A Real Computer? Exploring the Bally Computer System aka Astrocade 

I had heard of this machine but had never seen it in operation. Thanks for showing it off! Too bad they had never made an official keyboard attachment for that basic cart.

I think they did an amazingly good job with the input system given the limited keypad. Changing the screen background to indicate shift mode was clever.

Considering the ubiquitous Atari 2600 controller of a single four axis stick with one red fire button, the fact that this Bally controller gives you full X and Y movement control plus a rotational at the same time - IN 1978!! - is beyond impressive and shows great vision too.

I'm actually pretty impressed. I thought this thing would be really bad, but it is seems quite capable for it's time. What I'd like to see working is that keyboard adding for the 2600.

I had programs published in the Arcadian. It actually worked just fine. There was a 48K expansion you could buy (I did) which you had to assemble using wirewrap and other tech of the time. The only issue I had was the controllers would eventually die. The potentiometers would fail and it became impossible to play the games whether in Bally BASIC or machine code. You could create your own machine code programs for the machine as well as BASIC. I got extremely proficient at typing on the calculator keyboard with overlay and could write a new game in about a day or two.

I have fond memory of this machine as I had one as a kid. Parents got it for me around '81/'82. We had intended to get a Atari 2600, but the ability to "program your own games" (according to the salesman at computer store) convinced them to get the Bally. To their credit, I had a great time with it. The games were pretty good for the time, the cassette sized cartridges were cool, and joysticks were a very clever design. Even as a pretty young kid, I spent quite a bit of time typing in simple programs (I had the BASIC cartridge) from the included book that had lots to choose from. A few years ago, I bought a white one (which I understand are fairly rare) and a all-in-on cart. Thanks for this video and the respect for the machine.

This was the first computer I ever had. The way it plays sounds for each character as you list your basic program brings back so much nostalgia.

All I can say is WOOOOOOOOOOOOW! Such a wonderful machine for the era! The built-in stuff is cool and overall, it just rocks. Going from nothing to this must have been a blast in April 1978!

Oh my god, based on this video, I think I actually really love this system. Being born in 1983, it was a bit before my time, but I think if I was a child in the 70s, I would have been really drawn to this little quasi-computer wonder. From the physical design of the console itself and controllers to the writing in its ads, manuals, and Arcadia community newsletter, everything about the Bally Computer System oozes charm. For its time - in that pre-Nintendo Wild West era of no industry-wide controller standards - the Bally controller is fantastic. It had an N64 / Wiimote-esque trigger button decades before those consoles, and the 8-direction, rotatable knob provides so many movement options. As someone who cut his first gaming teeth on the Atari 2600 and NES, the simple but extremely versatile approach to the Bally Computer controller is honestly mind blowing. So many companies of its day added far too many buttons and knobs, but Bally actually stripped its interface down (and I would say, to good effect). I honestly think the handheld trigger design choice blows the Atari joystick controller out of the water, and with one or two more button inputs, could have even given the NES controller a run for its money. Regarding the latter, I think (if in an alternate dimension, where the Bally Computer Arcade system was a resounding commercial success ), I think the Bally and Nintendo controllers could have co-existed in their own spaces and thrived. They would each offer different strengths, in terms of control options. In that alternate dimension, I'm imagining a later version of the system releasing with a "nunchuck" with added buttons, and it would have been great. Also worth noting is the ability to play with up to 4 players, which was just so ahead of its time. It wouldn't be until 1996's N64 that 4 player control inputs were available on mainstream console. Just incredible. The sound effects (as in, sound samples, not music) - particularly the shooting sound on Gunfight - are better than anything I'd ever heard in an Atari game, or even most Nintendo games for that matter, and the music was pretty clear and crisp - especially for a system that was developed in 1977. Checkmate's dynamic use of musical tempos to denote rising tension was also pretty clever. The usage of music in that way seems like a no brainer to gamers born in the 80s or later, but little quirks like that were probably fairly novel or even revolutionary at the time. The number of colors are likewise impressive for it's time. The graphics, in general, have a lot of interesting and generally eye pleasing things going for it. I was particularly impressed by its smooth vertical scrolling and decent frame rates. The quality and resolution of the onscreen text was pretty great, and font types were simple and easy to read. And what can I say about the built in Painting app? It looks fantastic and as a child, I would have found it to be pretty mind-blowing. I loved Mario Paint. If I was a child of the 70s, I'm sure this would have hit me in the same way. It's sad that the keyboard never released for it, as I think it would have really helped to unlock the full potential of the system and would have surely greatly amplified its already vibrant indie developer scene. Even still, the on-board calculator-style input with overlay is definitely serviceable enough, if not ideal. I imagine that, given enough practice, one could program on it blindfolded, but it's nevertheless clunky and not at all on par with a standard keyboard input. It is what it is. I think Bally really did do the very best with what it has. That said, I really love how the screen changed colors to match the shift type being used when typing in BASIC. Not only is it simple, clever, and visually pleasing, I can imagine it being pretty useful - it's always good to know if what you're inputing is correct, particularly at a time when graphical cues were not at all a thing. I'll admit that, going into this video, I expected trash, so - imagine my surprise when what I saw was treasure. All in all, I'm very impressed with the Bally Whatever Its Name Is Computer System. It's a shame that it never got the mass market love that it deserved. And thanks for sharing and giving us a look at this state of the art wonder machine from the 1970s!

One thing the Astrocade had going for it was amazing sound. It's versions of Gorf and Wizard of Wor are nearly arcade perfect.

I'm really surprised how good the noise chip sounds for what it is. Great find and awesome video as always!

I had one of these. The hand controller was awesome and I got very fast on that multi push keypad. I programmed everything that was in that manual Saved it to audio cassettes. It was a fantastic introduction to basic language. The games were fun too. I would’ve been 12 in 1978.

I *really* like that little controller. It's a shame that later computers like the C64 didn't have simultaneous paddle + joystick input... I can think of quite a few games that would have benefitted from the gunfight style analog aiming!

I have one branded as the Bally Arcade. I picked it up from a thrift store around 10 years ago. It came with quite a few cartridges, along with the BASIC cartridge. Can't remember if any of the overlays came with it. It on my list of things that need to be repaired. It only works for 3 or 4 minutes before crashing. It's either overheating or has cold solder joints. This video has renewed my interest in it. I saw some plans online to expand its memory.

What a great presentation! That two-value randomization trick to get 47/92 is so simple, yet genius. Thank you for taking the time to put this video together.

We had this when I was a kid. I'm trying to remember why we'd hit reset after entering the program instead of running via the keypad, but I do know that we had more than one accidental 'Eject' after typing in a program from a magazine.

My friend had this system and I remember playing the gunfight game with him all the time, I couldn't remember the name of the system so I am happy this video came out.

re: cassette similarities: I have a small collection of videocades that I got at a yard sale years ago and they were all stored in cassette cases with the reel brake tabs broken off and the manuals inserted like j-cards football 3002 is a great name

22:25 that's an adorably smol overlay card. I like how the colour makes it look like a PCB, at least to me. I like that professional aesthetic a lot of computer products had back then.

My family had this when I was a kid, and I forgot we did until I saw the cart with “Gun fight” on it. Swore to the stars it was a VIC. This was back in 92, so I think it came with a bunch of stuff from an auction. If not for this video, I think my memory of this computer would have been lost to early childhood fantasy.

I knew more than one person who had these. I remember both the cartridge storage and controller well. Does feel weird seeing you on a Z80 based machine ;-) Having spent much time on the KIM-1 lately, that keypad seems just fine to me. Does anyone REALLY need more than 24 keys?

My parents (I was 5 years old at the time in 1978) were early investors in the Bally company. I think they bought stock then precisely because of this product announcement. In 1980 a certain popular video game came out that had an association with Bally and they made a windfall in dividends!

Hello, what good memories, I had that equipment and I learned Basic in it. Thank you for sharing such good memories.

Great throwback! Love the "10 PRINT" program. I wrote a similar program that can be found in CURSOR V2 I2 P4. Thanks again!

I played and still have one of these systems. It hasn't been turned on in years but it's still in good shape. I remember doing the basic programming and it was such a pain. Did a several hundred line one but never could get the tape recording of the programming to work for me. Good memories of playing those games.

That keypad reminds me of the wonderful HP-35 , the first pocket-sized scientific calculator. I was lucky enough to find one in good condition on Ebay for only $50, so I rigged up a LiPO battery pack, its been my daily driver ever since. The firmware has been reverse engineered too, so you can run a pretty faithful simulation of it on even the lowliest Arduino!

A machine well ahead of it's time.

My criteria for "computer" is, if the device can be programmed (using the device itself), then it's a computer. Which means many things marketed as game consoles or calculators qualified, including this, the Atari 2600, and the Famicom. If it's capable of running Emacs, then it's a computer worth taking seriously. Calling the cartridges "cassettes" reminds me of Strong Bad's references to "Sega tapes". That eject mechanism seems more sturdy and robust than the one in the NES.

It's a lovely system. A very pleasing version of Space Invaders too. Some quality programming there.

There’s actually an obscure RU-vid channel called BallyAlley. He owns EVERYTHING regarding the Astrocade.

Great intro to this system. Thanks!

The dynamic music concept in the Checkmate game is exceptional. Really simple but a great effect, the intervals between the player note ranges are musically pleasing, and it also serves as audio feedback for what other players are doing.

Looks great! Really cool to see it in action. That controller (like a combination of trigger, joystick and knob / paddle) was really interesting too, I like it.

The Astrocade was sold at Montgomery Wards in the late 70s - early 80s. My Dad worked in the home improvement dept and picked up one on his employee discount for Xmas 1980. We were hoping for an Atari but quickly realized we had a better system. I wrote many programs in Astrocade BASIC including a variation of Space Invaders... substitute your base for the USS Enterprise and the aliens for asteroids streaming down from the top. My best friend and I were hooked, and that led to further explorations in programming. Bally designed an awesome arcade-style display cabinet for stores... Wards had one on their Electronics dept. BTW... I still have our original system and it still works tho it needs a lil electronic TLC.

(Hopefully I'm correct on this) Fun Fact: Bally, as you know, had the licensing rights to distribute Pac-Man for the arcades; later on they wanted to make an official port for their own machine, the Astrocade, BUT they didn't have the license for the _home ports_ as that was already given to Atari(soft), so they had to change the name to Muncher

Thanks for the video! This system seems to have been designed with love. They put a lot of effort into making what they could just that extra little bit nicer. It's wonderful to see!

I had one of these growing up. The drawing program had a kaleidoscope function and a bunch of other features that I THINK were activated with the number pad. It's been ages, but that's what I recall anyway.

I thought the "joystick" looked familiar so looked something up and sure enough it was in a scene of National Lampoon's Vacation where the dad and the kids were playing video games while the dad was trying to plan the route on the Apple II computer.

I had one of this when I was a kid....so sad my parent put in on the dump....Great machine....great games and love the basic cartridge and able to safe my programs to standard tape deck.....love it!

What a great machine! Although the keyboard is pretty clunky for programming, it's still doable. I remember playing Gunfight on the actual arcade machine in the late 70's when tagging along with my big brother to the arcade. The BASIC function of colouring the screen to show which key mode is genius, that would have been helpful on my VZ. Thanks Robin!

I bought an Astrocade a few years ago, and must confess I did so mostly because it is in my opinion the most beautiful game console ever made. And yes, I play it as well using a multicart. It's basically the Neo Geo of the 1970s

People often point out that Bally cartridges look like cassette tapes, and I've also noticed Atari 2600 carts look like 8-track tapes. The gaming industry tends to borrow things from the music industry. Games appeared on CD's a few years after we had music on them.

Love it! Surprisingly capable machine for the time. It's a shame it didn't have a full keyboard.

It probably doesn't have a long enough delay on power-on for everything to stabilize, or no delay at all. Usually there is a little primitive timer which will cause reset to be held for a little while after power-on to get around this.

The space invaders fire sound effect sounds like the first two notes of the Ghostbusters riff.

That's awesome to see it still working. Great video!

Nintendo wanted the Famicom to use cartridges the size of a compact cassette. Their motivation was to make it compatible with cassette cases (for cheaper distribution) and storage (for consumer convenience). I imagine the same is likely true here.

How cool. I’m old school and know about many machines but have never heard of this one. Thanks Robin.

Loved mine as a kid. I have a few now including one complete in box. I also have one of the 21 prototype carts made as they were developing Pac-Man (Those played normal Pac-Man, with that name being correct on the title. There were a few more made with mods to choose the number of men and for a set 99 men used during testing)... which was eventually released as "Munchy" and "Muncher" after losing a lawsuit with Atari over using the name as Atari already had the rights for home console use. Given that they Bally distributed the game here in America they felt they should've had a right to use the name for use as well with their own system. The courts didn't agree unfortunately.

Makes my Timex Sinclair 1000 seem like a pretty capable programming platform! Fun video. Thanks for the look.

I hadn’t play them games for about 37 years now. I was always fascinated with older consoles as a kid in the 80’s.

I had no idea the Bally Astrocade ever attempfed to be anything other than a game console. Very cool to see that it was capable of more than just games.

Geez, Bally was so damn diverse way back when. Pinball manufacturing, owning the first chain fitness center, slot machine manufacturing, arcade machines, they even owned the Six Flags theme parks. I actually worked for them in 2013 and they weren't long for this world beyond that. They were bought by Scientific Games a couple years after I left.

I think Bally ordered the production of the relatively expensive casting mold in an EARLY stage of the development time-segment when they wanted to deliver the system with an internal audio/data cassette recorder to let the user load "apps" into internal RAM (there would have been enough space to integrate PLAY / REWIND buttons right to the eject button into the case by adding additional rectangular holes. Then they changed to a ROM-based design (and saved manufacturing costs and some amount of internal RAM this way) and did not change the case to save ( a lot of ) money - otherwise stating "insert videocade" in even SMALLER letters in order to fit the new text into the predefined width of the label.

I had a cool uncle who had the cool basement that included this system and a pool table to play. As kids we were not allowed to go down there and play without an adult but loved shooting the gun when we got to go down there. Thanks for the memory!

I used to have a friend who had one of these. We used to also program in several games that were available in magazines at the time

That 'Computer' font, the wood paneling and gold trim, what a beauty!!! Better than beige boxes if you ask me.

A detail, but it was a nice scrolling effect in the calculator when adding to history.

Great and informative video on this classic console!

The cartridge cassette size might also allow the storage slots to hold both the carts and any cassettes.

VERY interesting, followed along with your BASIC lines on my Pi-RiscOS Box using 8-Bit BBC BASIC. Love the outro.

Interesting machine, looks kind of similar to the Fairchild Channel F. According to wikipedia the basic interpreter has to use part of the video ram for storage because the machine only has 16 bytes of memory which aren't used for the screen...

That Interact One-8 must have been the inspiration for the Amstrad CPC464 and later Spectrum 2+ form factor. Look at that tape drive location. Pure geniuses.

Really cool. Great to see one workin. One of these was in National Lampoon's Vacation. Shame they weren't sold in the UK. Looking forward to seeing more on this.

Robin, you are a steely-eyed missile man! This is a great find, and very cool that it still works, other than the key bounce problem. I was 18 or so and already owned a TRS-80 model I when this came out, but never heard of it. Interesting stuff! It would have driven me NUTS to try to develop on that calculator keyboard! Almost as bad as programming on the ZX-80 membrane keyboard, which I have done! That $600 add-on, by the time you pay for that, unless you are a developer, it would have been more economical to get a Vic 20, which had a very nice keyboard and a better BASIC (I owned one of those, too). All good wishes.

What a fascinating video! I always wondered why more of the arcade game makers didn't get into the Home Computer market. It is VERY IMPRESSIVE what this machine was capable of in 1-9-7-8!!

I like that multipurpose joystick. It is a shame the basic cart doesn't have a connector for adding a keyboard, assuming there isn't another way, as that numpad would take ages to write a program with.

I had one of these and taught myself basic. Had a blast!

This is one of the console’s in my old collection. Loved it! Based upon a scaled down version of Bally’s arcade hardware of the day. I recall at one point there was to be an expansion for this system that would’ve brought Z-Grass graphics and larger memory, thus making it much closer to the arcade hardware. It was an expensive console when it came out and the only place we could find it here in Milwaukee was Marshall Field’s.

I remember wanting one of these when I was a kid. We had a volunteer computer teacher in the early 80s (pretty remarkable for rural school), and I wasn't able to sell her on the idea of my first computer purchase being the "Astrocade".

The "keyboard" is so much like the remote control on a Jerrold TV remote we used in Canada to access cable TV. So crazy!

I think my family still has one of those somewhere. with the Actual "Balley Computer system" logo. We had a whole loaded deck full of cartridges too I think. Probably where I legit first played Space invaders too, as I recognize it so well! Even though we had the later game consoles with the NES and SNES, that one was something of a novelty still.

I purchased mine from JS&A (Joseph Sugarman & Associates - you might remember him from his sunglasses commercials - he had to shut down his main mail order business due to legal issues, some of which included the chaos with the Bally computer) back in the day. I had to wait, along with anyone else who order one, for many months and months before I would receive the unit. Production delays and other chaos was the cause for the delay. It came with two controllers, which were quite innovative. I had a different Basic cartridge but it was similar. I don't remember if my Basic cartridge had the audio interface... I don't think it did. I had planned on purchasing the physical base unit as well (it was a Bally keyboard base, not a ZGRASS) but it never made it to production AFAIK. It was a fun device back in the day!

Absolutely fascinating. Thank you for sharing.

One of my Uncles had a Bally Astrocade. He let me borrow it for a while. Years later he loaned me his Sega Genesis.

I recently picked one of these up, and glad to learn even more about it!

My dad got one circa 1979 about a year before I was born. I played it for years while I was growing up. Ours definitely said Bally computer system with the two heads on it.

I love your channel, you have so much neat stuff and an amazing amount of skill locked away from your past. At least in the eyes of a 22 year old. I struggle in the dos prompts of my windows 98 gaming rig xD

What a different game system. Thank you.

The keypad always reminded me of the TI-30 calculator. It was one of the charms of the system, and one of the reasons I've always wanted to own one.

I know there are lots of RU-vidrs out there with tons of Patreon supporters, but I think that's the first time I've seen someone with a list that's larger that can fit in RAM, nice! :)

Really interesting machine and a great video, thanks Robin! The documentation says it has 2 bits power pixel, but I saw more than 4 colours on some of those screens (Gunfight and the invaders game in particular). I guess it has some kind of attribute system or scan line interrupt going on.

Such good memories. I was a little girl and my Dad brought home this giant box wrapped in gold paper for Christmas. My favorite gave was the football game.

Fantastic! I have never heard of this computer system before. Thanks for the video.

I remember Z-Grass programming language being brought up in an old arcade console magazine and they portrayed it as if it were a miracle language. I'm curious if the third party games were written in Z-Grass. Looking around years after I saw a source that indicated it was only used internally by Bally.

Surprisingly good for the time. the keyboard wasn't that much worse than using a membrane kb on a Sinclair/Timex ZX-80. What do you want from the days when most home computers cost about double and were kits and/or had no appreciably graphics or sound. And the build quality couldn't have been too bad since it still actually works.

That Rock'n Wrestle cassette instantly got Rock'n Roll for Amiga stuck in my head :P

I have to admit that I got my Astrocade mainly because I think it is the most beautiful game console ever made. The fact that it was the Neo-Geo of it's day is pretty cool too. For a 1978 vintage console the graphics and sound are fantastic. I have a video game multicart but haven't dabbled in any computing with it.

So good to see this overview of the Bally. I remember seeing ads for this in Electronic Games magazine as a kid but I'm not sure I ever saw it on store shelves. If I had seen it, my memory must be really eclipsed by Atari, Mattel and Coleco in those early days. I'm surprised that it continued to be in production for as long as it was even with various name changes.

holy crap this thing is awesome. the music in that tron style game is great!

That Z80 is just hammering the framebuffer to animate that space invaders? Very nice work. That is pretty bandwidth intensive for the time.

I had one of these, if you select scribbling and 0 players it will do a kaleidoscope

The sound chip on the astrocade is amazing. It can be unusually harsh and chaotic sounding, but that's what makes it unique. There isn't anything quite like the explosion effects in space zap and the laser sounds in gorf and wizard of wor. If only the console had more software support.

I bought one of these on eBay in 2001 and it was mint in box, never used. (still have it) I also have an ultra rare 75 game Astrocade multi-cart made by Ohio Labs. It has 5 tiny DIP switches to select different games.

Very interesting video. Thanks for posting 👍🙂

Nice! what a great piece of weird videogame history!

Oh wow, you mentioned Avenger on the Vic20 and just took me back to my childhood.

One great feature, lots of technical info, nothing hidden, unlike other systems.

Good Memories, Thank you for the Video 👍👍👍✌

Great video. Would love to see more games in action, in a future video :)