• 1977

Hardware Description

MBO was a famous electronic German brand from Munich. This is a quite sober pong system... actually, not a very fun or nice looking one. At least, it is complete and offers the 6 games of the AY-3-8500 from General Instruments. The detachable controllers have a serve button. Each of them can be stored on the sides of the main unit. MBO produced a large series of pong systems that they named "Tele-ball" with numbers from 1 to 9 (or more ?). But there did not seem to be any real evolution as this model 2 for example, displays nearly the same features as the model 7 except for the 2 shooting games. The chip included in the Tele-ball VII is dated from 1977 as the one included in the Tele-ball II. So maybe they made different shapes at the same time just to propose "different products" and to sell more. An odd detail: whereas all the systems including a GI AY-3-8500 chip run with a 9 Volts voltage, this one is powered with only 6 Volts.