First off, let me apologize for how often I said the word “fascinating” in this episode. I really should cap the number of times I say a given adjective in one of these to three or so, but, well, I didn’t here. I shot this at about four in the morning, so I’ll call that my excuse. Luckily, though, it’s still about a fascinating very compelling vintage game console: the Bally Professional Arcade, or sometimes called the Bally Library Computer, or the term I tend to use most, the Bally Astrocade.

The Astrocade was part of that first wave of cartridge-based home consoles, like the Atari 2600, Mattel Intellivision, and the Odyssey 2. Coming out in 1978, the Astrocade had some pretty impressive specs for the era: a fast Z80 CPU, 256 colors (though really you could only have four on the screen at a time, eight with some tricks), four controller ports, three-voice sound with hardware vibrato, a keypad, built-in games, and so on.

Illustration for article titled The Torchinsky Files: Im Betting Most Of You Have Never Seen A Bally Professional Arcade
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
The controllers were amazing, too: a pistol grip-style that incorporated both joystick and paddle into one clever, easy-to-hold unit, the design of which I don’t think has ever been replicated on any other console, which is a shame, since it’s an excellent controller design to use.

-Jason Torchinsky

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