Teleng Colourstars

Whilst rummaging around a table-top sale recently, I found some old Pong machines. The seller didn't know whether they worked or not, but I still bought them, because retro gaming.

This is the first one




This one is a Teleng Colourstars, which I believe dates from the late seventies, and appears to show colour on the TV screen, from videos posted online, it's just a green background with some coloured lines making up the play field. This unit appears to be missing the controllers and games, which were supplied on cartridges, which actually had some circuitry inside, unlike some earlier machines which just had wire links to configure the consoles internal circuitry. So in it's present state, it's unusable.

There does seem to be some games for sale around the internet, and some controllers, so I may have to acquire some...

However, some sites claim it's a rare machine, I don't know how true that is, but this is the first one I've seen.

Like many other Pong machines of the era, this would run from batteries with a mains power adaptor an optional extra. But for most Pong clones, it was the same PSU as the Atari 2600. Which was a 9V 3.5mm plug with a positive tip

Plugging the console into a TV and powering it up will generate a video signal, but all it shows is a black screen, not surprising as there is little circuitry in the console. The cartridge itself contained most of the electronics, and would allow up to ten similar games to be selected by the dial on the main unit

Update



I found out the console was also sold as the Mercury Commander, it appears to be the same apart from the branding, it takes the same cartridges and controllers, whether this was a regional variation, I don't know

Also, in other news, I finally got round to purchasing the missing bits, namely the controller and a cartridge



The controller plugs into the back of the console via a standard 5 pin DIN plug, solo games use the right hand side port when looking from above. Like most other Pong clones of the era, the stick does not automatically centre



The cartridge plugs into the side of the unit, and has up to 12 different variations of Pong available. I bought cartridge number 1, there were several cartridges available, but powering up the unit without a cartridge inserted the console will just show a black screen

There are no games in slots 2 and 5, the display is just a green screen when these are selected



It all does seem to work though, apart from the usual screen sync and tearing issues. Interestingly some of the games on the cartridge display better than others

Strange!

As with most Pong clones of the era the sound comes from the unit itself, there is no sound carrier via RF, so you get white noise through the TV if you forget to turn it down


For more retro hardware check out my online museum here