The Coleco Telstar Arcade, commonly abbreviated as Telstar Arcade, is a

first-generation First generation, Generation I, or variants of this, may refer to: History * 1G, the first generation of wireless telephone technology * First generation of video game consoles, 1972–1983 * First generation computer, a vacuum-tube computer M ...

home video game console A home video game console is a video game console that is designed to be connected to a display device, such as a television, and an external power source as to play video games. While initial consoles were dedicated units with only a few game ...

that was released in 1977 in Japan, North America and Europe by

Coleco Coleco Industries, Inc. ( ) was an American company founded in 1932 by Maurice Greenberg as The Connecticut Leather Company. The name "COLECO" is an abbreviation derived from the company's original name which combines the first two letters of "C ...

. It is the most advanced video game console in the

Coleco Telstar series The Coleco Telstar brand is a series of dedicated first-generation home video game consoles produced, released and marketed by Coleco from 1976 to 1978. Starting with Coleco Telstar ''Pong'' clone based video game console on General Instrument's ...

, based on the MOS Technology MPS-7600-00x chips series. Each chip is a

microcontroller A microcontroller (MC, uC, or μC) or microcontroller unit (MCU) is a small computer on a single integrated circuit. A microcontroller contains one or more CPUs (processor cores) along with memory and programmable input/output peripherals. Pro ...

capable of storing 512 words of ROM.

Construction and concept

The Coleco Telstar Arcade is formed like a

triangle A triangle is a polygon with three corners and three sides, one of the basic shapes in geometry. The corners, also called ''vertices'', are zero-dimensional points while the sides connecting them, also called ''edges'', are one-dimension ...

. On every side are other game-specific controls. There is a side with a steering wheel and a lever, a side with a

lightgun A light gun is a pointing device for computers and a control device for arcade and video games, typically shaped to resemble a pistol. Early history The first light guns were produced in the 1930s, following the development of light-sensin ...

, and a side with two

paddles A paddle is a handheld tool with an elongated handle and a flat, widened end (the ''blade'') used as a lever to apply force onto the bladed end. It most commonly describes a completely handheld tool used to propel a human-powered watercraft by p ...

. Depending on the game played, the player may use another side.

Games

The games came on silver-colored cartridges, each containing a MOS Technology MPS-7600-00X chip. There were a total of 4 cartridges released for the system by Coleco. Every cartridge has a triangular shape which connects on the top of the console. All games: * Cartridge 1: ''Road Race'' (1 player), ''Tennis'' (''

Pong ''Pong'' is a 1972 sports video game developed and published by Atari for arcades. It is one of the earliest arcade video games; it was created by Allan Alcorn as a training exercise assigned to him by Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell, but B ...

'' clone; 2-4 players) and ''Quickdraw'' (chip MPS 7600–002; 1-2 players) * Cartridge 2: ''Hockey'' (2-4 players), ''Tennis'' (2-4 players), ''Handball'' (1-2 players) and ''Target'' (chip MPS 7600–001; 1 player) * Cartridge 3: ''Bonus Pinball'' (1-2 players), ''Shooting Gallery'' (1 player), ''Shoot the Bear'' (1 player) and ''Deluxe Pinball'' (chip MPS 7600–004; 1-2 players) * Cartridge 4: ''Naval Battle'' (1 player), ''Blast Away'' (1 player) and ''Speedball'' (chip MPS 7600–003; 1 player)

References

Coleco consoles First-generation video game consoles Discontinued video game consoles Home video game consoles Light guns Pong variations Products introduced in 1977 1970s toys 1977 in video gaming {{videogame-hardware-stub