website/content/magazine/obscure-systems-the-cartridge-pongs-family.md

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Obscure systems : the cartridge pongs family	Consoles	image group oc_id source /media/magazine/articles/4/titre_sd050.jpg Consoles 4 url date https://web.archive.org/web/20210806072755/http://www.old-computers.com/magazine/view.asp?a=4 2021-08-06

> SYSTEMS USING CARTRIDGES WITH GI GAMES

When we write GI games, we mean chipsets sold by General Instruments in the 1970s which made the success of many pong systems. In these chipsets were "ready to run" games and pong manufacturers had almost only to put these chipsets into their system cases to make them work !

After the big success encountered by pong systems, people wanted to buy systems with more games than the ones implemented within their console. So manufacturers conceived cartridge systems that they called "Programmable Systems", i.e. consoles accepting different cartridges for "endless" fun... But while some did real research & development to conceive original systems (ex : Atari), most manufacturers made cartridge systems using GI chips, because this was the easiest and cheapest solution.

As these GI chips were first used in "normal" pong systems, collectors often call these systems "cartridge pong systems" though most of the games are not pong games at all... There a lot of different designed systems but they all play the same games...

> HOW TO RECOGNISE THEM ?

- The main fact is that there are always 10 buttons to make game selections. This is because most cartridges had a lot of games in them, the maximum being 10 games for the "Sport" games cartridge (AY-3-8610 GI chip).

- Joysticks have 1 action button each.

- There are usually 4 or 5 switches typical of pong games settings (Power on/off, Speed pro/am, Player 1 difficulty Pro/Am, Player 2 difficulty Pro/Am, Automatic service on/off)

- There is also a Start or Reset button (often orange).

> THE GAMES

There are a maximum of 8 games which are differently labelled depending on the systems which used them. These games are :

Usual name	Games	GI chip
Supersportic	10 ball games	AY-3-8610
Motorcycle	4 motorcycle games	AY-3-8760
Tank Battle	2 tank games	AY-3-8710
Racing cars	2 racing car games	AY-3-8603
Submarine	3 naval battle games	AY-3-8605
Super wipeout games	10 more ball games	AY-3-8606
Shooting gallery	Shooting games (gun needed)	AY-3-8607
More shooting games ?	...	...

> THE SYSTEMS

Name	Brand	Country
SD-050	ITMC	France
SD-050	Grandstand	UK
SD-050	Hanimex	France
PP-790	Audiosonic	Netherlands
64562	Mark	???
Programmable TV Game	Universum	Germany
SD-070	Hanimex	France
Color TV Game	Acetronic	UK
Micro 10	Prinztronic	UK
Micro 5500	Prinztronic	UK
SHG Blackpoint	SHG	Germany
Poppy 9015	Poppy	Germany
Sanwa 9015	Sanwa	Germany
Unimex	Mark IX	Germany
Optim 600	Optim	???
Tele Cassetten Game...	Palladium	Germany
Tele Cassetten Game...	Palladium	Germany
Cablestar	Binatone	UK
Programmable game	Grandstand	UK
TVG 10	Poppy	Germany
Tournament 2000	Prinztronic	UK
Telesports 3	Radofin	Japan
SHG Blackpoint - Model FS-1003	SHG	Germany
Telesports	SHG	Germany
Jeu Video Cassette Interchangeable	Univox	France

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