Philips Tele-Game ES 2201

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Philips Tele-Game ES 2201
Philips Tele-Game ES 2201
Philips logo.svg
Sales start and new price
GermanyGermany 1975 for 179 DM
Cessation of production
1977
Scope of delivery (West Germany)
Console with antenna cable, manual, shuttlecock plug-in module, two controllers, packaging

Philips Tele-Spiel ES 2201 is a stationary video game console , which was offered by the technical toys department of Philips GmbH, Hamburg , from 1975 in various European countries. In contrast to devices that appeared later, such as the Atari 2600 and Philips G 7000, there is no microprocessor built into Tele-Spiel . Rather, the entire electronic processing takes place with the help of discrete components and a few logic gates , which means that the performance is very low. The display on the television is limited to black and white images, there is no background sound.

Philips offered a total of five different and very simple games as plug-in modules for the device. By the time the successor models ES 2203 and ES 2204 were presented in February 1977, tens of thousands of consoles had been sold.

story

The first home video game, the Odyssey of Magnavox , published in 1972 in the US. In 1973, a license version of this device called the Odyssey, designated by ITT for West Germany, was on display at the radio exhibition in Berlin. In February 1975 the German branch of the electronics company Philips also presented a game console.

Presentation and marketing

  • Philips old logo.svg

The technical toys department of Philips GmbH, Hamburg, presented their tele-game for the first time at the Nuremberg Toy Fair at the beginning of 1975 without a more detailed type designation and only provided with a pre-series housing . The price for the console, which was also announced there, should be 150  DM (today, adjusted for inflation, corresponds to approx. 200 euros) and for other interchangeable games that are still to be developed at 25 DM each (today approx. 33 euros).

Deliveries began around the middle of 1975 and were only made to specialist toy shops and corresponding departments in department stores. Now sold Tele-game ES 2201 called console then with two hand controllers and the game cartridge badminton in a package that creatively the Philips own program Technical toys was equalized. In September 1975 the price was 179 DM. With the Netherlands, France and Finland, further sales markets were added only a little later. The console was offered there under the name Telespel , Télé-Tennis or Telepeli .

The manufacturer always emphasized the family-friendliness of its new play system because it is equally suitable for children and adults. Philips organized the marketing of its new console accordingly: large-format newspaper advertisements offered the "exciting" system as a "real family game" that "brings you into business with the whole family". The advertisements also emphasized the ease of use due to the uncomplicated connection to the television set at home.

With the "exciting" games offer that in August 1975 next to the Pong game badminton also the title training wall , clay pigeon shooting , Autoslalom and Phantom hunting involved had always taken care of according to Philips for variety. In December 1976 the price for the console was 149 DM, the game modules to be purchased separately cost 39 DM each. By early 1977, Philips said it had been able to sell "a few tens of thousands" of the tele-game ES 2201 consoles.

Successor models

In February 1977, Philips presented the successor models Tele-Spiel ES 2203 and Tele-Spiel ES 2204 at the Nuremberg Toy Fair . This series, called Las Vegas , is based on the highly integrated special circuit AY-3-8500 from General Instrument . Because the chip already contains the pong variants tennis , squash , pelota and ice hockey , the complicated and expensive plug-in modules for games can be omitted. The two shooting games also contained in the AY-3-8500 are also used, but instead of the light rifle commonly used by other console manufacturersan optionally available electronic camera is used with the devices from Philips, with which the player can go on a “photo safari”. In addition to the graphically and technically more advanced games, the AY-3-8500 now also made it possible to automatically count and display the score on the screen as well as an acoustic background for the game in the two new consoles.

At the Nuremberg Toy Fair in 1977, Philips announced two more models. The Tele-Game ES 2205 and ES 2206 should belong to this Monte Carlo series, the "preliminary stage of intelligent games" . Both consoles, which were intended as electronic versions of classic board games, never made it onto the market. For this, Philips took a downgraded and therefore cheaper version of the Tele-Game ES 2203 into its sales range. This tele game ES 2207 - Travemünde also includes the AY-3-8500, but only tennis , squash , pelota and ice hockey are availableplayable. As with the ES 2203, the image is output in black and white, but a loudspeaker was not installed for cost reasons, so there is no background sound.

Games

The games for the Tele-Game ES 2201 are each located on plug-in modules, whereby these had to be purchased separately with the exception of the shuttlecock supplied . The scores are counted manually in all games using two mechanical slide bars that are embedded in the top of the console.

Badminton

Modeled screenshot of shuttlecock

The game of badmintonwith the model number ES 2211 is a simplified implementation of Pong. Similar to the shuttlecock that gives it its name, two players take turns hitting a ball into the opposing field in such a way that it cannot be returned. The rules, the game mechanics and the audiovisual presentation are greatly simplified because of the poorly performing hardware at the time, such as with Pong. The playing field is shown in top view and without any textures or other graphic details in black and white. The game pieces are each indicated by an upright block-like line - the bat. The shuttlecock, whose movement is always straight, but slowed down, in the sense of technically easy handling, is represented by a square illuminated dot that was also easy to generate using the hardware of the time. In order to be able to play this ball back, the racket must be brought into such a vertical position by means of the hand controller that it crosses the movement path of the ball. The impacting ball then ricochets off with an angle of incidence opposite to the angle of incidence and is thus played back to the opposing side. If one of the players misses the ball and it leaves the field of play, the opponent receives a point. The game ends when one of the two players has reached 15 points. The impacting ball then ricochets off with an angle of incidence opposite to the angle of incidence and is thus played back to the opposing side. If one of the players misses the ball and it leaves the field of play, the opponent receives a point. The game ends when one of the two players has reached 15 points. The impacting ball then ricochets off with an angle of incidence opposite to the angle of incidence and is thus played back to the opposing side. If one of the players misses the ball and it leaves the field of play, the opponent receives a point. The game ends when one of the two players has reached 15 points.

Training wall

This game with the model number ES 2212 is a variation of shuttlecock that can be played by only one person. The left bat is now an immovable wall that runs the full height of the screen. The player's task is to hit back the ball that ricochets off the wall as often as possible.

Clay pigeon shooting

Modeled screenshot of clay pigeon shooting
Reproduced screenshot of the car slalom

The game clay pigeon shootingwith the model number ES 2213 is an adaptation of the shooting of the same name at moving targets. What is happening is shown graphically in a highly simplified view from above. The shooter with the rifle is symbolized by a vertically movable rectangle on the right edge of the screen. The projectile fired by the rifle at the push of a button then moves slightly decelerated horizontally in a straight line to the left across the screen. Meanwhile the target, the clay pigeon, flies on the left side of the screen at different speeds from top to bottom. The challenge is to find the right time to shoot in order to hit the target. To increase the level of difficulty, the distance between the target and the rifle can be increased using the second hand controller.

Car slalom

In the game Auto Slalomwith the model number ES 2214, it is the player's task to follow the course of a road with a car without touching its boundaries. The scene is again shown graphically very much simplified in a top view. The car to be controlled is shown as a small bar that can only be moved horizontally using one of the two hand controls. The two road boundaries correspond to vertical wavy lines that are reminiscent of a slalom course. The movement is simulated with the help of the console electronics by moving these lines up or down. If the "car" touches one of the two limits, the journey is stopped abruptly and the player is awarded a penalty point. Then the second player takes over - and so on. In addition to the direction of movement, the driving speed can also be set with the other hand controller. To further increase the level of difficulty, it is also possible to change the "street width"; a smaller distance increases the risk of collision.

Phantom Hunt

In this reaction game with the model number ES 2215, both players try to catch a "ghost" that appears in a corner of the screen. A ghost - again shown in a highly abstracted form as a bright rectangle on the screen - is caught by the player who first presses the button on his hand controller when the rectangle appears on the screen.

Technical information

To play, the control unit with its 3 meter long antenna cable , a 9 volt block battery , two hand controls and a plug-in module - also known as a game cassette - is required. The console is switched on by plugging the two handheld controllers into the back of the device.

Control unit

In addition to the slot for the game cartridges and the antenna cable, the console contains some control elements. The red button on the left side of the control panel is used to set the television channel; the other knob can be used to change the level of difficulty of a game. The scores are counted on a scale from 0 to 15 with the help of the two central mechanical slide bars.

Inside the housing there is a single circuit board with all electronic assemblies and the receptacle for the plug-in modules. There are no highly integrated components such as microprocessors on the board. Only standard electronic components and simple logic gates are used. This includes three "figure generators" that always generate three bright screen objects. Their exact geometric shape and dimensions are in turn determined by the likewise very simple components in the plug-in modules. The positioning of these objects can be influenced either by the console or by the sliders, depending on the game. Meet for example when playing badmintonthe ball and a bat on top of each other, this corresponds to the coincidence of two electronic signals which, through another assembly on the console board, triggers a change in direction of the ball. The image is output on a television set with an antenna socket. The signal required for this is generated by a small high-frequency transmitter and fed into the console's antenna cable. In the absence of corresponding electronic components, the output is only in black and white and without sound. A 9-volt block battery is used exclusively for the power supply; there is no power supply connection. The current consumption is around 2.5  mA and, according to the manufacturer, the operating time is around 50 hours.

Hand controller

The hand controls each contain a slide potentiometer with a red knob . This enables, for example, the positioning and change of direction of movable screen objects. Further game parameters can be influenced by the built-in button with a red button. The controllers are connected to the console using a single 8-pin connector that is connected to the two handheld controllers via two cables.

Plug-in modules

In each of the plastic plug-in module housings there is a single printed circuit board with protruding contact tongues for the module holder in the console. Depending on the game, different discrete electronic components and the socket for receiving the plug for the handheld controller are installed on the board. Memory chips such as the Atari 2600 and Philips G 7000 consoles that appeared later are not available.

reception

Miniaturbahnen magazine praised the device after viewing it at the Nuremberg Toy Fair in 1975 as "modern" and "amusing". It requires "quick reactions" and provides "short relaxation". Due to its "high play value" it is "great fun". In addition, it can be connected to any television set "without much ado" and is also "very interesting" in terms of price. In the late summer of 1975, the magazine Das Spielzeug and the time journalist Thomas von Randow also praised the adjustable level of difficulty. So let the toy be loudBoth a “cozy game” and an “exciting match” are possible, and “the generally and rightly complained lousy television program” would no longer be a problem, so Randow with a wink. Because “the ability to react and the ability to concentrate are trained excellently”, Das Spielzeug also recommended use outside the family circle, namely in youth centers and sports clubs.

At the end of 1976, the Zeit journalist Tom Werneck wrote in a large comparison test that the newer designs with sound and "faded in hit display", such as Interton Video 3000 , which had appeared in the meantime, should be preferred to teleplay. He also advised all game console users to use an antenna splitter in order to save themselves the "tedious fiddling around with connections" on the television. Shortly after the introduction of the successor models ES 2203 and ES 2204, the magazine Das Spielzeug concluded in early 1977 that the tele-game had found “enthusiastic approval” among its “lovers”.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rainer Bücken: Tele gadgets . In: Video Special . December / January 1982/83, pp. 24 .
  2. ↑ a b c d Discovered on the fringes of the fair: Modern Tele-Spiel from Philips. In: Miniature Railways . April 1975, p. 278.
  3. ↑ a b c d Communication technology in the children's room and in the “parlor”. In: International Electronic Review. Volume 1/2, 1975, p. 19.
  4. ↑ Philips GmbH, Technical Toys Department: Tele-Game - excitement for young and old. Advertising brochure.
  5. ↑ a b c Tele game from Philips. In: The toy. August 1975, p. 1209.
  6. ↑ a b Thomas von Randow : TV-Ping-Pong. In: The time . September 6, 1975, accessed December 18, 2020 .
  7. ^ David Winter: Early European systems: Philips Tele-Spiel. In: Pong-Story.com. Retrieved February 11, 2020.
  8. ↑ Philips: Philips Tele-Spiel brings you into business with the whole family. In: The toy. September 1975, p. 1265.
  9. ↑ a b Tom Werneck : Renner of the season. In: The time. December 17, 1976, accessed December 18, 2020 .
  10. ↑ a b c d Tele game in color. In: The toy. February 1977, p. 531.
  11. ↑ Las Vegas in the spotlight. In: The toy. Messereport 1977, p. 669.
  12. ↑ Tele-Spiel Travemünde ES 2207. Advertisement, accessed on February 12, 2020.
  13. ↑ a b Philips ES 2201 Video Game 1975 Part 2: The Games (from 0:02:58) on YouTube , accessed on February 17, 2020.
  14. ^ Gonzalo Frasca: Videogames of the Oppressed: Videogames as a Means for Critical Thinking and Debate. Dissertation, Georgia Institute of Technology , April 2001, p. 30.
  15. ↑ a b c d e f g Philips GmbH Technical Toys Department: Tele-Spiel ES 2201 operating instructions. Retrieved February 12, 2020.
  16. ↑ Philips ES 2201 Video Game 1975 Part 2: The Games (from 0:09:26) on YouTube, accessed on February 17, 2020.
  17. ↑ Philips ES 2201 Video Game 1975 Part 2: The Games (from 0:10:49) on YouTube, accessed on February 17, 2020.
  18. ↑ Philips ES 2201 Video Game 1975 Part 2: The Games (from 0:07:03) on YouTube, accessed on February 17, 2020.
  19. ↑ Philips ES 2201 Video Game 1975 Part 1: The System (from 0:15:42) on YouTube, accessed on February 17, 2020.
This article was added to the list of articles worth reading on February 24, 2020 in this version .