BKK2 on 22 July 2008
Then, in 1975, Pong totally changed Coleco's world. Pong, of course, was the electronic table tennis game that was becoming as popular as beer in bars and arcades. The Greenbergs figured it had great potential as a home product. While working on a design, Leonard discovered that a company called Atari already had a home version. So, in 1976, Coleco introduced Telstar, a Pong clone, for $50, about half Atari's price. Coleco sold one million Telstars that year.
By 1977, Coleco had nine Telstar renditions ready for market. But then the skies opened, hailing events that conspired to keep sales down: production snags, a shortage of chips, an East coast dock strike that held up components. Moreover, video units that played only one game were being made obsolete by hand-held electronic games that did not have to be connected to a TV. Coleco sold a good many hand-held games - for instance, Electronic Quarterback -but it had to dump more than a million Telstars and suffered a $22.3 million loss in 1978.
By 1977, Coleco had nine Telstar renditions ready for market. But then the skies opened, hailing events that conspired to keep sales down: production snags, a shortage of chips, an East coast dock strike that held up components. Moreover, video units that played only one game were being made obsolete by hand-held electronic games that did not have to be connected to a TV. Coleco sold a good many hand-held games - for instance, Electronic Quarterback -but it had to dump more than a million Telstars and suffered a $22.3 million loss in 1978.
