Ping-O-Tronic

Ping-O-Tronic

The Ping-O-Tronic (stylized as ping • o • tronic) is a first-generation video game console produced by Zanussi an Italian furniture company, and released under the Sèleco brand in late 1974.[1][2] It was the first Italian video game console, excluding Magnavox Odyssey imports and clones.[3]

It came in an orange and white plastic container with a paddles housing. The control logic is based on three 7400 chips. Usable games are only three similar ones: Pong, Squash/Solo and Automatic/Attract.[3][4] Automatic/Attract was the only game that did not require players and was used by stores to display the game without having anyone play it.[5]

There are several versions of this console, marked by the abbreviations PP-1 up to PP-10. Starting from the PP-5, there was a new slot to which an optical gun could be connected to play a new aiming game. This accessory was called Gun-O-Tronic.[3] The only other known consoles at the time, which allowed the user to play target shooting games were the Magnavox Odyssey and Philips Tele-Spiel ES-2201.[4]

On April 21, 1975, Zanussi obtained the license to implement Pong from Sanders Associates.[2]

Play-O-Tronic

Play-O-Tronic

In 1977, Zanussi produced and sold a new model of a Pong-like console Play-O-Tronic. Unlike the Ping-O-Tronic, which was built with discrete components, the Play-O-Tronic was built from a single AY-3-8500 chip.[4]

The console was also sold in Germany by German mailorder company Quelle, who sold the console under the name UNIVERSUM TV Multi-Spiel. A built-in power supply comes with the system.[6]

Sales

Zanussi reported to have sold 21,514 units of the Play-O-Tronic from October 1, 1977 to December 31, 1977 and earned a total of 620,408,000 lire (US$127,782,334), of which 5.5%, 34,122,440 lire (US$7,028,028) went into rights to Sanders Associates.[2] As of 1983, around 1 million units of both the Ping-O-Tronic and Play-O-Tronic have been sold.[7]

References

  1. ↑ Tristan, Donovan (2010). "Hardware Glossary". Replay, The History Of Video Games. Lewes (Regno Unito): Yellow Ant. ISBN 978-0-9565072-2-8.
  2. 1 2 3 http://pongmuseum.com/news/?content=detail&id=86 Dal sito del Pong Museum
  3. 1 2 3 J. P. Wolf, Mark. The Video Game Explosion: A History from PONG to Playstation and Beyond.
  4. 1 2 3 http://www.pong-story.com/zanussi.htm Dal sito pong-story
  5. ↑ Baker, Kevin. The Ultimate Guide to Classic Game Consoles.
  6. ↑ "Pong Picture Page". pong-picture-page.de. 2012-09-07. Archived from the original on 2012-09-07. Retrieved 2018-07-14.
  7. ↑ "Riapre Sèleco, e la tv torna a parlare l'italiano". Tom's Hardware (in Italian). Retrieved 2018-07-14.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.