--- title: Bally Astrocade categories: - Consoles params: name: Astrocade company: /companies/bally company_name: Bally tabs: - photos - software - emulators - links photos: - title: ASTROCADE BOX subtitle: '' text: '' image: null screenshots: - title: 280 ZZZAP subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: DODGEM subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: SEAWOLF subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: MISSILE subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: RED BARON subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: PANZER ATTACK subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: BRICKYARD subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: CLOWNS subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: STAR BATTLE subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: ASTRO BATTLE subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: DOGPATCH subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: GALACTIC INVASION subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: GALACTIC INVASION subtitle: Box text: '' image: null - title: SPACE FORTRESS subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: GRAND PRIX subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: DESTRUCTION DERBY subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: INCREDIBLE WIZARD subtitle: Wizard of Wor adaptation text: '' image: null - title: COSMIC RAIDER subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: TORNADO BASEBALL subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: TENNIS subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: HOCKEY subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: HANDBALL subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: FOOTBALL subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: BALLY PINBALL (LATER ASTROCADE PINBALL) - GAME 2 subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: BALLY PINBALL (LATER ASTROCADE PINBALL) - GAME 1 subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: BINGO MATH subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: SPEED MATH subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: LETTER MATCH subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: TIC TAC TOE subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: AMAZING MAZE subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: POKER subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: ARTILLERY DUEL subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: ARTILLERY DUEL subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: CASSETTE & OVERLAY subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: BLAST DROIDS subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: CHECKMATE subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: GUNFIGHT subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: MUNCHER subtitle: '' text: Originally Bally's version of Pacman. Not released by Bally due to Atari/Odyssey^2 Law suite. image: null - title: SNEAKY SNAKE subtitle: '' text: '' image: null emulators: - title: MESS emulator url: http://www.mess.org/ platform: Other platform text: MESS emulates the Astrocade links: - title: Astrocade Discussion Group url: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ballyalley/ text: Go there if you want to meet other Astrocade fans - title: Bally Alley url: http://www.ballyalley.com text: Newsletter, program downloads, pictures, documentation and much more - title: Digital Press - Astrocade page url: http://www.digitpress.com/emu/astrocade.htm text: Nice description & ROMs to download - title: Franck's Astrocade site url: http://www.dsplib.com/astrocade/index.html text: Francks programmed the Atrocade part of the MESS emulator. You can find here technical info like Astrocade schematics, commented BIOS source listing and color table... - title: The Bally / Astrocade FAQ url: http://www.glankonian.com/~lance/Ballyfaq.html text: Excellent HTML Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) comments: - author: drag0nneus (United States) date: Wednesday 2nd May 2012 text: Need to find bally astrocade controllers or adapter so I can the system I found. Any one know how to obtain one? Ebay currently has nothing. - author: Terrywe (USA) date: Tuesday 12th September 2006 text: I got a Bally and had lots of fun with it. once I made it talk by recording my voice thru the joystick port, I took the voice & ran it thru an intergrated filter I made to get the voice envelope, then I used the stored envelope to modulate a 500hz tone - author: Jon N. (Los Angeles, CA) date: Wednesday 10th May 2006 text: This was my first arcade video game system, and was my fathers hope that it would be my first computer system as well. When the company told him that they were not going to make the expansion computer module, he immediately returned the unit & demanded a refund on his money. I then was given a TRS-80 Model I for Christmas, '80. Good times. - author: Stan Lee (Earth) date: Monday 24th January 2005 text: Bally now make Talking Pedometers under the name "Bally total Fitness". The logo is the B taken from the beginning of the old Bally logo. (You can find their 'wares in any Brantano Footwear!) oc_id: 712 source: url: https://web.archive.org/web/20221205113622/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=712 date: '2022-12-05' --- In September 1977, Bally, the famous pinball tables manufacturer, announced shortly after the Atari 2600, the **Bally Professional Arcade**. The first versions were shipped in early 1978 for $299. This video game system featured a Z80 processor, three built-in games (Gunfight, Checkmate, Scribbler), a calculator with numeric keypad and up to four controllers that were a unique combination of joystick and paddle, which resembled the grip of a revolver. Furthermore, a BASIC cartridge gave this system the ability to save programs to a cassette tape. For about 6 months, it was thus the world's cheapest computer. Even though is was slightly superior to the competition (Atari VCS), the unit was too expensive and the sales remainded at a low level. In 1982, Bally withdrew the system and sold the rights to Astrovision Inc., a group of users who had enjoyed the system. The console was then reintroduced as the **Bally Computer System**. The same year, the company changed its name - and the system name - to **Astrocade**. After that, Astrocade tried to keep the system alive and marketed it as a video game console for several years. In 1985, the game consoles market crashed and finally, the Astrocade company closed their doors and the Astrocade system disappeared.