website/content/museum/coleco-telstar-colormatic-model-6130.md

title, categories, origins, years, params

title	categories	origins	years	params
Coleco Telstar Colormatic - Model #6130	Pongs	U.S.A.	1977	name image company company_name specs tabs forum_thread photos links related oc_id source Telstar Colormatic - Model #6130 /media/museum/photos/coleco_telstar_colormatic.jpg /companies/coleco Coleco label value NAME Telstar Colormatic - Model #6130 label value MANUFACTURER Coleco label value ORIGIN U.S.A. label value YEAR 1977 label value BUILT IN LANGUAGE 1 - Tennis (2 players)\ 2 - Hockey (2 players)\ 3 - Handball (1 players)\ 4 - Jai-Alai (2 player) label value KEYBOARD Two detachable paddles with dials label value CPU General Instruments AY-3-8500 Pong chip & Texas Instruments SN76499N color graphics processor label value SPEED Reset label value CO-PROCESSOR Difficulty Beginner/intermediate/Pro, Game selection, on/off switch label value RAM On screen label value COLORS Yes, one different background color for each game label value SOUND On board speaker, 3 different sounds label value I/O PORTS RF TV video output label value OS Yes label value POWER SUPPLY 9v DC label value PERIPHERALS No label value PRICE Unknown photos links 652 title subtitle text image BOX /media/museum/photos/coleco_telstar_colormatic_box.jpg title url text The story of the Telstar systems http://www.pong-story.com/coleco.htm PONG STORY.COM has nice pages dedicated to the Telstar systems /museum/coleco-telstar /museum/coleco-telstar-classic-model-6045 /museum/coleco-telstar-colortron /museum/coleco-telstar-ranger 668 url date https://web.archive.org/web/20230613152851/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=668 2023-06-13

After the release of the Telstar (the first "dedicated-chip" pong system) in 1976 which was a big success, Coleco conceived a whole range of pongs for release at Christmas 1977.

This unit was essentially the same as the Telstar Alpha, with a designed woodgrain finish. However it has the distinction of being the first Coleco unit with detached controllers and color graphics (box says "different color for each game"). The controllers are nice and small with long cords. They are connected to the unit through standard RCA plugs.

This unit allows 4 games (Tennis, Hockey, Handball and Jai-Alai). There's a 3 positions switch that controls difficulty (beginner : slow ball, big paddles / advanced : fast ball, big paddles / expert : fast ball, small paddles). If this is common to the first Telstars, this is quite different from most of the other pong systems which offer individual settings.