website/content/history/bally-professional-arcade-is-announced.md

title, date, years, topics, params

title	date	years	topics	params
BALLY PROFESSIONAL ARCADE IS ANNOUNCED	1977-09-01	1977	Hardware	when image oc_id source SEPTEMBER 1977 /media/history/images/history_astrocade_1.jpg 22 url date https://web.archive.org/web/20221215134357/http://www.old-computers.com/history/detail.asp?n=22 2022-12-15

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.