ScuzzBlog: Diaries February 2022
Entry 26th February 2022: Post 1: Teleng Colourstars - Pong variant.
Teleng Colourstars - Pong variant.
I am relatively comfortable with my prediction of the development
of human kind insomuch that they have long given up with ambition
on a grand scale. Time was that humans reached for the stars with
desire to populate the planets, develop faster flying ships, build
metropolis style cities of towering glass. Sadly humans have sunk
down into their handhelds and desire stimulation from the smallest
of pixels. Future worlds are those populated by CGI Marvel heroes.
In a few years from now the Space Station will plummet back to the
earth and with it humans collected motivation to journey into space.
No more grand adventures in a race to progress beyond this world.
And does anyone care.. not really. After all we have mobile phones
and high res fantasies feeding out minds. That seems to be stimulation
enough.
And so what of this prediction. There was a moment when I sat on a
bus reading my latest copy of Home Computing Weekly that I realised
that whilst time had moved on and computers were now the thing, we
were still living in terraced housing with walled tiny gardens and
metal gates. Victorian building still filled the landscape. This
has not changed and I still see queues of traffic on the bridge as
I did in 1967, there are still mothers dropping off kids, double
decker buses, a large Victorian clock and people struggling on the
footpaths walking to schools and work places. This in 2022. So
what happened to that utopian idea of glass cities and hover cars
and elevators into the heavens. All predictions as a child by any
science technologist was that humans were advancing at exponential
rates. My life as I aged would be so different as to make any guess
of probability beyond comprehension. It didn't turn out that way.
It is not to say we have not progressed. But I sense that what was
overlooked was the way we progressed, from the grand scale to the
very small. And what is to blame ... PONG. Before Pong we were on
that conveyor belt to space communities. I recall the very day the
dream was shattered. I and two friends entered the Hussey Arms bar
as we did after playing football each night on the park. We were
set for a few pints, a game of darts and chips on the way home.
But this night everything changed. In the bar was the Pong machine.
We nervously moved toward it not knowing what it was and what it
could do. The guy from behind the bar gave us a demo and we were
lost to it .... 'My turn '.. 'Go away'. We were fighting over it.
In no time at all we had space invaders in the tables in the bar.
And then the invaders started to roll out and the area of conflict
became almost 3D. The machines were everywhere. And we loved them.
Fast forward to today's mobile phones and computer games and we have
a society transfixed by social media and followers and a world so
divorced from the ideals of the sixties it bears no reflection. For
humans have given up their race to the stars and instead are just
content to reside in their tiny pixels, punching away with their
fat thumbs. And so will mankind ever return to its ambition of
grand ideas and uncharted adventure. I guess not. These modern
humans would be lost without their phones. And I believe that they
have been lost for a long time now. There is no hope.
And so to the Teleng Colourstars. This Pong variant was created by
General Instruments Corporation in 1977. It features dedicated Pong
chips capable of generating specific paddle and shoot style games.
Games such as tennis, squash, soccer and some target style shooting.
The games were enhanced with manual server ball speed, deflection
angle and paddle size. Before you go rushing out to enjoy one of
these games I should qualify the description as being a variant on
a paddle and pixel dot that bounces around the screen. It is no
more than that. Yet I can sense the mobile fraternity would be most
happy to play these games all day. Or am I being cruel.
The one I have seems to be the less known as I struggled to find
any information on the specific style that I have. If you do buy
one of these be sure to isolate the power cable from the plastic
cus the rubber sleeve will melt the game console casing.
I have never played the thing, and never will. As to the ambition
of mankind I would sense that the aspiration of 2001 Space Odyssey
was the last and final predictive salve to bless human kind with
the stimulus to reach for the stars. Everything beyond that date
has followed the 'Chillies' view ' Space may be the final frontier
but its made in a Hollywood basement'. Bout sums it up.
By the way you should always look up if you can. The dreams of
mankind can be found in real time 3D without any GPU to power it.
Reaching for the stars may be a noble ambition but it is one that
has been emblazoned on the hearts of men and women from the
beginning of time. ... There is still time.
Teleng Colourstars - Pong variant.
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