Fixing Atari's 1973 PONG Arcade Game Cabinet 

I love that it's literally just a TV sitting on a shelf inside the cabinet.

First video game I ever played. I was eleven or twelve, it was in '73 or '74 and I played against my Dad. I was amazed. It seem positively space age. Dad's gone now. It's a good memory.

I remember one of these kicking around in the bar on a campsite in DeHaan Belgium around 1980.

Congrats on getting this bit of history restored! I was too young to even know about this cabinet, back in the day. I do recall watching the moon landings on that very model of TV, though. LOL Thanks for sharing this. :)

wow that is a rare gem you're fixing

I'm 55, and when I was about 16, there was a Pong machine at the local YMCA, although I was somewhat surprised to see one because by then (1980 or so) they were considered old school and pretty rare. Pacman and such were out by then, and pong was considered pretty old school even just a few years after it was gone as it was pretty simplistic.

Gotta say kudos to you for not removing the schematic and getting the original TV in there to work. You’re aces in my book.

AWESOME JOB! I played pong my first game ever if I recall correctly.

Your videos are some of the top Pong Arcade results on the Internet, man!

In 1976, my friend and I used to sneak into the bar at Herrill Lanes on Long Island to play Pong. We were only 7 and got kicked out several times.

I was young when it was out, if I played without shoes on I would get a light shock from the game back in the day.

it's fascinating to see early era cabinets. the cabinets of the later 70s, 80's and onward are so much more refine and purpose built, these were more like proof of concept builds for testing the market, built out of off the shelf parts and appliances and bolted together.

i used to have one of these...bought it at an auction for 3 dollars back in 1980 or so...fiddled with it...enjoyed it..stuffed it in a shed where it rotted away to nothing..i wonder how much money i threw away

Thumbs up for taking the time to film this

It's funny you say the pan to catch the quarter's lol more like nickels and dimes 😀

Great! Well done for getting it all working good as new! cool!

that, is a beautiful PCB

Holding a camera with one hand and playing two-player Pong with the other? Somebody please buy this man a tripod!! :)

I remember playing one of those in an old Montgomory Ward store here in Abilene, Tx. No idea they used a standard B/W TV instead of a dedicated monitor! LOL!!

Caps caps nice piece of history

An old full tv inside, wow to think that maybe the first arcade game. Next time use a tripod and a spot light.

When I was doing arcade repair in Catalina, I had the chance to work on a Computer Space (they had 3 of them!). My first thought was, “Oh my gawd! There’s no voltage regulators on this thing!” My second thought was, “Oh my gawd! Where’s the microprocessor?” I needed therapy after that repair.

Dude, leave it up to you to save 70s digital history!

The modification on the monitor is simple, you can convert any old crt TV to use as a monitor by tapping into the RGB wires on the CRT.

I remember seeing Pong in the arcade but not an Atari original like this. Not sure if they made it to Ireland. :) Most of the pong I played was on a dedicated home console.

good video

I'm working on one in The National Videogame Museum in the Netherlands that we've just acquired, the previous owner said he imported it from the US himself, so there is not that many around here. The paddle controls are black on our unit, do you know if thats definitely not original or dit Atari use different knobs during production? Fun fact is that your PCB is on the right side and ours is on the left side of the cabinet, the power transformer that sits on your shelf next to the tv is mounted underneath on the left in ours. Also the tv used in ours is a Mitsubishi one and sadly only shows a grey screen. I was going to recap it but on opening found that has already been done. I really would like to use the original television but may have to put another screen in to get it playable. Black and white NTSC tv's of that size and also modded for composite signal are not easy to come by these days, especially here in what used to be PAL territory, though I'm assuming with a b/w signal it'll probably not be as difficult to get a usable picture as with a color signal. Thanks for your informative video's....

cool !

The pronunciation of Syzygy is SCISSOR G.

Hom many of these have been retrofitted with LCD? Any idea? My first touch to Pong was actually a shady multi game box htat you wired to the TV, that imitated it... not sure if it was a legitimate and licensed port or just ripoff.

I was my first video game at pizza hut. A cocktail

9:40 glitchy tv

Dose pong uses vector graphics? And would it be the very first vector game before asteroids.

couldn't you just prye the staples out carefully and tap them back in after you copied the schematics?

Here LET me help U. IT'S BROKE.