An Attractive Addition To Your TV Game Machine!

Back in the pre-crash early 1980's, the back pages of Electronic Games magazine were festooned with small black-and-white ads.  It seemed every technology entrepreneur in the country was trying to find a way to hop on the videogame bandwagon and cash in on this newfangled craze, doing whatever it was they already knew how to do.

The Grand Stand Company's technology was of the woodworking variety:

Note that the promised stabilization and support is provided mostly by the player's own two feet, holding the stand down, and the source of the SCORE ENHANCER capability remains a mystery. It's not even clear how the joystick is affixed to the top of the stand, though the ad copy claims the product ADAPTS TO ALL POPULAR JOY STICKS (not JOYSTICKS, mind you.)

The claim that the Grand Stand is an attractive addition to your TV game machine implies that the marketer was a little behind the times -- to my recollection, nobody was calling them "TV Games" after the first wave or two of dedicated ball-and-paddle machines had sold through at retail.  Although the simulated wood grain of the original Atari VCS might indeed have gone well with the Grand Stand's fine walnut finish, or some of the exotic hard woods available at extra cost.

Like many of the products offered in these old advertisements, I wonder how many of these were actually sold, and would be absolutely floored and strangely thrilled if I ran across one at a rummage sale or flea market.

But I still wouldn't pay $34.95 for it.