website/content/museum/pizon-bros-visiomatic-101.md

title, categories, origins, years, cpus, params

title	categories	origins	years	cpus	params
Pizon Bros Visiomatic 101	Pongs	France	1977	AY-5-8500-G	name image company company_name specs tabs forum_thread photos adverts oc_id source Visiomatic 101 /media/museum/photos/pizon_visiomatic_101.jpg /companies/pizon-bros Pizon Bros label value NAME Visiomatic 101 label value MANUFACTURER Pizon Bros label value ORIGIN France label value YEAR 1977 label value BUILT IN LANGUAGE Tennis, Hockey, Hockey handicap, Practice, Squash, Ball-trap, Tir cible label value KEYBOARD Two paddles label value CPU AY-5-8500-G label value SPEED Game selections, Serve, Reset, On/off, Ball speed pro/am, Ball angle pro/am, Paddle size pro/am, Service manual/auto, Robot on/off label value CO-PROCESSOR None label value RAM On panel using magnets and on screen label value COLORS Black & white label value SOUND Built-in beeper label value I/O PORTS RF TV video output (2nd and 3rd channel) label value OS 6 x 1,5v cells label value POWER SUPPLY 9v DC label value PERIPHERALS Yes, sold with the system. In fact a pistol wich can be turned into a shotgun photos adverts 699 title subtitle text image VISIOMATIC 101 /media/museum/photos/pizon_visiomatic_101_2.jpg title subtitle text image INSIDE /media/museum/photos/pizon_visiomatic_101_inside.jpg title subtitle text image LIGHT GUN /media/museum/photos/pizon_visiomatic_101_gun.jpg title subtitle text image SUITCASE /media/museum/photos/pizon_visiomatic_101_valoche.jpg title subtitle text image FRENCH ADVERT #1 /media/museum/pubs/pizon_visiomatic_101_pub1.jpg title subtitle text image FRENCH ADVERT #2 /media/museum/pubs/pizon_visiomatic_101_pub2.jpg 716 url date https://web.archive.org/web/20230613001132/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=716 2023-06-13

One really nice and odd pong system. Designed by Alcatel, it was also sometimes distributed and sold under the Pizon Bros label. The system was sold in a brown suitcase so you could carry it easily and anywhere. In the upper part of the suitcase is stored the lightgun.

The buttons are very original and very cool to press (hehe, you can't imagine that feeling...). You can use the magnets sold with the system to keep the score by placing them on the sides of the metallic panel where numbered squares are drawn.

The console use a AY-3-8500G chipset from General Instrument offering 7 different games (Tennis, Hockey, Hockey handicap, Practice, Squash, Ball-trap, Tir cible). But there are two special options built-in the system which are quite uncommon :

- A new game called Hockey Handicap. It's a classic hockey game where there's a third bat for one of the players.

- But what makes the Visiomatic 101 quite special is a robot option that allows a single player to play vs the system in 4 games (Tennis, Hockey, Handicap Hockey and Squash). This function was not built-in the AY-3-8500G chipset, but hardware designed by Yves Kien, the Alcatel technician in charge of this project. The robot follow the ball movements but blinks on a fixed interval to give a chance to the human player. One of the first implementation of a robot feature in a pong system !

Later on, Yves Kien developped a color version of the Visiomatic 101,called the Colormatic 211. It displayed green for the tennis and red for soccer. It was going to be sold in 1978 but got canceled.

A definitely nice looking pong with original options and graphical designs !

We need more info about this computer ! If you designed, used, or have more info about this system, please send us pictures or anything you might find useful.