website/content/museum/binatone-tv-master-mk-8-model-n-01-4823.md

title, categories, origins, years, cpus, params

title	categories	origins	years	cpus	params
Binatone TV Master MK 8 (model n° 01 / 4823)	Pongs	United Kingdom	1977	General Instruments AY-3-8600 ?	name image company company_name specs tabs photos comments oc_id source TV Master MK 8 (model n° 01 / 4823) /media/museum/photos/binatone_tv-master-mk-8_1.jpg /companies/binatone Binatone label value NAME TV Master MK 8 (model n° 01 / 4823) label value MANUFACTURER Binatone label value ORIGIN United Kingdom label value YEAR ? 1977 label value BUILT IN LANGUAGE 8 games label value KEYBOARD Two detachable paddles with analog joysticks label value CPU General Instruments AY-3-8600 ? label value SPEED Start, Manual serve ? label value CO-PROCESSOR playing options (bat size, ball speed, service...) label value RAM On screen label value COLORS No label value SOUND Built-in speaker ? label value SIZE / WEIGHT Unknown label value I/O PORTS RF TV video output label value OS Yes (unknown spec) label value POWER SUPPLY External power supply unit label value PERIPHERALS No label value PRICE Unknown photos title subtitle text image TV MASTER MK 8 Thanks to [www.computissimo.ch](http://www.computissimo.ch/) for this picture. /media/museum/photos/binatone_tv-master-mk-8_2.jpg author date text Nick Brooke (Rugby) Tuesday 3rd January 2017 The system was pre 1977 I had one in 1976 which is when i believe it came out author date text Geoff Ingram (Banbury) Wednesday 4th November 2015 Hi, I''ve jsut bought one of these on Ebay (I had one as a child) but whilst I can hear it start up and play, I can''t get anything on the tv screen - despite re-tuning the tv. Any ideas please? It should still work on a modern tv shouldn''t it? Cheers.... author date text Fatboyfun (Bristol, England) Saturday 26th January 2008 I had one of these and i remember that if you turned the dial halfway between games you could make new games based on the two games on either side, Like half football, half squash, Great fun for an 8 year old. author date text RS (UK) Monday 20th August 2007 I had one of these waaaay back. Eventually cut the joysticks off and plumbed them in to my BBC Micro Analogue port. author date text Lee Carter (UK) Wednesday 22nd February 2006 I have one of these units, but with the model number 01/4923 rather than 4823. I imagine this is the model number of the UK PAL Unit. 1037 url date https://web.archive.org/web/20230613001052/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=1037 2023-06-13

This pong is one of the many Binatone systems. As its name indicates, it offers 8 games. In order to understand how this system fits into the Binatone pong range, here is simplified list of the systems :

TV Master MK IV
TV Master 4 plus 2
TV Master MK 6
TV Master MK 8
TV Master MK 10

Colour TV Game
Colour TV Game 4 plus 2
Colour TV Game MK 6
Colour TV Game MK 10

The first serie, TV Master systems, are all black & white pongs, whereas later Colour TV games have colour display. There do not seem to be an equivalent of the TV master MK 8 in the Colour TV Game serie (8 games); mostly because there were no pong-in-a-chip chipset offering 8 colour games available.

Game selection is made through a big rotating knob placed at the centre of the system case. The two detachable analog joysticks can be stored in slide-in compartments located on both sides of the case. The shape of this plastic case is fairly common and many pongs could be found with the same design.

This system seems to be powered by a General Instruments AY-3-8600 chipset(anyone can confirm ?).