Personal Computing: A Beginner's Guide By David Bunnel Copyright 1978 ISBN: 0801558433 Bally/Astrocade related excerpt from Pages 59-60 Some video games are beginning to look more like computers as the technology advances, while some personal computers are also beginning to look more like video games. The most glaring example of the merger of these two products is the Bally Professional Arcade, which claims to be a "video game/computer system" capable of "remembering more and doing more than any other system now available." Actually, the Bally appears to have started out as a video game and gradually has become more like a computer with the introduction of optional programming capability. However, its keyboard is a calculator style keyboard. Entering alphabetic characters requires two strokes of the keys. Perhaps, Bally will offer peripherals such as simple line printers and real keyboards and the game will become a real computer. But at the time of this writing, I can't say this is certain. Not all microprocessor games are video games, of course, and one of the more interesting of these is the Checker Challenger manufactured by Fidelity Electronics, which, like Bally, is headquartered in Chicago. It is packaged in an attractive walnut case and has many interesting features including a "verification" key that displays the board position of each piece in case the pieces are knocked off the board or you get confused as to whether you've made a proper move.