AY-3-8500

The AY-3-8500 "Ball & Paddle" integrated circuit was the first in a series of ICs from General Instrument designed for the consumer video game market.

These chips were designed to output video to an RF modulator, which would then display the game on a domestic television set.

[1] A minimum number of external components were needed to build a complete system.

It featured horizontal player motion, and a composite video output.

Six selectable games for one or two players were included: The AY-3-8550 used the No Connect pins from the AY-3-8500, so it was possible to put an AY-3-8550 on an AY-3-8500 (without horizontal movement), and vice versa.

This is a list of consoles that use this chip: The AY-3-8610 was a major update from General Instruments.

AY-3-8500 chip
AY-3-8500
AY-3-8550
AY-3-8610 chip from 1980
AY-3-8610
The inside of an AY-3-8610 based game cartridge. The console for which this was made accepted other cartridges. However, unlike modern consoles, the game chip, i.e. the core circuitry, was in the cartridge , not in the console.
Atari console Stunt Cycle based on AY-3-8760
AY-3-8603 die