Pickups #1

(while I tinker away at other stuff)

I’ve been getting a bunch of stuff lately and I thought I’d share some of the things with you. There are more bits on the way and I’m super excited to get ahold of those too.

Sanyo Portable B&W TV

First up is this delightful Sanyo Portable Deluxe black & white TV. Known by it’s official name as the Model 12-T232. My pal Jim from the Glasgow Barras Market spotted this and grabbed it for me for the princely sum of £15. I didn’t really need this, but as it was cheap, super cute and working, I could work out a need later on. This need was found later on for the next pickup. There’s not much data about this model on the internets apart from the fact it was actually made in Japan (quality) and it’s from the late 70s / early 80s. I also found that it came in two colours - George & Mildred orange and nicotine off white. The plug looked a bit janky with visible AC wires out of the cable clamp, but on closer inspection were actually electrically sound. I trimmed the brown and blue wires to a more economical (safe) length and plugged it in with the next pickup (Colecovision) attached to it’s RF socket. I twiddled the station knob and tuned it into the console. Ahh, I haven’t done that in YEARS. It felt quite good to come across a working picture among all the electrical fuzz and snow. After a few minutes, I could smell something cooking inside the set and the picture would jump and flick sideways slightly. Definitely needs a bit of TLC inside. I have so far, taken it into my work and blew out the MANY dust monkeys with compressed air and ordered capacitors to hopefully sort this wee problem. I’ll keep this TV for testing RF consoles and computers on.

Colecovision & Peripherals

This lot isn’t actually mine. It’s Jim’s from the Retro Hut in the Barras Market. It will all be for sale from him when I have confirmed it all works and have composite modded the main console for him. The following is basically a FULL Colecovision hardware collection, except for the Adam computer, which would be the third ‘Expansion Module’

What you can see in the above picture -

• Colecovision

• Roller Controller

• Super Action Controllers

• Super Expansion Module 1 (Atari 2600 adaptor)

• Super Expansion Module 1 with main console (absolute UNIT)

• Super Expansion Module 2 (Driving controllers x2)

On initial testing with the four original carts that came with it, the unit seems to work quite well, although those nubby controllers are bad. Nearly as bad as the atrocities that Mattel provided with the Intellivision {shudder}. I even tried out a home made pi pico multicart I made recently (for a similar console - coming soon). Alas, after a short while, carts weren’t being read by this aging console. I initially suspected RAM or capacitors, but after a decent cart slot cleaning and blow out, the machine seemed stable. I played a bunch of games for over an hour and all was well in the Coleco world.

The roller controller worked well on Centipede. The super action controllers are weird and a bit flaky. I suspect they just need an internal clean. Very nice condition and comes with the pack in Rocky boxing game in the box. The Super Expansion Module 1 lets you platy Atari 2600 carts with a decent Atari compatible joystick and works really well. I played a good game of Berserk (for testing purposes only, honest guv). I was shocked to see the Expansion Module 2, steering wheel and accelerator pedal needed four ‘C’ type batteries. There is no socket for an external power supply. Amazingly, I had 4x of these batteries in a drawer and tried them out on the Turbo arcade racing game. The pedal seemed to work ok, but the steering did not. On further inspection and testing, one of my ancient batteries had a corroded bottom - not something I’d recommend contracting yourself. The corroded one was measuring much less than 1.5v, so it was bin fodder. I am 3D printing a ‘C’ type to ‘AA’ battery adapter right now. Types ‘D’ (the huge ones), ‘C’ (middle size ones) and both ‘AA’ and ‘AAA’ are all 1.5v batteries, just with different physical sizes and I presume lives. If you can adapt the size to fit / attach to the device you are powering, they will work just fine.

This Coleco lot will now be for sale at the Retro Hut. Contact me and I’ll put you in direct contact with Jim.

Ingersoll a Go Go

(someone must have known someone at the Ingersoll factory)

Loooook at it! It REEKS of 70s goodness. Thankfully, it doesn’t actually smell of the 70s. I love the 60/70s transistor radio / CB Radio stylings of this thing. Videogames were new back then and hadn’t really settled on a particular style by this time, so they just made stuff look like other electronic items. This has 3 game carts that come with it -

• Supersport - Your usual ten very slightly different ‘sport’ Pong games

• Wipeout - Breakout clones (this game is still sealed inside the box. I believe it’s never been used!)

• Shooting Gallery - you need the next item on this blog to play these games.

This particular ‘programmable computer’ game was part of the first generation of home consoles known as the PC-50x family. This Ingersoll unit is known as the XK1010 ‘Battle Command’ Even though there are no ‘space’ games available for it, the box has a very 70s space ship on it (box is quite tatty, but still functional). Only eight game cartridges were released for the PC-50x consoles and are where the actual various Pong variant chips were inside the cart, not part of the main unit. The two screwdriver slot potentiometers you can see in the lower picture are adjustable via holes in the actual cartridge housing for certain games (supersport bat adjustments)

Talking of game cartridges and the Shooting Gallery, these are also with me at the moment.

Master and slave guns. A rather dramatic way of describing player one and two…

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An excellent site from Dylan & Mikayla on the first generation of consoles HERE

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Onto another Pong type unit, again made by Ingersoll -

And again.

Just.

LOOOOOK at it.

Oozes 70s aesthetics. This would blend in perfect with your auntie Lil’s best front room curtains from 1976, or your uncle Dave’s nicotine stained kitchen wallpaper.

This orange Pong beauty was from 1977.

The L and R controllers come out from the main unit on a very thin wire and are dial style controllers. The ‘serve’ buttons are on the main unit. This has the usual Pong variants you see on 90% of this kind of console and also has a few game adjustments switches to change ball speed, deflection angle and bat size.

It looks like ‘that’ person has rested something hot, like a soldering iron against the front of the case of this poor old console. I had a quick file / sand and it looks like it can be buffed away. Such a shame, as this machine is a lovely example of a good old home Pong. Box is quite nice with decent polystyrene inners and the original instruction leaflet. Get in contact if you’d like to give this beauty a new home.

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My First Videogame Console (nearly)

This is the Acetronic MPU2000. Almost identical to the MPU1000 I had when I was about eight or nine years old. These type of consoles are part of the second generation of home video games. It was part of the 1292 Advanced Programmable Video System. This thing is an oddball console, similar in (laughable by today’s standards) power to an Atari VCS or 2600, only with a much crappier game library. This thing had a really odd CPU, a Signetics 2650 running at 0.887MHz with less than 0.1k of memory. The same CPU that Italy’s Zaccaria ‘The Invaders’ arcade game used. It was a (decent) licensed version of Space Invaders, but not the same game at all.

There were loads of these machines produced by a number of manufacturers in different territories. The above machine is almost identical to the MPU1000 and plays exactly the same games, with exactly the same controls and very similar hardware under the hood.

Get the sad violins at the ready, personal story coming up -

My Acetronic MPU1000 was second hand from a family friend and it came to small me with only 4 game cartridges. Invaders, Tank / Plane Battle, Air / Sea Attack and Grand Prix. I played the heck out of Invaders on my 12” black and white TV. I fondly remember it and turning my TV ninety degrees to pretend I was playing Scramble (oh lord, eight year olds are idiots) The kid up the road had an Atari 2600, with it’s superior Space Invaders and Asteroids, but I was pretty happy cycling my ass up to his to play there and back home to play my inferior invaders, with a non centring analog controller. What were they thinking? Probably Pong. Pong needed analog controllers, so probably all video games, yes? No, giant electronic corporations, they did NOT.

This game, as per usual for 70s and 80s TV reliant hardware, is RF video output only. On researching how to composite mod this machine, so I can actually use it on a colour screen (I only have black and white RF TVs), I came across a post on AtariAge from a forum user who was looking for a nicely boxed version of HIS personal childhood video game, an Acetronic MPU2000. He has a bunch of MPU1000s in various working states, with extra loose game carts.

I got in touch and we are working out a swap. He will get a very nice condition boxed example of his old machine and I will get the exact one I had as a kid with a couple of thrown in games. Everyone happy, yay upon yays!

My First Videogame Console (nearly)

(additional)

This next pickup was a bunch of mainly boxed Interton 4000 games. I was hoping that they were compatible with the Acetronic and they sort of are. The game code is compatible, but the cartridge shape is different. I may uncase a game and try it out though…

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YAF (Yet Another Famiclone)

I love a Famiclone.

I love them so much, I often wear Famicologne. Oof. Sorry.

I now have quite a few, so this will probably be the last, unless I ever find my Penguin Famigrail -

If you find one of these, CONTACT ME. Seeing that some lucky swine paid $3.99 at Goodwill for that really bothers me…

Ahem.

This Famiclone is a nice example and isn’t just a glop top single chip on a tiny cheap pcb like most I seem to see these days. This one is a good quality 1:1 copy inside, from what I remember of authentic Famicoms. The case seems rugged and controllers are decent. Having a pile of games built in as well as the usual cartridge slot is an added bonus. I really like the grey styling of this machine, too. The only downside is that it’s RF only, like the original Famicom. If it is a true 1:1 famicom copy, it can be composite modded in exactly the same way. A ten minute tinkering job.