The real first portable game system? ILLCO ELECTRONIC MAGIC TENNIS (1968)

Most of portable game collectors consider that:

1- Cragstan Electronic Periscope is the first portable electronic video game in the history (electro mechanical in fact). I have the 2 versions, but i consider it a predecessor , not exactly a video game as long there is NO GAME PLAY. No score, no goals, only a video and sounds effects. Is more like a toy. According on the data i found INSIDE these games they are from 1951, produced in Japan.

2- I am near to believe the first VIDEO GAME as we understand a video game, portable , was the ILLCO ELECTRONIC MAGIC TENNIS. It is not clear if it was from 1968 or 1965. The bill i have for this game is from 1968, but it seems to be launched in 1965. It is electromechanical.. but the gameplay is electrical : the ball is in fact a LIGHT nor a mechanical character, and it has automatic scoring with sound. Please see this game play and pictures.

PICTURES:






THE GAMEPLAY : SEE THIS VIDEO PLEASE... You will love it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPYUSY8T26o

So , a PONG,yes.. portable. You can play PONG on the go .. in 1965 (or 68).

 

Wow... that's pretty cool. Is it computer controlled, or is it totally mechanical?

 

Nice find, +rep!

 

It´s electro mechanical. But there is some degree of "mechanical" programming like a clock. I.e. , everything inside is calibrated like a clock you need to calibrate to make it work properly.

Now, usually the electro mechanical games are a mechanical sprite (a plastic with a car form, a plastic with a motorcycle form, etc like in the TOMY mechanical games). In this case the ball is a LIGHT. So the final effect is very similar to a real digital videogame and that´s the interesting part.

The BLIP by TOMY (1976) is some kind of PONG as well, but gameplay is very rudimentary ... ball can go only to 3 possible places, and you need to hit it with one of 3 buttons . It is more luck than ability. In the ILLCO the ball will hit or your player , and will bounce without marking score, or the wall and will bounce marking a score for your opponent.

Mechanism is delicate but simple: there are 2 small motors with 2 switches. One moves a rail from player to player, the other moves another rail over this rail from left to right. Bot motors has switches , once the motor touch or a player or a wall (side walls or players wall) changes direction. The ball is a light projected to the tennis field, so ball is in fact in a point were is receiving 2 instructions:

- go left, go right
- go player 1, go player 2

At the same time. This cause the diagonal movements you see . It is very interesting and believe me: very funny and playable.

 

wow thats a real piece of gaming history right there, thanks for the pictures and info

 

This would only be sexier if the video featured Scarlett Johannson playing it naked. And even then, it would be like 3% sexier.

This is an awesome find, Scaramouche. You are a golden god.

 

This is quite a find. And in such nice condition it seems!

 

I know, i know... but she cancelled at last moment because she was engaged with some scenes for THE AVENGERS.. can you belive it??? :dammit: I will never call her again for my videos!! I have Jessica Lange confirmed for next video now AMERICAN HORROR HISTORY have finished... no much difference (only about 60 years, probably she used to play this game wen she was already in the High School)



Guys i love you like this found. I hope to put some other strange things. I consider myself a portable gaming arquelogist. I collect for researching purposes and i feel here as in my own home

 

Feel free to tell me where to go with this request...

Would you consider opening her up? It'll be cool to see some photos of the mechanism!

 

Scarlett Johannson ???

 

Damn nice piece, I was wondering if the title was meant to say 78 instead of 68

I would be interested in pics of the inside magic, too, only if you already popped it open or if you want to open it yourself, of course

 

NOPE, title is fine. It was sold in Netherland in late 60´s. The only thing i am not sure is the year it was launching and developed. I have some reason (based on the inside, of course i opened her) it is from 1965.

There are several technical facts inside that put this unit in the 60' s and not int the 70´s . Just to mention one... the BLIP (from TOMY) is from 1976, and use a LED as a ball , something typical on any portable game in the 70´s . This one use a SMALL lamp not a led, with a specific piece that makes the light close and focus only in one point. Can someone explain me why to do this in the 70's were leds were the common way to make portable handhelds?

There other facts present in the box, in the artwork (the tennis match in the box is a picture of 60´s tennis players and not from 70´s ), and in the type of plastic used on it.

I will share pictures of the inside yes. No need to screw nothing: the tennis field is easy to remove and you can see all the inside without touching a screw.

 

What is the bill you have that indicates it's from 1968? Also, any patent indications on it?

What's the model number on it? My understanding of Illco model #s as that they used the year of manufacture in the model number (though I'm not 100% certain of this). They made a non-electrical baseball game back in the 70's, model # 79/6. Sixth game they produced in 1979 (I actually got that game on Christmas of 1979, and it was a newly released game at that time)...

The lack of LED use could be attributed to cost (LEDs were more expensive than light bulbs), and brightness (look at Blip, that LED isn't really all that bright). Also, they wanted a 'tennis' look, so a green playfield and a light bright enough to shine through and look sort of like a tennis ball (yellowish in color, not red). A small light bulb is the obvious choice...

Tomy's Digital Derby used normal lightbulbs, as did Simon and some others. LEDs were in use back then, but not exclusively. Especially for a company that may not be buying them by the 10's of thousands...

Either way, that's a pretty cool game. I like how the ball seems to move much more randomly than on Blip, but I still get the impression it has a finite number of 'paths' it can follow, but it does look like they are truly randomly chosen (or based on your paddle position).

Blip is kind of funny, it actually follows a pre-set pattern of moves. I have them all written down somewhere, if you were to actually memorize them, you can predict where the light will go for every move.

As for the picture, they just wanted any unlicensed photo of people playing tennis... They didn't care (and possibly didn't even know) who was in it, as long as they didn't have to pay to use it...

If you really want to date it better, try to identify the design on the clothes of the family playing the game, especially the shirt with the pattern on it. People into vintage 60's and 70's clothing can probably tell you just by glancing at it when that shirt was made. (If you find the right person, he'd probably be able to tell you the manufacturer and where it was likely sold...)

Cool find though. I've seen a picture of that game somewhere (old catalog maybe, need to start going through them, might help with dating it), but never seen it in play...

 

Also thoroughly impressed - The fact that it's from 1968 is the most surprising part... Dig the way the ball suddenly 'swerves' in a few of those shots, like it's affected by wind or something!

I'd love to see what it looks like inside as well.

 

Found it... Took a bit of searching, but it seems it was released in 1977. First appearance I found of it is in the 1977 Montgomery Ward Christmas catalog. For $18.99! Does it run on C batteries, or D batteries like the ad says? I thought I saw somewhere that it was C sized batteries...

 

Interesting announce. But i still have a problem on this game history... it was bought in Netherland in 1968. So... is it possible it was launched previously in Netherland? Inclusion on a catalog is not a launching date. I wrote ILLCO company (company still exists) and someone inside the company (surprised at first about my interest) promised me he will guess this info for me: exactly which was the launching and place date. I hope to share with you all soon.

Also SYLDC shared with me some cool info on related portable pong game systems from 70´s, it seems there was very common on that ages but this ILLCO one looks to be the more portable of all of them. The other are very big, or the format is not even close a portable console (screen, commands, score, etc.. some of them are like tv screens with a bulb on the back)


About batteries : it holds 4 D batteries yes, if i said C i miss the letter It uses the big ones.

Also i need to mention is a BATTERY VAMPIRE . LOL I tried with common D batteries and you can play around 20 minutes. With 4 alkaline you can play about 1 hour .

 

awesome mate. In fact to play this on the go you would need a big backpack

 

this is some cool shit :thumbsup:

 

How do you know it was bought in the Netherlands in 1968? Illco Toys was a US company that was purchased by Tyco in 1992. They no longer exist. There's another company or two with the same name, but I don't think they produce toys or had anything to do with the original company. Or maybe the division from Tyco became Illco again, but the original company was dissolved years ago. And I can't find any indication that Illco Toys still exists... What contact information do you have for them?

It's also very unlikely that the game was made and sold for nearly 10 years... There's very few examples of any electronic game being made that long, and the few that do exist were changed quite a bit over the years... The dept store catalogs actually do represent a very good timeline on release years since the dept stores will generally only carry an item for a year or two unless it's a really good seller (in which case, these would be as common Simon games). So I'd be willing to accept that maybe it came out in 1976 and didn't make the catalogs until the next year... But not 6 years earlier...

Also, the part number for the game. I still believe that the model numbers indicate the year the game was produced... The plastic molding looks a little too 'modern' to be 60's era as well, but that can be a hard thing to judge...

Three things can confirm this:
The model #. Is that written on the box?
Trying to date the clothing of the people on the box...
If you can open the game a take a picture of the electronics (specifically the motor, the back part of it where the wires connect if possible...), that will be easy to date as well...

Patent information would be good as well, if there's any listed.

That's my thoughts on it... If you come up with any documentation that verifies an earlier release date, definitely share it! But, best evidence seems to suggest a 1977 release. If it was released before the invention of Pong, that would actually be very interesting information...

 

Well, i think is possible this system is from middle 70´s , early 70´s or late 60´s.

There is an ILLCO company . In their website they mention they from a while (even before 60´s ) and they used to build toys so i contacted them. No info yet

Previous owner was a store , it is from an old stock and store affirmed they get this in 1968.

Of course i have no proofs of nothing, i am very interested on know the date. I don´t know how they just don´t put the release date on the bottom

In fact i am very intrigued because in some aspects i thing it looks like from middle 70´s .. but wen i compare the artwork (fonts, photos, manuals, paper, plastic type) with some contemporary electronic games (like the indubitable 1968´s IDEAL RADAR SEARCH) it looks from the same age. But if i compare with games from middle 70´s (like MATTEL´s led systems, or TOMY electro mechanical systems), box, materials, artwork, fonts looks very different.

I don´t know Psycho.. i will keep researching of course the catalog was VERY interesting and a good data . In am working on set date for the other items in same catalog . Also SYLDC info was very useful.

I don´t think this is from 1965 as some collectors told me, i am not sure if it is from late 60´s... but i am not sure as well it is from middle 70´s. I believe eary 70´s is the more probably date of course is just my opinion comparing games and trying to match them on the same age.