Magnavox Odyssey FAQ Created 10/29/97 Original author: Shaun Gegan a.k.a. Loomis Now maintained by David Winter Version 2.9.1 revised May 22, 2003 For more infos about PONG, go to http://www.pong-story.com If you want to contribute to this FAQ, send en email to o1faq@pong-story.com You are welcome to link and use this FAQ as long as you credit the authors accordingly. No parts of this FAQ should be removed, altered or modified without permission. Version info: X.X.X | | | | | \_ Small modifications | \___ New sub-section added \_____ New section added and/or FAQ restructured Last revision: - Added section 3.8 Contributors (in alphabetical order): ------------------------------------- Andrew Davie (adavie@mad.scientist.com) Anthony Leckington (ael@easystreet.com) Jerry Greiner (JerryG@hevanet.com) Kai (kccomp@ix.netcom.com) Lee K. Seitz (lkseitz@hiwaay.net) Matthew Kiehl (waffles@swbell.net) Mattias Persson (lamperss@algonet.se) Ryan H. Osborn (rosborn@mindspring.com) Van Burnham (van@wired.com) Some info gathered from: ------------------------ Herman, Leonard. "Phoenix: The Fall and Rise of Video Games" Rolenta. New Jersey. (ISBN 0-9643848-2-5) 1995. http://www.rolentapress.com Contents: --------- 1 - What is the Odyssey ? 2 - What is the history of the machine's development ? 3 - Can you describe the Odyssey ? 3.1 - What sort of games were played with the Odyssey ? 3.2 - How were the games played ? 3.3 - What's inside the Odyssey and how does it work ? 3.4 - What was the 1974 "Export" version of the Odyssey ? 3.5 - Was the Odyssey upgraded ? 3.6 - Was the Odyssey improved ? 3.7 - Was there any "hobbyist" projects around the Odyssey ? 3.8 - Were there any foreign Odyssey clones ? 3.9 - What was the unreleased Golf Putting game ? 3.10 - What is the unreleased 4-player Odyssey ? 3.11 - What is the Apex-Magnavox blue card ? 4 - What items came standard with the Odyssey ? 4.1 - Hardware 4.2 - Standard game accessories 4.3 - Loose documents 5 - What additional games were available ? 5.1 - Pack 1 5.2 - Pack 2 5.3 - Electronic rifle games 5.4 - Percepts (#1TL802) 5.5 - Complete list of games 6 - Were there any add-on hardware accessories ? 6.1 - Organizer case 6.2 - Other add-on hardware accessories 7 - Are there different versions of the Odyssey ? 8 - Didn't Atari have a hand in the Odyssey ? 9 - What technical information is available ? 9.1 - Replacing the battery pack 9.2 - Cartridge pinouts 1 - What is the Odyssey ? ------------------------- The Magnavox Odyssey was the very first home video game system. It allowed to play "Ball and Paddle" games such as PING-PONG, TABLE TENNIS, VOLLEYBALL, BASKETBALL, and others. On January 27th, 1972, Magnavox began production on the machine, and the system was released in May. It was heavily advertised and reportedly sold 100,000 units in 1972 for around $100 each. The machine was discontinued in late 1974 or early 1975 with the release of the Odyssey 100. 200,000 units were probably sold in all. Additional games were also available, and a rifle pack known as "Shooting Gallery" was also available to play shooting games. The Odyssey allowed to play a total of 28 different games. 2 - What is the history of the machine's development ? ------------------------------------------------------ Much of this information has been gathered from David Winter and Mr. Baer himself. If you are interested in obtaining more historical information then please go to http://www.pong-story.com. The video game invention dates 1951 when Ralph Baer joined Loral, an electronics equipment manufacturer. Ralph was engaged for his television experience. Sam Lackoff, Chief Engineer, told him to "Build the best television set in the world". In the line, Ralph suggested to add some sort of "interactive game" to the television to distinguish his team from the crowd. Unsuccessfull, his idea was not investigated. Ralph will continue working on it 15 years later. In 1966, Ralph Baer, started the design and implementation of his video game invention. The genius of his invention was the use of a television set as screen, rather than an expensive monitor, oscilloscope, or other equipment that used a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube). At that time, Ralph was working at Sanders Associates. His idea was to design a system allowing to transform a regular TV set into a home game system. The story really began september 1st, 1966 when Ralph Baer wrote a 4-page description of his idea. No later than september 6th, he had drawn the schematics of a simple two-player "Chasing" game. He tried it for the first time on May 7th 1967, and demonstrated it on June 14th, after improving it with the addition of an electronic gun allowing to shoot targets on the television screen. After recruiting Bill Rusch (an engineer) and Bill Harrison (a technician) in Octover/November to assist him in the development of his system, Ralph designed the very first TENNIS game. This marked the first step in the "Ball and Paddle" game history, where Magnavox and Atari were the most important actors. Ralph demonstrated his finished system between November 9th and 13th to several manufacturers such as Teleprompter, and even NYC cable company as an interactive cable game system. NYC was skeptical, hence a bad success. This "interactive cable game system" idea was extremely advanced and new at that time, since games played in network only appeared 15 years later when computers were vastly sold for home use, and became a real standart in the 1990s with the growth of the internet. Ralph patented his invention on January 15th 1968 and began the design of a more advanced system playing multiple games: the "Brown Box". This system could be configured using simple switches placed on its front panel. The video game system was born. The Brown Box allowed to play over ten different games, including Tennis, Volley-Ball, Football, and shooting games. The games were played using transparent plastic overlays (used as background pictures) placed in front of the television screen. The Brown Box had a feature that Magnavox did not include in the Odyssey for costs reasons: electronically-generated color background. Here's a good description of the Brown Box by Ralph Baer: "The two horizontal rows of switches on the front panel (also seen in pics on my website) were moved for each game with the aid of a card placed between the two rows of switches. Each card (for example the ping-pong card) had dots next to the switches to indicate which of them had to be moved downward. The replacement of these switches with the p.c. carts by Magnavox was the major difference between the Brown Box and the production version Odyssey 1 unit (good idea). The other difference was that my Brown box had electonically-generated colored backgrounds (green for ping-pong, blue for hockey etc,). Magnavox did not include the color-circuitry for cost-reasons (bad idea!)." In January of 1969, Baer demonstrated the revised unit (adding light gun and joystick interface). This was the very first fully programmable (via switches), multi-player video game system. Demonstrations were made to several TV-set manufacturers, including RCA, General Electric, Zenith, Sylvania, Magnavox and Warwick-Sears. Most of these demonstrations took place at the Sanders Associates plant at Nashua, NH. This resulted in a first license agreement with RCA in March 1970, which was later canceled. On July 17th 1970, Ralph demonstrated his "Brown Box" to Magnavox TV-Set engineering, production and marketing management in their Ft. Wayne, IN plant. A preliminary License Agreement was signed with Magnavox on March 3rd. Magnavox became the exclusive Sansers Associateslicensee: all other makers had to be licensed by Magnavox to enter the video game scene for manufacturing, selling and using "ball and paddle" or other video games. Between March and September 1970, Baer assisted Magnavox engineers in the production of the system, which was called Odyssey. The rest is history. In 1971 Ralph Baer patented the Television Gaming Apparatus: "The present invention pertains to an apparatus [and method], in conjunction with monochrome and color television receivers, for the generation, display, manipulation, and use of symbols or geometric figures upon the screen of the television receivers for the purpose of [training simulation, for] playing games [and for engaging in other activities] by one or more participants. The invention comprises in one embodiment a control unit, an apparatus connecting the control unit to the television receiver and in some applications a television screen overlay mask utilized in conjunction with a standard television receiver. The control unit includes the control, circuitry, switches and other electronic circuitry for the generation, manipulation and control of video signals which are to be displayed on the television screen. The connecting apparatus selectively couples the video signals to the receiver antenna terminals thereby using existing electronic circuits within the receiver to process and display the signals generated by the control unit in a first state of the coupling apparatus and to receive broadcast television signals in a second state of the coupling apparatus. An overlay mask which may be removably attached to the television screen may determine the nature of the game to be played or the training simulated. Control units may be provided for each of the participants. Alternatively, games [training simulations and other activities] may be carried out in conjunction with background and other pictorial information originated in the television receiver by commercial TV, closed-circuit TV or a CATV station." After an initial deal with RCA falls through, the unit was further marketed and Magnavox was licensed to manufacture and distribute what was released in May of 1972 as the 'Odyssey Home Entertainment System.' On a side note, the system was sold primarily through Magnavox- affiliated stores. However, dealers made a fatal mistake: not saying that the Odyssey worked with any television set. Since the Odyssey was mostly sold in a Magnavox store, customers only saw a Magnavox Odyssey plugged to a Magnavox television set. Therefore, they thought that the Odyssey could only be used with a Magnavox TV set. Limited distribution combined with shady and uninformed retailers proved to be fatal blunders that ultimately backfired and killed the Odyssey within a year. Magnavox even attempted to sell the Odyssey at reduced prices: $75 in 1973 and $50 in 1974. A late 1974 advertisement even promoted the Odyssey with 6 add-on games for $75. But alas, it did not catch a great attention. However, the Odyssey was released again in 1974 to be exported in 12 foreign countries (see section 3.4). 3 - Can you describe the Odyssey ? ---------------------------------- 3.1 - What sort of games were played with the Odyssey ? The Odyssey was a very simple machine by today's standards. Microchips were very expensive in 1972 (Intel had just released the microprocessor in 1971). Subsequently, the Odyssey was designed with only 40 transistors and 40 diodes. It did not keep scores, did not produce sound effects, and displayed a black and white picture with its very minimal graphic capabilities. The only objects it could display were two paddles (one for each player), a ball and a vertical line. All of them were not always displayed. TENNIS used them all, but for example, the game called "Simon Says" only used the paddles. Note that those paddles were squares and not rectangles like in the later PONG games. Even if those graphic elements were extremely simple, the Odyssey allowed to play 28 games of various types: sports games (Tennis, Table Tennis, Volleyball, Football, Basketball, Baseball), money games (Roulette), space games (Interplanetary Voyage), shooting games (Dogfight, Shooting Gallery), and even edicational games (Simon Says, States). 3.2 - How were the games played ? Due to the extreme simplicity of the few graphics displayed on the TV screen, most of the games required the used of additional accessories, and those were numerous. Except Table Tennis, all games used transparent color plastic overlays which contained the backgrounds of the games. Those were to be taped onto one's television, or stored when not in use. More than 300 other accessories came with the Odyssey, including several sets of paper cards and paper money, dice, and miscalleanous plastic chips. These items helped to improve the machine's aforementioned simplicity. The Odyssey games were mainly played using those parts, and they were selected by using small cartridges (six of them were originally provided). Each cartridge allowed playing a certain type of game, hence several games using a same cartridge. Some games even required the use of two or three cartridges, since they were not always played the same way. If the Odyssey allowed to play 12 games, other games were also released as add-ons. They were either sold separately or by packs of 6. Each game came with its overlays and accessories, and would sometimes come with a cartridge when not using one of the six cartridges originally provided with the Odyssey. Also, an electronic rifle called Shooting Gallery was available. This extension allowed playing four games. This simple light gun would only detect light, thus allowing the player to cheat by shooting a light bulb. Since no scores were displayed on the TV screen, cheating was obviously irrelevant. As mentioned earlier, a rumor wanted that the Shooting Gallery rifle would only work with a Magnavox TV set. Although wrong, lots of people didn't buy this rifle and only 20,000 or so were sold. 3.3 - What's inside the Odyssey and how does it work ? The game cartridges consisted in a small printed circuit board with no components but only jumpers which would merely enable the necessary parts of the machine (ball generator, paddle generators, central line height and location, collision detection) and select how the collisions between the ball and the other objects were detected and what those collisions would interract with. The Odyssey is a modular system since it is programmable. It contains five types of modules: spot generators (which display a rectangle with preset size, location and brightness; one for each player, one for the central line and one for the gray backround which "illuminates" the overlays), sync generators and RF modules (which generate some parts of the video signal sent to the TV set), flip-flops (which toggle the direction of the ball and where the english effect acts), and gate matrix (which determines how collisions happen and how they interract on the objects drawn). Therefore, opening the Odyssey will reveal a main board with all the modules mentioned before. 3.4 - What was the 1974 "Export" version of the Odyssey ? Because the Odyssey was the first home video game system between 1972 and 1974, some countries tried to import it. It is not clear when the Odyssey was exactly imported in these countries, but at least two exports are known. The first one is a "raw" export: the normal 1972 Odyssey was imported in England and South Africa by local distributors. It is believed that the Odyssey was also sold in Japan at that time. The second export is a newer version of the Odyssey. As a matter of fact, the Odyssey was released again in 1974 to be exported in 12 foreign countries (Australia, Belgium, England, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Switzerland, USSR, Venezuela). So far, it has been found in France, England, and Germany. This lighter version had 10 games instead of 12. It is unknown if it was really sold in the USA, although a very few were found there. Games removed from the original package were Cat & Mouse, Football, Haunted House, Roulette, and States. To those 7 original games, were added three games originally available as add-ons: Soccer, Volleyball and Wipe Out. It is interesting to note that Soccer was rather a re-release of Football, in order to match the game rules used in the foreign countries. This game can only be found in a 1974 Odyssey package. Also, the Simon Says and Wipe Out paper cards were re-printed in order to contain texts in three languages (English, German and Spanish or Italian). To finish with this special version of the Odyssey, the user manual was smaller: 24 pages instead of 36, and the console came with an additional patent list on its back side, showing the 12 countries where it was exported. Surprisingly, the german Odyssey contained two special manuals replacing the original one. These were completely translated in german, and were more detailed. One manual concerned the system itself, and the other concerned the games. This 1974 Odyssey was supposed to be released by ITT Schaub-Lorentz in France and Germany as the ODYSSEE (and not ODYSSEY). Only one ITT version is known to exist and has been found in Germany. All others are Magnavox. Scans of the german manuals and trilingual cards are available at http://www.pong-story.com/odyssey.htm . 3.5 - Was the Odyssey upgraded ? The initial version of the Odyssey was model BLAK. Later, an improved version was released as model BK12. Both are nearly same, with minor differences. However, Magnavox seems to have "renewed" some of the BLAK models by replacing the electronic circuits by those of the BK12 model. Such Odyssey consoles can be easily identified with a white "RENEWED" sticker on their bottom side, a new serial has been sticked over the initial one (which may still be found glued inside of the Odyssey). Also, the brown (maybe white but not yet verified) shipping carton box also shows a stamped "RENEWED" in black color, with a new BL99 model also stamped in large letters. Although no explanation has yet been found for the BL99, the Odyssey system itself is a BK12. The reason for Magnavox to do this upgrade is still unknown, but could be explained by several reasons. For example, a lower cost for an upgrade compared to the manufacture of a complete BK12 system including all the spare parts and accessories. Another reason may be the unsold stocks of BLAK models, which could be renewed to BK12 for selling. Still, this upgrade is a mystery and only one system has been verified to be upgraded to the BK12 model. Owners of a "renewed" Odyssey are strongly encouraged to contact us to verify it ! 3.6 - Was the Odyssey improved ? Odyssey cartridges contain no electronic components. The Odyssey does not have the on-screen scoring feature, does not produce any sound effect, and does not use any TV cable connection. However, Ralph Baer was interested by these features, mostly because Atari PONG had on-screen scoring and sound effects, which gave more tonus to the game itself. Ralph decided to modify an Odyssey in his lab. He made a small electronic circuit that he connected to the Odyssey (to the "Gate Matrix" module which manages collisions between the objects displayed on screen), which could therefore produce some sound when the ball hit a player. Thinking about the limited capabilities of this console, he also made improved cartridges by putting additional electronic components on them, which gave new features to the Odyssey. Then, he tried to use again his "cable TV" games where the overlays were replaced by constant pictures broadcasted through the TV cable. His idea was better, since in addition to the "broadcasted overlays", new moving [football] players were also broadcasted, thus giving the impression of playing with distant players. The modified Odyssey (that he called "Super Odyssey") was able to detect these additional players, and even act on them as if they were true players, thus letting users play against virtual ones. He demonstrated a working prototype which was successfull, just like his original idea. Therefore, Ralph decided to work on an improved but simpler version of the Odyssey that would use integrated circuits to replace the numerous discrete components of the original design. His idea was to integrate them into several chips to lower the cost of the console. Thus was born Odyssey 100, followed by improved models (Odyssey 200, 400 and 500; 300, 2000, 3000 and 4000 being made with a totally different technology based around a single game chip made by General Instruments). 3.7 - Was there any "hobbyist" projects around the Odyssey ? In the 1970s, there was a certain enthusiasm around computers and video games. At that time, "Make-It-Yourself" computer and video game projects was a quite common thing. Hobbyists would often build their own systems and eventually propose them to magazines. Odyssey was a simple video game system, so did not had the same activity than early computers. At least, some people still remember amazing Odyssey user hacks. The quotation below CANNOT be verified and was received by email. It could be true as it could be a hoax. Some people discovered that the circuit boards of the Odyssey cartridges only contained jumpers. Thus, they designed custom "switch" cartridges to "try and see" what happened on their TV. Charles L., technician, remembers it quite well: "I am an electronics type by trade, and back in the mid 1970's I heard of more than one technician who had soldered up boards with switches. I never saw one, but I know it was done. I think they used a game board, cutting the game traces so it was "blank" (or they started with a blank card edge board, anyway), and extended the traces to either banks of "dip" switches, or rotary selector (switching would have been more sophisticated). The easiest thing would have been to wire in a "breadboard" that would accept jumper wires. The one I remember the most was, I believe, a design with the "dip" switches to jumper the traces as required; not many different configurations were possible (i.e. working configurations), so it wasn't that hard a project." 3.8 - Were there any foreign Odyssey clones ? 3.8.1 - ITT Schaub Lorentz version This is not a real clone, but a real Magnavox license sold to ITT Schaub-Lorenz so that the company could release its own version of the Odyssey. If ITT announced the release of the Odyssee (and not Odyssey) in several countries for 1974, only a german version was found so far. It is a US Odyssey that was repackaged with a different box (blue ITT Odyssee title, different photos), german-only accessories, and small plastic overlays on the molded english texts of the system. The carton box that was used for shipping the system is also different: it has a large black Magnavox logo, which is quite surprising for an ITT version, but at least it shows that the system was partially imported from the USA. The two manuals are same than the Magnavox version, but they have ITT Schaub-Lorenz logos instead of Magnavox logos. The exact date of this ITT version is still unknown, but the system that was found was surprisingly manufactured in 1976, which lets think that the ITT version might have been released later (at least after the 1974 Magnavox version). 3.8.2 - Sweedish "Channel 34" clone This is, however, a true Odyssey clone that was released in Sweden. Called "Channel 34", this strange system was built in a bigger white case with a top-loading cartridge connector. The rest remained same (probably with different copytights for the overlays) and the system was announced in 1975 along with two other ananlog ones. However, no Channel-34 system seems to have survived. This is probably due to its expensive price, compared to the cheaper and more advanced analog systems that were announced at the same time. The "Channel-34" name looks a bit strange, but in fact it might come from the original Odyssey that sent video signals on channels 3 and 4. 3.9 - What was the unreleased Golf Putting game ? This game was invented by Ralph Baer and was quite a different game in the sense that it didn't use the usual Odyssey controllers, but a special joystick on the top of which a golf ball was fixed. It is unknown if this game was played by one or two players, but the goal was to hit the golf ball with a club, making the ball move on the screen until it reaches the hole. It is also unknown if the game was designed to check if the ball was in the hole. This would have been possible only in single player mode, where one of the player's square would be the hole, and the other the ball. Since the Odyssey can hide one of the players on collision, the ball could hide itself when reaching the hole. There is little information about this particular game, but it was a very smart design for the time and would have surely attracted more people than most other games, even if they were pretty good for the time. The game has been tested for a short time at Magnavox, but never reached the market. Ralph Baer's prototype existed until it got lost years ago. 3.10 - What is the unreleased 4-player Odyssey ? Later between 1973 and 1974, Magnavox planned to release an improved Odyssey. It was basically a 4-player system which inherited of the Odyssey circuits and added two players. Though no prototype survived, schematics and related documents are known to exist and contain enough information to build what would have been the 4-player Odyssey. Existing Odyssey games would be played by two teams of 2 players, and more games could be imagined. 3.11 - What is the Apex-Magnavox blue card ? This may be rarest Odyssey add-on part. The blue card is a 2-in-1 double-ender cartridge which combines cartridges 7 and 8 for playing Handball and Volleyball. This cartridge came in a small plastic bag with two spare A4 sheets explaining the game rules (they were copied from the Magnavox versions). Amazingly, they mention that overlays may not be provided but could be replaced by custom overlays. It is therefore tempting to think that no overlays ever came with the blue card, as little is known about it. It is still unknown why this blue card was released, but at least it is not a pirate, and was manufactured and/or distributed by Apex-Magnavox in Miami, FL. 4 - What items came standard with the Odyssey ? ----------------------------------------------- 4.1 - Hardware - Master control unit (1TL 200 1 of 4 pcs.) - 2 Player control units (1TL 200 1 of 4 pcs.) - Game cord (1TL 200 1 of 4 pcs.) - RF switch with 2 hanging hooks (1TL 001). Came in its own box. - 6 red-label Eveready C batteries - 6 game cartridges: #1 Table Tennis #2 Ski, Simon Says #3 Tennis, Analogic, Hockey, & Football (for passing & kicking) #4 Cat and Mouse, Football (for running), Haunted House #5 Submarine #6 Roulette, States - 22 Overlays (2 per game, for different screen sizes): Anologic Cat and Mouse Football Haunted House Hockey Roulette Simon Says Ski States Submarine Tennis 4.2 - Standard game accessories - Stick on numbers (642978-2) - Football Game board field/Roulette Layout board (642898 0001) - Odyssey stadium scoreboard (two versions) * 642964-1 for the normal 12-game Odyssey console * IB2874-1 with no detachable paper tokens for the 1974 10-game Odyssey - 2 Football tokens (attached to the Odyssey stadium scoreboard) - 2 Yardage markers (attached to the Odyssey stadium scoreboard) - 20 Pass cards - 20 Run cards - 10 Kick off cards - 10 Punt cards - 2 Pass card - 2 Run cards - 2 Punt cards - 30 Clue cards - 13 Secret message cards - 50 chips (16 red 16 blue 18 white) with ziplock bag - Money (approximately 100 each of $5 $10 $50 and $100) - 28 Simon says cards - 50 States cards - Affairs of states (answer folder) (591549-1) - States study map (591550-1) - Pair of dice 4.3 - Loose documents - Odyssey installation and game rules book (four versions) * IB2622-1, 36 pages. Initial 1972 version with pink screens on cover. * IB2622-2, 36 pages. Second version with red screens on cover (1973/1974) * IB2622-3, 36 pages. Last version with red screens on cover (1974/later?) * IB2874-1, 24 pages. Came with the 1974 "export" version of the Odyssey. - "How to get service" card (EL2811-2) - "Thank you" card (EL3018-1) - "Notice" card (EL3028-1) - 2 key punch inspection cards - A coupon that promised "free games" with registration (at least Percepts) * Very early version is white (supposedly 1972) * Normal version is pink 5 - What additional games were available ? ------------------------------------------ (Major thanks to David Winter) Add-on games were sold individually at the price of $5.49, or by packs of 6 at the price of $24.99. Ten games were released. Each game was packed in a black 1x4x17 carton box. Two advertising brochures were made: the initial shows the first 6 add-on games, and the second shows the later four 1973 games (Brain Wave, Basketball, Interplanetary Voyage and W.I.N). No other advertisement for these games has been found so far. Because the marketting was poor (almost every dealer did not bother explaining that there were extra games available), the sales of these games were quite limited. Two different game packs were reported so far: the initial one containing the first six games ("Pack 1") and the later one ("Pack 2"), which contains the four 1973 games plus two from Pack 1. Customers who ordered all 10 games at the same time received two packs: Pack 1 and another pack containing the 4 1973 games. These 1973 games are indeed much rarer than the 1972 ones. 5.1 - Pack 1 - Fun Zoo (#1TL900) Included two overlays, 28 Fun Zoo Cards, and instructions. Used card #2 supplied with base system. - Baseball (#1TL700) Included two overlays, game board, scoreboard, 26 Line Up Cards (13 Red, 13 Blue), 10 Power Cards, 10 Big Break Cards, 12 runner tokens (4 red, 4 blue, 4 white), a pair of dice and instructions. Used card #3 supplied with base system. - Invasion (#1TL801) Included two overlays, 40 Treasure Loot Cards, 300 army tokens, 4 token chips, dice, invasion game board and instructions. Used cards #4, #5 and #6 supplied with the base system. - Volleyball (#1TL702), box 982329-1 Included two overlays, game card #7 and instructions (EL 2790-1). - Handball (#1TL701) Included two overlays, game card #8 and instructions. - Wipeout (#1TL800), box 982329-4 "... advance your car along the game board as you complete your laps. You must be fast, but also accurate, as you are timed and penalized by the timer light. (for 2 to 4 players)" Included two overlays, game board (which folds into thirds 643004-1), 25 pit stop cards, four car tokens (small, skinny plastic cars similar to the one in monopoly- red, yellow, green, and blue), and instructions (EL 2791-1), and instructions. Used game card #5 supplied with the base system. 5.2 - Pack 2 - Win (#7302, 1973), box 982329-13 Included two overlays, 18 word cards, 9 image cards, 18 number cards, 4 crayons, 4 slates (643211-1), and instructions (EL2913-1). Used card #4 supplied with base system. - Interplanetary Voyage (#7175, 1973), box 982329-14 Included two overlays, game board (643208-1), 40 mission cards, 72 knowledge cards, 4 spaceship tokens, ? message chips, and instructions (EL 2910-1). Included cart #12. - Wipeout (see above). - Volleyball (see above). - Basketball (#7123), box 982329-7 Included two overlays, a Home Visitor Scoreboard (643205-1), game card #8, and instructions (EL 2905-1). - Brain Wave (#7176, 1973), box 982329-15 Included two overlays, 1 game board (643210-1), 2 sets of 48 thought tiles, 2 dice, 2 memory banks (1 blue, 1 green. 643209-1), 2 power markers (1 blue, 1 green), and instructions (EL2911-1). Used game card #3. 5.3 - Electronic rifle games Those four games were included in the Shooting Gallery rifle pack. Three came with cartridge #9, and one came with cartridge #10: - #9 Shootout, Dogfight, and Prehistoric Safari - #10 Shooting Gallery 5.4 - Percepts (#1TL802) Percepts was an add-on game that was originally available for free when customers would send a special paper provided with the Odyssey. It is also rumored that this game was later provided with some Odyssey consoles, but it is better to think that it was ordered from Magnavox dealers and then added to Odyssey consoles. Because it was not available in a "usual" way, this game is very scarce. It was shipped in a small light brown carton box and included two overlays, two decks of 15 Percepts cards (one green, one purple) in a small zip-lock bag and instructions. It used card #2 supplied with the Odyssey. 5.5 - Complete list of games Finally, here is the complete list of the 28 Odyssey games. It is still unknown if more were available. There's a very little rumor that maybe 15 extra games were released, but this is absolutely not confirmed. [David Winter]: "It is interesting to have a closer look at the black carton boxes of the extra games. As a matter of fact, there is a number written on one of the four little flaps of the box ends. Each different game box has a number. Only its two last digits change, ranging from 1 to 15. It is tempted to suppose that 15 different game boxes were designed, though only 10 reached the market (in which case 5 games would remain to be discovered). Being easy to make suppositions and change history, we will only stand on what is known: the 10 extra games. Also, there is a mysterious cartridge #11. One could think that it was designed for an unreleased game. This is false: it was planned for Basketball, but then cancelled and replaced by cartridge #8 (used with Handball)." '72 = Included in the original 12-game release from 1972 '74 = Included in the later 10-game 1974 release EXTRA = Sold as an add-on RIFLE = Included in the Shooting Gallery pack (*) = Also released as the double-ender Apex-Magnavox "blue card". +-----------------------+---+---+-----+-----+ | Game |'72|'74|EXTRA|RIFLE| +-----------------------+---+---+-----+-----+ | Analogic | X | X | | | | Baseball | | | X | | | Basketball | | | X | | | Brain Wave | | | X | | | Cat & Mouse | X | | | | | Dogfight | | | | X | | Football | X | | | | | Fun Zoo | | | X | | | Handball (*) | | | X | | | Haunted House | X | | | | | Hockey | X | X | | | | Invasion | | | X | | | Interplanetary Voyage | | | X | | | Percepts | | | X | | | Prehistoric Safari | | | | X | | Roulette | X | | | | | Shooting Gallery | | | | X | | Shootout | | | | X | | Simon Says | X | X | | | | Ski | X | X | | | | Soccer | | X | | | | States | X | | | | | Submarine | X | X | | | | Table Tennis | X | X | | | | Tennis | X | X | | | | Volleyball (*) | | X | X | | | Win | | | X | | | Wipeout | | X | X | | +-----------------------+---+---+-----+-----+ 6 - Were there any add-on hardware accessories ? ------------------------------------------------ 6.1 - Organizer case This is a special case which allowed to carry the Odyssey with its accessories, rather than using the original and fragile box. This case is white and included loading instructions (EL2942-1). This is a rare item since not many were sold. 6.2 - Other add-on hardware accessories - AC adaptor (1A9179) output is 9V DC 40 mA - Shooting Gallery: electronic rifle with four games 7 - Are there different versions of the Odyssey ? ------------------------------------------------- Notes on this info, to be read before examining the following table, include research done by both David Winter and Andrew Davie. There are different ways of sorting the Odyssey versions. On the back side of the Odyssey, several references can be read, among which are the MODEL, RUN and SERIAL. Known models are 1TL200 BLAK, 1TL200 BK11, 1TL200 BK12 and 1TL200 BK13. Known RUNs are RUN-1, RUN-1B and RUN-2. Known serial ranges are 9xxxxxx-11xxxxxx and 72xxxxx-76xxxxx (in fact, serials range from 7xxxxxx to 11xxxxx although no 8xxxxxx has been verified). The 9xxxxxx-11xxxxxx serials concern a range of consoles that sold between 1972-1974. This range was apparently used in both US and EXPORT releases of the Odyssey. The 72xxxxxx-76xxxxxx serials concern another range of consoles that sold between 1972-1974. Here, there's no difference in them, only the date of manufacture changes. These may be some of the earliest machines produced. About the Magnavox logo in the woodgrain of the console: the Odyssey exists both with and without a Magnavox logo on its woodgrain. Obviously, collectors are more interested by the consoles with this logo since they are harder to find. For now, 6 different versions are known to exist. Those were sorted using the RUN and Magnavox logo presence, and not the serials. Obviously, more variations could be found if we would consider all the existing ranges of serial numbers. Since the RUN and logo are the most interesting details, we did not consider the serials, nor we considered the four models as the US ones are only 1TL-200 BLAK and BK12 (of course, the only exception there is the 10-games 1974 release wich exists both in BK11 and BK13 versions). Also, other variants might exist in the accessories: large or smaller Blue/White/Red plastic chips, internal oragnisation of the top part of the box, etc. * RUN-1 "A": Has the word "Odyssey" stamped on the right of the cartridge slot and "Magnavox" stamped beneath it on the woodgrain. Originally released in 1972. 36 page manual, 12 games. * RUN-1B: Same as RUN-1 "A" except that the console does not have the "Magnavox" logo on the woodgrain. Beware: this is a true "1B". The sticker on the back side of the console shows a RUN-1 with a "B" letter stamped. This release exists with the two ranges of serials. * RUN-1 "B" (aka "EXPORT version"): This is the ever confusing run number. This one should rather be called "EXPORT model" since this is a special version of the Odyssey released in 1974 for 12 foreign countries. It appears that this release was also sold in the USA in extremely small quantities (about 2 consoles known to exist in the USA, and 5 in Europe). This is a RUN-1, not RUN-1B. Appart the different games set and date of release, the console itself is a RUN-1 "C". * RUN-1 "C": Same as RUN-1 "A" without the "Magnavox logo on the woodgrain. * RUN-2 "A": Same as RUN-1 "A" except that this is a RUN-2. * RUN-2 "B": Same as RUN-1 "C" except that this is a RUN-2. To avoid confusion, just keep in mind that both RUN-1 and RUN-2 models exist with and without the "Magnavox" logo on the woodgrain. In addition to this, there is the "EXPORT" RUN-1 and the RUN-1B. "RENEWED" version: Magnavox "renewed" Odyssey consoles in the sense that the warranty got extanded. It is uncertain when this was done. Renewed consoles have a special "renewed" paper sticked on their back side. Odyssey shipping boxes were also stamped with the word "renewed", and also show a new model: 1TLBK99. An enveloppe was also sticked on the edge of the shipping box. It contains large IBM-type punched cards, supposedly reserved for Magnavox and/or the dealer. It is unknown whether renewed Odyssey units were just verified, as the only specimen known to exist had its hardware swapped with a later revision: originally a RUN-1 with a serial in the 7xxxxxx range, it got renewed with a RUN-2 hardware and a new serial in the 11xxxxxx range. This specimen is believed to be a 1972 version that was later renewed. Therefore, renewed consoles should be considered as upgraded consoles with the later (RUN-2) hardware. It is possible that Magnavox renewed unsold Odyssey consoles from the first RUN. At least, they did so to replace the old batteries which could not afford to be stored too long. 8 - Didn't Atari have a hand in the Odyssey ? --------------------------------------------- Nolan Bushnell attended the "The Magnavox Profit Caravan" at the Airport Marina Hotel, Burlingame, CA, on May 24, 1972. After founding Atari on June 27th, 1972, Bushnell and Al Alcorn (his first employee) built the famous prototype coin-op Pong machine and installed it in Andy Capp's Cavern, a local Sunnyvale bar. Soon after Magnavox sued for copyright infringement. Although Bushnell insisted that he did not copy Pong from the Odyssey, US District Court Judge John F. Grady was not convinced that Bushnell had conceived Pong prior to seeing the 1972 Odyssey demo and ruled that Atari must pay royalties to Magnavox in order to market its games. A $700,000 settlement was awarded in the first ever video game lawsuit. 9 - What technical information is available ? --------------------------------------------- 9.1 - Replacing the battery pack After 25 years of sitting in the attic, basement or garage, batteries leak. In their little nasty leakage they create havoc for the Odyssey's battery area. This can easily be remedied. You can get these two parts from any decent electronics shop: * Caltronics 6 "C" size battery holder #BH-118 $4 * Workman battery snap #L11 $1 Even though the battery snap appears to be a normal 9 volt style, it in not. This snap is half an inch wider. You will have to remove the old solder with some solder wick and solder the new snap in place, making sure to allow enough wire length to reach the battery pack. 9.2 - Cartridge pinouts The following information comes from the original Magnavox Odyssey service manual, and has been verified and corrected from tests done with true Odyssey cartridges (the correction was a missing jumper on cart #4). As you will notice, all of the 12 Odyssey cartridges have a common jumper at pins 2-4. This is the power switch, as the console is turned on when a cartridge is inserted. The pinout of the connector is somewhat difficult to read since the pins are numbered vertically instead of horizontally. Thus, looking at the connector from the top, the pins are numbered as follows: 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 41 43 The "ODD numbers" side corresponds to the cartridge side which shows the cartridge number. Here are the jumper sets of the cartridges. Pins separated by a '-' are connected together. A space indicates an end of connection. For example, cartridge #2 has pins 2 and 4 connected, as well as pins 6 and 8. Cart #1 2-4 6-8-14-16-20-22 30-34 31-39 35-37 Cart #2 2-4 6-8 NONE Cart #3 2-4 6-8-10-20-22 30-34 42-44 31-39 35-37 Cart #4 2-4 6-8-18 21-23 33-37-39 Cart #5 2-4 6-8-10-20-22 30-34 21-23-25 31-33-39 35-37 Cart #6 2-4 26-28-38 3-5-9 Cart #7 2-4 6-8-10-14-16-20-22 30-34 42-44 13-27 23-25 31-39 35-37 Cart #8 2-4 6-8-12-14-20-22 34-36 9-11-13 15-17 31-39 35-37 Cart #9 2-4 6-24 21-23 Cart #10 2-4 6-8-10-20-22-24 30-34 23-25 31-39 35-37 Cart #11 2-4 6-8-12-14 20-22 34-36 38-40 9-11-13 15-17 31-39 35-37 Cart #12 2-4 6-8-18 26-28 3-5-7 21-23 33-37-39