It was 1984 when I got this baby. No – it wasn’t an Atari 2600 or an Intellivision (I wish I had one of these at the time!) – it was the Hanimex 666T.
It was basically a home version of Pong. The larger paddle contained the system hardware and the main game controls. These controls were used to select the type of game, the bat size, auto or manual serving, and speed of the game. I never understood the 40 / 20 angle switch as it didn’t make a difference to gameplay as far as I could tell. The smaller paddle could be detached and used by a second player.
I was a sore loser when playing on this system. My sister would start to win and I would get mad and would reset the game only to be beaten again. I eventually got better and started kickin’ ass – that’s when my sister stopped playing video games with me.
This was my introduction to owning a TV gaming system. It served its purpose until I got into the ‘real’ home consoles and computers in the 80’s. The last ‘Where it all started‘ feature will be on the first true 8-bit gaming system which I acquired in 1986. Could it be the Nintendo Entertainment System, the Sega Master System, or the Commodore 64 ?
Welllllllllll, you will just have to wait and see……….
