The Story of Odyssey

Magnavox Odyssey

The Magnavox Odyssey was first developed by Ralph Baer in 1966 at Sanders Associates and released in 1972 by Magnavox as the world's first home console. The device came with a ping-pong game, which in the middle of the year inspired Atari's arcade game Pong, which popularized this style of game. Ralph later sued Atari for unauthorized use of his creation. The Odyssey was a closed-circuit device that was modified and generated what were known as games, often programmed with these games or modified by game cards that made this modification, unlike what was known in later generations, where a ROM cartridge added software that was read by hardware. In addition, it used Overlay, a plastic that was stuck to the television by static cling to build the game scene, which had three points as protagonists, two moved by the players and one by the system, this being the ball in most cases, since most of the games were sports games.

Magnavox Odyssey 100, 200, 300, 400 and 500

The console came with two controllers, each with two small wheels, one on each side, and a reset button in the middle to resume games. It had no sound and came with a connector that connected to the TV, tuning to channels 3 or 4, and allowed switching between TV and video games. This accessory remained very popular until the fourth generation of consoles ended in the late 1990s worldwide. And finally, it was powered by six batteries, with a power supply having to be purchased separately. The console also came with board game accessories, such as cards, play money, poker chips, dice and others, to interact with certain games, such as Haunted House, for example. It also had a rifle-shaped gun called the Shooting Gallery, compatible with four games, being the first gun in the world used on consoles. In 1974, Phillips bought Magnavox and turned it into its subsidiary.

Magnavox Odyssey 2000, 3000 and 4000

The first version of the Odyssey was sold until 1975. The console had eight versions released later still keeping the Magnavox name, the 100 and 200 in 1975, 300, 400 and 500 in 1976 and 2000, 3000 and 4000 in 1977, in addition to special versions released in Europe, such as the 2001 in 1977 and 2100 in 1978. The significant changes in each version were. In the 100, a simpler multi-chip design was created, it began to bring a buzzer sound directly to the console and it came with the Tennis and Hockey games. In the 200, it came with the game Crush in memory, with more markings on the screen and the controls began to come built into the device. In the 500, it came with the games Tennis, Hockey, Crush and Training. In the 3000, the controls started to come separate again, keeping this until the 4000 version. In the 4000, it came with six games, Football, Tennis, Hockey, Crush, Crush Training, Basketball and Basketball Training.

Magnavox Odyssey 2001 and 2100

In the European editions released as Phillips, it came with Tennis, Hockey and Squash and support for sound on the TV in the 2001 version and six games, Destroy, Flipper, Tennis, Hendball, Ice Hockey and Football in the 2100 version. All of these models had some chip changes between versions, but nothing very significant in the final result of the consoles.

Magnavox Odyssey, Tokens, Cards, Money and Overlays

All games came with names in English, but I bring them translated, as they were not actually titles, they just informed the function or theme that each one brought. In addition to the games mentioned, there were also games like Baseball, Cat and Mouse, Handball, Invasion, Skiing, Submarine, Table Tennis, Volleyball, American Football, Roulette, among others, totaling 33 games released for the console. The 5000 version of the console was designed, but never released. Some say that the European version 2100 was supposed to be the American version 5000, but it was more similar to the American version 4000. The console was discontinued in 1978.