The Telstar Arcade

Most of us think of a game console as having a separate console, a slot to insert game media, and controllers. Coleco's Telstar Arcade had everything put together in a triangular shaped box. It came with a steering wheel and a gear shift for racing games, a revolver-style light gun, and two paddle like controllers for pong or tennis-like games.

The games came on silver-colored cartridges, weach containing their own MOS technology MPS-7600-00X chip. There were a total of 4 cartridges released. The cartridge had a triangular shape and connected to the top of the console.

The Telstar Arcade was released in 1977. It was the culmination of 13 different iterations over two years.

The design proved to be awkward for consumers. In order to play a different style game, you had to rotate the device, which could end up in tangled cables. The device was not the success Coleco hoped it to be, and nearly drove the company to bankruptcy.