AY-3-8500
The AY-3-8500 "Ball & Paddle" integrated circuit was the first in a series of ICs from General Instrument designed for the consumer video game market. These chips were designed to output video to an RF modulator which would then display the game on a domestic TV set. The AY-3-8500 contained six selectable games: tennis (AKA Pong), soccer, squash, practice, and two rifle shooting games. The AY-3-8500 was the 625 line (i.e. PAL) version and the AY-3-8500-1 was the 525 line (i.e. NTSC) version. It was introduced in 1976. A minimum number of external components are needed to build a complete system.
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[edit] AY-3-8500
The AY-3-8500 was the first version. It played seven Pong variations. The video was in black and white, although it's possible to colorize the game using an additional chip such as the AY-3-8515.
[edit] Games
Six selectable games for one or two players were included:
| Game | Number of players |
|---|---|
| Tennis | 2 |
| Soccer | 2 |
| Squash | 2 |
| Practice | 1 |
| Rifle game 1 | 1 |
| Rifle game 2 | 2 |
In addition, a seventh undocumented game could be played when none of the previous six was selected: Handicap, a soccer variant where the player on the right has a third paddle. This game was implemented on very few systems.
[edit] Usage
The AY-3-8500 was designed to be powered by six 1.5V cells, thus its specified operation is at 6V instead of the 5V standard for logic. The nominal clock was 2.0MHz, yielding a 500ns pixel width. One way to generate such a clock is to divide a 14.31818MHz 4X colorburst clock by 7, producing 2.045MHz. It featured independent video outputs for left player, right player, ball, and playground+counter, that were summed using resistors, allowing designers to use a different luminance for each one. It was housed in a standard 28-pin DIP.
[edit] Applications
Some of the dedicated consoles employing the AY-3-8500 (there are at least two hundred different consoles using this chip[1]):
- Sears Hockey Pong
- Coleco Telstar (Telstar, Classic, Deluxe, Ranger, Alpha, Colormatic, Regent, Sportsman)
- Magnavox Odyssey (300, 2000 and 3000)
- Radio Shack TV ScoreBoard
- Unisonic Sportsman/Tournament
- Philips Tele-Spiel ES2203 and ES2204
- Zanussi/Seleco Play-O-Tronic
- Videomaster (Strika, Strika 2,ColourScore 2, SuperScore)
- APF TV Fun (Model 401)
[edit] AY-3-8550
The AY-3-8550 was the next chip released by General Instruments. It featured horizontal player motion, and a composite video output. It was pin compatible with the AY-3-8500. It needed an additional AY-3-8515 chip to output video in color.
[edit] Games
Six selectable games for one or two players were included:
| Game | Number of players |
|---|---|
| Tennis | 2 |
| Soccer | 2 |
| Squash | 2 |
| Practice | 1 |
| Rifle game 1 | 1 |
| Rifle game 2 | 2 |
[edit] Usage
The AY-3-8550 used the No Connect pins from the AY-3-8500, so it was possible to put a AY-3-8550 on a AY-3-8500 (without horizontal movement), and vice versa.
[edit] AY-3-8610
The AY-3-8610 was a major update from General Instruments. It played more games, like basketball or hockey, with more graphics quality. It was nicknamed "Superstar" by GI. It was in black and white, although it's possible to add colour by using an additional AY-3-8615 chip.
[edit] Games
| Game | Number of players |
|---|---|
| Tennis | 2 |
| Hockey | 2 |
| Soccer | 2 |
| Squash | 2 |
| Practice | 1 |
| Gridball | 1 |
| Basketball | 2 |
| Basketball practice | 1 |
| Two player target | 2 |
| Single player target | 1 |
[edit] Usage
The AY-3-8610 featured a completely different pinout. It too required an external crystal oscillator. It still has separated video output pins, and the separated sync pin is now gone. 
[edit] Derivatives
- An equivalent to the AY-3-8500 is the TMS1965NLA manufactured by Texas Instruments.
- A successor to the AY-3-8500 is the AY-3-8510, manufactured by General Instrument, housed in a 16-pin DIP and released in 1978. It only has four games but they are in color. One of the few consoles that use the AY-3-8510 is the Coleco Telstar Colortron.
- A competitor was the National Semiconductor MM57105.
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.pong-story.com/mypongs.htm List of first era consoles
