Game Consoles Made in the USA

[Rick Dangerous]

Hey everyone, I was wondering recently how many game consoles were actually manufactured in the USA. This is all I have so far, but I'm assuming some other early ones were. The last was likely the Jaguar. Thanks

 

-Early Atari 2600's (Sunnyvale, CA)

 

-Colecovision (New York)

 

-Atari Jaguar (North Carolina by IBM)

 

What am I missing?

[high voltage]

Magnavox Odyssey?

[+save2600]

I'm sure several (handful maybe?) of the early Pong units were made here.

 

And wasn't the Bally Astrocade made here?

[Rick Dangerous]

Fairchild Channel F? Fairchild is a US company

[BassGuitari]

Fairchild Channel F? Fairchild is a US company

Since when do American companies build shit in America?

 

Not sure about the Channel F offhand, but IIRC the Studio II was made in New Jersey...so there's that.

[gamecat80]

Many of the American game consoles were manufactured in Asia -- usually Hong Kong or Taiwan. But a few were manufactured/assembled here, previously mentioned above.

My Bally Astrocade (Computer System model) says: "Astrovision, Inc. Garner, Iowa" on the bottom.

 

 

How about game console companies which were based in the US, having their main office/headquarters located here:

 

-Atari (Pong units, 2600, 5200, 7800, Jaguar, Lynx)

-Astrovision (Astrocade & it's variant names)

-Coleco (ColecoVision, Pong units, tabletops)

-Mattel (Intellivision & it's various models)

-Emerson (Arcadia 2001)

-Fairchild Semiconductor (Channel F)

 

I'm sure there are others. And the list doubles when you add computer companies.

 

Magnovox was an American electronics company bought by Philips, a Dutch company, in the early 70s, right after the original Odyssey came out. Ralph Baer, a German immigrant to the US, was the developer of the original Odyssey. Ed Averett was the main developer/engineer behind the Odyssey 2 and many of it's games.

 

It becomes even more interesting when you find out what hardware chips were used in these old game consoles.

[128Kgames]

Just an FYI there never was a "Bally Astrocade", the consoles were the Bally Home Library Computer, Bally Professional Arcade, Bally Computer System and lastly Astrocade The Professional Arcade, all proudly made here in the good old US of A.

[jhd]

 

How about game console companies which were based in the US, having their main office/headquarters located here:

 

-Emerson (Arcadia 2001)

 

Emerson licensed the Arcadia technology from an unspecified Asian(?) company. Did they actually manufacture the hardware themselves?

 

 

An article from the "Wall Street Journal" business newspaper

April 9, 1982 issue. Page 4, column 1

Complete article text:

"Emerson Radio Corp. says it plans to market a foreign-made game console and 20 game cartridges under the name of Arcadia 2001 by Emerson, which are expected to generate about $15 million in revenue between July 1 and December 31... It declined to identify the maker of the video console and games".

 

http://www.digitpress.com/faq/arc2001.htm#wallstreet

[+save2600]

Just an FYI there never was a "Bally Astrocade", the consoles were the Bally Home Library Computer, Bally Professional Arcade, Bally Computer System and lastly Astrocade The Professional Arcade, all proudly made here in the good old US of A.

 

Haha, I know - but it's the way I've (and most apparently) come to think of the Astrocade. Do a search on eBay for Bally Professional Arcade, etc. and you'll see the most relevant hits seem to be Bally Astrocade.

[Blazing Lazers]

RCA manufactured the Studio IIs at their factory in Swannanoa, NC. There's an entire thread here that begins with an interview with the former production manager. It's definitely worth reading through.

[CatPix]

 

Emerson licensed the Arcadia technology from an unspecified Asian(?) company. Did they actually manufacture the hardware themselves?

 

 

An article from the "Wall Street Journal" business newspaper

April 9, 1982 issue. Page 4, column 1

Complete article text:

"Emerson Radio Corp. says it plans to market a foreign-made game console and 20 game cartridges under the name of Arcadia 2001 by Emerson, which are expected to generate about $15 million in revenue between July 1 and December 31... It declined to identify the maker of the video console and games".

 

http://www.digitpress.com/faq/arc2001.htm#wallstreet

 

The hardware design was made by Philips (the Signetics company beloged to them, and they wanted to promote those chips with a video application) and as far as I know, the Euroclones were made by the Taïwanese company Soundic.

Most of the "generic games" were programmed in Asia. As for the licenced games, I do'nt know, but Asia seems a good answer too.