Grandstand Adman TV Game 3000 - Now with COLOUR!

The 70's were a great time. The final Apollo missions. Skylab. Development of the shuttle. I was born etc etc etc. Good times.

But behind all the browns and headache inducing patterns the beginning of the computer games industry was taking place. First for the home came the Magnavox Odyssey, then Pong. Then someone cloned Pong to take advantage of an obvious market. Then someone else did. And another, and another. In fact, many Pong clones appeared. So many in fact, thanks to a couple of manufacturers who literally made Pong-on-a-chip. The most widely used of those was the General Instruments AY-3-8500. It's descendants appear in the Interstate console that I have (see HERE and HERE).

Well, GI wasn't the only company having a go at Pong-on-a-chip. Texas Instruments also had a go but with far more limited success. Their TMS-1965 chipset was not a huge success but was, strangely, pin compatible with the AY-3-8500.

So, anyway, a couple of weeks ago a box arrived.

What's in the box??

This is the Grandstand Adman TV Game 3000. It uses the TMS-1965 chipset and is surprisingly pleasing to look at. But I'm getting ahead of myself. There had been a 2000 model previously but the 3000 has colour (ooooh!) instead of just black and white. This is the late 70's though so expect greens, yellows and garish blues.

I bought it for the grand sum of £6.27 after realising that I have effectively been priced out of the market for most retro kit now. (An Amiga A500+ for £100??)

This particular unit has definitely been in storage in someones garage for some time judging by the state of it. It's very dusty and has that aroma that only a damp garage can generate.

Grungy..

Fortunately, this is quite a simple machine so I shouldn't have to worry too much about corrosion from errant capacitors or batteries.

Well, sh*t.

I spoke too soon. The unit had obviously been in storage for a heck of a long time. I haven't seen that style of battery for probably 20 years or more. But the question is, what damage has been done? Did I buy a £6.27 paperweight (that's no good as a paperweight without all that - er - weight)?

No Damage! - Phew!

Fortunately, the batteries in this console are to the front and below the main board(s). Also, I can only assume that the previous owner had it stored the correct way up otherwise we would have been looking at a total disaster.

Let's start the clean up. First, remove the case and snip off the controllers. They only have four wires each so it's easier to remove them for this work. I also left some wire on the board as these circuit boards are 40 years old and sticking a hot metal stick on them may cause unnecessary damage. It's much easier to solder two wires back together than try to repair a heat damaged trace. 

Controllers Separated

Next, remove the main halves of the case and wash them in warm, soapy water with the controller covers and let them dry through properly.

Washing Up

The case came out surprisingly well. I actually really like the look of this console. It may be from the 70's but the size and shape appeal to me far more than some 70's kit (looking at you Binatone...). I even managed to keep the 'QC' sticker. :)

Clean and Fresh.

Next thing to do is work out if this unit can output composite. It's an odd thing that most ancient games consoles generate a perfectly usable composite signal that is then hammered into RF. I suppose most TVs in the 70's and early 80's didn't have the array of inputs that modern TVs had. But in any case the pattern for this type of console is broadly similar:

1) Look for the TV modulator. It might be a silver box or even just a bit of circuit board but it will be where the TV output is.

2) Look for the two main connections into it. In most cases one lead will be for power to the modulator circuit and one will (probably) be the composite video signal.

To test this one I took my multimeter and plugged the unit in (9v D.C. centre pin negative a' la ZX Spectrum). Then I measured the voltage on both of the connections. One was a steady 5.01 volts and the other was wavering at about 1volt. So I disconnected both wires and connected the one with 1 volt to the centre pin of the TV out connector with a bit of orange wire. 

Orange Wire Composite Mod.

Will it work?

Looks good!

Of course. :)

So, now I'd proved it works all I had to do was re-attached the controllers and put it all back together.

There's not a lot to these...

Back in the case

Controllers attached and working

Done. Almost..

The only thing left to do with this is clean off the polystyrene from the cables. Apparently, the plastic on the cables contains a 'plasticizer' that leaches out of the plastic and gets absorbed by the polystyrene causing it to melt. The same happens if you wrap a cable around a plastic box. Eventually the cable starts to melt into the plastic.

I also have the box for this but it's in a really sorry state. I may have a go at repairing it and washing the polystyrene inserts. If I do I'll just update this post as I suspect a dedicated post about taping up a 40 year old box is possibly a bit dull, even for me...