Switching From TV Mode To Game Mode On The Box Behind The Tv
| Field | Video Games |
| Went Obsolete | Early to mid 1990s |
| Made Obsolete By | Advanced connectors and a dedicated Video In channel |
| Knowledge Assumed | Manual Dexterity, ability to squeeze behind your entertainment center |
| When useful | hooking up an old game console to an old tv |
Older televisions didn't have those new-fangled plugs (red, yellow, and white) that you get nowadays. Back in the old days, back before ET killed the Atari, you'd have to buy a little switcher to splice your game system into the circuit so you wouldn't have to switch between it and the antenna line whenever you got done playing Warlords.
This box had a connector consisting of two little Y-shaped forks, which were to be screwed into place on the connector on the back of the television, and then the box had two input lines, one for your game system and one for your antenna or cable. Properly set up, you could then switch between Pong and Days of Our Lives by moving the little switch on the box. This saved having to get back there with the screwdriver more than once.
