The Forgotten Video Game Consoles Lego Will Never Turn Into Buildable Sets

Releasing a online game system within the late ‘70s, before systems like the Atari really took off, was a gamble. The Bally Professional Arcade, later renamed the Bally Astrocade, unfortunately rolled a snake eyes. Initially selling in 1977 as a mail order machine for $299 (over $1,400 today, ouch) the console was developed by Bally’s (identified for pinball and slot machines on the time) video sport division, Midway. Mortal Kombat followers may acknowledge that identify, as Midway finally fared lots higher than the console did.

Although powered by {hardware} that allowed for spectacular graphics capabilities for the time, the system didn’t promote properly, and Bally finally offered off the division accountable for it a couple of years later. In 1981, the Bally Professional Arcade was rebranded as the Bally Computer System, after which as the Astrocade in 1982, and included a cartridge that would run the programming language BASIC. The catch? The Astrocade featured only a primary calculator-like keypad, not a full keyboard, which made programming a problem. Alengthy with many different consoles, it didn’t survive the online game crash of ‘83.