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website/content/museum/epoch-tv-block.md
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yann64andClaude Opus 5.5 3eeabe9649 Full content from the completed page crawl (media download still running)
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Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01YDRjtmAiNpo5mK5N3d7QwZ
2026-10-12 07:55:22 +02:00

3.4 KiB

title, categories, origins, years, cpus, params
title categories origins years cpus params
Epoch TV Block
Consoles
Japan
1979
Atari custom chipstes
name company company_name specs tabs photos links software oc_id source
TV Block /companies/epoch Epoch
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NAME TV Block
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MANUFACTURER Epoch
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ORIGIN Japan
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YEAR 1979
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BUILT IN LANGUAGE 7 games (Flipper pinball 1, Flipper pinball 2, Racket pinball 1, Racket pinball 2, Basketball 1, Basketball 2, Breakout)
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KEYBOARD 2 side buttons (to play flipper pinball games) and one big knob to play other games (paddle games)
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CPU Atari custom chipstes (?)
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GRAPHIC MODES Blocky graphics
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COLORS Yes (at least 6 colors)
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SOUND yes, built-in speaker
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I/O PORTS RF TV video output, power in
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OS 7 (built-in games)
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POWER SUPPLY 6 x UM2 sized battery cells or external power supply
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PERIPHERALS No
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PRICE Unknown
photos
software
links
title subtitle text image
TV-BLOCK null
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TOP Thanks to Rikard Ljungkvist for this picture null
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BOTTOM Thanks to Rikard Ljungkvist for this picture null
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CONTROL PANEL The big white knob is used to select one of the 7 games offered by the system. null
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BOX null
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BOX (BOTTOM) Thanks to Rikard Ljungkvist for this picture null
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BOX (SIDE 1) Thanks to Rikard Ljungkvist for this picture null
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BOX (SIDE 2) Thanks to Rikard Ljungkvist for this picture null
title url text
Pong-Story.com http://www.pong-story.com/atpong2.htm David has a nice page about the Atari Video Pinball
/software/breakout-363
/software/breakthru-breakaway
/software/flipper-pinball-ii-pinball-ii
/software/paddle-pinball-i-pinpaddle-i-racket-pinball-i
/software/paddle-pinball-ii-pinpaddle-ii-racket-pinball-ii
800
url date
https://web.archive.org/web/20230307164518/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=800 2023-03-07

This funky pong is the japanese version of the Atari Video Pinball C-380 (and the Sears Pinball Breakaway).

It plays seven games: Flipper pinball 1, Flipper pinball 2, Racket pinball 1, Racket pinball 2, Basketball 1, Basketball 2 and Breakout. All these games are in fact improved pong games.

All the games are controlled by the big white dial placed on the right part of the system, except the two flipper pinball games which must be played with the two side buttons, just like with a real pinball!

Apparently there were a TV Block MB model which had slightly different games (?). Instead of 2 basketball games and 1 breakout game, there were only one basketball game and 2 breakout games.

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.