 | |
| Manufacturer | Coleco |
|---|---|
| Type | Series of dedicated home video game consoles |
| Generation | First |
| Lifespan | 1976-1978 |
| Units sold | > 1 million (Coleco Telstar model only) |
| Successor | ColecoVision |
The Coleco Telstar brand is a series of dedicated first-generation home video game consoles produced, released and marketed by Coleco from 1976 to 1978. Starting with Coleco Telstar Pong clone based video game console on General Instrument's AY-3-8500 chip in 1976,[1] there were 14 consoles released in the Coleco Telstar series. About one million units of the first model called Coleco Telstar were sold.[2]
The large product lineup and the impending fading out of the Pong machines led Coleco to face near-bankruptcy in 1980.[3]
- ^ "The Next Generation 1996 Lexicon A to Z: Coleco". Next Generation. No. 15. Imagine Media. March 1996. p. 31.
- ^ Herman, Leonard (1997). Phoenix: the fall & rise of videogames (2nd ed.). Union, NJ: Rolenta Press. p. 20. ISBN 0-9643848-2-5. Retrieved 16 February 2012.
Like Pong, Telstar could only play video tennis but it retailed at an inexpensive $50 that made it attractive to most families that were on a budget. Coleco managed to sell over a million units that year.
- ^ "Coleco Industries. -ColecoVision History". colecovision.dk. Retrieved 5 November 2019.