Bridge Challenger®

Published September 10, 2016 • Updated October 21, 2024

“Bridge Challenger®” by Fidelity Electronics, 1975 - better living through science.

Bridge Challenger® playing cards accompanied the hand-held electronic game Bridge Challenger Model BRC manufactured by Fidelity Electronics in the USA during the 1970s & 80s. It was a high quality game packaged in an attaché case for the serious player and these playing cards, manufactured by TDC Inc., were included in the case.

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The box has the legend better living through science. The bar codes on the faces of the cards are so the machine can read the cards. The game also has a voice synthesizer and can speak the card names. Clever stuff.

“Bridge Challenger” by Fidelity Electronics, 1975

Above: “Bridge Challenger” playing cards produced for Fidelity Electronics by Trend Development Corporation (TDC) Inc., after 1975. Images courtesy Matt Probert.

Bridge Challenger III

Above: leaflet for Bridge Challenger III. At the time, it was being marketed in the UK by Fidelity Electronics (UK) Ltd of Wallingford, Oxfordshire. Image courtesy Roddy Somerville.

Souvenir of Space Shuttle Kennedy Space Center by TDC Inc. See the Box►

Souvenir of Space Shuttle Kennedy Space Center by TDC Inc, c.1981

Above: Souvenir of Space Shuttle Kennedy Space Center showing standard courts by TDC Inc., c.1981. The first Space Shuttle launch was in April 1981 so TDC Inc appears to have continued production until this time. Images courtesy Matt Probert.

In 1979 TDC Inc was absorbed by Brown & Bigelow, then owned by Saxon Industries, and incorporated into Hoyle Products►

REFERENCES

Cooper, Michael: TDC Inc.: a 20th century American Playing Card Maker, in The Playing-Card Vol.47 No.4, Apr-Jun 2019, pp208-216 online here►

• Peter Vis►

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By Matt Probert

United Kingdom • Member since March 02, 2012

I have adored playing cards since before I was seven years old, and was brought up on packs of Waddington's No 1. As a child I was fascinated by the pictures of the court cards.

Over the next fifty years I was seduced by the artwork in Piatnik's packs and became a collector of playing cards.

Seeking more information about various unidentified packs I discovered the World of Playing Cards website and became an enthusiastic contributor researching and documenting different packs of cards.

I describe my self as a playing card archaeologist, using detective work to identify and date obscure packs of cards discovered in old houses, flea markets and car boot sales.