Was there a programmable PONG chip?

Students of game console history will go all the way back to the 1970s for primordial machines, starting with Magnavox Odyssey, and from there through the Fairchild Channel F into the world of microprocessors and the chain of machines that lead us to those we enjoy today. At first there was a parallel evolution for a few years of dedicated video game consoles without interchangeable cartridges or microprocessors, these were inspired by the legendary arcade game PONG and used dedicated hardware non-programmable in custom chips to create their video. But was there a PONG programmable chip among all the others? [Old VCR] take a look.

Many readers know MOS technology as the creator of the 6502 processor used in so many 8-bit home computers. But perhaps a lot of our attention will have passed on another of their products, the MOS 7600 and 7601. It was the chip company's entry into the surprisingly congested PONG-in market. -a-chip from the mid-1970s, and the paper investigates whether they might in fact be mask-programmed microcontrollers masquerading as dedicated chips.

It's a fascinating tour through the mid-'70s in terms of game consoles, MOS, and through their eventual takeover, Commodore. The possibility of a mask-programmed PONG chip is explored in detail and updated, although like [Old VCR], we'd like to see one decapsulated and reverse-engineered. Stronger evidence for us is to ask why MOS would stop at PONG if they had a mask-programmed microcontroller in their catalog, and the fact that we haven't seen microcontrollers MOS appearing everywhere in later Commodore products suggests that it may just be another dedicated PONG chip like all the others.

We've seen quite a few variations of this iconic game over the years, but not nearly as impressive as the one made from discrete components.