Magnavox Odyssey

• • Manufacturer: Magnavox

  • Designer: Ralph Baer

  • Generation: First Generation

  • Bits: Not Applicable

  • Year Released: 1972

  • Units sold: 330,000

  • Media: Cartridge

  • Summary: The first ever video game console, it pioneered the use of cartridges, required no memory, and did not have a microprocessor. In short, the Magnavox Odyssey is responsible for spawning the market for home consoles.

History

The Magnavox Odyssey is the first ever video game console to grace the surface of the earth. Its origin traces back to an earlier prototype, known as the Brown Box. The Brown Box was the result of two years of work on TV gaming systems at Sanders Associates (a defense contractor) by Ralph Baer and two of his co-workers. Baer tried unsuccessfully to market the brown box to major TV manufacturers of the time, such as Zenith, GE, and RCA. Eventually, Ralph Baer was able to interest Magnavox in the Brown box via a board-room demonstration of the product, and Magnavox eventually went on to form a liscensing deal with Sanders Associates to produce the Magnavox Odyssey at their TV manufacturing plaint.

The Magnavox Odessy ran into hardship initially: Magnavox featured the Odyssey in their fall TV advertising in such a way that everyone got the impression that Odyssey would only work with Magnavox TV sets; then they set the price at a steep $100 for the game unit plus six program cards that could play twelve different games using overlays; and finally, they decided to charge another whopping $25 for the rifle, which, of course, made it all a hard sell. Secondly, sales were restricted to Magnavox’ franchised dealer stores. In the 1960s and 1970s, Magnavox did not sell their TV sets, radios and phonographs through independent stores or mass merchandisers such as Sears or Montgomery-Ward. Naturally, that narrowed the potential sales base considerably. In spite of all of these marketing and sales gaffes and with help from their TV ad campaign, Magnavox had sold nearly 130,000 Odyssey 1TL200s by its first Christmas.

Hardware

The Magnavox Odessy uses no microprocessor and has no need for memory. It is based on a hybrid analog and digital circuit design. Opening the physical game unit reveals only discrete components: resistors, capacitors, etc. The only semiconductors are about 40 diodes and 40 transistors.

The Odyssey’s cartridges contain no information. When plugging a cartridge into the console, the internal diode logic circuits can become interconnected in different ways (depending on which cartridge you use) to produce the desired result.

External Hardware

The game was originally packaged with:

2 Player Control controllers - these were square and designed to sit on a flat surface. At the top sat a reset button with the control knobs placed on the sides, and an English Control (EC) node at the end of the right knob. The knobs controlled the vertical and horizontal movement of the “paddle”, while the EC adjusted the “ball”.

Game Cord

Antenna-Game Switch with mounting hooks.

2 sized sets of 11 Overlays for medium and large television screens.

6 Game Cards

Multiple game and score cards.

Eventually, a light-gun add-on became available for the system.

Notable Qualities

Most of the games used special plastic overlays placed on the television screen to simulate the background graphics that the system could not draw. Each of the twelve games had two identical overlays in order to fit on a small or a large screen. Some games used a special scoreboard to mark the scores. Some others used plastic chips, cards, or other accessories such as a pair of dice, small chips and game decks. Several games used the same cartridge. The difference was made by using accessories or by changing the game rules, since the games were mostly played with the accessories rather than with the elementary graphics shown on the screen.

An example of the overlays used on the Magnavox Odyssey

Also, the Odyssey served to pioneer the use of cartridges as a way to store media.

Notable Titles

Not applicable

References

"Pong-Story : Magnavox Odyssey, the First Video Game System." Technology of the Odyssey. Web. 28 Mar. 2010. <http://www.pong-story.com/odyssey.htm#P10>.

Baer, Ralph. Videogames: In The Beginning. Springfield, New Jersey: Rolenta, 2005. Print.