The Interton Video 2400
The Interton Video 2800 is a first generation home video game console released in 1975 by Interton. It is based on the AY-3-8500 ball and paddle chip. The machine was only capable of black and white output and produced sound on an internal speaker rather than via the television set.
This console was sold in france by Thomson under the JV1T name.
This console did not have a light-gun so two of the Ball&Paddle games were not supported (the shooting games).
The AY-3-8500 "Ball & Paddle" IC
The AY-3-8500 "Ball & Paddle" integrated circuit was the first in a series of ICs from General Instrument designed for the consumer video game market.
In 1975 General Instruments developed the AY-3-8500 chip that would revolutionize home gaming. Initially there was no interest in the chip, General Instruments could not find interested buyers. At the same time Coleco had the desire to built a home console. Thanks to Ralph Baer, the brain behind the Magnavox Odyssey, Coleco and GI found each other and in 1976 Coleco Telstar was put on the market. It immediately became serious competition for the Magnavox Odyssey.
Ultimately the AY-3-8500 was used in more than 200 consoles, from the APF TV Fun, the Philips Tele-Spiel Las Vegas, the Sears Hockey Tennis game to the Tandy TV-Scoreboard and many, many more.
The AY-3-8500 was designed to output video to an RF modulator, which would then display the game on a domestic television set. The AY-3-8500 contained six built in games:
- Tennis/Pong
- Soccer/Hockey
- Squash
- Practice game
- Shooting 1
- Shooting 2
The AY-3-8500 was the 625-line PAL version and the AY-3-8500-1 was the 525-line NTSC version. It was introduced in 1976 with Coleco the first manufacturer to implement the chip in its Telstar console. Only a few external components were needed to build a complete system, which made this chip an attractive option to produce cheap pong machines.
The AY-3-8500 was the first iteration of the chip with black-and-white video output. It was possible to colorize the game by using an additional chip, such as the AY-3-8515.
The AY-3-8500 Pin-Out
