude form of Super Breakout possible?

Yes, it was a cartridge system, but not in the same way an Atari VCS or Channel F or RCA Studio II was. There was no processor inside the Telestar Arcade reading the instructions off the cart. The cart was the whole shooting match. If you had the techinal know how, you could take the chip from each of those carts and build a pong system around it. All the Telstar Arcade consisted of was the power, A/V connectors and controllers. Think of it like a Supergun for Pong on a chip chips and you've got the idea.

And yeah, you could do a Super Breakout clone on the system, theoretically. You couldn't sit down and homebrew it though because there's no processing in there. If you knew something about desiging chips, you could make it happen though.

And from what I know about it, you're right Ed. The chips they used were, AFAIK, slightly modified versions of the TI chips. There wasn't much going on there that you couldn't find in a stand alone somewhere, the main pull being it was all in one and they were riding the cartridge coattails as a much lower price. (I don't remember how much ours cost. It didn't hurt that it went on clearance almost instantly either.)