fun fact Atari actually sued over KC Munchkin and eventually won, but it took so long to settle that as a result their version of Pac-Man ended up being half-assed and did poorly with consumers which was one of the factors that led to the crash of 83, so if only Atari had ignored KC Munchkin then they could've been able to focus on doing a decent version of Pac-Man.
It seems you're looking at this with modern gamer eyes. Mu 10 year old self in 1979 REALLY dug this machine. I had the BASIC cartridge too and I liked that more than games.
Ah the good old Odyssey 2. I was lucky to see a prototype of the Odyssey 3 on the retro fair in Oberhausen, Germany. There a lot of really great innovative games for the system. Sadly most of them were only released here in Europe. The G7400 (the European Odyssey 3) had some updated games with new backgrounds. Terrahawks and Killer Bees are a blast to play. Not to forget the great Imagic and Parker ones.
Here's a thing that can be done with Odyssey^2 cartridges, if you have enough. Take a cartridge and lay it flat. Lay a second cartridge flat atop the first. Turn both cartridges onto their left, or right sides. Pinch the handle ends together. Continue adding cartridges on edge and pushing the handle together so the bottom ends fan out until you've made a complete circle.
I am glad I started watching irate gamer. All the videos I have come across have been excellent. The tone is good and the content is focused. Informative and fun/nostalgic. Thanks.
What a flashback! When I was a kid I remember getting into arguments with my friends on the bus about who had the better game system;: I had the Atari 2600 my other two friends had colleco vision and the oddyssee
Colecovision by far. Really though the best first gen was the Bally Astrocade, and both ColecoVision and the Sega SG-1000 were near the top of 2nd gen. All used a Zilog chip, and if someone like Maganavox or RCA had bought Zilog, along with working with the arcade makers, they could have created a straight line of compatable machines from 1977 to 1995.
I had an O2. The racing game that came on the included game cartridge actually had a pattern. Once you got used to it you could run that race full speed without crashing.
When I was a kid, I was the only one in my peer group without a gaming console at home. Everyone else had the Atari 2600 with dozens of games, so naturally, I went after my Dad to get me an Atari for Christmas. He refused the first few times, as I KNEW he would, but he eventually offered me a deal. My Dad worked for GTE, which had bought out Sylvania a few years prior. GTE had a company store that offered Sylvania electronics at a discount price. One day, Dad brought home the Sylvania Christmas Catalogue and told me that he’d be willing to get me the Odyssey for my 1 and only Christmas present, if that’s what I wanted. I told him that I wanted an Atari instead, and he retorted with “Well, if there’s an Atari offered in the catalogue, I’ll order it for you, otherwise, you’ll just have to settle for the Odyssey”. I should’ve handed the catalogue back and said “forget it”, but like a putz, I told him to order the Odyssey… (and the ONLY reason he agreed to order the Odyssey was because they’d break up the payments over 12 months so he didn’t have to cough up one lump sum for it, even though the Atari 2600 would’ve only cost him an additional $25 dollars if he had bought it outright)… but, I digress. GTE, being the half-ass company it was at the time, delivered the console almost 3 months after Christmas, AND the box was damaged upon arrival. Mine, like this one, came with the same 3 game cartridge and it played fine, but after about a month, that one cartridge got stale to the point of me not wanting to even touch it after awhile. Unfortunately, Odyssey wasn’t a popular platform at all, unlike the Atari which had a wide selection of games at just about every department store in the country. The closest place to buy Odyssey games was 40 miles away at 1 one store in the mall. What was equally as frustrating was the fact that we only went to the mall when we had other business in that town, so no quick trips unless it was accompanied by official business that justified the gas and time it took to go there and get back. Add to that the 1 store that DID sell the games had a selection of only 3 or 4 different titles at any given time AND the individual games were almost $10 more expensive than the 50 or so odd titles available for the Atari. The absolute WORST part was finding out that almost none of the anemic selection of Odyssey games they had would work on my unit because mine was a first generation unit and was being discontinued, as EVERYTHING ELSE was in the GTE company catalogue. After about a year, I gave up on it and ended up selling it to a buddy who had about 10 first generation games so he’d have a console to play them on after his unit took a dump. Even after selling it for about 1/2 of what it cost brand new and explaining the deal to my Dad, he STILL refused to meet me halfway so I could get an Atari. So basically, from about ‘81-‘84, I had no gaming system except a ragged-out Pong platform that I inherited from my uncle that I only used once before boxing it up and throwing it in the basement to rot. By ‘84, the hottest thing on the market was the Commodore 64. Once again, they were everywhere, most of my buddies had them and I started dropping hints and leaving brochures around the house where I knew my Dad would see them and hopefully take the bait. Sure enough, he went back to the GTE company catalogue which I promptly threw into the trash as soon as he handed it to me. About a month later, he came to me with an offer to buy me the cheaper and useless Commodore Vic-20. I promptly shut that down before he decided to act on his own and buy one for me as a surprise and then get mad when I’d never use it. It was another 6 months, or so, when he mentioned that we were going to the mall and wondered if I was still interested in getting a Commodore? I told him “Only if it’s the 64 and NOT the Vic-20”. He hemmed and hawed before telling me that he had been talking with one of the young guys at work and that he was told that the Commodore 64 was the way to go and that he’d be willing to get me one for my birthday, IF I promised to play with it and not just let it collect dust on a shelf. I agreed and we ended up getting one that same day. A couple months later, Dad started to ask me if I was interested in getting a 1541 Disc Drive for my 64 and I couldn’t believe my ears. That, plus Escape From Wolfenstein was my sole Christmas present that year. I was in 7th Heaven over his newfound generosity and the fact that I actually had a state-of-the-art gaming console/computer that I actually used daily. One day, a few months after I got the disc drive, Dad asked me to give him my Wolfenstein game for a couple of days. I thought it was odd, so I asked him why and he told me that the guy at work who convinced him to buy the 64 and the disc drive wanted to borrow my Wolfenstein game, copy it for his own use and in exchange, he was going to copy ALL of the games he had for his 64 and put them on disc for me, because he apparently had 2 1541 disc drives. About a week later, Dad showed up with my Wolfenstein game, an additional dozen discs with ALL SORTS of awesome games on them, photocopied loading and game instructions and a “thank you” note from the guy who did all of the work. Once again, I was a pig in slop and spent the next year playing those games with my friends and having a ball. I kept that Commodore system and continued to thoroughly enjoy it until it gave up the ghost in the early 90s. Even though Super Nintendo was the console to have by then, there was still something special about the old-school Commodore that just wouldn’t allow me to completely abandon it for the younger chic at the dance.🥲
Sounds to me like you're dad was secretly thrashing the Commodore 64 whenever you weren't around but didn't want to admit it. I was obsessed with an Atari 2600 at my auntie's house growing up in the 80s. Berserk was a particular favourite of mine. My brother got a 128k ZX Spectrum with external cassette deck in about 85 with with a copy of Daley Thompson's Super Test. Took an eternity to load each game and many Joysticks were broken thanks to the aforementioned game. When I first saw my cousin's Commodore Amiga 500 with a whopping 512k in action, my mind was completely blown with the graphics and sound. It took a giant dump on the Spectrum and it's games came on turbo fast flopping disks. I was ever so slightly jealous but had to wait till Christmas 93 when I eventually got an Amiga 1200 as my family was far from rich. Unfortunately by this stage, Amiga was on its way out and Commodre were close to imploding. Its a real shame what happened to Commodore after the phenomenal success of the C64 and the original Amiga 500. Similar story I guess with Atari after the hugely successful 2600. Both companies were mismanaged and seemed to get complacent with their respective mega hits rather than continuing to push the envelope with the tech unless I'm mistaken. I know there's a little more to each story than what I've mentioned briefly.
Watching these History of Video Game videos really helps clarify exactly why the video game crash happened. Its one thing to read about all the copy cat games, its a whole different thing to see just how much everyone copied each other. Its ridiculous! As a consumer I would have boycotted gaming too at the time. It also shows why Nintendo did so well. They offered completely different games on launch, with sports games that looked like the sport being simulated and a wide variety of genres.
In my opinion. K.C Munchkin was much better Pac Man game, than "conversion" on 2600. On Chris video, we can also see it sequel, K.C.'s Krazy Chase! :) Console itself was really great for it's time.
I owned one of these in 1978. Thought it would be better since it had a keyboard, and it did have some advantages. There was a cartridge which helped you learn assembly language, and that got me interested in computer programming. I later went on to learn Basic, Pascal, Java, PHP and that sort of stuff, so although I was never had a job as a programmer, it definitely got me interested enough to learn all those languages. The system only lasted a couple years, then you could hardly find anything new to buy for it. I was very disappointed, but I moved on to a Radio Shack Color Computer in about 1980. Such is life. I've never owned a game console since.
Good videos man--wish they were longer and more frequent in this series, but I imagine the production time for all the stuff you do takes a bit. Love the goofball humor lol
I still have one and play it today. Been collecting these games for years. FYI- Crypto logic is like a hangman game. Player 1 enters a word or phrase on the top line then scrambles it, while player 2 looks away. Then, Player 2 gets to try and guess and unscramble it before running outta turns.. That's it.. Pick Axe Pete and a few others are still my fav.
Spy Hunter took the upwards driving type game to a very high level much later on in the 80s, has my vote for one of the most addictive late 80s arcade games by far. I also recall a motocross type motorcycle game where you had to run over the fuel canisters on the route to refuel the bike, which was also addictive. This was more around 1983-85 or so. Some local deli had both of those machines so we'd hang out there during lunch in jr. high and spend tons on 'em.
Very entertaining piece. Unfortunately, he never mentioned the two best games in KC Munchkin and Pick Axe Pete. Those two games alone made the ll a must buy.
I had one of these, I remember the game that was like PACMAN you could program your own map, then the ghosts would never get you and you would win every time!!!
FYI: "Keyboard Creations" was for a console with "The Voice". Basically an add on module that plugged in where the cartages go. With that, whatever you typed into the keyboard came out of the speaker in that module. As it had no "parental control" it was key to teaching children the correct pronunciation of swear words! My children are in their 40's now but still curse in a somewhat robotically mechanical manner! LOL. There were other games made for "the voice" (blue box) that were way ahead of their time. KC Munchkin was the downfall of the Odyssey as they were sued over the likeness to PacMan. Too bad as some of the later games were much better than the Atari. (Beta vs VHS better!) I still have one (with the voice) and it still functions. Kidding aside on the swearing there were some very good educational (voice) games before the demise of the platform that was way ahead of it's time. I rank it right up there with the Amiga as far as that actually being ahead of the game compared to the first windows machines. You really should dig in a little deeper on this one and give another review after doing so. You may be surprised.
I had one of these as a kid. My parents were always a step off from the mainstream - and not for the better. Odyssey instead of Atari and had Betamax instead of VHS.
I know it as the Philips Videopac. As a kid, I found out that you could mix games by bluntly removing a cartridge mid-game and inserting another. I ended up racing a car through the screen of Monkeyshines :D
Here in Brazil polivox invested heavily in advertising, and although the game had better keyboard and cartridges, with better packaging, in the end was a marketing to try to sell more than Atari, because the graphic quality was much lower than Atari
OMG, for years I couldn't remember the name of this oddball console! My parents got me the Odyssey 2 in the mid-late 80's from some trading post on the way back from a vacation. The console was crap lol and I only ever had that one cart with the 3 games on it as shown in the video. It wasn't long after that I got an NES for my birthday. I believe the Odyssey 2 was given to one of my cousins or nephews, I'm not entirely sure. Kind of wish I still had it for nastalgic purposes.
My dad and my mom used to own one of these when they were younger, and they played a lot with it. On Brazil it was actually called "Odyssey" as it was the first console, since this one is the first to be legally released on Brazil (I guess they thought it wouldn't hurt changing it's name since it's the first to be released legally on that country, lol).
Brings back terrible memories of my childhood. The Odyssey was on sale from "Crazy Eddie" His prices were "insane"... My brother and I got stuck with this instead of the Atari 2600. Time Lord, KC Munchkin and maybe 1 or 2 other games were ok...the rest were so bad we had more fun with a ball and a wall and actually real playing. Comparing that to the advanced consoles of today...these kids have no freaking clue how awesome it is now.
Love your vids dude! Keep up the good work! I think it would be really cool if you did a Q&A video, where your fans ask you questions. I would love to know how much research you do and how long a video like this usually takes you to make.
I like this one. I saw the original Odyssey on another channel and--all of its simplest games were played like Pong--and its more complex games were played like board games! However, this next console was a great 2nd attempt at a viable console. If I was 6 in 78(like I was in 85 with the NES) I could definitely see myself being happy with having this over the A2600.
AHHHHHH! My sister had one of these! Here's a funny story about "Spin-Out" for you! We were playing that game on the Oddessy II on New Year's Eve...probably 1982/1983 from 7:45 pm until midnight. After a few hours, the Oddessy was getting pretty warm and my Dad was racing my sister and somehow Dad spun his car out and it hit the wall right where that race track had the split and his car actually jumped out of the track and fell behind the actual race grid. We couldn't get the car back on the track, but we could actually drive it around the outside of the track and, as an experiment, we decided to point the controller straight up. Dad's car drove to the top of the screen and disappeared! We held the controller straight up and a minute later it re-appeared at the bottom of the screen....the car actually drove behind the TV and went full circle where we couldn't see it until it came back up at the bottom of the screen! We had many good times with Odessey II and my sister had The Voice for it. I just wish you gave the games a little more credit. Quest for the Ring came with a special edition box which included a map overlay that you placed on the keyboard and a big story book as to what the quest was along with some coins and/or plastic rings. You were suppose to visit 10 different dungeons and collect 10 rings. At the beginning of the game, it shows the words "Warrior" "Wizard", "Phantom" and ...something else...it's been 30 years dude!....but anyway, when a word goes across the screen and you hit the action button, your guy becomes that character. The Warrior had a sword, The Wizard cast spells which froze monsters - except the dragon - The Phantom" could turn invisible - which was a disadvantage in the fire map - and the final guy could walk through walls when you held down the action button, which was great for sneaking up on the ring and in that realm where the walls shift. The idea of the game was that you worked as a team. One guy would divert the monsters while the other guy got the ring. You could set the game for solid dungeons, invisible dungeons, shifting wall dungeons, and fire wall dungeons for the different areas on the map as well as put a "Dummy ring" on the map which would have been a "False quest" which would still count to get you out of the dungeon but wouldn't count to your ring collecting total. - The idea was that you followed the map to a fake ring. Also, you could choose between the little monsters or the big dragon, which you could get the ring by using the Phantom to sneak past the dragon in his invisible mode...but you had to be careful with the Phantom because you can't see where he is and you have to make him visible ...hopefully not in front of the dragon who will eat you!
Couple games I recall like Pick Axe Pete... and one other... where you could pause the game and hold down 0 or something and it would allow you to "EDIT" the playfield (i.e cheat). Changing boundaries or moving blocks or removing baddies. I think this tactic worked for KC Munchkin too.. or that mouse trap clone... Anything with a maze or boundary could be altered this way
Cryptoplogic was a hangman type of game. You would put a word in and press enter, and the word would scramble. And the other team or player had to guess what it was. And it counted how many attempts it took to get to the word.
There were much better games for this that came from the makers of the Ody, Freedom Fighters, Pick Ax Pete, Terrahawks/Attack Of The Timelord, to name a few. And then there are brand new homebrew games from producers such as Revival Studios that take this thing beyond it's limits with games that might have kicked Atari's ass big time, had someone bothered to do something like that back then. By the way Quest For The Rings was a board + video game combo where you played on the board and did the battle sequences on the Odyssey2. There were three of those kind of games, the other two being Conquest Of The World and Wall Street. All in all the Odyssey2 really wasn't as bad as many claim, especially with the more advanced (and admittedly, rare) games. Then again at the time, Intellivision sucker punched both Atari and Magnavox til the big crash, but the controllers were a bit of a nightmare.
some of my favourite games were on O2, but there just weren't enough of them. 'freedom fighters' is a game i would play right now for hours. my friend and i made our own game out of 'conquest of the world.' but, i was disappointed with the voice addition thing. i couldn't take the intellivision's controls, and that little joystick adapter was a comical piece of junk. too, i didn't really care for intellivision's games all that much. i had the colecovision, and the control could be 'tricky' on that, too.
pre-caller ID we used to call up people and let the Odyssey2 call people names. I just loved that robotic voice as it spewed out all the g-rated stuff we input!
Quest for the Rings was this huge weird thing that required a game board as well. If I remember right, the game didn't really make sense unless you were also playing the board part of it also, and even then, it didn't really make sense. Dad really got mad if I played that video game without using the board and confusing pieces, and like 4 people. But in the end I just wanted an Atari like the normal families had. I had to go across the street to play Warlords, Yarz Revenge, Defender! You know games people liked.
I had one odyssey as little, you didn't talk about the controllers were built in to it so you can't change them or get too deep in to the games but it was nice to see that old system one more time, I had fun with it
CB Network: I don't know how old you are, but yes, simply making letters appear on screen was in the 70s/early 80s awesome, especially as a kid! =) [4 min 32 sec in the video]
Chris after I heard about JewWario, I know I live under a rock but I was kinda scared after he got so much love that somone like you with all thid hate or who had it I was pleased to see you are doing all right and have made some really good content. You have earned a subscriber good work! 👏
My first console - I also had The Voice add-on, which allowed pretty damn good, albeit quirky, speech synthesis. I don't see anyone mentioning it, probably its most significant feature. BTW, it would work on Ch4.
I didn’t knew there was a video game crash in 1978 and i didn’t knew atari did pulled out the video game indistry out of that crash to revitilize out it,mmmm interesting.
hey, chris? I actually looked at the history of Nintendo, and um, with further scrutiny, there is something that you missed out on mentionning about the Magnavox Odyssey 1. It turns out, that Video game Giant Nintendo, Actually Helped on making the Magnavox Odyssey 1 itself, and that later on down the road, Nintendo even got the distribution rights to japan! I learned of this thanks to Wikipedia! :3
boh0555 What does that have to do with anything? Mom's have facts too. I'm sure your own mother would agree that humor is subjective, no matter who is the comedian or in this case, YT video maker. ~
The Crypto-Logic part of this video was just messed up from the start. Chris, did you do that on purpose? That game is typing in a word. Then the game scrambles the letters. Then another person has to unscramble the word.
First console I ever played. KC Munchkin is the bomb! Much better than Atari 2600 Pac-Man.
Richard Dunk no wrong
I was just about to write the same. Much better gameplay than Atari's
That's not saying much pacman on 2600 was fucking garbage.
As an Atari owner from the time, I wholeheartedly agree...
fun fact Atari actually sued over KC Munchkin and eventually won, but it took so long to settle that as a result their version of Pac-Man ended up being half-assed and did poorly with consumers which was one of the factors that led to the crash of 83, so if only Atari had ignored KC Munchkin then they could've been able to focus on doing a decent version of Pac-Man.
It seems you're looking at this with modern gamer eyes. Mu 10 year old self in 1979 REALLY dug this machine. I had the BASIC cartridge too and I liked that more than games.
Ah the good old Odyssey 2. I was lucky to see a prototype of the Odyssey 3 on the retro fair in Oberhausen, Germany. There a lot of really great innovative games for the system. Sadly most of them were only released here in Europe. The G7400 (the European Odyssey 3) had some updated games with new backgrounds. Terrahawks and Killer Bees are a blast to play. Not to forget the great Imagic and Parker ones.
MrVenom1974 very cool, didn't know there was a 3rd console!
If you're interested here is a video from presentation: ruclips.net/video/aLJoHjE39SE/видео.html
I also did not know that there was a third Magnavox Odyssey console.
Here's a thing that can be done with Odyssey^2 cartridges, if you have enough. Take a cartridge and lay it flat. Lay a second cartridge flat atop the first. Turn both cartridges onto their left, or right sides. Pinch the handle ends together. Continue adding cartridges on edge and pushing the handle together so the bottom ends fan out until you've made a complete circle.
I am glad I started watching irate gamer. All the videos I have come across have been excellent. The tone is good and the content is focused. Informative and fun/nostalgic. Thanks.
My brother and I had one - my dad was a Magnavox Dealer. I can still remember the sounds that the golf made when the ball hit a tree.
This was my first system, haven't seen that in a long while, Pick Axe Pete ftw lol, thanks great vid.
What a flashback! When I was a kid I remember getting into arguments with my friends on the bus about who had the better game system;: I had the Atari 2600 my other two friends had colleco vision and the oddyssee
Colecovision by far. Really though the best first gen was the Bally Astrocade, and both ColecoVision and the Sega SG-1000 were near the top of 2nd gen. All used a Zilog chip, and if someone like Maganavox or RCA had bought Zilog, along with working with the arcade makers, they could have created a straight line of compatable machines from 1977 to 1995.
I had an O2. The racing game that came on the included game cartridge actually had a pattern. Once you got used to it you could run that race full speed without crashing.
yep..
2:37 "Just as boring as watching the actual sport" SHOTS FIRED
Nick Gitty it's funny cause it's true. Here's some other sports that are ''super'' exciting to watch on tv.
Fishing
Poker
Canoeing
And Billiards.
SO TRUE THO
***** For the fishing and canoeing, didn't you mean "sports"? An since when poker and billiards are considered sports? XD
Holothurion Since they started to be aired on sports channels.
That doesn't make them sports. But maybe the execs don't know it, right?
When I was a kid, I was the only one in my peer group without a gaming console at home. Everyone else had the Atari 2600 with dozens of games, so naturally, I went after my Dad to get me an Atari for Christmas. He refused the first few times, as I KNEW he would, but he eventually offered me a deal. My Dad worked for GTE, which had bought out Sylvania a few years prior. GTE had a company store that offered Sylvania electronics at a discount price. One day, Dad brought home the Sylvania Christmas Catalogue and told me that he’d be willing to get me the Odyssey for my 1 and only Christmas present, if that’s what I wanted. I told him that I wanted an Atari instead, and he retorted with “Well, if there’s an Atari offered in the catalogue, I’ll order it for you, otherwise, you’ll just have to settle for the Odyssey”. I should’ve handed the catalogue back and said “forget it”, but like a putz, I told him to order the Odyssey… (and the ONLY reason he agreed to order the Odyssey was because they’d break up the payments over 12 months so he didn’t have to cough up one lump sum for it, even though the Atari 2600 would’ve only cost him an additional $25 dollars if he had bought it outright)… but, I digress.
GTE, being the half-ass company it was at the time, delivered the console almost 3 months after Christmas, AND the box was damaged upon arrival. Mine, like this one, came with the same 3 game cartridge and it played fine, but after about a month, that one cartridge got stale to the point of me not wanting to even touch it after awhile. Unfortunately, Odyssey wasn’t a popular platform at all, unlike the Atari which had a wide selection of games at just about every department store in the country. The closest place to buy Odyssey games was 40 miles away at 1 one store in the mall. What was equally as frustrating was the fact that we only went to the mall when we had other business in that town, so no quick trips unless it was accompanied by official business that justified the gas and time it took to go there and get back. Add to that the 1 store that DID sell the games had a selection of only 3 or 4 different titles at any given time AND the individual games were almost $10 more expensive than the 50 or so odd titles available for the Atari. The absolute WORST part was finding out that almost none of the anemic selection of Odyssey games they had would work on my unit because mine was a first generation unit and was being discontinued, as EVERYTHING ELSE was in the GTE company catalogue.
After about a year, I gave up on it and ended up selling it to a buddy who had about 10 first generation games so he’d have a console to play them on after his unit took a dump. Even after selling it for about 1/2 of what it cost brand new and explaining the deal to my Dad, he STILL refused to meet me halfway so I could get an Atari. So basically, from about ‘81-‘84, I had no gaming system except a ragged-out Pong platform that I inherited from my uncle that I only used once before boxing it up and throwing it in the basement to rot.
By ‘84, the hottest thing on the market was the Commodore 64. Once again, they were everywhere, most of my buddies had them and I started dropping hints and leaving brochures around the house where I knew my Dad would see them and hopefully take the bait. Sure enough, he went back to the GTE company catalogue which I promptly threw into the trash as soon as he handed it to me. About a month later, he came to me with an offer to buy me the cheaper and useless Commodore Vic-20. I promptly shut that down before he decided to act on his own and buy one for me as a surprise and then get mad when I’d never use it.
It was another 6 months, or so, when he mentioned that we were going to the mall and wondered if I was still interested in getting a Commodore? I told him “Only if it’s the 64 and NOT the Vic-20”. He hemmed and hawed before telling me that he had been talking with one of the young guys at work and that he was told that the Commodore 64 was the way to go and that he’d be willing to get me one for my birthday, IF I promised to play with it and not just let it collect dust on a shelf. I agreed and we ended up getting one that same day. A couple months later, Dad started to ask me if I was interested in getting a 1541 Disc Drive for my 64 and I couldn’t believe my ears. That, plus Escape From Wolfenstein was my sole Christmas present that year. I was in 7th Heaven over his newfound generosity and the fact that I actually had a state-of-the-art gaming console/computer that I actually used daily.
One day, a few months after I got the disc drive, Dad asked me to give him my Wolfenstein game for a couple of days. I thought it was odd, so I asked him why and he told me that the guy at work who convinced him to buy the 64 and the disc drive wanted to borrow my Wolfenstein game, copy it for his own use and in exchange, he was going to copy ALL of the games he had for his 64 and put them on disc for me, because he apparently had 2 1541 disc drives. About a week later, Dad showed up with my Wolfenstein game, an additional dozen discs with ALL SORTS of awesome games on them, photocopied loading and game instructions and a “thank you” note from the guy who did all of the work. Once again, I was a pig in slop and spent the next year playing those games with my friends and having a ball.
I kept that Commodore system and continued to thoroughly enjoy it until it gave up the ghost in the early 90s. Even though Super Nintendo was the console to have by then, there was still something special about the old-school Commodore that just wouldn’t allow me to completely abandon it for the younger chic at the dance.🥲
Sounds to me like you're dad was secretly thrashing the Commodore 64 whenever you weren't around but didn't want to admit it.
I was obsessed with an Atari 2600 at my auntie's house growing up in the 80s. Berserk was a particular favourite of mine. My brother got a 128k ZX Spectrum with external cassette deck in about 85 with with a copy of Daley Thompson's Super Test. Took an eternity to load each game and many Joysticks were broken thanks to the aforementioned game.
When I first saw my cousin's Commodore Amiga 500 with a whopping 512k in action, my mind was completely blown with the graphics and sound. It took a giant dump on the Spectrum and it's games came on turbo fast flopping disks. I was ever so slightly jealous but had to wait till Christmas 93 when I eventually got an Amiga 1200 as my family was far from rich. Unfortunately by this stage, Amiga was on its way out and Commodre were close to imploding. Its a real shame what happened to Commodore after the phenomenal success of the C64 and the original Amiga 500. Similar story I guess with Atari after the hugely successful 2600. Both companies were mismanaged and seemed to get complacent with their respective mega hits rather than continuing to push the envelope with the tech unless I'm mistaken. I know there's a little more to each story than what I've mentioned briefly.
My first console and the start of my life long obsession with gaming
Watching these History of Video Game videos really helps clarify exactly why the video game crash happened. Its one thing to read about all the copy cat games, its a whole different thing to see just how much everyone copied each other. Its ridiculous! As a consumer I would have boycotted gaming too at the time. It also shows why Nintendo did so well. They offered completely different games on launch, with sports games that looked like the sport being simulated and a wide variety of genres.
That's nice to watch this nowadays. My dad give me an Odyssey and I never understood how to play, now I know that really was difficult to understand.
The golf commentary was great! Glad to see you back at it
Love this as a kid. We also had the talking adapter. With that said loved playing smithernes! Had a lot of fun games.
Golf was actually one of my favorites :-)
K.C. munchkin...Pick-Axe Pete....The Quest For The Rings /with the mat for your keyboad!!!!! Ahh the memories.
Woa dude, your videos are getting way more funny!
I really enjoy how Chris narrates these videos :-)
Awesome video.... Brings back memories
In my opinion. K.C Munchkin was much better Pac Man game, than "conversion" on 2600. On Chris video, we can also see it sequel, K.C.'s Krazy Chase! :) Console itself was really great for it's time.
My God! You've really picked up the pace here with your videos!
I owned one of these in 1978. Thought it would be better since it had a keyboard, and it did have some advantages. There was a cartridge which helped you learn assembly language, and that got me interested in computer programming. I later went on to learn Basic, Pascal, Java, PHP and that sort of stuff, so although I was never had a job as a programmer, it definitely got me interested enough to learn all those languages. The system only lasted a couple years, then you could hardly find anything new to buy for it. I was very disappointed, but I moved on to a Radio Shack Color Computer in about 1980. Such is life. I've never owned a game console since.
Let's make an Irate Gamer Movie Chris! Fans like this if you agree!
I'd see that movie
***** maybe it will be better than the AVGN Movie. lol
tmobile2120 probably.. Chris at least seems to be putting effort into his videos.
I'd like to see a Kickstarter
He has got to let me help him or I protest the project
Awesome episode once again. Can`t wait for part 9.
Good videos man--wish they were longer and more frequent in this series, but I imagine the production time for all the stuff you do takes a bit. Love the goofball humor lol
I still have one and play it today. Been collecting these games for years. FYI- Crypto logic is like a hangman game. Player 1 enters a word or phrase on the top line then scrambles it, while player 2 looks away. Then, Player 2 gets to try and guess and unscramble it before running outta turns.. That's it.. Pick Axe Pete and a few others are still my fav.
70s Chris, back from the Jefferson Airplane concert and down for some Magnavox retro gamin'!
This takes me back. Thank you!
Glad you're continuing making more videos of HOVG mini-series! Good work and Good Luck!
Another great video and history to learn. Thanks Chris your videos are the best.
Great episode as always Chris
White Knight Pictures thank you!
Cool video! Can't wait until the next one!
My cousin gave me this console and an atari 2600. I'm so happy.
0:48 Can't say I expect to laugh as hard as I did at that.
Spy Hunter took the upwards driving type game to a very high level much later on in the 80s, has my vote for one of the most addictive late 80s arcade games by far. I also recall
a motocross type motorcycle game where you had to run over the fuel canisters on the route to refuel the bike, which was also addictive. This was more around 1983-85 or so.
Some local deli had both of those machines so we'd hang out there during lunch in jr. high and spend tons on 'em.
My mom had a knack for getting me the consoles no one else had around us, first it was the O2 and then later it was a Vectrex.
Very entertaining piece. Unfortunately, he never mentioned the two best games in KC Munchkin and Pick Axe Pete. Those two games alone made the ll a must buy.
I had one of these, I remember the game that was like PACMAN you could program your own map, then the ghosts would never get you and you would win every time!!!
Wow, pretty cool seeing this one after all these years
FYI: "Keyboard Creations" was for a console with "The Voice". Basically an add on module that plugged in where the cartages go. With that, whatever you typed into the keyboard came out of the speaker in that module. As it had no "parental control" it was key to teaching children the correct pronunciation of swear words! My children are in their 40's now but still curse in a somewhat robotically mechanical manner! LOL. There were other games made for "the voice" (blue box) that were way ahead of their time. KC Munchkin was the downfall of the Odyssey as they were sued over the likeness to PacMan. Too bad as some of the later games were much better than the Atari. (Beta vs VHS better!) I still have one (with the voice) and it still functions. Kidding aside on the swearing there were some very good educational (voice) games before the demise of the platform that was way ahead of it's time. I rank it right up there with the Amiga as far as that actually being ahead of the game compared to the first windows machines. You really should dig in a little deeper on this one and give another review after doing so. You may be surprised.
I had one of these as a kid. My parents were always a step off from the mainstream - and not for the better. Odyssey instead of Atari and had Betamax instead of VHS.
I had this console although it was called Philips Videopac G7000. There were tons of fun games on it!
Great job Chris!
wow an awesome review! nice video Chris, want some more of this!
I know it as the Philips Videopac. As a kid, I found out that you could mix games by bluntly removing a cartridge mid-game and inserting another. I ended up racing a car through the screen of Monkeyshines :D
I have magnavox odyssey 2 but I don't know how to connect to my new TV
Here in Brazil polivox invested heavily in advertising, and although the game had better keyboard and cartridges, with better packaging, in the end was a marketing to try to sell more than Atari, because the graphic quality was much lower than Atari
OMG, for years I couldn't remember the name of this oddball console! My parents got me the Odyssey 2 in the mid-late 80's from some trading post on the way back from a vacation. The console was crap lol and I only ever had that one cart with the 3 games on it as shown in the video. It wasn't long after that I got an NES for my birthday. I believe the Odyssey 2 was given to one of my cousins or nephews, I'm not entirely sure. Kind of wish I still had it for nastalgic purposes.
Crazy Nostalgia.. my Famicom only worked in 1 channel back in the day.. never really wondered why..until now..
Went to Sears to decide which we wanted: Atari or Odessey-2. Saw demo kiosks for both, then noticed a third: Intellivision.
Guess which we took home?😁
odyssey 2
Great series Chris, keep up the good work!
My dad and my mom used to own one of these when they were younger, and they played a lot with it.
On Brazil it was actually called "Odyssey" as it was the first console, since this one is the first to be legally released on Brazil (I guess they thought it wouldn't hurt changing it's name since it's the first to be released legally on that country, lol).
I used to have the Phillips version in the very early 90s. Loved the tank game and Space Invaders.
The fucking golf part with Ronnie as one of the co-hosts. "Ronnie The Skeleton". 😂😂😂😂
Badass video chris keep up the good work :)
That bite at 0:48 is perhaps the greatest moment in all of the videos on this channel.
very enjoyable video! thank you for the hard work you do.
Brings back terrible memories of my childhood. The Odyssey was on sale from "Crazy Eddie" His prices were "insane"... My brother and I got stuck with this instead of the Atari 2600. Time Lord, KC Munchkin and maybe 1 or 2 other games were ok...the rest were so bad we had more fun with a ball and a wall and actually real playing. Comparing that to the advanced consoles of today...these kids have no freaking clue how awesome it is now.
Great work Chris!
Love your vids dude! Keep up the good work! I think it would be really cool if you did a Q&A video, where your fans ask you questions. I would love to know how much research you do and how long a video like this usually takes you to make.
I like this one. I saw the original Odyssey on another channel and--all of its simplest games were played like Pong--and its more complex games were played like board games! However, this next console was a great 2nd attempt at a viable console. If I was 6 in 78(like I was in 85 with the NES) I could definitely see myself being happy with having this over the A2600.
AHHHHHH! My sister had one of these!
Here's a funny story about "Spin-Out" for you!
We were playing that game on the Oddessy II on New Year's Eve...probably 1982/1983 from 7:45 pm until midnight.
After a few hours, the Oddessy was getting pretty warm and my Dad was racing my sister and somehow Dad spun his car out and it hit the wall right where that race track had the split and his car actually jumped out of the track and fell behind the actual race grid.
We couldn't get the car back on the track, but we could actually drive it around the outside of the track and, as an experiment, we decided to point the controller straight up. Dad's car drove to the top of the screen and disappeared! We held the controller straight up and a minute later it re-appeared at the bottom of the screen....the car actually drove behind the TV and went full circle where we couldn't see it until it came back up at the bottom of the screen!
We had many good times with Odessey II and my sister had The Voice for it. I just wish you gave the games a little more credit.
Quest for the Ring came with a special edition box which included a map overlay that you placed on the keyboard and a big story book as to what the quest was along with some coins and/or plastic rings. You were suppose to visit 10 different dungeons and collect 10 rings.
At the beginning of the game, it shows the words "Warrior" "Wizard", "Phantom" and ...something else...it's been 30 years dude!....but anyway, when a word goes across the screen and you hit the action button, your guy becomes that character.
The Warrior had a sword, The Wizard cast spells which froze monsters - except the dragon - The Phantom" could turn invisible - which was a disadvantage in the fire map - and the final guy could walk through walls when you held down the action button, which was great for sneaking up on the ring and in that realm where the walls shift. The idea of the game was that you worked as a team. One guy would divert the monsters while the other guy got the ring.
You could set the game for solid dungeons, invisible dungeons, shifting wall dungeons, and fire wall dungeons for the different areas on the map as well as put a "Dummy ring" on the map which would have been a "False quest" which would still count to get you out of the dungeon but wouldn't count to your ring collecting total. - The idea was that you followed the map to a fake ring. Also, you could choose between the little monsters or the big dragon, which you could get the ring by using the Phantom to sneak past the dragon in his invisible mode...but you had to be careful with the Phantom because you can't see where he is and you have to make him visible ...hopefully not in front of the dragon who will eat you!
Couple games I recall like Pick Axe Pete... and one other... where you could pause the game and hold down 0 or something and it would allow you to "EDIT" the playfield (i.e cheat).
Changing boundaries or moving blocks or removing baddies.
I think this tactic worked for KC Munchkin too.. or that mouse trap clone...
Anything with a maze or boundary could be altered this way
My brother had this. KC Munchkin was a great game.
Thank u Irate Gamer.
Great video! keep it up Chris
I am absolutely addicted to this series. I would love to see this turn into a weekly or bi weekly series. I NEED to see more episodes!
You've got a new sub.Back in the day I wasn't a fan of you.Keep up the good work Chris.
1:00 homage to part 2 and 2b
Nice video keep it up!!
Cryptoplogic was a hangman type of game. You would put a word in and press enter, and the word would scramble. And the other team or player had to guess what it was. And it counted how many attempts it took to get to the word.
There were much better games for this that came from the makers of the Ody, Freedom Fighters, Pick Ax Pete, Terrahawks/Attack Of The Timelord, to name a few. And then there are brand new homebrew games from producers such as Revival Studios that take this thing beyond it's limits with games that might have kicked Atari's ass big time, had someone bothered to do something like that back then. By the way Quest For The Rings was a board + video game combo where you played on the board and did the battle sequences on the Odyssey2. There were three of those kind of games, the other two being Conquest Of The World and Wall Street. All in all the Odyssey2 really wasn't as bad as many claim, especially with the more advanced (and admittedly, rare) games. Then again at the time, Intellivision sucker punched both Atari and Magnavox til the big crash, but the controllers were a bit of a nightmare.
some of my favourite games were on O2, but there just weren't enough of them. 'freedom fighters' is a game i would play right now for hours. my friend and i made our own game out of 'conquest of the world.' but, i was disappointed with the voice addition thing.
i couldn't take the intellivision's controls, and that little joystick adapter was a comical piece of junk. too, i didn't really care for intellivision's games all that much. i had the colecovision, and the control could be 'tricky' on that, too.
pre-caller ID we used to call up people and let the Odyssey2 call people names. I just loved that robotic voice as it spewed out all the g-rated stuff we input!
Picking up the game with your mouth was really funny. Good video!
harvestmoon8109 that's how everyone picks them up, right? ;)
Irategamer I pick the up with my ears, I tought that is how everyone does it but I seem to be wrong.
Hunter the Hunter It was funny because it was unexpected, no need to throw ages at me c:
harvestmoon8109 I thought it was funny too, and I'm positive that I'm way older than you! LOL :D
Great documentary
Quest for the Rings was this huge weird thing that required a game board as well. If I remember right, the game didn't really make sense unless you were also playing the board part of it also, and even then, it didn't really make sense. Dad really got mad if I played that video game without using the board and confusing pieces, and like 4 people. But in the end I just wanted an Atari like the normal families had. I had to go across the street to play Warlords, Yarz Revenge, Defender! You know games people liked.
I had one odyssey as little, you didn't talk about the controllers were built in to it so you can't change them or get too deep in to the games but it was nice to see that old system one more time, I had fun with it
Great job! Thanks Chris! Hope to see more soon
For the next Irate Gamer episode, could you do Star Voyager?
I actually considered buying a complete one for $80 on eBay around the time this video was released.
I had Atari but I remember this I used to see it in the newspaper
CB Network: I don't know how old you are, but yes, simply making letters appear on screen was in the 70s/early 80s awesome, especially as a kid! =) [4 min 32 sec in the video]
Had one of these as a kid. My mother offered to buy either it or the Atari. It was a decent system, but not enough games available.
Chris after I heard about JewWario, I know I live under a rock but I was kinda scared after he got so much love that somone like you with all thid hate or who had it I was pleased to see you are doing all right and have made some really good content. You have earned a subscriber good work! 👏
Gracias gringuito por tu buena honda... Saludos Arauco Chile
I owned one of the Magnavox machines. I was 33 years old at the time. I wore it out and threw it away.
Cool effects
Thank you, enjoyed a lot.
woah woah im waiting for this thx thx
I picked 1 up at an auction for $3. How do I hook it up to a TV to see if it works? Another video said you needed an adapter, but didn't specify.
My first console - I also had The Voice add-on, which allowed pretty damn good, albeit quirky, speech synthesis. I don't see anyone mentioning it, probably its most significant feature. BTW, it would work on Ch4.
Great episode! I still own my Odyssey 2, what a piece of garbage lol.
I didn’t knew there was a video game crash in 1978 and i didn’t knew atari did pulled out the video game indistry out of that crash to revitilize out it,mmmm interesting.
jajajajja! you made me laught with your racer glasses and your faces!
hey, chris? I actually looked at the history of Nintendo, and um, with further scrutiny, there is something that you missed out on mentionning about the Magnavox Odyssey 1.
It turns out, that Video game Giant Nintendo, Actually Helped on making the Magnavox Odyssey 1 itself, and that later on down the road, Nintendo even got the distribution rights to japan!
I learned of this thanks to Wikipedia! :3
We need more of us history of video games
The production value of your videos are always really good. However, your attempt at humor is painful.
***** I agree, humor is subjective :D
LadyBuggin777 You're just saying that because you're his Mother.
boh0555 What does that have to do with anything? Mom's have facts too. I'm sure your own mother would agree that humor is subjective, no matter who is the comedian or in this case, YT video maker. ~
boh0555 sometimes there's humor in the attempt.
Hougropvitz you thinks its a good idea to pose as your mom?.. to each their own i guess.
The Crypto-Logic part of this video was just messed up from the start. Chris, did you do that on purpose? That game is typing in a word. Then the game scrambles the letters. Then another person has to unscramble the word.
absolutely badass episode chris! very well done.
totally looking forward to the next one!
Spent many hours playing Pick Axe Pete!!!