1973 Williams Paddle Ball (PONG)
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1973 Williams Paddle Ball (PONG) |
by Bill Degnan - 01/25/2007 20:20 |
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Here's an interesting one. An original 1973 PONG arcade clone by Williams, the future makers of Defender, Joust, etc. in the 80's. Paddle Ball according to web sources, was their first video game.
I am told that Williams desired to compete with Atari's PONG arcade game with a version of their own. Here are some pics: http://www.vintagecomput...ddle_ball/in_play-2.jpg http://www.vintagecomput...ddle_ball/in_play-1.jpg http://www.vintagecomput...r_board_large_right.jpg http://www.vintagecomput...le_ball/motherboard.jpg At first my system did not work, but I used a multi-meter to track down a little kink in the power cable to restore it to functional condition. There is a tilt mechanism (they borrowed from a Williams pinball game). The system is rigged to take dimes it's so old! There is no central processor, this computer board is "one big processor" Note the logic chips SW7410N, etc. I won on Ebay the original sales brochure, and I am waiting for this to be delivered. Reply |
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1973 Williams Paddle Ball (PONG) |
by Kevin Kucharz - 02/27/2007 22:56 |
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Hey Bill. Great machine. Any idea what one of these is worth?
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1973 Williams Paddle Ball (PONG) |
by Bill Degnan - 02/28/2007 12:10 |
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I paid $150 for it Ebay auction. I would have paid more, but I guess no one was willing to pick it up (no shipping), and I think that this limited the final selling price. I don't know the value of the machine, but if it's truely the only one known to exist, it's probably more than $150.
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Commodore B Series Prototypes July 2006
VOLSCAN - The first desktop computer with a GUI? Oct 2006
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The Sperry UNIVAC 1219 Military Computer May 2007
VCF East 2007 - PET 30th Anniversary June/July 2007
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Community Memory and The People's Computer Company October 2007
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Popular Electronics Jan/Feb 1975 - Altair 8800 Fall 2009
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