Magnavox
Odyssey
As the first home console ever, the Odyssey ran on batteries and games came on removable circuit cards, not cartridges. The Odyssey tragically lacked sound capability, but that was later rectified. Also looks uncannily like a defibrillator.

Atari Pong
While the Odyssey used separate electronic components for its chip system, the Atari Pong used in integrated circuit on one chip – or in simple speak: it was the most complex chip for home use at the time. Pong’s differences went above and beyond the Odyssey – beeps and boops for sound, digital onscreen scoring and eight levels of spin on the ball. Technology!

Sears
Tele-Games
Pong
Videogames hadn’t yet caught on with major retailers, but after the Consumer Electronics Show in ’75, Atari got a hold of the sporting goods buyer for Sears. Thinking they could turn a mighty profit that Christmas, Sears offered to help produce enough units to meet a healthy demand. Thusly, they became the exclusive retailer of Pong.

Magnavox
Odyssey 100
Ralph Baer – the creator of the Odyssey – wanted to improve on his original design and signed a contract with Texas Instruments (they make killer graphing calculators). The O100 didn’t use cartridges, but it did have action sounds and a switch to go between two games – Tennis and Hockey.

Magnavox
Odyssey 200
But wait! That’s not all. Magnavox released a slightly improved version – this time adding a third game, Smash – complete with onscreen scoring. Also, this baby enabled 2-4 players to join in on the ruckus. Eat your heart out, N64.

Fairchild
Channel F
Using a chip invented by the man who founded Intel, the F was the world’s first cartridge-based console. Even with simple color graphics, they were leagues better than any of the Pong systems at the time. Only 26 cartridges were released and the console looked like a glorified answering machine.

Atari
Super Pong
Super Pong was essentially the same damn thing as regular Pong, only with slight modifications. It played four games. One of them was Pong. There you go.

Coleco
Telstar
Keeping with the theme of including wood paneling on home consoles, Coleco released the Telstar, which only played Tennis. However, because it went for $50, it was attractive to families. Coleco sold over a million Telstars that year – mainly because the company placed the first orders from microchip maker, General Instruments. Their competitors only received a fraction of their orders that year.

Coleco
Telstar Classic
Tasting way better than Pepsi and RC Cola, the Telstar Classic added a wood grain finish (what the hell?) and enabled three games to be played: tennis, hockey and handball.

Magnavox
Odyssey 300
The first system to use a single game chip containing the entire magic of one Pong system. Curiously, it used only one knob per side. Also: it was yellow and contained the three games of the O200.

Magnavox
Odyssey 400
The O400 was the exact same as the O200 (three knobs and all), yet this time it included onscreen scoring. And if you somehow lost track of superfluous aspects of the game like who won, a helpful “W” displayed on the victor’s side.

Magnavox
Odyssey 500
For all intents and purposes, the 500 was incredibly similar to the 400, except for the stunning inclusion of color graphics. At this time, the four games (Soccer was the newest) were the sharpest they’ve ever been. This was the last three-digit Odyssey entry.

Atari
Stunt Cycle
Based on the arcade game and popularized by the Evil Knievel daredevil craze, Atari released a home version of Stunt Cycle that worked remarkably well. The point of the game was to leap over an ever-increasing amount of buses as a motocross rider. The controllers resembled a motorcycle’s handlebars and were used for the bike’s throttle.

RCA Studio II
Already obsolete by the time it hit stores in January 1977; the Studio II’s games were in black and white and made simple beeping sounds from a single speaker located inside the console. The Studio II retailed at $149.95 with five games built into the system as well as two key pads that controlled the games. The Studio II was the second console to support removable cartridges and RCA produced a total of nine games for the Studio II before exiting the video game market in 1979.

Atari VCS
Atari 2600
By the time it was released in October 1977, Atari had already spent about US$100 million on the development on the Atari Video Computer System, also known as the Atari 2600. Ready on store shelves for the holidays the 2600 sold for US$199.95 and that included two controllers, a built in game Combat! as well as many innovative features such as, switches for color/B&W graphics, handicap play and game select, it also cycled through color schemes to help avoid images being burned into your TV. While not the first console to feature removable game cartridges, it was the most successful, boasting over 900 titles in it’s library of games. Unfortunately a number of third-party developers crapped out worthless third-party games like a horrible port of Pac-Man and ET, thus leading to a waning public interest, which then helped crash the entire industry in 1983.

Coleco
Telstar Arcade
The last of the Coleco Pong consoles, the Telstar Arcade utilized cartridges even though only four were ever released. Besides tennis variants, the Arcade had a racing game and a shooter. We only know that from looking at the Frankenstein-esque console. If that abomination could talk, it would probably whisper “Shoot me.”

Nintendo
Color TV-Game 6
Only a few hundred of these units were ever produced of Nintendo’s first shot at a dedicated game console that was only released in Japan. The TV Game 6 contained six variations of Pong, with the players controlling their paddles with dials that were attached directly to the machine. Nintendo was never heard from again.

Apple II
Home Computer
This little number was the first mass produced computer from Apple and was one of the first popular computers for home use – due in fact to the agreeable price range. Popular with schools and businesses alike, the Apple II had simple spreadsheets and word processor applications. Its popularity helped bolster the computer game market. Chances are that if you’re at least in your early twenties, you’ve used this hardware. Apple went on to make some mp3 players and faded away from the spotlight.

Coleco
Telstar Ranger
Another release in the Telstar line, Ranger included four Pong variants and had two light gun games. Guys had enough Pong yet? Us neither.

Coleco
Telstar Alpha
Not much different here. Four Pong variants, complete with a black and white plastic case. Also: fixed dials on the console itself. Yup.

Coleco
Combat!
Thankfully no Pong was seen here, but rather up to four players controlled variants of the game, Tank. Four joysticks were included on the console itself and the only color it came in was pea soup military green.

Magnavox
Odyssey 2000
You thought you were done with Pong. Think again – Magnavox released three Odyssey consoles in 1977.  Three. The O2000 is notable for being similar to the O300 (the one with only one playable knob) and for  not having the color graphics introduced in the O400.

Magnavox
Odyssey 3000
The O3000 contained the same games and was exactly like the 2000 except for a brand new case design (gasp!) and detachable controllers. This system also played Pong and three other games.

Magnavox
Odyssey 4000
The last Pong system released by Magnavox contained eight games (!) that were in color (!!). The O4000 sported a sleek, white design that’s more attractive than the plastic or wood paneled systems that came before it – reminiscent of today’s Wii or any Mac product. Too bad the market had been bombarded by roughly a trillion Pong consoles by this point.

Coleco
Telstar Gemini
With a package claiming “6 Video Games in Color,” how could you go wrong? The six on display were four pinball variants and two light gun shooters. The console contained the buttons directly on it, foregoing a traditional controller. But hey, at least there wasn’t Pong.

Atari
Video Pinball
Now that Pong had its time in the sun, digital Pinball was the new craze. Atari released a dedicated console to capitalize on this popularity, which included two extra game variants – Basketball and Breakout. The console included bumpers on the side to play Pinball with, while the other games were controlled with the dial mounted prominently on the wooden finish. Yup, they were still making wooden consoles.

Mattel Electronics
Handheld Games
Predating the DS and thousands of colors by close to 30 years, were these simple handheld games featuring LED displays similar to that of a calculator or digital watch. Auto Race and Electronic Football were the first two Mattel handhelds and required players to navigate either a car or quarterback through obstacles. Newer 3D versions of these genres retain the same essential gameplay.

Magnavox
Odyssey 2
As a subsidiary of Philips (who released this console abroad as the Philips Odyssey 2), Magnavox’s new design finally enabled users to play cartridges, rather than Pong games booted from the console’s memory. The O2 included a full keyboard for edutainment games and a standard joystick complete with a big-ass red button on each. The console sold relatively well, pushing over a million units by 1983.

Bally
Professional
Videocade
Developed by Midway, the gaming division of Bally at the time, the Videocade or Astrocade as it was known in the early 80s was notable for its graphical prowess. Midway had wanted a video display chip in their successive systems, from arcade to consoles and ended up producing one of the most powerful 8-bit systems. Utilized cartridges and came with a 24-key keyboard.

Coleco
Telstar Colortron
Coleco kept pumping out the same damn thing – this time, the Colortron contained four Pong variants in glorious Technicolor. Colortron comes complete with various beepy sounds and fixed dials on the console.

Coleco
Telstar Marksman
Bundled with six color games, the first four were of course variants on Pong, while the other two were light gun shooters. The light gun featured an attachable stock and barrel, similar to the late Sega Menacer. Your parents may have been duped into buying this.

APF M1000
One of the earliest 8-bit cartridge consoles, the M1000 could only be used on a color TV and came with non-detachable joysticks. A number of games came out for this boringly-titled system, and chances are you’ve never heard of Rocket Patrol.

Philips
Videopac G7000
Literally the same exact thing as the Magnavox Odyssey 2. Philips – parent company to Magnavox – released it as such in Europe.

Nintendo
Color TV-
Game 15
Selling over a million units in Japan, the TV-Game 15 enabled easier play now that the controllers were on cables, rather than both players having to crowd the console. Also, fifteen different versions of Light Tennis (read: Pong) were included in the package. Not to be confused with…

Nintendo
Color TV-
Racing 112
The same year in Japan, Nintendo put out a bird’s-eye-view racing game with the console itself doubling as a steering wheel and gearshift. Trust us, the TV-Racing 112 was way less goofy than the Wii wheel. Also, the system came with two smaller controllers if you ever wanted some low-def multiplayer.

Atari 400/800
Home Computer
The Atari 400 and 800 series were introduced to compete with other home computers, which at the time included the Apple II and Commodore PET. The 400 and 800 stood for how much RAM each system contained (4KB and 8KB respectively), but by the time both were released the prices of RAM had dropped so much that they all included 8KB. Despite the feature-rich 800, the more affordable 400 outsold its big brother. Atari would continue to introduce a billion new home computers each year.

Milton Bradley
Microvision
Developed by prominent board game kingpin, Milton Bradley, the Microvision was a handheld, cartridge-based system. Very few games were ever developed for it and hardly any third-parties gave a shit about it. The Microvision was also accident prone as it was susceptible to problems including the LCD screen to spontaneously leak, a jumpy motherboard and being able to easily break the keypad. This console didn’t deserve to live.

TI-99/4
Home Computer
Texas Instruments released the TI-99/4 Home Computer at a price of $1,150 in the late seventies, it featured a calculator-style keyboard, which lacked the ability to type lowercase text. No matter, the TI-99/4 holds the distinction of being the first 16-bit PC. The TI-99 line popularized “plug and play” support for peripherals (what happens when you plug new devices into your computer). It was redesigned in 1981 and sold at half the price.

Nintendo
Color TV-
Block Busters
Featuring a similar design to the Color TV Game 6, this design featured one dial for use on included game, Breakout. This system holds the honor of being one of Shigeru Miyamoto’s first videogaming projects after joining up with Nintendo a few years prior. Undeniably, he would have a great effect on Nintendo. But that’s a story for another day.

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