6 Home Console Video Game Systems That Paved the Way for Today’s Great Systems

[@sluggotg]

The Best Christmas present my brother and I ever got was a "Combat!" console. IN 1977 they sold this home version of Tank. THEN our "Friends of the family" brought their son to our house. (We always tried to get along, but he was a bit of a sociopath). We played Combat, He Obviously was jealous and Deliberately broke the joystick off. We never found a glue that would work, or even trying to melt it back. It took me many years to find one on ebay. I think I will wire in a port so we can use a standard C64/Amiga joystick, then I will Trounce my Brother! (He is 13 months older and we are obviously in our 60's).

[@extragoogleaccount6061]

Ugh....that guy was one of "those" kids. Everyone knew a couple.

[@earendurvoneinzbern7585]

I wish we could go back to the days, where we didn't need an Internet connection to play the games and, there weren't any micro transactions.

[@obscure.reference]

can always just play old games, most of the good games have already been made

[@VulpisFoxfire]

You mean as near as the days of the Sony PS2, Nintendo Gamecube, and Sega Dreamcast? (they had the option of net connection, but it wasn't a mandatory thing at that point..)

[@tedstahl3794]

The Colecovision was awesome! Coleco's Donkey Kong and BurgerTime were brilliant!

[@waltciii3]

I had the Telstar arcade toward the end of its run and had 2 triangular cartridges. The racing game was fun on my hand me down black and white Motorola TV. By 1981 it stopped working.

[@tartarv3]

Keep it up, Enjoyed this video!

[@AlmostSomething]

Thanks so much!!

[@itsallinallston]

11:36 I had Mattel Football 2 (the green one, which let you pass your dot forward.) A surprising amount of fun for such a simple device.

[@skykitchen867]

Our first console was the RCA Studio II. Still have it and it works fine. It was like just a few months later after getting it the Atari 2600 came out.

[@extragoogleaccount6061]

Was that just pong? Or multi-cart?

[@TheSpanishInquisition87]

I had the original Telstar console. This video brought back a lot of memories.

[@cujoedaman]

I still remember a younger coworker of mine making a comment akin to "there is nothing good about older systems" (we were talking about like the NES and Genesis). I attempted to explain that without them that we wouldn't have the systems we do now and it 100% disagreed, saying that we would still have the current systems, they just would have been developed sooner... or some other bullshit, I couldn't comprehend what he was trying to say.

[@Sinn0100]

What?! Those are fightin words! Why isn't this coworker person in the hospital yet? Do I have to come down there and teach this obviously digital only ganer a lesson? Game, set, terrible. ;)

[@AlmostSomething]

Good sir, i think you have to send him my video!!! LOLOL. Kids these days..........

[@Sinn0100]

@@AlmostSomething ;)

[@sa3270]

I like how you called your younger coworker "it".

[@markaes]

I had the Telstar Pong base unit (got it at a rummage sale)... but my friend had the Telstar Arcade with the steering wheel. Always thought that was so cool.

[@AlmostSomething]

It is the strangest looking system I have ever seen…hence it is in the thumbnail lol

[@catsaregovernmentspies]

I got a Telestar Arcade at a garage sale when I was a kid, but I couldn't get it to work. I didn't know how to fix electronics back then, so it was junk and tossed. 😢 We had no idea any of this stuff would be collectable someday.

[@basicforge]

I owned one of those Coleco Telstar pyramid consoles. Bigger than even the Atari 5200. It was fun for a few hours. There weren't enough games for it.

[@robertcain7630]

I had the intellivision when I was young and it was amazing, the way the controller worked and the amount of buttons it had expanded the gameplay options! Night Stalker was a good example of this as you fired your gun up, down, left or right using the number pad, which meant you could shoot in a direction you weren't facing or moving! Space Battle was another good one where you used the number pad to command your squadrons of fighters and then used other controls in the dogfights Games back then were fundamentally very different to modern games, I'm not going to say "better" or "worse" but just very different. you didn't have much if any story, no saves, no respawns, no real 'end' to most of the games, they just got more and more difficult until you died

[@radioonemike]

This is my whole childhood. The first video game I received was that plastic base Coleco Telstar. Next was the Atari VCS. I remember in 1984, the Intellivision II and it's keyboard being sold at clearance prices in discount stores. I also had a whole raft load of Mattel Electronics handheld games.

[@AlmostSomething]

HA! That first sentence made my day. Glad it brought back some memories!

[@Sb129]

When I think of Pong consoles I'll always think of that AVGN episode. It is nice to see other people talking about them as well, it is a bit of an unknown to many people, even video game appreciators.

[@AlmostSomething]

It's SO HARD to find new content to talk about...trying to do so while also keeping the video interesting is a trick. Thanks so much for the kind words!

[@AngryCalvin]

Very well done. The fascinating part of the Telstar is that it had multiple controllers that would be used on many systems and even today. A racing wheel and zapper gun. Yeah I remember the Mattel handhelds really well. At least you knew what you were getting. I didn’t feel ripped off like I did with the Tiger Electronics licensed game handhelds. Intellevision always left me curious. It was an obscure system. I remember it even having D&D games. I didn’t know about the additional accessories that would make it more like a home computer. My childhood was the Atari 2600. Not sure that these older consoles would have interested me in video games. Never had the attention span for games like Pong. At least they paved the way.

[@AlmostSomething]

Thanks so much! I feel like half of my videos at this point is envoking a series of "OHHHHH"

[@davidex4197]

good video. Keep up the good work

[@AlmostSomething]

Thanks so much!!

[@williamkopko5775]

Had this system when I was younger it was very cool

[@pashalisterzis]

Another grat video... I wish you more subscribers!!! :)

[@AlmostSomething]

Thank you so much!

[@lurkerrekrul]

My family's first video game console was a Sears-branded Atari Video Pinball unit with seven built in games. It worked perfectly and was fun. Then I got a Telstar Combat for Christmas. It never worked properly. No matter what we tried, the image was always distorted. Next I got a Telstar Arcade with one additional cartridge. The extra cartridge as lucky because the pack-in cartridge never worked. And since the other cartridge didn't have any racing games on it, I never got to use the steering wheel. After a couple months, the gun started to malfunction, such that it would register a hit no matter where it was pointed. You could leave it in the holster and get a perfect score. The next Christmas I got an Atari 2600.My grandparents had one for months prior, and I loved it, but I finally had one of my own. A few years ago, during bulk trash pickup, I found a plastic bin with three Atari 2600 systems, a Colecovision, and the System Changer module for the Colecovision, that let it play 2600 games. Two of the Atari systems worked perfectly, the third didn't power on. The Colecovision turned on, but the colors were wrong and it wouldn't play any games. Ironically, the System Changer worked fine when plugged on. So in summary, I've had three different system made by Coleco and they all had problems. Out of all the Atari systems I've had, only one has been defective.

[@donkeyparadise9276]

Great presentation

[@AlmostSomething]

Thanks so much!

[@InfiniteLoop]

my aunt and uncle had the Telstar pyramid, I somehow ended up with it in the early 90's and while interesting, and fun for a few days I went back to my NES, and later SNES

[@AlmostSomething]

It looks amazing!

[@74Spyderman]

Had the Coleco Telstar arcade. It was awesome for its time. Had the Odyssey and Intellivision as well as the different Ataris plus many more. Just thanked my dad today after watching another video like this that had all the prices listed plus Inflation. 😅

[@AlmostSomething]

LOL. Take one look at prices and start to weep.

[@jasonGreenVw]

I have Tel-star Ranger in storage, my dad got it for us at a thrift store in the early 80s. It has a light gun pistol. It is a revolver in style and about the size of a 357 Magnum.

[@AlmostSomething]

Must be worth something!

[@dr.awkward9075]

The crash happened in 1983. It actually started right after Christmas of '82. I should know. I got E.T. for Christmas & it made me cry lol.

[@AlmostSomething]

Ha! Did I say 84? I hope not.

[@dr.awkward9075]

@@AlmostSomething You did, but it's all good. Thanks for the video!

[@johnpenguinthe3rd13]

@@AlmostSomething To be fair, 1984 is more accurate to real events felt by the public. During 1983, there were still TONS of new games coming out in stores to the point where the average consumer had ZERO clue that a crash was happening behind the scenes. It's not till 1984 when it becomes obvious to the public that a crash is happening since almost all the consoles were no longer getting new releases (exceptions being the Atari 2600 and the Colecovision, and even those barely got anything during 1984, I think it was LESS than 20 new console game releases for all of 1984, which paled in comparison to the HUNDREDS of newly released games during 1983, some of which had commercials on TV during 1983). Plus, most stores were practically trying to kick out all their video game stock during 1984 (lots of bargain bins) and I don't remember there being any gaming commercials on TV during 1984 (unlike 1983 where there were several video game TV commercials) . In other words, while the crash was happening behind the scenes during 1983, it's really 1984 when it occurs to the general public that a crash has actually happened. So saying 1984 is actually more accurate since that's when the general public noticed it and felt it. Source: me being alive during 1984 and me and everyone else noticing something was severely wrong during 1984 since 1983 felt like a normal year.

[@SkiBumMSP]

@@johnpenguinthe3rd13 And me being alive as well. I remember when game cartridges started showing up in bargain bins in places such as KMart at as little as $5 each. I managed to pick up a few good games during that time, such as Atlantis by IMagic. I remember also scoring a pretty good port of Omega Race that included an extra controller that you had to slip over the normal joystick that provided two more buttons (anybody remember that game?) for the Atari 2600 at the time. How I wish I still had that!

[@ChrisDreher]

Good coverage for the Intellivision. While a modem didn't come out for the Intellivision, there was a cable modem available in some markets. It was a download-only system that let customers pay a monthly subscription for 15-20 different games. You could play the games as often as you wanted for that month. The list of available games could change each month.

[@AlmostSomething]

That's wild, and so early! Reminds me of Satellaview. I may make a video on early internet gaming. Really interesting.

[@RetroJack]

@@AlmostSomething I'd love to see that!

[@VulpisFoxfire]

No mention of the Coleco ADAM, which did the same thing as that Intellivision setup you showed? :-) As someone who lived through all these, you're definitely making me feel ollllld with those closing remarks.

[@calebwilliams7659]

I loved B-17 Bomber for the Intellivision, and it even had a voice component synthesizer compatible aspect which was a big thing when it came out. I noticed I'm not the only one who thought the game was awesome given how many walkthroughs there are of it here on YT.

[@bertafu3546]

Beeeeeeee seventeeeen bombaaaa

[@jamesstewart3771]

You talked about the Odyssey 1 , but skipped the Odyssey 2 . Why ?

[@AlmostSomething]

Only so much time!

[@Metal_Maxine]

"A light rifle kind of similar to the Nintendo zapper" -- there's a reason for that. It was made by Nintendo who were operating light gun clay shooting arcades in Japan at the time.

[@zaxxon4]

The Colecovision was great. What killed the company was the Adam computer.

[@howitusedtobe]

If you’ve got cartridges around grab one and open it …. It’s a plug in printed circuit board … So the very first cartridges are very much are exactly like modern cartridges albeit a very primitive version … Turbografx Hucards and master system cards fairly closely resemble the earliest cartridges

[@AlmostSomething]

I've said it a million times and it's obviouly a theme of the videos - the connections between today's games and yesterday's are deeply linear!!!

[@sa3270]

In the old days, people's moms used to think the cartridges were tapes.

[@VulpisFoxfire]

One minor difference..the earliest cardtridge games were just a set of jumpers that switched between games already built into the system. It wasn't until later that they included onboard memory (and in some cases processing components) like more modern carts.

[@sa3270]

It's strange thinking some people's parents are younger than these games.

[@AlmostSomething]

My guy, I am ONE OF THOSE PARENTS lol. Born in 1983.

[@VulpisFoxfire]

@@AlmostSomething Being born in 1971 and having seen all this stuff, you're making me feel olllllld.

[@BITPLAKIS]

💙💛💚❤️

[@puffthecatpuff8931]

Driving wheel and a gun? Could have been a cool GTA game.

[@AlmostSomething]

Sounds horrifying AND hilarious.

[@toasteee252]

Intellivision was even more advanced than people give it credit for. Yes people make fun of the controller, but the best we had to that point was the Atari joy stick. When you don't have anything more advanced to compare it too. You learn how to use it. It could move better than the nes controller and it's cross shaped keypad. The master system controller could move better than the nes because it could move like the intellivisions. I never had a coleco, but their controller emulates intellivisions... cept for one thing. (I may be wrong about this) Anytime I play an intellivision on emulation. The controller is the same. The buttons were used in the game. Colecos on the other hand usually used their buttons to choose the player and how tough the game was. Just like Atari 2600 did. Which means the intellivision was more advanced on the programming side with what you could do via the controller and such. On another note on the video game crash. We were obsessed with the arcades and graphics. People talk about the crash forgetting the leap the arcade machines took. Before a game like defender could be passable in the 2600. Dragons lair..not so much. We still went to the arcade just as much but if not for the more. We lost interest because we had been playing pretty much the same type of games we had been playing the last five years. Notable exceptions of course. Berserk missle command. D&d. Tron and the longer sports games. Plus don't discount the fact that the kids who started Atari grew up to teens. I think coleco and their deliberately poor ports to other consoles ultimately killed the home systems. Everyone points to Atari as the culprit but in the same breath brings up we were playing intellivision and coleco vision and the 5200. If the 2600 was the cause, then why did the rest fail? The collecovision could play Atari 2600 and intellivision games. There was other reasons why we stopped. Perhaps it was because arcade games weren't just at the arcades. They were in gas stations and grocery stores and dairy queens and more accessible to all.

[@AlmostSomething]

Tell you what, that arcade perspective is one I don't usually think about. Thanks for the reminder...I gotta do that video eventually!

[@janwilt6974]

I hate to disagree with you but the Atari 5200 was more powerful than the ColecoVision, it had better sound and better graphics and a larger color palette. I own both consoles. The 5200 was simply an Atari 400 computer in a console.

[@AlmostSomething]

No need to hate it, all good! But didn't I only talk about the 2600?

[@Sinn0100]

Ummm...interesting. Atari's successor consoles 5200/7800 were both commercial failures. The 5200 was one of the worst consoles ever conceived. It was no match for the Colecovision. The Colecovision was technically the only console left standing during the 1983 video game crash. Addendum- Our shared gaming history is more important than most realize. Unfortunately, we are seeing the willful destruction of gaming's history by greed driven publishers/developers and the profoundly ignorant. As we speak larg swaths of our history is being delisted across every platform, genre, and generation.

[@curtisnewton895]

avgn (and others) reviewed all these consoles already, years ago ever heard of 2024 ?

[@AlmostSomething]

Of course! That being said, if no topic that was ever covered ever had a video done on it...there'd never be any videos. Ever. Anywhere. The trick is to approach the topic with a new perspective and provide fresh information in a nice package, which I hope I've done.

[@theantiadult]

Early atari games were not as good as Channel f really