Uploaded October 2020 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
The Radio Shack Electronic TV Scoreboard is a video game system using technology that originated in 1976. I got this in a "Bonus Bucks" reward program at my middle school in 1985. However, compared to the Atari 2600 or Intellivsion systems we were used to, the games weren't very compelling. For a kid in the mid-1980s this system was already out of date. It did, however, have a plastic "gun" game controller which we thought was kind of cool.
The TV Scoreboard is an ancestor of a cartridge-based system: since it only has 6 "baked in" games with no way to add more. (But then again, it was a lot cheaper than an Atari!) The TV Scoreboard we have was offered in the Radio Shack catalog from 1979 to 1983 (I think my model is a 1982 version). In prior years, they had offered similar versions of this game with slight variations in design, 4 players, color, paddle sliders instead of rotary knobs.... Then, in 1983, when this game also had its last sales year, Radio Shack introduced the "Tandyvision," which was just an Intellivision with their name on it. This half-hearted rebranding offered nothing different than the base Intellivision other than the Radio Shack name. And I know it's a bit of a rant, but Radio Shack could have easily improved upon the Intellivision by simply including a better game!! When I first saw the Atari as kid, the Combat game was interesting and fun to play... but Intellivsion came with "Las Vegas Poker and Blackjack" - what were they thinking?! I had tons of fun with my Intellivision as a kid, but never wanted to play that game. After 1983, Radio Shack dropped out of the TV video game business for a while it seems. Both the Tandyvision and the Electronic TV Scoreboard were missing from their 1984 catalog.
One interesting fact I noticed while researching this is many ads and published artwork had the "left player" controller located on the right side of the picture - I guess this was done for aesthetic purposes. Much like a VCR, the TV scoreboard outputs a signal on a VHF channel and you connect it to your television. In this video, we connect it to a small LCD television, but we also have to dust off the only old CRT-style TV we have (an Admiral 9-inch Black and White) in order to play the Light Gun games. There are many other YouTube videos that address the technical reasons that a light gun game only works on an old-school television not a flat panel, and after making this video I can confirm they are 100% correct.
Another interesting point about this system and home games of that era (Intellivsion, Atari, Sega, Nintendo etc.) is they operate independently - this is an advantage over modern games. Suppose 10 years from now, you're feeling nostalgic about your XBox One X or PlayStation 5... will you even be able to play it? People don't seem to care about owning their video games these days. You have to sign in and load information from "the cloud" and so forth. But if you want to play old school games like this one, as long as they function it will be no problem to do so.
0:00 - Intro
1:30 - Historical Information
2:30 - Tandyvision 1983
3:12 - TV Game Switch
4:06 - Don't Hate the Player...
4:31 - Play Intellivision Instead
5:00 - Light Gun on an Old TV
6:17 - Shooting Games Then and Now
7:00 - A Look at the Chip Inside
Thanks for watching this video. On our channel, ACBMemphis, we feature lots of vintage technology, mostly audio equipment. If you want to see more videos like this, consider subscribing and/or checking out our Old Technology playlist (link below):
youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvdr2fcSSucd6hFidGPdOIOYVkEqTTeoA
To read more about the electronic TV scoreboard, check out the radioshackcatalogs.com Web site.
The family of integrated circuits used in this game system and more historical context is described in the following Wikipedia article:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AY-3-8500
#VintageGaming #RadioShack
The Radio Shack Electronic TV Scoreboard is a video game system using technology that originated in 1976. I got this in a "Bonus Bucks" reward program at my middle school in 1985. However, compared to the Atari 2600 or Intellivsion systems we were used to, the games weren't very compelling. For a kid in the mid-1980s this system was already out of date. It did, however, have a plastic "gun" game controller which we thought was kind of cool.
The TV Scoreboard is an ancestor of a cartridge-based system: since it only has 6 "baked in" games with no way to add more. (But then again, it was a lot cheaper than an Atari!) The TV Scoreboard we have was offered in the Radio Shack catalog from 1979 to 1983 (I think my model is a 1982 version). In prior years, they had offered similar versions of this game with slight variations in design, 4 players, color, paddle sliders instead of rotary knobs.... Then, in 1983, when this game also had its last sales year, Radio Shack introduced the "Tandyvision," which was just an Intellivision with their name on it. This half-hearted rebranding offered nothing different than the base Intellivision other than the Radio Shack name. And I know it's a bit of a rant, but Radio Shack could have easily improved upon the Intellivision by simply including a better game!! When I first saw the Atari as kid, the Combat game was interesting and fun to play... but Intellivsion came with "Las Vegas Poker and Blackjack" - what were they thinking?! I had tons of fun with my Intellivision as a kid, but never wanted to play that game. After 1983, Radio Shack dropped out of the TV video game business for a while it seems. Both the Tandyvision and the Electronic TV Scoreboard were missing from their 1984 catalog.
One interesting fact I noticed while researching this is many ads and published artwork had the "left player" controller located on the right side of the picture - I guess this was done for aesthetic purposes. Much like a VCR, the TV scoreboard outputs a signal on a VHF channel and you connect it to your television. In this video, we connect it to a small LCD television, but we also have to dust off the only old CRT-style TV we have (an Admiral 9-inch Black and White) in order to play the Light Gun games. There are many other YouTube videos that address the technical reasons that a light gun game only works on an old-school television not a flat panel, and after making this video I can confirm they are 100% correct.
Another interesting point about this system and home games of that era (Intellivsion, Atari, Sega, Nintendo etc.) is they operate independently - this is an advantage over modern games. Suppose 10 years from now, you're feeling nostalgic about your XBox One X or PlayStation 5... will you even be able to play it? People don't seem to care about owning their video games these days. You have to sign in and load information from "the cloud" and so forth. But if you want to play old school games like this one, as long as they function it will be no problem to do so.
0:00 - Intro
1:30 - Historical Information
2:30 - Tandyvision 1983
3:12 - TV Game Switch
4:06 - Don't Hate the Player...
4:31 - Play Intellivision Instead
5:00 - Light Gun on an Old TV
6:17 - Shooting Games Then and Now
7:00 - A Look at the Chip Inside
Thanks for watching this video. On our channel, ACBMemphis, we feature lots of vintage technology, mostly audio equipment. If you want to see more videos like this, consider subscribing and/or checking out our Old Technology playlist (link below):
youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvdr2fcSSucd6hFidGPdOIOYVkEqTTeoA
To read more about the electronic TV scoreboard, check out the radioshackcatalogs.com Web site.
The family of integrated circuits used in this game system and more historical context is described in the following Wikipedia article:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AY-3-8500
#VintageGaming #RadioShack
