Pong Hard Case and Pong Console and Manual Variation Need Info!

[+swlovinist]

I won an auction on ebay for a Tele-Games Pong in a hard case. I cant find anything about the case. I have only seen a few before, but do not know anything about them. Price, how they were sold, were they offical product or third party etc. The auction came with a pong console that is different than the other tele-games models I have. The auction included a manual that also is different than the one I have. The manual has "Tele-Game" on it vs Tele-Games as well as some other variations. The pong unit has silver colored border around the white top on the unit. Any info about any of this would be most appreciated.

[Curt Vendel]

I've Asked Al Alcorn about them and he gave no explanation. I have 2 of them to date.

[ianoid]

I think I have seen the case once before. Pretty cool. As far as the manual variant, I don't keep track of those, but perhaps it's just from an early run. They probably did runs of 10,000 units or 25,000 units and with each revision made minor changes to various things like the manual or box or even the console, although they probably stayed away from altering the mold since it would be cost prohibitive.

[+sramirez2008]

That’s one cool case.

[Atari_Bill]

So youre the one that beat me out on that. I thought it was very interesting but too many irons in the fire on eBay so to speak. Enjoy. Thats a cool piece.

[slydc]

The Tele-Games Pong unit you have is one of the first ever model, as it has silver borders and then decided to scrap that for production costs and

how to tell if you have an early version ? very simple, the On/Off switch has it has "Atari" written on it and Sears didn't liked that so they just taken

off the plastic cover switch for another production cost.

 

So any "Atari" on/off button are from the first batches produced. And as for the carrying/traveling case, this one was made by an "unknown as yet"

third-party as it wasn't officially sold by Sears and Atari. Same thing as a carrying/travelling case for the Atari 2600 and the carrying case for the

Magnavox Odyssey (1). Robotkingnes (aka magnavoxodysseyspecialist on Ebay) had a carrying case and a Sears Tele-Games Pong with the

"Atari on/off switch" (back in May 13, 2010) and the serial number was 59423.

 

S hats off to you John, you just brought one of the earliest Tele-Games Pong model (as it has a silver lining) !

[BassGuitari]

Interesting. I thought the Atari switch was just a cap that often got removed and lost--I didn't know they were actually dropped from production at some point.

 

The silver trim, I don't know if I've seen before. I've seen a couple of the carry cases before, though. Sadly, I don't have any information on this stuff, though.

[+swlovinist]

The Tele-Games Pong unit you have is one of the first ever model, as it has silver borders and then decided to scrap that for production costs and

how to tell if you have an early version ? very simple, the On/Off switch has it has "Atari" written on it and Sears didn't liked that so they just taken

off the plastic cover switch for another production cost.

 

So any "Atari" on/off button are from the first batches produced. And as for the carrying/traveling case, this one was made by an "unknown as yet"

third-party as it wasn't officially sold by Sears and Atari. Same thing as a carrying/travelling case for the Atari 2600 and the carrying case for the

Magnavox Odyssey (1). Robotkingnes (aka magnavoxodysseyspecialist on Ebay) had a carrying case and a Sears Tele-Games Pong with the

"Atari on/off switch" (back in May 13, 2010) and the serial number was 59423.

 

S hats off to you John, you just brought one of the earliest Tele-Games Pong model (as it has a silver lining) !

 

 

Thanks for the info.

[Atari_Bill]

Finally found one of these myself.  Glad to finally find one.  

[BassGuitari]

There's one of these silver-trimmed units on eBay right now, if anyone's looking for one. It'll need a little cleaning, but it works. "OBO" but even the BIN isn't too bad compared to what eBayers typically charge for regular Tele-Games Pongs.

 

 

[Atari_Bill]

Good eye. The silver is worn enough that I didn’t even see it.  

[BassGuitari]

56 minutes ago, Atari_Bill said:

Good eye. The silver is worn enough that I didn’t even see it.  

Yeah, that'll need some touching up. Same with the "Atari" power switch cap.

[GrizzLee]

Interesting. My Pong Case came with a Sears Telegames unit.. Newer I suspect. No chrome. It also came with a sears battery eliminator. It too, has the Atari Switch.

 

I actually asked about the case when I found it many years ago and no one responded. I assume it is quite rare. Its a nice little momento for my collection.

Original post (Pong Suitcase)

 

Edited July 14, 2020 by GrizzLee
added link

[Atari_Bill]

1 hour ago, GrizzLee said:

Interesting. My Pong Case came with a Sears Telegames unit.. Newer I suspect. No chrome. It also came with a sears battery eliminator. It too, has the Atari Switch.

 

I actually asked about the case when I found it many years ago and no one responded. I assume it is quite rare. Its a nice little momento for my collection.

Original post (Pong Suitcase)

 

I know of 3 collectors now who got the Sears unit with the hard case.  Really starting to think this may have been a Sears item.  No real way to prove that however.

[BassGuitari]

11 hours ago, GrizzLee said:

Interesting. My Pong Case came with a Sears Telegames unit.. Newer I suspect. No chrome. It also came with a sears battery eliminator. It too, has the Atari Switch.

 

I actually asked about the case when I found it many years ago and no one responded. I assume it is quite rare. Its a nice little momento for my collection.

Original post (Pong Suitcase)

 

It is indeed rare! Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be much information on it. It would be great to hear from somebody who originally had one of these in the '70s to shed a little more light on them. Are there any spaces or compartments that look like they might fit the wedge-shaped paddle controllers that came with the Super Pong Ten (and Pro-Am Ten) or various Sears Tele-Games Super Pong units? If it was designed with those later models in mind, it could provide a clue as to when it was released (then again, maybe not, since those all came out in 1976! ?). Do you know if an Ultra Pong or Pro-Am will properly fit?

 

11 hours ago, Atari_Bill said:

I know of 3 collectors now who got the Sears unit with the hard case.  Really starting to think this may have been a Sears item.  No real way to prove that however.

The cases have been known to crop up with Atari systems as well. Not that this necessarily rules out the possibility that the cases were Sears exclusives, though. We just don't have enough information. I suspect that if it was, though, a Sears or Tele-Games logo would probably be embossed on it somewhere.

[Atari_Bill]

7 hours ago, BassGuitari said:

 

It is indeed rare! Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be much information on it. It would be great to hear from somebody who originally had one of these in the '70s to shed a little more light on them. Are there any spaces or compartments that look like they might fit the wedge-shaped paddle controllers that came with the Super Pong Ten (and Pro-Am Ten) or various Sears Tele-Games Super Pong units? If it was designed with those later models in mind, it could provide a clue as to when it was released (then again, maybe not, since those all came out in 1976! ?). Do you know if an Ultra Pong or Pro-Am will properly fit?

 

The cases have been known to crop up with Atari systems as well. Not that this necessarily rules out the possibility that the cases were Sears exclusives, though. We just don't have enough information. I suspect that if it was, though, a Sears or Tele-Games logo would probably be embossed on it somewhere.

I agree that a Sears logo was on pretty much everything they sold so it’s probably not a Sears exclusive.  I’d love to find someone that owned one of these in the day.  BTW there is no extra space in the case for controllers.  It was obviously designed for the original units. 

[BassGuitari]

Playing some "I Spy" with the vintage ad scans at SpriteCell's Catalog and Circular Ad Project, I spotted a listing for the Pong Carry Case in the 1976 Sears Fall/Winter Catalog hiding out in the listing for Pong. It doesn't really clear much up that we didn't already know ("probably" sold by Sears is upgraded to "definitely," although exclusivity is still indeterminate), but it's cool to find some contemporary record of it in print!

 

[Atari_Bill]

Nice!   Thanks for the confirmation.  Probably still unlikely to be a Sears exclusive, but this is nice to know.