Sorry for the late reply. So you are the creator of the "Semore Owl" ?
Can you tell us the story (me and the readers) on how Semore was created ? Or any insight about the Memorex VIS MD-2500 ? Many would like to know more about this obscure game system. Also do you have a Dev kit ? So many things we wanna know!
Hopefully you will read this post and tell some tids & bits! Thanks again and take care!
I have finally got my hands on a pretty rare discrete Pong console (after more than 10 years looking for it) from an Ebay seller in the UK (since i don't know if i can post his nickname or real name, he'll remain anonymous) which is called the "Videotronic" from Alfa Electronics.
So here's some pictures:
And here's a few pics of the "guts" of the console:
The picture with the red clip is where i hooked up to my TV monitor to display in composite video, so here's some screen shots of the games:
"Tennis" game
"Football" game
"Squash" game
If you see carefully, player 1 spot has horizontal lines inside the spot:
And the player 2 has vertical lines inside the spot:
which is SSSOOO pratical to know which player is whom. ;)
And this spot:
Well, this spot is the score indicator! Yup, depending on who scored, it goes to the left or right until a player made 4 points then after, the score spot comes back to it's initial position (on top of the center line).
And here's some pics of the box and manual:
The cover of the manual looks so much like the cover of the box.
And finally, here's some videos of the games in action:
"Tennis"
"Football"
"Squash"
And i will upload the scan of the manual in a few days with a LOT (all i have found so far in twenty years on the net and self-scanned Pong manuals) first generation game manuals (Pong consoles and related).
But if you are looking for some second generation game system manual, then go here:
Thanks! I heard about your work on a MAME forum on bannister as "seanriddle" posted about you and the great work your doing for the AY-3-8500-1. I cannot imagine the idea of trying to retrace the die inside the chip as i've read about the creator of the AY-3-8500 (Gilbert Duncan Harrower) that it took about a 1,000 transistors to make the circuit of this chip. For anyone who wants to read the interview of Mr.Harrower done by Nate Lockhart (a few days ago), go here:
And i've noyiced that you responded to Nate's interview and writing that the AY-3-8500-1 has 2,318 transistors ?!?! WOAH!! And if this can help, have you read this post: http://discreteconsoles.blogspot.com/2015/10/emulation-of-ay-3-8500-1-and-clones-soon.html
There's a Pong console that is totally made with TTL's (don't know how many) called the "Palestra-2" made in the Soviet Union. In the post, there is a link to download the schematic of this console.
And if anyone from the MAME/MESS team (especially seanriddle) needs the schematic of the uPD777C (Epoch Cassette Vision dedicated chips), i was able to get my hands on it thanks to the developer of those chips.
And for fun, i've made a Pong clock simulator of the AY-3-8500-1 in 2013 here: https://love2d.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=76068&p=156817&hilit=8500#p156817
So keep up the great work you are doing Cole, one day when we will be able to play the games from the AY-3-8500-1 in emulator form, it will be because of the hard work you've accomplished!
