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Widget Of The Week
Interstate Video Game
Console, 1977
 Occasionally the items featured in dustygizmos
are found in good working order and only need a quick wipe over to get them
looking and running like new. Most, however, need some attention. Often it’s
something fairly trivial like a loose wire, broken switch, dud component or a
damaged or missing part. Quite a few start out as complete basket cases and
should, by rights, be immediately consigned to the bin, but now and again
there’s a reprieve. Maybe it is rare or unusual enough to warrant a full
restoration or there’s something about the design or a unique feature that
makes it worth saving. Those that don’t make the cut generally don’t appear on
these pages but here’s an exception. It is meant to serve as a reminder to me –
and a stern warning to others -- that some things are so far gone they are
simply not worth the bother.
It’s the Interstate Video Game Console, by no
means unusual or rare; it was made in the mid 70s and based around the quite
literally game-changing AY-3-8500 chip. We’ll come back to that shortly. It is
a first generation console and one of millions produced at the time. However,
the fact that this one beat the odds and survived, apparently intact, persuaded
me to part with the 50 pence being asked for it at a local car boot sale.
Seemingly it had been only lightly used but at some point it must have been the
target for someone cleaning a paintbrush. A few, or even a lot of paint spots
are usually easily removed and normally it wouldn’t be enough put me off.
Appearances can be deceptive, though, and the first task was to take it apart,
and at that point the alarm bells should have started ringing. Three of the
four screws on the underside were quite rusty but they came out with a bit of
effort. The head of the fourth was too far gone so out came the drill and after
a few slips and curses I managed to grind away enough of the head to release
the two case parts.
 Rarely have I witnessed such devastation. It
looked like all of the twelve C batteries used to power it had exploded at
once. Rusty deposits, corrosion and dried battery goop was everywhere but
somehow the circuit board appeared to have escaped the worse of it. Old battery
gunge, like paint spots can usually be cleaned from plastic, so I ploughed on.
The first step was a total strip down, with all of the plastic parts getting a
bath in diluted white vinegar. This got the worst of it off the rest came away
with some light scrubbing and scraping. The metal case of RF modulator was
encrusted in a layer of rust and that should have sounded another warning. It
didn’t and an inspection of the modulator’s innards showed the components had
survived in a coating of thick wax and looked as good as new. The modulator was
removed and the metal cleaned with a rotary wire brush. A protective lacquer on
the underside of the circuit board saved the copper tracks and the rest of the
components looked okay, but the metal casings of the mode selector switches had
suffered the same fate as the modulator and needed the wire brush treatment.
Another casualty was the small speaker, which was badly corroded. It looked
like a goner, but no, it popped loudly when the contacts were touched to a
battery and another session with the wire brush dealt with the worst of the
rust. The console’s metal battery contacts had been completely destroyed but I
managed to scavenge replacements from an old torch. After applying few squirts
of contact cleaner and grease to the game selector and mode switches it looked
ready to run.
 The two hand controllers hadn’t been affected
and only needed cleaning and some contact cleaner. Everything was reassembled
and it was time to apply power from a bench supply. It was completely dead and so began a long and ultimately fruitless
exercise to locate the fault, or rather faults. By the time I gave up I had
replaced around 50 percent of the components on the board, fixed at least half
a dozen dry joints, replaced most of the cables, substituted a known working
AY-3-8500 chip and dismantled and cleaned all of the switches. Each time I
thought a fault had been fixed it led to another one. All of the power supply
connections and signal paths checked out and in theory it should, by then have
shown at least some signs of life. It became an obsession and it wasn’t until I
glanced at the clock and saw that I had been at it for the best part of 15
hours that I finally accept defeat. No doubt the next thing I tried would get
it working but I was in no mood to find out so now its final resting place is a
box with a load of other bits and pieces that I plan to strip for parts,
probably, one day…
What Happened To It?
 The General Instruments AY-3-8500 integrated
circuit was introduced in early 1976. It single-handedly kick-started the whole
home video game industry by putting all of the main functions on a single chip,
costing just a few dollars. The games were all simple ‘ball and paddle’
variants of the classic arcade tennis game ‘Pong’ that first appeared in 1972, in
large coin-operated consoles.
Coleco in the US were the first to get their
hands on the chip but their lead didn’t last for long and the market was soon
awash with cheap, and often quite poorly made consoles from the Far East. The
Interstate console featured here was by no means the worst offender but it
wouldn’t win any prizes for design or build quality. Interstate was one of
several brand names, including Binatone, were used on this design of console.
It probably sold reasonably well as there are usually a handful of them on
ebay. It’s difficult to say who actually made it but in most cases they
originated in small Hong Kong based factories churning out electronic widgets,
badged for overseas sellers. Most of them are long gone, along with any record
of their existence.
Historically the Interstate was one of the
first of the first generation consoles. The AY-3-8500 chip is used on its own
so it has a monochrome video output. Later versions added a second chip to
produce a simple colour display. Within a year the AY-3-8500 had been superseded
by the AY-3-8510 which added horizontal paddle movement, so controllers
sprouted two-axis joysticks, plus there were a couple of extra ‘shooting’
games, which meant companies could sell optional ‘light pistols’. Video game
consoles evolved at an incredible rate from that point onwards. Single chip
models were replaced by second-generation cartridge programmable models. This
market developed at an even faster rate but within a year or so most contenders
fell by the wayside and Atari dominated the market with the revolutionary 2600
VCS console. This rules the roost until the early 80s and well, you know the
rest…
The really annoying thing is that if I really
wanted a working Interstate video game console I could find one from ebay for a
few pounds. Providing it was in reasonably good condition there’s a small
chance it of it becoming a future collectible. I just hope the time and effort
I wasted exploring this particular Interstate to nowhere taught me a lesson, but
somehow I doubt it…
DUSTY DATA
First Seen: 1977
Original Price: £30?
Value Today: £5.00 (0319)
Features AY38500
based 4-game console (Tennis, Football, Squash & Training), detachable
paddle controls, monochrome video, RF output (UHF C36), selectable bat size,
manual /auto serve, ball speed, ball angle, sound mute, 55mm speaker
Power req. 12 x 1.5 volt ‘C’
cells, external mains adaptor
Dimensions:
320 x 190 x 70mm
Weight:
1kg
Made (assembled) in: Hong Kong
Hen's Teeth (10 rarest) 7
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