Appearance is the main thing. The first Italian prefix.

The Magnavox Odyssey Game settings launched in 1972 launched a home game console market for the market. Odyssey was sold not only in the United States, but also exported to other countries. Of course, the manufacturer could not remain a monopolist for a long time in the recently opened market and did not give rise to thoughts in the inventive heads about making their prefix with BL … with a stylish design and the possibility of a more subtle setting of the game in the “Pong”.

As a result of such thoughts in 1974, the Italian company Zanussi decided to adopt the baton within the Italian market and released the Ping-O-Tronic game console. What is the most curious Zanussi at that time was not at all a manufacturer of household appliances, but was a manufacturer of furniture. Perhaps this influenced the successful design of the prefix, it was made in the spirit of the country of the manufacturer. She looked quite stylish in its smooth bright orange case and would have fit perfectly into the interior of the house in some kind of futuristic style. There is some similarity with the Italian auto industry. In addition, the body was ergonomic and allowed to clean the joysticks in a special slot in the building of the prefix itself. The controllers themselves were in a rather unusual style for the current eye.

In fact, it is necessary to make one important clarification, speaking of Ping-O-Tronic, we are talking about the whole model series of prefixes united by the same name and one design, since throughout the entire period of sales the prefix was subjected to improvements and an improved Ping-O-Tronic market marked with the following ordinal number appeared. The marking went from PP-1 (the very first model) to PP-10 (last). In addition, the prefixes starting with PP-1 in PP-3 were produced under the Zanussi brand, the PP-4 and PP-5 models, to increase the recognition of the new trademark of the Zanussi, began to be released under the Seleco brand (the rights to which belonged to Zanussi), after all, they decided to make the names of the prefix a separate brand, it began to release Without an indication of the brand, just “Ping-O-Tronic”.
In this regard, it is quite difficult to compare the financial success of the Ping-O-Tronic and Magnavox Odyssey, as Magnavox takes into account only sales of a particular model (all subsequent names have other names), and Ping-O-Tronic consider sales of the entire model range. Nevertheless, the prefix was sold about one million copies and was financially successful.

A spoon of tar in sales for Zanussi was the need to purchase a license for the game “Pong”. Here a small chain of licenses copyright holders lined up. Sanders Associates, the one that worked for the defense industry and was the employer of the inventor of the first gaming prefix Ralph Baer, possessed the main license for the Pong game. After concluding a contract with Magnavox, Sanders concluded with them a sublicense agreement that obliged Magnavox not only to acquire a license, but also to protect the licensee’s rights in case of violation. In this connection, in 1974, a wave of lawsuit rolled against companies using the Pong one way or another “. The claims were won and, against this background, Zanussi was also forced to conclude a sublicense agreement with Sanders Associates for which they expelled 5.5% of all sales.

The prefix entered the market at a price of 28,800 Italian lires, which, taking into account the inflation rate when recalculating the dollar is currently equal to 237 US dollars or 15,500 Russian rubles. As you can see, she significantly won the price of Magnavox Odyssey imported from the United States. There were more than 50 transistors and 20 diodes inside the prefix. The basis was three type 7400 chips. In the future, the console diagram was changed several times and improved. In addition, this prefix, in contrast to the predecessor (analog), was able to reproduce the sound. The sound was not transmitted to the TV, and the speaker was built into the building of the prefix itself.

The Italians had a completely different approach to the game prefix. They did not plan to earn money at additional games or equipment manufactured by the prefix, and income received only from sales directly by the console itself. At the same time, the prefix completely discarded the concept of the proposed Magnavox with the addition of digital entertainment with the rules and additions in physical terms, and therefore they concentrated on improving the digital part of the game. As a result, the prefix had in essence only one game but much more variable in comparison with what Magnavox proposed.

Most of the sources indicate that https://gamblingdata.net/casinos/greenplay-casino/ there were three games in the prefix, but these are more echoes of the marketing company, since it was one game that managed to change with the help of settings.
The prefix allowed to arbitrarily change the length of the planes to beat off the ball, the speed of the ball and shift the net relative to the center of the screen. And the screen itself could be located both vertically and horizontally. In this regard, the game could be configured as follows:
Option No. 1
Classic pong, which changed the complexity of making the plane of the bewilderment of the controlled player more or less. It was possible to play together. (not a ball on the left, as you might think, but a chopping platform reduced to a minimum)

Option No. 2
If you increase one of the planes to the maximum length and shift the grid to the edge, the game turned into a kind of squint and it was possible to play one.

Option No. 3
Was a demonstration version, but at that time there were no analogues. In order to show pung in Magnavox, the seller needed to turn on the prefix and demonstrate the game process to the buyer, in addition, a second player needed a second player. But Ping-O-Tronic If you increase the size of both planes to the maximum did not allow the “ball” to fly outside the field, which allowed to leave demonstration copies included in the shop windows.

The present new game in this prefix appeared from the version of the PP-5. The manufacturer made his analogue of the light gun. When connecting a gun to the slot that appeared, the prefix changed the regime, a closing game field and increasing the size of the ball, turning it into a target. The speed of the ball could be increased thereby increasing the complexity.

The prefix lasted in the market in various variations for almost 9 years, until 1983. True, their next prefix Play-O-Tronic was a real success for the company. About her later.

So the production of gaming prefixes went beyond the United States and began to conquer Europte.

The best comments

Why, I like progress. Just interactive entertainment of the 70s-90s is a fundamentally different pastime. Well, in my opinion, in those years, the basis in the development of games was the invention of new mechanics, while now it is a comprehensive creativity in which the novelty of the mechanic, although it plays an important role, is not a host.

In general, it was simply interesting to consider the development … not so much Gamdev as the features of the market and technology since the first prefix. Glad if it is interesting not only to me)

I am not seriously. Just within the framework of modern realities, such artifacts of past years look wild and ridiculous. Often even for those who found this time.

Eh, and people used to play normal games before, and not that’s all that is now. The last really good work was probably the famous Tetris, and then the game industry finally turned the wrong way. : ‘(

Especially at a price of $ 200 =))

Agree. I don’t even fully understand how I could at one time captivate me for 10-15 hours Dandy and Sega with their completely diverse games, what can we say about Ponge =)