All Bally Astrocade Games in One Video

[@fortknoxguy]

This was an impressive machine for it's time.

[@thomascunningham2919]

Just saw an old episode of Price is Right where an Astrocade and a set of games was part of a showcase.

[@SpeccyHorace]

What an amazing machine for the time.

[@JoeFpoc]

Got goosebumps watching this, brings back a lot of memories the astrocade was my first console as a kid. Really cool to see it again. Remember zzzap and Red Baron was played a lot

[@DogPatch1149]

So cool seeing the home versions of Wizard of Wor and Space Zap (Incredible Wizard and Space Fortress) using basically the exact sounds from the arcade. Also cool seeing the Galaxian games using both the color scheme and the sounds from GORF.

[@LDTV22OfficialChannel]

This console is severely underrated and I mean it

[@Dubbloseven]

Debatable. Totally, understand if it holds a special place in people's heart's. As certain console's overtime did for me, but felt slept on. Namely for me as example for an underrated console was Sega CD. I mentioned in a recent comment on this video, it still hold's a place in gaming history.

[@theyamo7219]

It's a shame that this console never caught on because hardware wise it was far superior to the 2600... The Atari 2600 ONLY had 128 BYTES (not kilobytes, BYTES) of internal ram The Astrocade had 4 KB of internal RAM, and the RAM was actually expandable up to 64 KB with expansion modules CPU: Zilog Z80, 1.789 MHz (Atari's was only 1.19 MHz) RAM: 4 kB (up to 64 kB with external modules in the expansion port)ROM: 8 kB (Atari didn't have ANY internal ROM) Cart ROM: 8 kBExpansion: 64 kB total (2600 had NO memory expansion options) Ports: 4 controller, 1 expansion, 1 light pen Sound: 3 voices + noise/vibrato effects (played through the TV) (Atari only had a SINGLE sound channel)

[@Tomlinsky]

The problem was that the machine could never compete on price against a 3 chip design. Although technically inferior the genius of Jay Milner's 2600 hardware meant it wouldn't need to be sold at a loss to compete. Bally realised this fairly quickly after completion of their hardware, which released late due to similar design considerations, and got out of the business. By the way, the VCS had TWO sound channels but they were, again, simply functional. Also, Atari released 32KB ROM cart games and larger capacity are available via 3rd party sources to this day.

[@dava_arvarabi]

That 1.789 MHz Zilog is actually slower than MOS 6507 that Atari 2600 had. The 6502 or 6507 is known for being more clock efficient. To achieve the same speed as Atari had, the Zilog had to be clocked at 3 MHz. The same clockspeed found on ZX Spectrum computers and Sega Master System.

[@dava_arvarabi]

Basically Atari 2600 ran on the same clockspeed as the Commodore 64 (or even faster, since commodore ran on 1 MHz, the PAL version runs on 900-ish KHz afaik.)

[@dbranconnier1977]

The Bally Astrocade seems better suited to compete against the Commodore VIC-20 (16 colors, 5 Kb of RAM, 1 MHz 6502 processor). If only Commodore would have released the VIC-20 as a game console with 2 standard joystick ports instead of 1 and a membrane keyboard like the Commodore MAX (to reduce production costs), it would have fared better against the Atari 2600. What really helped Atari though was third-party developers (Activision, Epyx, Imagic) which produced some of the best games for that console.

[@GiordanDiodato]

problem was it was difficult to program for those capabilities. it suffered the same problems the Jaguar would later face.

[@fododude]

Never heard of Astrocade. That's astonishing.

[@johneygd]

Those pac man,space invaders and centepi clones are definitely must haves for it😁

[@MrLuridan]

There was a glitch in Red Baron: There was a spot in the clouds you could shoot, and accumulate points every shot. Also, Wizard was the best! I had so many hours on it. After a while, you would know exactly where the Wizard would spawn and I'd shoot before he showed, so at the exact time he spawned, my bullet would strike him. Star Battle was awesome. Great sound effects. Brickyard was addictive, and Clowns was cool. If you angles the "ball" just right, you could clear almost all the balloons without the ball even coming down. Same with Brickyard. There were other games you could download from a cassette tape into the Basic Cartridge. It was a tricky and finicky process. I think one was called "Sea Devil"? I think that's right. Great game, like underwater Defender with a submarine and sea life. Maybe I'm misremembering that one. Great video! Thank you!

[@jaflischannel]

I wish I grew up in the 70s or 80s so I could see how it was and so I could use this console. It looked simply amazing. It was so powerful, the games seemed really fun, and you could program and save your own games and test others in basic, which could be in both basic and the much smoother machine language. Just wow. If I can ever get my hands on this console I'll be sure to do so!

[@Supreme2k]

I remember getting one of these with 3 games at a yard sale right after they bailed on it, I then picked up another 10 games at Toys R Us for about a buck each. I also recall being the envy of a lot of kids because of the "arcade quality" of some of the games, until a little while later, people started asking "Where's YOUR Donkey Kong?" My next system was an NES.

[@fringeelements]

Bally were a bunch of idiots for not pushing this harder. This thing is amazing for a 1978 home console. It's really quite close to the arcade at home. The price point was $300, but I think if Bally / Midway had leaned into this harder they could have beaten out Atari.

[@Dubbloseven]

Maybe they were more focused on arcades and pinball. Yeah good call. Hard to say. Would have to do some research or ask some questions

[@theyamo7219]

It's a shame, it was pretty much the NEOGEO AES of its time, sadly, it was never properly marketed.

[@Tovbestagfirullah123]

It cannot beat atari bro atari is much enjoyable

[@nolimits8744]

It would be another 4 yrs until colecovision brought back the zilog z80 to the home market again.

[@ChicagoTRS]

Loved Artillery Duel, Bally Pin, Cosmic Raiders, Galactic Invasion/Galaxian, ICBM Attack, Incredible Wizard, Muncher, Red Baron, Seawolf, Treasure Cove. I always thought it was the superior system when compared to the 2600. It was particularly strong multiplayer.

[@Dubbloseven]

Artillery duel, you can see where they got the idea for scorched earth from :) I enjoyed Atari 2600; but cause I owned one in the early 80s :) Both very retro feel to it now and special time in gaming history.

[@ChicagoTRS]

@@Dubbloseven back in the day...most friends owned 2600s, we owned a astrocade, another neighbor owned Intellivision...so in the end you got to play all of them.

[@ridiculous_gaming]

I have one and hope to fix it some day, but games like Wizard of Wor illustrate the possibilities of this console.

[@cathrynm]

The Galaxians also looks decent.

[@jonathanwpressman]

Sound was awesome

[@Dubbloseven]

yeah for sure. I get that sound nostalgia from Commodore 64 as well :)

[@mjdxp5688]

I didn't really know much about this console until recently, and it certainly seems pretty interesting. Compared to the Atari, the games here have practically no flicker at all. Makes me wonder what could have been if this ended up surpassing the 2600. I also find it hilarious how many shameless knock offs were on this console. "Road Toad" is an absolutely genius name.

[@bsdetector6908]

GORF used the same hardware as the Astrocade. Such a lovely piece of kit (for the time)

[@Hologhoul]

The Wizard of Wor clone is remarkable for a home console of that era.

[@metallicman6342]

Bally made a game console? I knew they made games but they were more of a Pinball Company rather than a arcade or video game company.

[@teknohed]

Hi. Can I use this footage for a video I am making on the astrocade? You have some games here that I am having a hard time finding anywhere else. I will give you credit of course and link back to this video in my video description. Thank you in advance.

[@ataricio]

Missing "Checkmate"...

[@GaryLASQ]

7:20 with Gunfight, Calculator and Scribbling which all came with the base unit (not on a cartridge).

[@Dubbloseven]

Checkmate

[@jonniefast]

it doesn't show it, but it is mentioned one of my favorites on the system basically a 4P snake game

[@clebo99]

Sloched is a real game?

[@MichaelPuterbaugh]

007

[@Dubbloseven]

The name's Bond. James Bond !

[@TheVampirePredator]

007 007 007

[@nolimits8744]

Thank God this thing never caught on...Total crap imo intellivision was leagues ahead of this thing.

[@Dubbloseven]

Which is why people have so much more nostalgia for the intellivision. But, legit, we all hear that. Nevertheless a piece of gaming history

[@TheodoreWard]

Intellivision sucked, worst controller ever. The astrocade supported 4 awesome controllers. Also had better though many fewer games.

[@nolimits8744]

After looking at some more games I will say it had some decent clones of popular hits like space invaders galaxian and pac man. One can only wonder what games would look like if third party developer's like activision made games for them.

[@Nbrother1607]

Erm actually this system came out one year before the Intellivision