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 television set. The AY-3-8500 contained six selectable games — tennis (a.k.a. Pong), soccer, squash, practice, and two rifle shooting games. The AY-3-8500 was the 625-line PAL version and the AY-3-8500-1 was the 525-line NTSC version. It was introduced in 1976, Coleco becoming the first customer having been introduced to the IC development by Ralph H. Baer.[1] A minimum number of external components were needed to build a complete system.

AY-3-8500 chip

The AY-3-8500 was the first version. It played seven Pong variations. The video was in black-and-white, although it was possible to colorize the game by using an additional chip, such as the AY-3-8515.

Games

Six selectable games for one or two players were included:

GameNumber of players
Tennis2
Soccer2
Squash2
Practice1
Rifle game 11
Rifle game 22

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.

Usage

The AY-3-8500 was designed to be powered by six 1.5 V cells (9 V). Its specified operation is at 6-7 V and a maximum of 12 V instead of the 5 V standard for logic. The nominal clock was 2.0 MHz, yielding a 500 ns pixel width. One way to generate such a clock is to divide a 14.31818 MHz 4×colorburst clock by 7, producing 2.04545 MHz. 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.

Applications

Some of the dedicated consoles employing the AY-3-8500 (there are at least two hundred different consoles using this chip[2]):

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.

Games

Six selectable games for one or two players were included:

GameNumber of players
Tennis2
Soccer2
Squash2
Practice1
Rifle game 11
Rifle game 22

Usage

The AY-3-8550 used the No Connect pins from the AY-3-8500, so it was possible to put an AY-3-8550 on an AY-3-8500 (without horizontal movement), and vice versa.

Application

This is a list of consoles that use this chip:

AY-3-8610
AY-3-8610 chip from 1980

The AY-3-8610 was a major update from General Instruments. It played more games (10),[4] like basketball or hockey, with higher-quality graphics. It was nicknamed "Superstar" by GI. It was in black and white, although it was possible to add color by using an additional AY-3-8615 chip.

Prior to producing the 8610, GI created the AY-3-8600. The pin configuration was the same as the 8610, but it was missing the two rifle/target games, bringing the total number of games down to 8.

Games
Hockey, tennis and gridball games on an AY-3-8610 based game cartridge

The 10 selectable games for this chip included:

GameNumber of players
Tennis2
Hockey2
Soccer2
Squash2
Practice1
Gridball1
Basketball2
Basketball practice1
Two player target2
Single player target1

Usage

The AY-3-8610 featured a completely different pinout. It, too, required an external crystal oscillator. It still had separate video output pins, and removed the dedicated sync pin.

The inside of an AY-3-8610 based game cartridge. The console for which this was made accepted other cartridges. However, unlike modern consoles, the game chip, i.e. the core circuitry, was in the cartridge, not in the console.

Application

This is a list of consoles that use the AY-3-8610:[2]

  • Binatone TV-Master MK 8 e 10
  • Grandstand Sports Centre 6000
  • Match Color
  • Telejogo II
  • Universum Color Multi-Spiel 4010 e 4014
  • Videomaster Sportsworld
  • Hanimex TVG-8610
  • Interstate 1110
  • ITT/Ideal Tele-Match Cassette 2
  • Polycon C 4016
  • Serie PC-50x
  • Radofin Colour TV Game
  • Radofin Tele-Sports III
  • Saft-Leclanché TV 8 Sports
  • TV 18 - 18 Spannende Videospiele C-4016
  • TV 2018 Color - 18 Spannende Videospiele 441/2

Some consoles that use the AY-3-8600 chip:[2]

Derivatives
Atari console Stunt Cycle based on AY-3-8760
AY-3-8603 die
chipYearDerived fromDIPConsoleNote
AY-3-85101978AY-3-850016 pinColeco Telstar ColortronFour of six games of 8500 (no rifle/target games), with full colors
AY-3-8512197?AY-3-850016 pinColeco Telstar MarksmanThe same of 8500 but with colors
AY-3-8700
AY-3-8710		197828 pin[4]Coleco Telstar Combat!
PC-50x		Four combat games with tanks, 2 players
AY-3-86031978PC-50xCar race with vertical view. The car accelerate and the player must avoid collisions. 1 or 2 players
AY-3-86051978PC-50xThree games: a ship must fire torpedoes to hit submarines
AY-3-86061978PC-50x10 breakout games. 1 or 2 players
AY-3-8760
(8765 PAL)		1978Atari Stunt Cycle
Sears Motocross
PC-50x		Motor-Cycle. Three game levels. A motorbike must jump over different objects (bus, etc.)
AY-3-86071978PC-50x4 games with an optical rifle. More than one difficult level
AY-3-87501978Superspace. Space battle for two players
  • An equivalent to the AY-3-8500 is the TMS1965NLA manufactured by Texas Instruments.
  • The Soviet K145IK17 (Russian: К145ИК17) has a built-in counter, making it possible to use a momentary pushbutton instead of a multi-position switch to select games. The handicap game is not hidden, it can be chosen among others using this button. Since a pushbutton occupies only one pin, this IC has less pins.
  • A competitor was the National Semiconductor MM57105.
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References
  1. http://www.pong-story.com/coleco.htm The Coleco Telstar story
  2. http://www.pong-story.com/mypongs.htm List of first era consoles
  3. http://www.elektroda.pl/rtvforum/topic1347024.html
  4. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-03-16. Retrieved 2012-11-17.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) Gimini - TV Game Circuits
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