Williams Paddle Ball Value / Desirability????

gsrogers

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I was told about a non working 1973 Williams Paddle Ball that has been in a Church for the last 30+ years. I saw some pics and it looked good and complete. I know the Pong clones are almost worthless but was wondering since this was at least a Williams if it had any following and what the value would be. Not sure what they want for it at this time.

Thanks
 
See if you can get the serial number off it.....should be on the inside of the back door. I'm curious because I own one and informaiton is limited. Like you said....the Pong clones don't command much.....but if you grew up with them.....they are still fun to play.

Alan
 
Pictures

I will try to get a serial number....

Here are some pics that were sent to me.

Should I even pick this thing up?
 
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It's not going to have a huge amount of demand or value... but who cares? Since when has this hobby been about collecting only things that are valuable or rare? That thing is cool as hell! Go get it!

Very classic 70's styling, and probably about as close as you're going to get, looks-wise, to a real Atari Pong without having a real one. I had a Paddle Ball cabinet for a while that had been (badly) converted into a bootleg Pac clone. I wound up junking the cabinet due to severe water damage, but I really wanted to save it, just because it looked so cool.

-Ian
 
Is it really running on that TV set? It would be cool to have it just to figure out what is going on with that setup.

ken
 
Is it really running on that TV set? It would be cool to have it just to figure out what is going on with that setup.

A lot of these early Pong clones (and the original Atari Pong, for that matter) use modified black and white television sets. It's very simple, the board generates a composite video signal. It's then patched in to the television set directly, bypassing the tuner. You just disconnect the video stage and inject the signal at the base of the video output transistor (biased properly, of course). On a tube set, it's the grid of the video amplifier tube. I mean, there are other things you have to do too, to make sure the video signal is matched properly to the set, etc, etc. But it's not a lot of modifications. Of course, depending on the set, you'd need an isolation transformer for the TV. Series string tube sets, like the ones in Computer Space, are hot chassis. Some larger screen solid state sets have transformer power supplies, and thus are not hot chassis.

-Ian
 
Pretty awesome. Paddle Ball was Williams' first video game!

Given that Williams ended up bringing us Defender, Robotron, Joust, etc, it's reasonable to say this Paddle Ball machine is much more desirable than any of the Pong clones released by those "here today, gone tomorrow" companies.

Go for it!

Kyle :cool:
 
Looks like they broke off some of the back/bottom moving it just then!

If you have room, save it. Someone with enough space would love to have that in their collection. It's a conversation piece at least.
 
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