In the late 70’s video games were mostly simple pong consoles or LED hand-held
games. Which were kind of neat, but very limited. In the case of those Pong
consoles, if you don’t have a friend to play with you, you were usually limited to
the hand ball game which is pretty dull. My best guess is that 90% or more of
the dedicated gaming consoles of the first two generations of video games are
Pong games.
But there were some alternatives out there. Atari made one called the Stunt
cycle with a pair of handlebars which is kind of neat. But what we’re here to talk
about today is their dedicated Video Pinball console.
While more people out there will probably know of the Atari 2600 game called
Video Pinball from 1980, a game I have a ton of nostalgia for, having played a lot
of it when I was little. But a few years prior there was also an arcade machine
called Video Pinball, and this. What I consider to be the coolest of the dedicated
game consoles of the time.
The Atari Video Pinball unit has a model number of C-380, and as you can see
here, the Sears Tele-Games version simply bears the moniker “Pinball/
Breakaway”. Both systems have the same games, but two of the three have
different names. What is called Rebound on the Atari version is called simply
“basketball” here; the other game to get a different name is Breakaway, on the
Atari versions of the console, it is called the more fitting “Breakthru”. To prevent
any confusion, I think I’ll stick with the Atari naming conventions here.
This example here is the Sears Tele-Games version. Atari had a deal with Sears
to sell products under the Tele-Games brand name in their stores and catalogs.
All of the Tele-Games products are the same thing as their Atari counterparts, just
with different cosmetics and names.
Not unlike the classic Pong consoles, the sound effects come right from the
console, just the standard beeps and bloops which were ever so common of
the era. Unlike many a Pong clone, this one’s in color, always a cool thing.
While there are 7 game choices, two of which are just variations on others. You
can choose to play either of the the pinball games with either traditional flippers,
using the flipper buttons on the side of the console, or with a paddle in the style
of a Breakout type game. Most of the games use a paddle, and the two Pinball
variations are the only ones using the flipper buttons on either side of the console.
Everything else uses the knob on the face of the console. Personally, I think the
pinball games are more fun than the pin paddle versions, they’re just faster
paced.
Then there’s Rebound. This is a game that I really can’t comment on, as my
example of this console is showing its age, and the serve button sticks a little,
making this one pretty much unplayable. Maybe one of these days I’ll try to
open the console up and see if giving the buttons a good cleaning would
help.
Lastly there are the two breakout variations: Breakthru and Breakout. The
only difference between the two is the space between the rows of blocks in
the play field on Breakthru. Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but I think
this is an option on the cartridge version of regular or Super Breakout for the
Atari 2600. You can’t get more straightforward than these two and they play
exactly how you’d expect.
When you get down to it. While the versions of Video Pinball here are unique
to this console, the 2600 game of the same title is a much more fun game.
Same goes for Breakout and Super Breakout. But ignoring that, if you’re
into these old school dedicated consoles—the original plug and plays, I think
this is the one to get, since you don’t need a player 2 to have any fun.
But if you’re an Atari collector and you don’t have one, it’s probably already
on your wish list.
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