AY-3-8500

The AY-3-8500 "Ball & Paddle" integrated circuit was the first in a series of ICs from General Instrument designed for the consumer video game market. These chips were designed to output video to an RF modulator which would then display the game on a domestic TV set. The AY-3-8500 contained six selectable games: tennis (AKA Pong), soccer, squash, practice, and two rifle shooting games. The AY-3-8500 was the 625 line (i.e. PAL) version and the AY-3-8500-1 was the 525 line (i.e. NTSC) version. It was introduced in 1976. A minimum number of external components are needed to build a complete system.