Spectradyne is a well known name in hotel TV entertainment.
Supplying special closed TV viewing systems to hotels nationwide they allow
guests to view TV shows, pay-per-views and also view hotel information
and local entertainment events and listings of restaurants, transportation
and billing inquires. In 1983 Spectradyne installed into select
hotels the Spectravision Hotel Video System.
With assistance from Atari's CED (Consumer Electronics Division) Spectradyne
combined their standard tried and true movie selection system with an Atari
5200 video game system. The system came in a special
enclosed housing to prevent theft/tampering of the contents and the unit
as a whole. The Atari Joysticks were installed onto the 5200
motherboard with slightly modified joystick ports and 16ft connection cabled
to allow game play from across the room.
A special vertical riser-board was designed to accomodate up to 4 standard Atari 5200 cartridges. The riser-board was hardwired with a selection wire which was connected to the from control knob. By rotating the knob the play could select a game to be played, since the unit cannot be connected to a central computer, its unknown if the hotel guest was charged for playing video games and if that charge was on a per-game basis or timed.