Old school game system

With all of the Pong home console knockoffs, another electronics manufacturer, Commodore, decided to enter the fray in with the release of the Commodore TV Game K and H. However, the K has an additional port, a black plastic case, and no built-in controller — the H had one built-in controller and an additional port for a second controller. There were four games available for the Commodore TV Game series, including Tennis, Football, Squash, and Game mira, which could be played with the optional optical gun.

According to the manuals that come with the Commodore TV Game consoles, each game has a different background color other than the standard black of most home video games of the time. Coleco ended up selling about 1 million Telstar consoles during its first year on the market, an amazing feat considering how cluttered the Pong-like home game console was.

In addition to all of the various games and difficulty settings, games on the Telstar could be played in color. Although several consoles were out in Europe at the time, including the Magnavox Odyssey, Dutch electronics manufacturer released its own home gaming console, the Tele-Spiel ES in late The Tele-Spiel was a cartridge-based system and only came with the Tennis catridge.

The additional game cartridges on top of an expensive system contributed to the low sales and unpopularity of the Tele-Spiel. Due to this, the first Tele-Spiel model was discontinued in and replaced with better models. Philips released four more game cartridges for the Tele-Spiel , including Ghostchaser, Racing, Pelota, and Skeet shooting. Pong was not only one of the o ldest video games released, it was a smash hit from the start.

While the first official Pong home console was not released until , every game console that came before featured one game and variations , Tennis, which was essentially Pong.

Pong finally entered the home video game market in time for Christmas in with the release Home Pong sold through Sears. Sears order , units and every one was sold. Atari released a more advanced home system in called Super PONG, which came with detachable controllers and allowed different games to be played.

Electotennis by Japanese toy and computer game company Epoch, was released on September 12, In Japan, Electrotennis was simply known as Television Tennis. The Electrotennis console is powered by four batteries and comes with a small receiver that needs to be connected to a TV.

With its built-in antenna, the Electrotennis console transmitted a signal to the receiver, allowing the system to function without any wires. The Electrotennis version of Tennis allows players to move the bats in and out as well as up and down, something most systems from the time could not do.

Both the Atari Flashback 8 and Flashback 9 are easy to find today from Kohls and Walmart, but obviously, we prefer the 8, which is a major trip down memory lane. The entire Atari Flashback line began in when Atari had the genius idea of bringing its vintage arcade and cartridge classics to a pre-loaded console.

Plug and play more than games like Space Invaders and Pitfall! Talk about retro, the miniature Nintendo Super NES Classic available today shrinks down the groundbreaking console that introduced us to our first Goomba stomp. Even the beautifully basic controller brings us to tears with its minimalist keys and rectangular shape. Plug in, power-on, and get all the throwback feels.

Reasons to avoid - Controller cords still inexplicably short. Image 1 of 3. Reasons to avoid - Controllers don't really hold up. PlayStation Classic. Specifications Plays: 20 PS1 games. Reasons to avoid Image 1 of 5. Image 2 of 5. Image 3 of 5. Image 4 of 5. Image 5 of 5. Reasons to avoid - Titles arguably spread over too many cartridges. Retro-Bit Super Retro-cade.

Specifications Plays: 95 built-in arcade games. Reasons to avoid - Not as slick as some first-party consoles. Atari Flashback 8 Gold Deluxe. Specifications Plays: built-in Atari games. C64 Mini. Specifications Plays: 64 built-in games.

Reasons to avoid - Missing some C64 classics. NES Classic. Specifications Plays: 30 built-in NES games. Capcom Home Arcade. Specifications Plays: Capcom arcade games. Reasons to avoid - Expensive. Neo-Geo Mini. Specifications Plays: 40 built-in games. Reasons to avoid - Doesn't look good on TV. Benjamin Abbott. See comments. Gaming deals, prizes and latest news. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands.

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