Pong TV game - A Scratch build Scale project

[Etienne MacGyver]

Inspired by this post;
https://www.dragonslairfans.com/smfor/index.php?topic=3604.msg50482#msg50482
and that post:
https://www.dragonslairfans.com/smfor/index.php?topic=2144.msg50023#msg50023

I looked around on marktplaats and found me a untested unit not too far away from my place:



Because the battery cover and adapter was missing, i managed to get the unit almost for free.

Picked it up yesterday..



It sure needs some cleaning  



After cleaning it a bit, i hooked up an adapter and turned the unit on..

bleep bleep, bup, bup, bleep bleep..    That sounds good!

Hooked it up to the tv set and let the tv scan the complete range to find the unit.
hmm  damn bad image...
Lets take a look at the RF plug..



Yes, the solid core wire was broken, and the contacts of the plug are heavily coroded..
Installed a new plug, and .......

clickpic

It works perfectly !

My little helper likes it too !



Oh boy, this brings back some memories !  





As you might have noticed, that is a very small tv......

I wonder if you can guess what the next logical step will be..
if you folowed this topic last year, you know whats going to happen next  

Found some plans on the internet..
Lets see if i can translate that into metric and scale them down based upon the 7" monitor...  



to be continued.....

[gyruss]

Cool!

[Etienne MacGyver]

After some serious calculations (from inches to metric)  i have the plans almost in Illustrator

i miss a few measurements, and i would like to know the values instead of guessing  

Bruno, can you measure the folowing values for me ?

Thanks !

[gyruss]

Are you going to use a coin door?

[Etienne MacGyver]

I am planning a coinslot which will pass a coinswitch hooked up to the startswitch of the game, like the original.

Not a door, that would not fit as it will be a 1:2 scale model.

I am also planning a extra slot for bills, so it might be used as a piggybank / donation device for some event 

[Superully]

another great etienne project - i really love your spirit!!!

[Belike]

Lol, I just wanted to ask, if it will be used by a piggybank at Eurocade.
Great project, I'm really curious how will you display the screen in this "mini" mode.

[PunkRockCaveman]

Cool ... I did a similar project last year. I had an original Paddle Ball (which is the Willams Pong Clone) Panel and coin door. The rest was a scratch build also. I used the AY-3-8500, a single chip pong implementation from 1976. I got some of these nos for 6,50 a piece!! I made a small vid of the machine:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H98-zulUHRQ

If you have any questions maybe I can help. The measurements you need might not be the same on the Paddle Ball which has a slightly different shape though...

[DarthNuno]

Bruno, can you measure the folowing values for me ?

Thanks !

Here we go :

A -> 88mm
B -> 20mm
C -> 20mm

D-> Not sure to understand what value you need. In addition, that pong picture doesn't seems to have the same base? Or it's maybe an illusion due to the picture angle? Anyway, here's the shape of my pong (it was one of the pre-sale picture provided by the seller by the way)

[gyruss]

Cool ... I did a similar project last year. I had an original Paddle Ball (which is the Willams Pong Clone) Panel and coin door. The rest was a scratch build also. I used the AY-3-8500, a single chip pong implementation from 1976. I got some of these nos for 6,50 a piece!! I made a small vid of the machine:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H98-zulUHRQ

Looks really nice! 

[Etienne MacGyver]

That is indeed strange, and it looks like there are two versions..

If you look at the two pictures in the first post, it looks also that the bottom is different in both drawings..

hmm interesting..

Could it be that there are US and Irish builds of pong ? and that thats why they are different ??

Anyway big thanks for your measurements Bruno, and ill investigate some more on which i want to use..

It looks like one uses a 45 degree angle in the bottom and the other not.

[level42]

Hah, no Atari was barely starting at the time of Pong so there was no Irish Atari factory at that moment.


Cool project by the way  

[Etienne MacGyver]

Cool ... I did a similar project last year. I had an original Paddle Ball (which is the Willams Pong Clone) Panel and coin door. The rest was a scratch build also. I used the AY-3-8500, a single chip pong implementation from 1976. I got some of these nos for 6,50 a piece!! I made a small vid of the machine:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H98-zulUHRQ

If you have any questions maybe I can help. The measurements you need might not be the same on the Paddle Ball which has a slightly different shape though...

I have seen that vid before, only untill now i realise the name of the poster 

Nice paddle ball you got there Punky !

[Etienne MacGyver]

Lol, I just wanted to ask, if it will be used by a piggybank at Eurocade.
Great project, I'm really curious how will you display the screen in this "mini" mode.

Thanks 

I think i just put the tv on a plank, it looks like they did that also in the original.

Or was that not the meaning of your question ?

[PunkRockCaveman]

Thanks for the warm words If you want to go small and the 'big' console you got there is to large for your setup then here is a tip: if you open that case you might find that infamous AY-3-8500 I mentioned before. A large amount of pong consoles are based on that genius chip. Usually it comes on a big PCB ... Much bigger than it has to be for the reference implementation of that AY.

Funny thing is: in the 70s when the AY came out, most of the tvs had no cvbs plug (that's the yellow cinch that I mean, hope I got the name right). So they had to go with the rf. For that there had to be some extra circuit to modulate the cvbs like signal that comes out of the AY to the rf. If you don't need that you can shrink the whole circuitry to a minimum that fits on a little circuit board, smaller than a playing card. If you want to go that way, drop me a line, I can post the circuit plans here and have an AY in spare for your project