Grandstand TV Game 3000

Grandstand TV Game 3000

Adman Grandstand TV Game 3000 in front of its box at the Pixel Museum
Specifications
Manufacturer	Made in Korea for Adam Imports, Harrogate (sold as Adman Grandstand)
Type	Dedicated home video game console (Pong-type TV game)
Released	1977 in most sources; the Science Museum Group dates its example 1975 (see History)
Intro price	£29.95 plus postage by mail order (Scotcade)
CPU	Not known; no photograph of the board has been found
Memory	None
Storage	—
Display	RF output to a 625-line television, colour
Sound	Sound effects; speaker grille on the console
Power	9 V DC: six HP11 (C) cells or a 9 V adaptor
OS / Firmware	—
Model no.	3000

The Grandstand TV Game 3000 (sold as the Adman Grandstand TV Game 3000, model 3000) is a colour Pong-type TV game sold in the UK by Adam Imports of Harrogate under its Adman Grandstand name. It plays the same four bat-and-ball games as the black-and-white Grandstand TV Game 2000, football, tennis, squash and practice, in colour on a 625-line television. It was made in Korea.

History

The box reads "Adman MODEL 3000 GRANDSTAND T.V. GAME", with a roundel marked "COLOUR VIDEO T.V. GAME", in the same style as the box of the black-and-white TV Game 2000. The Science Museum Group, which holds a boxed example, describes it as part of "a range of similar consoles offered by Adman in the 1970s and 1980s", "manufactured in Korea for Adam Imports, a Harrogate based electronics importer and distributor", and "quite cheap (about £30 in 1977)". The Museum of Design in Plastics holds another, with its two handsets and power adaptor, and records the label as "Adman Grandstand TV Game 3000. Made in Korea. Power supply 9V - DC Ax Adamptor 9v".

The dates conflict. The Science Museum Group gives the year of manufacture of its example as 1975. Wikipedia gives a UK release in 1977, citing a Scotcade mail-order advertisement; the scan of that advertisement carries a handwritten "AUG 77". The Museum of Design in Plastics dates its example to about 1977 to 1979. The Science Museum's own description gives the 1977 price.

The Scotcade advertisement sold "the Grandstand full colour home TV video game" for £29.95 plus postage, which it says was £10 below the recommended retail price; a mains adaptor cost £2.95 extra. The model number is not legible in the advertisement. The console in its photograph has the same layout as the TV Game 3000 in the Pixel Museum photograph, with a colour stripe at the right of the control strip.

Hardware

No internal photograph, teardown or service information for the TV Game 3000 has been found, so its game chip is not known. The black-and-white TV Game 2000 uses a Texas Instruments TMS1965NL; do not assume the 3000 does the same without opening one. From the outside, the 3000 uses the same case as the 2000: the museum photographs show the same panel layout with a red, green and blue block added, the same base with its battery cover, label, 360 mW moulding and rubber feet, the same rear layout, and control boxes whose undersides are galvanised metal plates held by four screws.

From the advertisement and museum records:

• Colour picture on any 625-line television, colour or black and white; on a black-and-white set the picture is white on black.
• "Realistic electronic sound effects" when the ball is hit or bounces, and on-screen scoring in red.
• Power from six HP11 cells or a 9 V DC adaptor.

Games

The four games are football, tennis, squash and practice. The advertisement describes them as follows:

TV Game 3000 games and settings (Scotcade advertisement)

Item	Description
Football	Each side has a goalie and a striker.
Tennis	Two players; the advertisement suggests the fast ball setting, small bats and the 40° angle for a harder game.
Squash	Players must hit the ball in turn.
Practice	One player against the machine.
Settings	Fast or slow ball; large or small bats; 20° or 40° rebound angle; automatic serve or serve by one player.
Picture	White ball on a green background, blue and yellow bats, red score figures.
Scoring	The first player to 15 wins; a button resets the score to zero.

Controls and light gun

The bat controls are detachable pods on coiled cables, which the advertisement calls "telephone cord" extensions, so the game can be played away from the console. The Science Museum describes the games as "controlled using the dials on the controllers". No light gun or target game is mentioned for the 3000.

Power

The 3000 runs on 9 V DC: six HP11 (C) cells or a 9 V adaptor. No source gives the adaptor's current or the plug polarity, so measure any adaptor before connecting it. Grandstand also sold a switchable Grandstand Universal Mains Adaptor (6-9 V DC, with a polarity switch) for its handheld and tabletop games; no source found says it was meant for the TV games.

Remove the cells for storage; see Battery Explosion, Capacitor or Corrosion Damage if they have leaked.

Repair

No service manual, schematic or capacitor data has been published for the TV Game 3000. The 3000 has its own repair guides:

• Grandstand TV Game 3000 General Maintenance: opening the case, the control boxes and their metal base plates, the panel switches, power and polarity, and the RF output.
• Grandstand TV Game 3000 Troubleshooting Guide: what the console should do at power-on, a symptom table and what can be repaired.
• Grandstand TV Game 3000 Capacitor Replacement Guide: what is known of the 3000's supply, the burst 470 µF capacitor found in a TV Game 2000 in the same case (labelled as the 2000's), and how to open, record and recap a 3000.

Documentation

No instruction leaflet or service information for the TV Game 3000 has been found online. Boxed examples are held by the Science Museum Group (Y2005.53) and the Museum of Design in Plastics (AIBDC 0_2556).

Related pages

• Grandstand TV Game 2000, the black-and-white model with the same four games
• Grandstand TV Game 3600 Mk II, a colour Grandstand TV game with a light gun
• Atari Super Pong, a four-game colour Pong console of 1976, for comparison
• Category:Grandstand