Electronic Sports-Action Game With With Improved Game-Object Action

Coleco, patent filed February 17th, 1981

It’s not obvious from the drawing, but this patent was for a console with rudimentary cartridges for different games.  Coleco’s Total Control 4 came with football, but basketball, hockey, and soccer were sold in a separate package. The cartridges were screen overlays more than anything else; only when Nintendo’s Game Boy appeared eight years later would the world get a true pocket-sized game console.