<P> The Magnavox Odyssey never caught on with the public , due largely to the limited functionality of its primitive technology . By the middle of the 1970s , however , the ball - and - paddle craze in the arcade had ignited public interest in video games and continuing advances in integrated circuits had resulted in large - scale integration ( LSI ) microchips cheap enough to be incorporated into a consumer product . In 1975 , Magnavox reduced the part count of the Odyssey using a three - chip set created by Texas Instruments and released two new systems that only played ball - and - paddle games , the Odyssey 100 and Odyssey 200 . Atari , meanwhile , entered the consumer market that same year with the single - chip Home Pong system designed by Harold Lee . The next year , General Instrument released a `` Pong - on - a-chip '' LSI and made it available at a low price to any interested company . Toy company Coleco Industries used this chip to create the million - selling Telstar console model series ( 1976 -- 77 ) , while dozens of other companies released models as well . Overall , sales of dedicated ball - and - paddle systems in the U.S. grew from 350,000 in 1975 to a peak of 5 -- 6 million in 1977 . A similar boom hit the United Kingdom and other parts of Europe , with much of the market supplied by clone manufacturers in Hong Kong . </P>
<P> The Magnavox Odyssey never caught on with the public , due largely to the limited functionality of its primitive technology . By the middle of the 1970s , however , the ball - and - paddle craze in the arcade had ignited public interest in video games and continuing advances in integrated circuits had resulted in large - scale integration ( LSI ) microchips cheap enough to be incorporated into a consumer product . In 1975 , Magnavox reduced the part count of the Odyssey using a three - chip set created by Texas Instruments and released two new systems that only played ball - and - paddle games , the Odyssey 100 and Odyssey 200 . Atari , meanwhile , entered the consumer market that same year with the single - chip Home Pong system designed by Harold Lee . The next year , General Instrument released a `` Pong - on - a-chip '' LSI and made it available at a low price to any interested company . Toy company Coleco Industries used this chip to create the million - selling Telstar console model series ( 1976 -- 77 ) , while dozens of other companies released models as well . Overall , sales of dedicated ball - and - paddle systems in the U.S. grew from 350,000 in 1975 to a peak of 5 -- 6 million in 1977 . A similar boom hit the United Kingdom and other parts of Europe , with much of the market supplied by clone manufacturers in Hong Kong . </P>
when did home video games systems first become very popular
when did home video games systems first become very popular
1975
1975