Intellivision

Mattel's Intellivision was test-marketed in Fresno in 1979 and went national the following year as the first serious rival to Atari. Look at the controllers clipped into the gold-and-woodgrain case: a 12-button keypad that took printed overlays for each game, and a flat disc instead of a joystick. Mattel sold it on detail, with TV ads in which George Plimpton set its sports games beside Atari's. Major League Baseball and Astrosmash were the cartridges that made the case.