Was anyone here still playing PONG in the early 80s or later?

[mbd30]

I had read about Pong when I was a kid but never actually played it until I tried a Coleco Telstar. That was...1985 or 86. We were big on Colecovision at the time but loved all games. I wasn't a huge fan but would love to find a nice working unit to revisit. It had three games, one was a one player Handball game. The paddles never seemed to jitter, either.

 

Yeah, I've noticed the jitter whenever I watch a Youtube video with someone playing a Pong console. I assume that most consoles weren't like this originally and it's a result of age.

[jhd]

I vaguely recall seeing a huge pile of the Radio Shack TV Scoreboards in the local store; this would have been ca. 1977. That said, the first video game system that my family bought was a 2600 in about 1981.

 

Around 1990, I saw (and purchased) two Pong systems at local garage/rummage sales for about $1 each. Both worked, but based on the amount of dust, tangled cables, etc., they had been in storage for a long time.

 

I do not recall ever having seen any in action (store demos or at a friend's house) before I bought mine.

[Pixelboy]

I was spoiled on ColecoVision graphics way back in 1982 (Donkey Kong! Venture! Time Pilot! Zaxxon!) so even the early Atari 2600 games were primitive to me, to the point of being unpalatable. So Pong? I wouldn't even look at, let alone play with such a dinosaur as a kid growing up in the 80s.

 

Before the ColecoVision came along, I was playing more with portable electronic games (like Game & Watch or LED games) than with consoles that you could connect to the living room TV. So I skipped the whole Pong phenomenon, both at home and in arcades.

[VectorGamer]

I was spoiled on ColecoVision graphics way back in 1982 (Donkey Kong! Venture! Time Pilot! Zaxxon!) so even the early Atari 2600 games were primitive to me, to the point of being unpalatable. So Pong? I wouldn't even look at, let alone play with such a dinosaur as a kid growing up in the 80s.

 

Before the ColecoVision came along, I was playing more with portable electronic games (like Game & Watch or LED games) than with consoles that you could connect to the living room TV. So I skipped the whole Pong phenomenon, both at home and in arcades.

 

Pretty much the same for me. Shit in school we had "Handheld Computer Game Club" where we would sit there in the last period of school playing Mattel's Electronic Football.

 

I wasn't playing home video games until my Dad bought me a 2600 and Space Invaders in 1980. Then my brother bought a ColecoVision in 1982 and from there the 2600 was collecting dust.

 

My gaming prior to getting the 2600 was all in the arcade.

[mbd30]

I never knew anybody who owned a Colecovision. My dad bought us a 2600 in 1983 because the Colecovision was expensive and the 2600 was only $40. My next door neighbor friend had an Intellivision and everybody else I knew had an Atari. (I grew up in a middle class neighborhood in central CA.)

Edited March 28, 2019 by mbd30

[+davidcalgary29]

I occasionally played the family SuperPong until it we dumped it at a moving sale in 1995. It really just sat around in a closet after I got my 800 in 1983, though.

[20ohm20]

I had a Magnavox Odyssey 2000 that I used occasionally until at least 1982-1983.

[CatPix]

Looks like I was the late one to the party here

The paddles never seemed to jitter, either.

It's sheer lazyness when you see that. It take about 0.2 seconds to fix.

One pshit on the potentiometer, turn it about 10 times, redo if needed. and voilà, good as new.

Edited March 28, 2019 by CatPix

[Cynicaster]

I didn't even realize dedicated Pong consoles existed until I got "back into" classic gaming as an adult. Video Olympics and Super Breakout on the 2600 were our solution for Pong-like gameplay, but that type of thing was never a big favorite in our household.

 

Honestly, once the VCS/2600 really took off, it's difficult for me to understand how anybody would be into Pong consoles unless it was their absolute only way to play video games. I mean, that early on, it's not as if there would be a nostalgia component to drive it.

 

As retro gamers we all appreciate simplicity in gameplay, which is a big reason why we continue to play 30-40 year-old games when brand new ones are readily available. But, at least for me, there is a threshold representing the lower limit of game complexity that needs to be crossed in order for my interest to be held. Lots of games from the pre-crash era cross that threshold for me, but Pong does not. It's just too primitive.

[mr_me]

The cartridges available for the Atari 2600 and similar systems in the first couple of years were not all that impressive. Even when the space invaders cartridge had come out, that game had already lost interest in the arcades. The unit and cartridges were also expensive compared to a dedicated pong console. Few families could afford a video computer system, but everyone could afford a dedicated pong system. The hockey/soccer variant of pong was and is always fun.

Edited March 29, 2019 by mr_me

[CatPix]

I remember reading that Atari even had planned to discontinue the VCS in 1980 because it was supposed to be a "stop-gap system" because their Atari 8 bits console wasn't ready to be released (too expensive be be sold as a console) but by 1980 it took on and got really popular.

Edited March 29, 2019 by CatPix

[mr_me]

The VCS wasn't meant to be a "stop-gap" product. It just sold poorly the first couple of years. The rumour was they were considering to discontinue the VCS but the space invaders cartridge came out and console sales took off. Initially, the Atari 400 wasn't supposed to have a keyboard and was going to be the VCS replacement. Warner didn't know what they were doing. Had the space invaders cartridge not saved the vcs would warner have even released the atari 800/400.

Edited March 29, 2019 by mr_me

[DragonGrafx-16]

I saw a Pong system at a thrift store today but they wanted $40 for it. I wasn't going to buy it at that price when I already have a 2600 and Video Olympics.

[+frankodragon]

I remember in the late 70's I was only 3 or 4 years old and I was at someone's house with a clone Pong machine. Although at that time, I couldn't read and the person told me how to turn it on. I still couldn't understand but it must of been my first exposure to a Pong machine.

[0078265317]

I never knew anybody who owned a Colecovision. My dad bought us a 2600 in 1983 because the Colecovision was expensive and the 2600 was only $40. My next door neighbor friend had an Intellivision and everybody else I knew had an Atari. (I grew up in a middle class neighborhood in central CA.)

40 bucks? Brand new?

[mbd30]

40 bucks? Brand new?

 

I remember it being $40 new. This was around 1983 when it was being heavily discounted.

 

Granted my memory could be wrong. I was 7.

Edited March 29, 2019 by mbd30

[Blazing Lazers]

Back in the 90s I did see a Pong clone still hooked up to an older TV at somebody's house. The people there have since moved, but I'm sure that there's got to be a few units still hooked up out in the wild. There are plenty of time-capsule homes where nothing is ever changed.

 

I still see VCRs hooked up from time to time, even on newer flatscreen sets. They're just an easier way to record for some older folks.

 

Quite a few houses still have CRT sets, though they're usually in basements or spare bedrooms. A few years ago I even saw an NES still hooked up to one, and it had obviously been that way since the 80s. Probably hadn't been turned on in years, but it was still sitting there.

[mbd30]

Back in the 90s I did see a Pong clone still hooked up to an older TV at somebody's house. The people there have since moved, but I'm sure that there's got to be a few units still hooked up out in the wild. There are plenty of time-capsule homes where nothing is ever changed.

 

I still see VCRs hooked up from time to time, even on newer flatscreen sets. They're just an easier way to record for some older folks.

 

Quite a few houses still have CRT sets, though they're usually in basements or spare bedrooms. A few years ago I even saw an NES still hooked up to one, and it had obviously been that way since the 80s. Probably hadn't been turned on in years, but it was still sitting there.

 

I still have a CRT in my bedroom with a NES hooked up. It's the only way to play without lag!

 

The rest of the house is all flat screens though.

[Newsdee]

I had some kind of Pong paddles that connected to the TV in the early 80s, thought I don't remember when it was bought. It had 4 or 5 games on it including one-player "squash" against a wall. It had no brand but it was a couple of rectangular paddles which connected to the TV via RF. Like an early version of those TV-only game devices with retro games.

 

Along the same time I had that brown Mattel Soccer handheld. My first console and portabke gaming systems

 

I still have both but they aren't working, sadly. Still cool gadgets to have on the shelf.

Edited April 5, 2019 by Newsdee

[CatPix]

Sounds like you're describing this :

Sold all over the world under as many brand as there are countries and probably even more

[mr_me]

In the early 1980s, RF was the only option in north america. I guess, at the time, France could have had composite or rgb.

 

Pong controls varied; most had rotary knobs, some had levers, mine had sliders. I think rotary knobs work best.

Edited April 5, 2019 by mr_me

[CatPix]

Sadly no Pongs here were ever sold with anything else than RF

I guess because of SECAM, French pongs are very often black and white, especially standalone systems. PC-500 carts systems are mostly in colors.

There was even a brand here so proud of their color Pong that they named their console "Video SECAM system" yep. It's the official name

Edited April 5, 2019 by CatPix

[schuwalker]

We had one of these Pong clone toys.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWGUUymg_cY

[+wongojack]

This thread has turned out to be quite interesting. I like seeing the exotic pong systems, and I've never seen that TV Tennis toy before in the YouTube vid.

[mr_me]

I new a kid that had everything, including that mechanical pong in the video. That goes back to the 1970s and was likely off the market by 1980.