Telstar

The Coleco Telstar was released to the market in 1976. When it was originally concieved in 1975, Coleco had decided to use the General Instruments AY-3-8500 PONG chip for their own gaming machine. Magnavox required that royalties be paid for any gaming machine by law, thus Coleco ended up paying Magnavox royalties to continue with the production of the system.

In 1976, the first Telstar (in a series of Telstar machines), with three games sold over a million copies.

All Coleco Telstar systems were shipped in parts, such that the owner had to assemble the basic hardware (screwing in nobs, fastening case) to save money in production.
"Original Coleco Telstar Advertisment"
  

Many variations of the Coleco Telstar followed from 1976 until 1978. The following are some photographs of each on of the systems, all courtesy of David Winter, The Pong-Story; (http://www.pong-story.com/colecto.htm):

Telstar
1976
CPU: General Instruments Pong Chip - AY-3-8500
Telstar Classic
1976
CPU: General Instruments Pong Chip - AY-3-8500
Wood Finish
Telstar Ranger
1977
Lightgun Revolver
Telstar Alpha
1977
Essentially original Telstar, except 4 games

Telstar Colormatic
1977
CPU:: General Instruments Pong Chip - AY-3-8500
Co-Processor: Texas Instruments SN76499N color graphics processor

Telstar Sportsman

1977
Telstar Colortron
1978
CPU:: General Instruments Pong Chip - AY-3-8500
Co-Processor: Texas Instruments SN76499N color graphics processor

Box
Telstar Combat1977
CPU:: General Instruments Pong Chip - AY-3-8700
Telstar Galaxy
1977
Only Telstar unit to use joysticks
Telstar Gemini
Telstar Arcade
1978
Used cartridges based on MOS technology, the MPS-7600.

Page References:

- Coleco Telstar Systems, The History of Pong; (http://www.pong-story.com/coleco.htm)

- Home Arcade Museum, (http://www.classicgaming.com/gamingmuseum/museum.html)

-Classicgaming.com, History of the Colecovision, (http://www.classicgaming.com)