It's been quite a while i haven't posted here (about 8 months) but i haven't closed this blog and neither the others. OK so let's go to the topic: the Bandai (Video Mate) TV-Jack 1000.
I have received 2 days ago some electronic games and game consoles from Japan and since this game
console is going to a long-time friend game collector in the U.S., i thought i would take pictures (and tested it of course) before it hits the road to the "BBQ" state. ;)
It's is quite small and that is understandable as space in Japanese homes is usually small (rather compacted). Even if all the writing is in Japanese, it's really easy to figure out the buttons.
The one on the left top is the "Game Select" (Tennis, Hockey, Squash & Practice", the one on the left bottom is the ON/OFF switch (What gave this away ? LOL!!), the three buttons in the middles are (not in order as i didn't tested those): Ball Angle, Ball Speed and Automatic/Manual Serve aand the big one on the right is the "Reset" button.
The AC adaptor (also tiny) has a 9 volts DC (Direct Current) at 80mA (milliAmpere) with positive tip. 80mA ? That's almost nothing as power consuming and i'll show why later on...Oh and the same AC adaptor can be used on the TV-Jack 1500.
So before i open the beast (the game console)...here's my residential black beast! :P
She is called "Princess" as my daughter loved the Disney Princesses back then, as for me, i call her "Black beast" (when she done something wrong) or "Guidoune!"
This is the PC board of the TV-Jack 1000, not much electronic parts but the "All-in-one Pong chips" back then didn't needed much electronic parts to make it worked.
As you can see in this picture, the chip is a TMS1955NL which is a Texas Instruments "AY-3-8500-1" clone but this chip is almost half size then the generic one (this is the first time i'm seeing a TMS1955NL so small) and that's why the AC adaptor uses so few milliamps!
And here's the chip which colorize the games, the "SN76499N" also made by Texas Instruments, and the big grey thing underneath is the crystal.
And here's the back of the PC board.
And this is where i took the video signal: Pin# 8 of the SN76499N
And here's the screenshots of the games:
TENNIS
HOCKEY
SQUASH
PRACTICE
So that's it for the Bandai TV-Jack 1000, it's a simple 4 game console but can play 6 games as the light gun games are not used (rather not connected) in this game console. So this one will be going to a good home quite soon! =)
