Video Action [Model VA-II]

Universal Research Labs (URL) entered the video game market in 1973 when they were contracted by Allied Leisure to manufacture the circuit boards of their Paddle Battle game (an Atari PONG version licensed to Allied). They also produced their first Video Action arcade game, model VA-I, housed into an octagonal table. A few thousands were produced. After the Allied Leisure fire and other financial problems, URL found itself with millions of dollars of electronic components. URL had to do something with this inventory, so one of its co-founders quickly decided to get into the consumer market. Thus was born the second Video Action game, model VA-II. It was first announced in 1974, and released later in 1975 in two forms: one with a TV set and a coin box for use in bars, and a home version which could use any TV set. The former was more successfull as it was designed to make money. The latter didn't sell as well as the former because of its high retail price (the circuit board itself cost around $200 to manufacture). An early advertisement for Christmas 1974 listed it at $550 but it appears that the regular price was almost $500.