Elektor TV Games Computer (1979)

Next year will mark the thirtieth anniversary of the Elektor TV Games Computer (TVGC), which first appeared in the April 1979 issue of Elektor. The TVGC project was ‘adopted’ by various advertisers in later issues of the magazine, selling in kit form for £ 200-300.

This innovative machine, designed by Elektor and Philips, was based around hardware from Signetics, a US subsidiary of Philips: most importantly, the Signetics 2650A CPU and the Signetics 2636 Programmable Video Interface (PVI). A regular PAL television set was used to display output.