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Manufacturer | Coleco |
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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]
Coleco sold over 1 million units at the price of $50 in 1976. Coleco was unaffected by a chip shortage that year as their early orders meant it was entirely supplied.[3] The large product lineup and the impending fading out of the Pong machines led Coleco to face near-bankruptcy in 1980.[4]
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.
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