Old Mattel 1971 hand held/portable game that never was produced

PeepingScott

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Old Mattel 1971 hand held/portable game that never was produced

Hi,
I'm new to this section, but not to this site and have an unusual question.
A friend of mine has a connection for a Mattel hand held or portable game that was near production when Mattel axed the project. All were destroyed but this one single unit. I'm not sure if it still functions or not, we are trying to get some more information out of the gentleman who wants to sell it. My friend is simply wanting to assist the ex Mattel employee in selling it for him. This was a project in 1971.

It certainly is a rare item, but is there even anyone in the world who would be interested in a one only item that never hit the market place?

Sorry about the small pictures, that is how I got them via email.
Any thoughts, values, or interest would be appreciated. Nothing in this for me, other than to help someone out.
Thanks!

Telequest19704388JPG.jpg

Telequest-2.jpg

Telequest-3.jpg
 
wow, very cool unique handheld for sure....

i would def get ahold of klover PARROTHEAD or you might wanna try the forums over at digitpress. im guessing those guys gotta know what this thing is.
 
Is digitpress some type of website?

It is highly unlikely that anyone has seen one of these before as this is the only one in existence. There may be blueprints still out there somewhere, who knows? I know how many were made, which was a very small amount, and they were destroyed. The gentleman who has this one says that he has the only one. The sole survivor of a never made product. I can see the attraction to it, as well as no interest in it.
 
yeah, digitpress.com has a forums section. great website for this kinda stuff. im guessing if you posted this proto on there, you might get some crazy offers!

Is digitpress some type of website?

It is highly unlikely that anyone has seen one of these before as this is the only one in existence. There may be blueprints still out there somewhere, who knows? I know how many were made, which was a very small amount, and they were destroyed. The gentleman who has this one says that he has the only one. The sole survivor of a never made product. I can see the attraction to it, as well as no interest in it.
 
Definitely neat as hell, but that's the biggest damn "handheld/portable" I've ever seen!
 
I probably shouldn't have called it that. It was to be a game console I suppose!!! <slaps self!>
 
I can't become a member of digitpress because I don't know the three damn trivia answers which is part of their application process. Seems kind of bogus to me...

Maybe I'll keep it here for input instead?

Three trivia questions...dammit...I know the "secret handshake", I can do the Spock, and know that Mork said Nano Nano, but I don't know their trivia answers! I SUCK!!!!!
 
The names for all the controls doesn't sound much like a video game to me, but I have no clue what it is. It's cool looking for sure.

The two outside sticks are "Scanner" and "Index"

On the orange panel in the middle from left to right:

"Flutter"
Top "Focus" Bottom "Filter"
Top "Video" Bottom "Audio"

The controls, especially the "Flutter", make me think it has some sort of tape mechanism (video tape?).
 
The controls, especially the "Flutter", make me think it has some sort of tape mechanism (video tape?).

I was thinking something similar, though I'm not familiar with that terminology. But shape and the door on the back does look like you might be able to load some sort of reel in there or something.
 
From Wiki - Wow and Flutter

Wow is a relatively slow form of flutter (pitch variation) which can affect both gramophone records and tape recorders, in which, the collective expression wow and flutter is commonly used.

Tape recorders

A similar problem can occur with tape recorders. The changes in frequency are caused by irregular tape motion during recording or playback. For example, a change in the angular velocity of the capstan, or dragging of the tape within an audio cassette shell. The terms "wow and flutter" are often referred to together, flutter being a higher-rate version of wow.

Scrape Flutter - a high frequency flutter of above 1000 Hz - can sometimes occur from the tape vibrating as it passes over a head, as a result of rapidly interacting stretch in the tape and stiction at the head. It adds a roughness to the sound that is not typical of wow & flutter, and damping devices or heavy rollers are sometimes employed on professional tape machines to prevent it. Scrape flutter measurement requires special techniques, often using a 10 kHz tone.

A typical modern cassette recorder may have a wow and flutter specification of 0.08%.

Video recording


A similar problem can also occur in videotape recordings, causing the picture to jitter slightly, or the top of the picture to wobble. This is known as flagwaving.
 
I'm thinking this is along the lines of some sort of slide or movie viewer for kids. Kind of like those "Show And Tell" View Master things that played slides and had a record player on top.
 
I'm thinking this is along the lines of some sort of slide or movie viewer for kids. Kind of like those "Show And Tell" View Master things that played slides and had a record player on top.

I think you are right.

Good call.
 
This is kind of cool. It used something similar to a Viewmaster reel for the pictures, but the middle of the reel was like a record for the audio....with a spinning turntable above the reel...and the needle spinning around the record, instead of the record spinning around the needle. The flutter control would have been for the audio.

Interesting concept...
 

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This is pretty damn cool. Good find, punkahontas.
 
PeepingScott - does your friend have any of the picture/audio reels to go along with it?

I would imagine that it loses a lot of value to a collector if there is no media to play on it. Are those reels available anywhere? I doubt if they are common.

Good luck.
 
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