Wikipedia says Phillips bought Magnavox in 1974 for laserdisc purposes. "In Europe, the Odyssey² did very well on the market. In Europe, the console was renamed as the Philips Videopac G7000, however the internals are the same."
I remember in the 80's two friends had Philips Videopac for a while until they got computers. Played some Videopac games with them once or twice but I don't remember anymore what games they were. Pretty cool looking console as it's got a keyboard.
Get a copy of The Quest for the Rings if you can. Probably the most involved game for the system. Comes with a beautifully illustrated manual and map overlays for the keyboard.
I had an Odyssey 2, when i was a kid. me and my 3 siblings used to play this console so much. It's my first love far s video game consoles go. My favorite game on the O2 is a K.C. Munchkin variant, called, "KC'S CRAZY CHASE" It wasn't the same as KC's K.C. Munchkin in the fact that you are chasing a Caterpillar type insect. The goal was to eat its body until only its head is left, once you've ate his body, the level was over and a new level would begin. I loved it! It the game was even one of the very first game and one of the very few on the console to have voice support! When you finish a level, KC would say things like, "incredible!" and he would laugh loudly, when he would finish a level and wink at you. lol It was so adorable and very entertaining for me as a 6-7 year old. I have very fond memories of this game as a child. There was also another game that me and my brother used to play a lot and i guess i like it but not as much as KC's Krazy chase. It was called, Armored Encounter. It was a battle between two tanks! lol I used to get killed alot by my brother. lol So yeah, i have a soft spot for the old gal, the Odyssey 2. It was for me, like a lot of people, part of their childhood. ^_^ I still enjoy the odyssey 2 via emulation on my Nintendo Wii i modded. Its a great way to get my nostalgia fix. ^_^
"alien invaders.. which is basically just space invaders.. that happened a lot" damn so this whole HD remaster thing has been goin since the 2nd gen eh? ha i think that console looks cool.. but then i also think i still have hair.. so...
I don't know if I'd call them remasters. It's kinda like all of the movies trying to copy a successful one. After Star Wars, you had a flood of sci-fi movies trying to grab the same audience. Battle Beyond The Stars was probably the only successful copycat - even though it was really a sci-fi version of Seven Samurai. There was also Starcrash which looked cool, but I have trouble sitting through it. To me, remastering means improving something - image, sound, etc. Although no game concepts were copyrighted or patented, I think there was a lawsuit over KC Munckin because he looked too much like Pac-Man. Meanwhile, there was no problem with Mouse Trap or LadyBug which had the same basic game play as Pac-Man. Alien for the 2600 also copied Pac-Man. I'd have to double check on the lawsuit though. The spaceship in Asteroids and the gun in Space Invaders are too generic to copyright. It's like copyrighting or trademarking a basic triangle. There were numerous copycats of popular games, but lawsuits were rare back then. If these consoles were viewed as a fad, they may not have taken the copying as seriously as they do now. They may not have seen any long term profits from video games during the 70s and early 80s. It's not like today when Mario, Sonic, Pac-Man, and Donkey Kong have appeared in multiple generations of consoles.
shenmueso That's cool. Sarcasm doesn't always come across clearly online even with certain words added. They can be interpreted differently. Plus, I was a bit tired. I would probably have made the same comment anyway - just adding my opinion to the discussion.
UFO->Asteriods KC Munchkin->Pacman Freedom Fighters->Defender Pick Axe Pete->Donkey Kong Alien Invaders Plus->Space Invaders Sub Chase/Armored Encounter->Combat There may of been other clones/copies but those are the ones I know for sure. Honestly Odyssey 2 took the original idea and made changes on it and most of the time it was better.
Yeah, sometimes it was better and sometimes it wasn't. KC Munchkin was rather unambiguously a better game than Pac-Man on the 2600, and Pick Axe Pete was a better game than Donkey Kong, but it's an easy observation that both Pac-Man and Donkey Kong on the 2600 were, for various reasons, poor ports-far worse than they really needed to be. But speaking as someone whose earliest gaming memory is playing Armored Encounter, Combat is a much better and far more varied game. I have a soft spot for Armored Encounter but even my child brain immediately picked up on how much smoother and slicker Combat was, when I finally saw it in action.
@d4qatoa The Odyssey2 was so much more limited than the Atari VCS that by today's standards you could consider it an entire generation behind... even though it launched a year _after._ Of course, never again will there be another console so dramatically ahead of its time as the VCS was-not only was its "generational leap" literally _Pong clones -> an actual console,_ but the VCS's cheap design ironically meant the system's potential wasn't ever fully tapped even by games like _Solaris._ Both the VCS and the Odyssey2 had the ability to display things besides sprites, but while the VCS could manage a "background layer" of 1/4th resolution _x_ by full resolution _y,_ the Odyssey2 could only manipulate a 9 by 9 grid of mega blocks, either by using the grid to define boundaries, as in _K.C. Munchkin,_ or giving the blocks different background colors, as in _Popeye._ This grid lent itself well to maze games, but you certainly could _never_ produce anything like the ramped girders in _Donkey Kong's_ first level. The VCS, limited as it was, did have enough flexibility to kinda sorta manage in most cases.
I had the Odyssey... My system of choice in 1981 was Intelevision! My dad was a freelance artist back in the day, basically until the early 90s when computer graphics were hitting their stride. Anyway we would go to one of his jobs to talk about the new ads coming up. This guy ran Omega Electronics right by our house. He dealt in 80% Magnavox, so he said to me, grab one of those systems kid! The were stacked in the center of the store, with a ring of them about 3 high. You know, good old 80s retail. Anyway I was glad to take one. I was really into sports titles, so he said grab a few games. At the dinner table I remember my dad saying to my step mother, Bob did it again! Obviously he was just taking money off the large debt he was in with my dad. I figured, man he thinks so much of my dad, that he's even giving me stuff! 😁 I figured I would share that story with you gamers. That was my 3rd system at the time.
Cool video. This was actually my first console when I was about 4 or 5 years old. That picture at the 6:39 mark looks somewhat like the voice module that went on top and connected via the cartridge port of the Odyssey2. It basically made the Odyssey2 into a speak and spell. KC Munchkin has an interesting history behind him and Namco.
The Magnavox Odyssey was not just Interesting they were THE FIRST home video game console from 1972 till 1975 with Atari Pong came out. Think of the Magnavox Odyssey as the first air plane or the first automobile. Before the Magnavox Odyssey there was no home video game at all.
From a technical standpoint they did not use cartridges. One feature it lacked was ability to load/supplement memory. It just changed the path and resistance on the main board. Nostalgia Nerd did a great piece on how cartridges work.
I had both the Odyssey 1 and 2... I can confirm that the O2 used ROMs. The O1 used "jumper packs" that were nothing more than circuit boards with a molded plastic "handle" to pull them out of the socket. The inside of the O1 had a motherboard with a bunch of sockets. Each socket had a small card with a distinct function. There were flip flop cards, each containing a single flip-flop, made up of individual transistors, resistors, diodes, capacitors, etc. Each card was a circuit made of of discrete components. There were no chips in the Odyssey 1, nor was it a computer, by any sense of the word. It was what you would call a state machine. Just a simple collection of digital logic and analog circuits that could be reconfigured by the jumper packs. The Odyssey 2 was a proper computer, with a CPU, RAM, ROM, I/O, and used ROM cartridges. I should know... I took BOTH of them apart! I regret it to this day! ;_;
The Odyssey 2 had a very tiny window-basically just 1979 and some of 1980-when its few unique advantages allowed it to offer games that were legitimately better than anything similar on the Atari VCS. Those advantages were: 1) It was easy to develop a game on, especially compared to the extraordinarily demanding VCS, and 2) it had a built-in ROM with not only the entire alphabet but a handful of useful (and ultimately overused) video game-friendly shapes. And so a number of the Odyssey 2's earliest titles, like Cosmic Conflict and Take the Money and Run, really were better experiences than anything comparable on the VCS in the same timeframe. It really wasn't until 1981 before VCS devs started realizing the potential of the hardware.
Surprised at the omission of the Master Strategy Series board game/video game fusion. That was one of a kind. Also as mentioned in the comments there was limited 3rd party software. Also the Voice was worth a mention I think.
Just picked up a working odyssey 2 today from a local game shop to replace my parents console that stopped working years ago, they are still around, and well worth it. We have over 15 games for it, all in boxes, with all booklets as well, plus the optional tv top organizer tray, as well as original box, aaand also the voice attatchment that slots into the came slot and gives the console voice feedback. Its a really awesome system and definitely a conversation piece.
I grew up playing this console. I pretty much lost my entire family and everything I had as a kid, so I have zero things from my childhood. I really wish I could find one of these, but I never can find them. We used to play the baseball game. We named one of the guys "Shaggy Pom Pom". Anytime a player hit a homerun, that was "Shaggy Pom Pom". Anytime they made an awesome play,.. that was "Shaggy Pom Pom". Lol. Maybe one day I'll find one.
Like s lot of consoles from the 2nd generation, I only recently aquired one of these, and I am impressed with the passion it elecites from its fan base. I am on a bunch of different console fan groups on Facebook. So I see a lot of excitement mustered by many different retro console fans, but yeah, for the Odyssey 2 pages, there are peeps who fricken love this console to death! Nice to see people really keeping this console alive and well in a big way..
I've got one of these in box along with the voice addon. Found mine at a curiosity/antique shop, of all places. Such an underrated console. Great overview!
This was my very first game console ever!! It's the console that got me into gaming. I was 5 when my dad brought it home. He got it from this rich dude that he used to work for. His kids were all grown and non of them wanted it. The had it for 7 years and then gave it to us in 1985. Man I loved this systems and still wish I had one.
There were a *few* third party games. Parker Brothers did port over Q*Bert and Frogger, and Imagic ported Atlantis and Demon Attack. They may have only been released in Europe though. EDIT: Also, RIP Classic Game Room. Sad he stopped the channel.
had the UK version of this, it was my first console (the Philips G7000). So many good games on it, liked the fact that you could build your own mazes with Munchkin. Keep an eye out for Killer Bees, Satellite Attack and Pick Axe Pete. Those hard wired controls were a pain. When they broke you had to send the whole unit away to Philips to get repaired...sometimes took weeks to get back.
I remember this console from when I was a little toddler, like 2 or 3 year old. My parents who owned an electronics store used to sell these. I got to play on it only once or twice as far as I remember. The only thing I can remember was a game where you destroy a tower with a catapult which after some searching is called "stone sling". I've wondered for years what this game was untill somehow the word "videopac" (same console philips branded) popped in my mind. Some googling later I finally found one my earliest childhood memories.
Your channel and Classic Game Room are my favorite channels :) I actually got my Odyssey 2 at Uncle John's Flea Market in St. John Indiana for $10! I also bought a Fairchild Channel F System 2 for $15 from the same guy. I always try to find the people who have no idea what they've got :)
My neighbor had an odyssey 2 and a Fairchild channel F that I would play when my grandmother would go visit her. She had bought them for her grandchildren so they had something to do when they stayed with her. They were like new when I eventually got them in the late 80s.
There is a store that has the system and games....I am so tempted to buy it....however, I haven't had the best luck with that store. I was going to buy a Sega Master System, but didn't have the money on me. So, a few days later, I back with the money. When I showed up, the employee asked me "Why didn't you put it on layaway?". I was never told about layaway. But since I knew about it then, I figured i'd put the system and a few games on layaway until i got more money. So, I did...went back a few days later again to pick it up once I had the extra $30 or $40 that I needed. Got there and wanted to hook up the system to make sure it worked before I took it out the door (something I should have done before putting it on layaway, but I didn't think about it at the time). Hooked it up to the TV there and the system didn't work. The employee asked me "so, do you still want it?". Now, why the hell would I pay around $80 for a console that doesn't work? So, I asked for a refund. They said "well, we can only do store credit on returns". Well, I tried to argue them and say "this wasn't a return, it was you trying to sell me something that didn't work". I asked to speak to his manager but he wasn't there...was told to go return the next day. So, next day, i go back to the store. Owner wasn't at the store at the time. Was told the owner was across the street getting pizza...so I waited...about 30-45 minutes later, the owner comes in. The owner lets me get a full refund...so, yea, that kind of hurt my chances of doing business with them again
You know, you really shouldn't comment on peoples financial issues when you don't know them. I said I didn't have the money ON ME. A lot of my money stays at home in a safe...that particular day, there was close to $1000 cash sitting in that safe....so $80 wasn't an issue. Not to mention, I had more money coming to me...In case you are wondering about me keeping money in a safe at home, it's because I was recently a victim of wallet theft. If you have ever had that happen, you tend to be paranoid about carrying things around. The person that stole my wallet had my ID, credit card, debit card, PayPal card, etc...EVERYTHING they needed to rip me off BIG TIME. Not to mention, I had to pay to get another drivers license, had to freeze my bank account and get another card mailed to me, same thing with the credit cards.....so before you go making comments about peoples $80 purchase....maybe you should KNOW them a little better
just had to make another comment on the vertical/ hand _ communication error!😁 this was alot of fun always enjoy your work Adam. An remember how your earlier vids with just your hand's spoke volumes😇
I actually had an uncle who had one of these when he was a kid. I was at my grandparent's house when I was a teen, and was interested in old consoles. I asked my dad if he ever had one, and he said "Yeah Steve had one." We went to the basement, and I was thinking it would probably be an atari 2600, but he pulled out this thing, same box and all. Couldn't hook it up, and the games had rusted connections. I remember I didn't think it was that cool, but interesting to look back on with the context of this video. Especially since the things only sold around 2mil.
This was my first console, and I freakin loved it. Still in my parents' basement in the caddy with all the games, and I bet it still works. Played the heck out of it, even after getting a 2600.
I had an Atari 2600, but my parents had a store next door to a Magnavox store. At 8 years old, I was going next door all of the time. (My parents sold women's clothing. The previous bookstore and the TV store were more interesting.) I playing with all of this stuff - Odyssey 2, MagnaVision (LaserDisc player), VCRs. The sales guy was often bored and I brought in my own tapes. He was OK with Abbott and Costello but he wasn't a kaiju fan. He did record the Battlestar Galactica pilot movie two weeks before we got our own VCR and recorded a few other things for us including a couple of Godzilla movies. (I can't remember why I didn't record them myself.) I did like the Odyssey2, but I can't remember anything specific anymore. Too long ago. The memories are flooding back... Everyone keeps bashing the 2600 Pac-Man. I really didn't mind the differences. I never expected the 2600 to match the arcade. As long as it had the basic concept of the game, I still enjoyed it. Zaxxon for the 2600 didn't match the arcade either, and I still liked it. While watching this video, it suddenly hit me. The Odyssey2 reminds me of the CoCo (Tandy Color Computer). Magnavox had the better unit. Did the Odyssey have a BASIC cartridge? The Atari 2600 - with no keyboard - had a BASIC programming cartridge, but a console with a keyboard didn't? Is that correct? The 2600 used the keypad controllers with overlays.
Kind of glad we didn't have the internet back then. I had no idea I had an inferior version of Pac Man on the Atari and just enjoyed it. These days I know which versions of games are 792p or 900p with supposed input lag
I was friends with a kid who had one, he was ashamed to own it,... but wouldn't let me have it no matter how much money my 12 year old self could scrape up. Also,... was at Salvation Army with my mom around the same age and they had the original Odyssey unopened still in the box and cellophane mint condition for 2 dollars and my mom refused to buy it for me because I told her I had no intention in ever actually opening it and playing with it. :/ I'll never forget that. Fate ensured I should not ever have and Odyssey of any kind. Lol
My father came back from the USA when I was a kid (he was separated from my mother and he was travelling with his partner at the time) and both me back Odyssey 2 videogames. They looked very different from European games in colour and graphic style, so I was worried they would not work. It was a completely different era, no internet, so you needed to travel in another country to get their electronics. At that time a friend who travelled to USA / Japan was a resource. Of course they work perfectly and I was satisfied, if I recall correctly some of them were not distributed in Europe, not even with another name...
Yet another amazing video. Love the console and almost have a complete collection. There also was the other model that did have removable controllers BTW.
CaptNRetro The one with removable controllers actually has silver controllers instead of black ones and is more rare. I personally have never actually seen one but they are out there for sure.
Actually, the controllers aren't hard-wired, you just have to open the case to get to the plugs. With simple modification you can use CX-40's on an Odyssey 2. :)
I love these generations videos and the odyssey 2 and Fairchild channel F are two nice systems but the Fairchild's controller is one of my favourite controllers of this generation. The collicovision is my favourite of this generation. That's weird for me because the two second gen consoles I owned as a kid was the Atari 2600 and a vectrex. The vectrex is a close second favourite of that gen though. I always wanted a collicovision when I was a kid but never got one.
just a heads up there actually was a few 3rd party games Parker Brothers did ports of Frogger, Popeye, Q*bert , & Super Cobra while Imagic brought over 2 of their games being Atlantis, & Demon Attack
I would recommend obtaining "The Voice" attachment. 😁 By the way, Atari sued Magnavox after the release of K.C. Munchkin. That is why K.C.'s Crazy Chase has a completely different premise. 😉
Learned electronics as a kid by taking things apart... I'm glad I learned, but I took apart my Magnavox Odyssey, Fairchild Channel F, Magnavox Odyssey 2, Commodore PET, Colecovision ADAM, TRS-80 CoCo 2, Tandy 6000 HD... Took 'em ALL apart... ;_; Least I still have my Atari VCS, Intellivision, VIC-20, C64, C128, Apple IIe, HP 9825, and NES + newer.
Great 80's game system. I was lucky to have both an Atari and Odyssey 2 in my home growing up so it was easy to side by side them. Atari was more popular by far but from some reason I played the Odyssey 2 more. Also Freedom Fighters wasn’t Asteroids it was a Defender clone. The Oddyssey 2 clone of Asteroids was called UFO
Having had one several years back I can say it was one of the best consoles from this generation. I love my 2600 and Colecovision but the Vectrex was truly something special. I wish I had been able to experience the 3D setup on mine before I got rid of it. I need to see if I can get the one I had back from a friend of mine.
I have lived long and complicated lives in my dreams and I don't want to talk about it there's an enormous space time difference in my dreams compared to real life
This was the first video game system I had as a kid. I wanted and Atari 2600 but instead my mom got me this. Still I played that thing for hours and hours
One of my friends had this, I had the 2600. We used to trade for a week at a time. Funny story about the controllers being hard wired, when my friends player 2 controller broke we replaced it with a 2600 controller, not bad for 2 - 11 year olds
When I got this in the day, it had SILVER topped controllers like those. I remember as the paint rubbed off of it after a while. Played it on the RCA XL100 TV. It was actually the BETTER console than Atari for what it could do, but alas, came late. The neatest cartridge was the HEX/Assembly trainer (it was more than just for games). At the time it was confusing (no Wikipedia or RUclips then to teach you it, nor even a local computer shop to grab books on it). But the date was late and by the early 1980s people were flocking to computers by then. I had a kit built Timex-Sinclair in 1983 (with the memory pack for a whopping 2KB of memory!). After than never went back to console anything again.
all the neighbor's kids would line up for "football tournament with double elimination. we would play for close to 4 hours till we got a champion. way better than 2600 or 5200 football. you set up your play both offense and defense. it was really cool. we bought ours at Western Auto in 1982 (i think)
My boss swears by the Odyssey 2's baseball game. He said he thought it was far superior to "baseball on the 2600". I asked him if he meant "Home Run" - which wouldn't take much to surpass - but I said there's no way it could be better than "RealSports Baseball".
I had an Odyssey 2. This was the first cartridge system I ever owned. My dad bought it in 1979. This was a simple system that had several fun games. I have fond memories of this system. They made several games that were knockoffs of Atari games. I think the knock off games were better than anything on the 2600.
I had a Philips Videopac G7000 as a kid, because of that, it's a system I want to have emulated on far more places than it appears emulators appear. The Videopac G7000 was the European version of the Oddyssey 2 and looked identical to the Odyssey 2 except not only was everything hard wired (mine got chucked when the joysticks stopped working) and oh yeah, the system didn't have a power switch. To change cartridges, you had to unplug it from the mains. The console you actually featured was the Videopac+ G7400 which was an upgraded, backwardly compatible version of the G7000. You also had a G7200 which was a G7000 with a built in black and white monitor (VectrexRoli has avideo on it) Also, you say that intellectual property wasn't a thing back then, yet KC Munchkin was actually the subject of a lawsuit! Atari sued Magnavox because of the similarity to Pac Man, the game had to be withdrawn! (probably because it was such a popular game that Namco and Atari couldn't *not* notice!)
I really like KC munchkin . I got most of the games that came out for the odyssey 2 and Fairchild channel F from my neighbor also because she had lost some of them and found them later and gave them to my grandmother to give to me from Santa they were all brand new in the box because I only played two games on each system that her grandchildren had tried them once and never used them again.
8-bit computers were actually a lot more common than around this time, so i'm not suprised Magnavox made a weird hybrid to try and appeal to both markets. Nobody knew for sure where the money was so they pocked everything.
Kc rocked we got it after asking for intelivision at first we were disappointed but Kc was so cool and Alien invasion. The games we had were very good.
I have to add Adam if you want some of the best games on the Odyssey 2 get Attack of the Time Lord, Sid the Spellbinder, and Smithereens. Three of the most fun games of the 2nd gen bar none.
Interesting fact. The original Odyssey's cartridges didn't have roms. They were just a bunch of pins connected in different ways to select the different game variations. They could have just had a selector switch on the console.
I say Blockout/Breakdown is more of an improved version of Breakout, where some "demons" replace the blocks you knocked out. Alien invaders is more simplified but with a twist: When you get hit, you don't die but lose your ship and turn one of the shields into a new ship. You run out of shields, ur s.o.l.
Actually there are several versions of this system ,the Odyssey 2 Voice was one,the Odyssey 2 Microprocessor was the one he showed in the video. Also in the video you can see that the box shows a slightly different console than the console in front of him. Console in front of him has black joysticks where as on the box there the silver ones. That's because at least two versions of the Microprocessor one. In addition to the joysticks where it says Odyssey 2 Microprocessor to left of game slot,some have that printed directly onto the console,where as some,(like mine) have a raised plate that says the same thing. I have no clue what the deal is with the two microprocessor versions is,but if someone does please let m,e know as I want to sell mine and don't want to screw myself. Finally,the game I have for mine is a little different too. Most I see are English only as far as what's written on the game cartridges. My game which is titled "UFO" has English,as well as a second language which I have discovered is Portugese, which makes me think it's likely the version released in Brazil. Need an expert to drop some knowledge on me please & thank-you.
I had a Philips g7000 but never had the voice Kings for it only found out recently about them but I heard that the 2600 Atari head voice games they sent the Mattel intervision was the best for The Voice
I say Blockout/breakdown is more of an improved version of breakdown in a sense that some "demons" replace the blocks you knocked out or you take on the role of the demons.
Open the console up and its easily able to swap out cords for tv controllers can come out. You say no memories of this console that counts but you have the same one most collectors of this system have this day and age. I went out took a chance on an unknown retro system and played new vintage games I never played and found out how great a system it is
I had a friend back in the 80s who's dad had bought an Odyssey 2 before moving onto the Commodore VIC-20, the Commodore 64, and the Commodore 128. And he had Odyssey 2 joysticks that had actual DB9 connectors on it which they hooked up to their C64. I don't know if they were ever sold like that or if his father had done mods to them. The O2 was in his closet along with a Coleco Telstar and another Coleco pong console knock-off. I always found the O2 - mainly because of the odd alignment of its keyboard in relation to the rest of its case - to be really odd and kinda off-putting. The box art design for the O2 console box and cartridge boxes were always cool, if not cooler than the actual products. It was annoying that their game "Attack of the Time Lord" had nothing to do with the [real] Time Lords from "Doctor Who". Reminds me of how the Intellivision's "Night Stalker" game had nothing to do with "Kolchak the Night Stalker". I think both companies there really blew it on such licensing opportunities. "K.C. Munchkin!" is so well-liked in the retro community that the one man homebrew army that Bob Pac-Man Plus DeCrezcenzo, who has apparently made it his own personal mission to make more games for the Atari 7800 than GCC/Atari Inc/Atari Corp ever did during that console's original commercial lifespan, made an authorized version of it for the Atari 7800 and is sold in AtariAge's store. You are definitely right about the lack of third-party gaming on the O2; even the TI-99 4/A had third-party support. But the reason why the ex-Atari gang founded Activision was because they wanted residuals and compensation similar to what Hollywood gave to screenwriters, actors, directors, and producers. And why did they go for the Hollywood model? Because Atari's parent company at the time was Warner Communications, aka "Warner Bros. Pictures". When Ray "the Czar" Kassar, Atari's CEO, rejected their offer and said that they were no better than towel designers, they quit and founded Activision. Atari sued and kinda rightfully so since a lot of Activision's games were enhanced versions of existing Atari IP, but the courts didn't find a legit reason on copyright to prevent companies from making video games for another company's console(s) which opened up the flood gates to unauthorized third-party developers which greatly contributed to "The Crash"... It really sucked that The Crash took down the original Atari Inc but as a kid at the time, it was pretty sweet buying up a bunch of 2600 cartridges for $1 a piece. Star Wars toys also cratered at the time but us GenX kids had moved onto G.I. Joe and the Transformers around that time too...
I always see a complete in box odyssey 2 at my go to retro game store in Sioux City Iowa. It was 60 but they recently just bumped it down to $50 because nobody wants it. I should really pick it up before somebody else gets it.
We used to play Odyssey² sports games at a kid's house in 1980-1: baseball, football, bowling and basketball, which were usually better than Atari's. Basketball on the Atari was better because it had a whole court and not just a line. I had hoped to see what volleyball looked like. Not interested in their space games or KC Munchkin. Space Invaders was the must-have game for first quarter 1980 and Atari got the license. If Intellivision or Odyssey² had gotten it, then they might not have won the console competition since Atari would soon have other arcade games of their own to port to their system, but the one with Space Invaders would have been competitive at maybe 40% market share. Odyssey² sold 1 million consoles in its lifetime, same as the Atari 5200 (5% of the market, each). I think Atari actually sabotaged their new system's rollout to sell more 2600s because they had dropped the manufacturing costs to $40 in Hong Kong or Taiwan. So they didn't want to retire the 2600 and sold another 2-5 million in 1982-3, mainly through Pac-Man Fever. The 5200 also came with Super Breakout, perhaps the worst game in their opening library. Had they saved Pac-Man just for that system, it would have sold it, and maybe the Crash of 1983 wouldn't have happened? Galaxians and Soccer were the only 2 games for the 5200 in 1982 not already released for the 2600. (Intellivision would sell 3 million for 15% market share; 20% before Atari Pac-Man, since it sold 2-5 million more Atari consoles in 1982).
You HAVE to do a video on how video games are moving to handhelds, especially now that the Nintendo is betting all their chips on it. Obviously, there's a history there. The NOMAD is really the first to try what Nintendo is doing (how'd that go?).
I don't mean to be rude or anything, but do you have a non-youtube job? It's just that you seem really successful, but I can't see RUclips making enough money to collect games and live in Chicago. Secondly, what neighborhood do you live in(seriously not trying to be creepy). I live in the suburbs and am looking to move into Jeff Park in the next year or two. This stuff(game history) is so interesting to me, your channel is awesome!
I like the boxes for this system, but they often seem to be less than great condition. I swear I have one that has the same tape as the one you have! I guess there was a version of the console with detachable controllers, but mostly they were made in this annoying way. I've seen them around here a few times for sale, that's how I got mine (in box).
Wikipedia says Phillips bought Magnavox in 1974 for laserdisc purposes.
"In Europe, the Odyssey² did very well on the market. In Europe, the console was renamed as the Philips Videopac G7000, however the internals are the same."
I remember in the 80's two friends had Philips Videopac for a while until they got computers. Played some Videopac games with them once or twice but I don't remember anymore what games they were. Pretty cool looking console as it's got a keyboard.
Adam is starting his completion of all Magnavox products! good luck! :D
Get a copy of The Quest for the Rings if you can. Probably the most involved game for the system. Comes with a beautifully illustrated manual and map overlays for the keyboard.
Awesome game.
I had an Odyssey 2, when i was a kid. me and my 3 siblings used to play this console so much. It's my first love far s video game consoles go. My favorite game on the O2 is a K.C. Munchkin variant, called, "KC'S CRAZY CHASE" It wasn't the same as KC's K.C. Munchkin in the fact that you are chasing a Caterpillar type insect. The goal was to eat its body until only its head is left, once you've ate his body, the level was over and a new level would begin.
I loved it! It the game was even one of the very first game and one of the very few on the console to have voice support! When you finish a level, KC would say things like, "incredible!" and he would laugh loudly, when he would finish a level and wink at you. lol
It was so adorable and very entertaining for me as a 6-7 year old. I have very fond memories of this game as a child. There was also another game that me and my brother used to play a lot and i guess i like it but not as much as KC's Krazy chase. It was called, Armored Encounter. It was a battle between two tanks! lol I used to get killed alot by my brother. lol
So yeah, i have a soft spot for the old gal, the Odyssey 2. It was for me, like a lot of people, part of their childhood. ^_^
I still enjoy the odyssey 2 via emulation on my Nintendo Wii i modded. Its a great way to get my nostalgia fix. ^_^
I liked UFO
"alien invaders.. which is basically just space invaders.. that happened a lot"
damn so this whole HD remaster thing has been goin since the 2nd gen eh? ha
i think that console looks cool.. but then i also think i still have hair.. so...
+shenmueso Ha, interesting way to look at it.
I don't know if I'd call them remasters. It's kinda like all of the movies trying to copy a successful one. After Star Wars, you had a flood of sci-fi movies trying to grab the same audience. Battle Beyond The Stars was probably the only successful copycat - even though it was really a sci-fi version of Seven Samurai. There was also Starcrash which looked cool, but I have trouble sitting through it.
To me, remastering means improving something - image, sound, etc. Although no game concepts were copyrighted or patented, I think there was a lawsuit over KC Munckin because he looked too much like Pac-Man. Meanwhile, there was no problem with Mouse Trap or LadyBug which had the same basic game play as Pac-Man. Alien for the 2600 also copied Pac-Man. I'd have to double check on the lawsuit though. The spaceship in Asteroids and the gun in Space Invaders are too generic to copyright. It's like copyrighting or trademarking a basic triangle.
There were numerous copycats of popular games, but lawsuits were rare back then. If these consoles were viewed as a fad, they may not have taken the copying as seriously as they do now. They may not have seen any long term profits from video games during the 70s and early 80s. It's not like today when Mario, Sonic, Pac-Man, and Donkey Kong have appeared in multiple generations of consoles.
Slade Simon yea i know it wasn't a serious comparison, hence the 'ha!'
shenmueso That's cool. Sarcasm doesn't always come across clearly online even with certain words added. They can be interpreted differently. Plus, I was a bit tired. I would probably have made the same comment anyway - just adding my opinion to the discussion.
Awesome video Adam! The Magnavox Odyssey 2 was my first console I've owned. I loved playing that and the NES as a kid.
Thanks!
UFO->Asteriods
KC Munchkin->Pacman
Freedom Fighters->Defender
Pick Axe Pete->Donkey Kong
Alien Invaders Plus->Space Invaders
Sub Chase/Armored Encounter->Combat
There may of been other clones/copies but those are the ones I know for sure. Honestly Odyssey 2 took the original idea and made changes on it and most of the time it was better.
They were not clones, they were more like variations (well KC Munchkin, even if not a clone, was almost it to be fair)
Yeah, sometimes it was better and sometimes it wasn't. KC Munchkin was rather unambiguously a better game than Pac-Man on the 2600, and Pick Axe Pete was a better game than Donkey Kong, but it's an easy observation that both Pac-Man and Donkey Kong on the 2600 were, for various reasons, poor ports-far worse than they really needed to be. But speaking as someone whose earliest gaming memory is playing Armored Encounter, Combat is a much better and far more varied game. I have a soft spot for Armored Encounter but even my child brain immediately picked up on how much smoother and slicker Combat was, when I finally saw it in action.
@d4qatoa The Odyssey2 was so much more limited than the Atari VCS that by today's standards you could consider it an entire generation behind... even though it launched a year _after._ Of course, never again will there be another console so dramatically ahead of its time as the VCS was-not only was its "generational leap" literally _Pong clones -> an actual console,_ but the VCS's cheap design ironically meant the system's potential wasn't ever fully tapped even by games like _Solaris._
Both the VCS and the Odyssey2 had the ability to display things besides sprites, but while the VCS could manage a "background layer" of 1/4th resolution _x_ by full resolution _y,_ the Odyssey2 could only manipulate a 9 by 9 grid of mega blocks, either by using the grid to define boundaries, as in _K.C. Munchkin,_ or giving the blocks different background colors, as in _Popeye._ This grid lent itself well to maze games, but you certainly could _never_ produce anything like the ramped girders in _Donkey Kong's_ first level. The VCS, limited as it was, did have enough flexibility to kinda sorta manage in most cases.
Pick Axe Pete is a stretch for a Donkey Kong clone.
I had the Odyssey... My system of choice in 1981 was Intelevision! My dad was a freelance artist back in the day, basically until the early 90s when computer graphics were hitting their stride. Anyway we would go to one of his jobs to talk about the new ads coming up. This guy ran Omega Electronics right by our house. He dealt in 80% Magnavox, so he said to me, grab one of those systems kid! The were stacked in the center of the store, with a ring of them about 3 high. You know, good old 80s retail. Anyway I was glad to take one. I was really into sports titles, so he said grab a few games. At the dinner table I remember my dad saying to my step mother, Bob did it again! Obviously he was just taking money off the large debt he was in with my dad. I figured, man he thinks so much of my dad, that he's even giving me stuff! 😁 I figured I would share that story with you gamers. That was my 3rd system at the time.
Cool video. This was actually my first console when I was about 4 or 5 years old. That picture at the 6:39 mark looks somewhat like the voice module that went on top and connected via the cartridge port of the Odyssey2. It basically made the Odyssey2 into a speak and spell. KC Munchkin has an interesting history behind him and Namco.
The Magnavox Odyssey was not just Interesting they were THE FIRST home video game console from 1972 till 1975 with Atari Pong came out. Think of the Magnavox Odyssey as the first air plane or the first automobile. Before the Magnavox Odyssey there was no home video game at all.
From a technical standpoint they did not use cartridges. One feature it lacked was ability to load/supplement memory. It just changed the path and resistance on the main board. Nostalgia Nerd did a great piece on how cartridges work.
I had both the Odyssey 1 and 2... I can confirm that the O2 used ROMs. The O1 used "jumper packs" that were nothing more than circuit boards with a molded plastic "handle" to pull them out of the socket. The inside of the O1 had a motherboard with a bunch of sockets. Each socket had a small card with a distinct function. There were flip flop cards, each containing a single flip-flop, made up of individual transistors, resistors, diodes, capacitors, etc. Each card was a circuit made of of discrete components. There were no chips in the Odyssey 1, nor was it a computer, by any sense of the word. It was what you would call a state machine. Just a simple collection of digital logic and analog circuits that could be reconfigured by the jumper packs.
The Odyssey 2 was a proper computer, with a CPU, RAM, ROM, I/O, and used ROM cartridges.
I should know... I took BOTH of them apart! I regret it to this day! ;_;
Rellik I will have to look. I was thinking O1 though.
Really been getting an education from your videos lately. I never played any of these games nor really took interest in them.
Thanks for watching!
The Odyssey 2 had a very tiny window-basically just 1979 and some of 1980-when its few unique advantages allowed it to offer games that were legitimately better than anything similar on the Atari VCS. Those advantages were: 1) It was easy to develop a game on, especially compared to the extraordinarily demanding VCS, and 2) it had a built-in ROM with not only the entire alphabet but a handful of useful (and ultimately overused) video game-friendly shapes. And so a number of the Odyssey 2's earliest titles, like Cosmic Conflict and Take the Money and Run, really were better experiences than anything comparable on the VCS in the same timeframe. It really wasn't until 1981 before VCS devs started realizing the potential of the hardware.
Surprised at the omission of the Master Strategy Series board game/video game fusion. That was one of a kind. Also as mentioned in the comments there was limited 3rd party software. Also the Voice was worth a mention I think.
These along with your console cleaning videos are my favorite to watch. Thank you.
These are the best videos. The history on the console are so interesting. Keep up the awesome videos.
+Evil Cheddar Thanks!
Just picked up a working odyssey 2 today from a local game shop to replace my parents console that stopped working years ago, they are still around, and well worth it. We have over 15 games for it, all in boxes, with all booklets as well, plus the optional tv top organizer tray, as well as original box, aaand also the voice attatchment that slots into the came slot and gives the console voice feedback. Its a really awesome system and definitely a conversation piece.
My dad bought me one of these second hand when I was a kid after I asked for a NES. I was soooo disappointed!
"One console is as good as another... right? [It's not]" -Adam Koralik
But one is older than the other, they were both good at their times.
Quality over Quantity... The Odyssey 2 was Amazing for the time! Great Video, keep up the good work! :)
I grew up playing this console. I pretty much lost my entire family and everything I had as a kid, so I have zero things from my childhood. I really wish I could find one of these, but I never can find them. We used to play the baseball game. We named one of the guys "Shaggy Pom Pom". Anytime a player hit a homerun, that was "Shaggy Pom Pom". Anytime they made an awesome play,.. that was "Shaggy Pom Pom". Lol. Maybe one day I'll find one.
the Odyssey 2 was my first console. I got it from my older brother and sister. I loved it till the nes came out.
Like s lot of consoles from the 2nd generation, I only recently aquired one of these, and I am impressed with the passion it elecites from its fan base.
I am on a bunch of different console fan groups on Facebook. So I see a lot of excitement mustered by many different retro console fans, but yeah, for the Odyssey 2 pages, there are peeps who fricken love this console to death! Nice to see people really keeping this console alive and well in a big way..
I've got one of these in box along with the voice addon. Found mine at a curiosity/antique shop, of all places. Such an underrated console. Great overview!
+Azura Bayta Thanks for watching!
This was my very first game console ever!! It's the console that got me into gaming. I was 5 when my dad brought it home. He got it from this rich dude that he used to work for. His kids were all grown and non of them wanted it. The had it for 7 years and then gave it to us in 1985. Man I loved this systems and still wish I had one.
Great channel. I could listen to gaming hardware videos all day. And I'm jealous that you got to meet The Gaming Historian IRL. I just love him
Had dinner with him last week.
@@AdamKoralik rub it in!!! 😂
@@cyrollan I shall. 💅
@@AdamKoralik tell him he is an inspiration to myself and some coworkers whom have come to love his work.
There were a *few* third party games. Parker Brothers did port over Q*Bert and Frogger, and Imagic ported Atlantis and Demon Attack. They may have only been released in Europe though.
EDIT: Also, RIP Classic Game Room. Sad he stopped the channel.
Great vid as always - love hearing you talk about console history!
Thanks!
had the UK version of this, it was my first console (the Philips G7000). So many good games on it, liked the fact that you could build your own mazes with Munchkin. Keep an eye out for Killer Bees, Satellite Attack and Pick Axe Pete.
Those hard wired controls were a pain. When they broke you had to send the whole unit away to Philips to get repaired...sometimes took weeks to get back.
I remember this console from when I was a little toddler, like 2 or 3 year old. My parents who owned an electronics store used to sell these. I got to play on it only once or twice as far as I remember. The only thing I can remember was a game where you destroy a tower with a catapult which after some searching is called "stone sling". I've wondered for years what this game was untill somehow the word "videopac" (same console philips branded) popped in my mind. Some googling later I finally found one my earliest childhood memories.
In North America, it was called Smithereens!
@@LajitasRain Good to know
Your channel and Classic Game Room are my favorite channels :) I actually got my Odyssey 2 at Uncle John's Flea Market in St. John Indiana for $10! I also bought a Fairchild Channel F System 2 for $15 from the same guy. I always try to find the people who have no idea what they've got :)
My neighbor had an odyssey 2 and a Fairchild channel F that I would play when my grandmother would go visit her. She had bought them for her grandchildren so they had something to do when they stayed with her. They were like new when I eventually got them in the late 80s.
There is a store that has the system and games....I am so tempted to buy it....however, I haven't had the best luck with that store. I was going to buy a Sega Master System, but didn't have the money on me. So, a few days later, I back with the money. When I showed up, the employee asked me "Why didn't you put it on layaway?". I was never told about layaway. But since I knew about it then, I figured i'd put the system and a few games on layaway until i got more money. So, I did...went back a few days later again to pick it up once I had the extra $30 or $40 that I needed. Got there and wanted to hook up the system to make sure it worked before I took it out the door (something I should have done before putting it on layaway, but I didn't think about it at the time). Hooked it up to the TV there and the system didn't work. The employee asked me "so, do you still want it?". Now, why the hell would I pay around $80 for a console that doesn't work? So, I asked for a refund. They said "well, we can only do store credit on returns". Well, I tried to argue them and say "this wasn't a return, it was you trying to sell me something that didn't work". I asked to speak to his manager but he wasn't there...was told to go return the next day. So, next day, i go back to the store. Owner wasn't at the store at the time. Was told the owner was across the street getting pizza...so I waited...about 30-45 minutes later, the owner comes in. The owner lets me get a full refund...so, yea, that kind of hurt my chances of doing business with them again
You know, you really shouldn't comment on peoples financial issues when you don't know them. I said I didn't have the money ON ME. A lot of my money stays at home in a safe...that particular day, there was close to $1000 cash sitting in that safe....so $80 wasn't an issue. Not to mention, I had more money coming to me...In case you are wondering about me keeping money in a safe at home, it's because I was recently a victim of wallet theft. If you have ever had that happen, you tend to be paranoid about carrying things around. The person that stole my wallet had my ID, credit card, debit card, PayPal card, etc...EVERYTHING they needed to rip me off BIG TIME. Not to mention, I had to pay to get another drivers license, had to freeze my bank account and get another card mailed to me, same thing with the credit cards.....so before you go making comments about peoples $80 purchase....maybe you should KNOW them a little better
I'll sell you one
just had to make another comment on the vertical/ hand _ communication error!😁 this was alot of fun always enjoy your work Adam. An remember how your earlier vids with just your hand's spoke volumes😇
+Kevin Twiner Thanks!
I actually had an uncle who had one of these when he was a kid. I was at my grandparent's house when I was a teen, and was interested in old consoles. I asked my dad if he ever had one, and he said "Yeah Steve had one." We went to the basement, and I was thinking it would probably be an atari 2600, but he pulled out this thing, same box and all. Couldn't hook it up, and the games had rusted connections. I remember I didn't think it was that cool, but interesting to look back on with the context of this video. Especially since the things only sold around 2mil.
This was my first console, and I freakin loved it. Still in my parents' basement in the caddy with all the games, and I bet it still works. Played the heck out of it, even after getting a 2600.
I had an Atari 2600, but my parents had a store next door to a Magnavox store. At 8 years old, I was going next door all of the time. (My parents sold women's clothing. The previous bookstore and the TV store were more interesting.) I playing with all of this stuff - Odyssey 2, MagnaVision (LaserDisc player), VCRs. The sales guy was often bored and I brought in my own tapes. He was OK with Abbott and Costello but he wasn't a kaiju fan. He did record the Battlestar Galactica pilot movie two weeks before we got our own VCR and recorded a few other things for us including a couple of Godzilla movies. (I can't remember why I didn't record them myself.)
I did like the Odyssey2, but I can't remember anything specific anymore. Too long ago.
The memories are flooding back...
Everyone keeps bashing the 2600 Pac-Man. I really didn't mind the differences. I never expected the 2600 to match the arcade. As long as it had the basic concept of the game, I still enjoyed it. Zaxxon for the 2600 didn't match the arcade either, and I still liked it.
While watching this video, it suddenly hit me. The Odyssey2 reminds me of the CoCo (Tandy Color Computer). Magnavox had the better unit.
Did the Odyssey have a BASIC cartridge? The Atari 2600 - with no keyboard - had a BASIC programming cartridge, but a console with a keyboard didn't? Is that correct? The 2600 used the keypad controllers with overlays.
Kind of glad we didn't have the internet back then. I had no idea I had an inferior version of Pac Man on the Atari and just enjoyed it. These days I know which versions of games are 792p or 900p with supposed input lag
I was friends with a kid who had one, he was ashamed to own it,... but wouldn't let me have it no matter how much money my 12 year old self could scrape up. Also,... was at Salvation Army with my mom around the same age and they had the original Odyssey unopened still in the box and cellophane mint condition for 2 dollars and my mom refused to buy it for me because I told her I had no intention in ever actually opening it and playing with it. :/ I'll never forget that. Fate ensured I should not ever have and Odyssey of any kind. Lol
My father came back from the USA when I was a kid (he was separated from my mother and he was travelling with his partner at the time) and both me back Odyssey 2 videogames. They looked very different from European games in colour and graphic style, so I was worried they would not work. It was a completely different era, no internet, so you needed to travel in another country to get their electronics. At that time a friend who travelled to USA / Japan was a resource. Of course they work perfectly and I was satisfied, if I recall correctly some of them were not distributed in Europe, not even with another name...
Yet another amazing video. Love the console and almost have a complete collection. There also was the other model that did have removable controllers BTW.
+Nick O Thanks!
u answered my question
Rad!
CaptNRetro The one with removable controllers actually has silver controllers instead of black ones and is more rare. I personally have never actually seen one but they are out there for sure.
neither have original controllers then..just black ones..but thats cool..they both work
Actually, the controllers aren't hard-wired, you just have to open the case to get to the plugs. With simple modification you can use CX-40's on an Odyssey 2. :)
I love these generations videos and the odyssey 2 and Fairchild channel F are two nice systems but the Fairchild's controller is one of my favourite controllers of this generation. The collicovision is my favourite of this generation. That's weird for me because the two second gen consoles I owned as a kid was the Atari 2600 and a vectrex. The vectrex is a close second favourite of that gen though. I always wanted a collicovision when I was a kid but never got one.
just a heads up there actually was a few 3rd party games Parker Brothers did ports of Frogger, Popeye, Q*bert , & Super Cobra while Imagic brought over 2 of their games being Atlantis, & Demon Attack
I would recommend obtaining "The Voice" attachment. 😁 By the way, Atari sued Magnavox after the release of K.C. Munchkin. That is why K.C.'s Crazy Chase has a completely different premise. 😉
you need to play Pick Axe Pete. Best game on the O2
Learned electronics as a kid by taking things apart... I'm glad I learned, but I took apart my Magnavox Odyssey, Fairchild Channel F, Magnavox Odyssey 2, Commodore PET, Colecovision ADAM, TRS-80 CoCo 2, Tandy 6000 HD... Took 'em ALL apart... ;_; Least I still have my Atari VCS, Intellivision, VIC-20, C64, C128, Apple IIe, HP 9825, and NES + newer.
The Phillips thing looks like an Atari 8-bit computer.
Great 80's game system. I was lucky to have both an Atari and Odyssey 2 in my home growing up so it was easy to side by side them. Atari was more popular by far but from some reason I played the Odyssey 2 more. Also Freedom Fighters wasn’t Asteroids it was a Defender clone. The Oddyssey 2 clone of Asteroids was called UFO
Buy a Vectrex for this series!!!
Having had one several years back I can say it was one of the best consoles from this generation. I love my 2600 and Colecovision but the Vectrex was truly something special. I wish I had been able to experience the 3D setup on mine before I got rid of it. I need to see if I can get the one I had back from a friend of mine.
Definitely an awesome console for this generation
Bought one a couple years ago
Impulse buy, but I've enjoyed it ever since
The Vectrex. was certainly very unique and it's a shame it didn't receive more success. Vector graphics just have a certain appeal to them.
I have lived long and complicated lives in my dreams and I don't want to talk about it there's an enormous space time difference in my dreams compared to real life
This was the first video game system I had as a kid. I wanted and Atari 2600 but instead my mom got me this. Still I played that thing for hours and hours
One of my friends had this, I had the 2600. We used to trade for a week at a time. Funny story about the controllers being hard wired, when my friends player 2 controller broke we replaced it with a 2600 controller, not bad for 2 - 11 year olds
When I got this in the day, it had SILVER topped controllers like those. I remember as the paint rubbed off of it after a while. Played it on the RCA XL100 TV. It was actually the BETTER console than Atari for what it could do, but alas, came late. The neatest cartridge was the HEX/Assembly trainer (it was more than just for games). At the time it was confusing (no Wikipedia or RUclips then to teach you it, nor even a local computer shop to grab books on it). But the date was late and by the early 1980s people were flocking to computers by then. I had a kit built Timex-Sinclair in 1983 (with the memory pack for a whopping 2KB of memory!). After than never went back to console anything again.
I had a lot of fun with this console , when was a kid
I'm watching this in 2017, And Magnavox just turned 100!
all the neighbor's kids would line up for "football tournament with double elimination. we would play for close to 4 hours till we got a champion. way better than 2600 or 5200 football. you set up your play both offense and defense. it was really cool. we bought ours at Western Auto in 1982 (i think)
My boss swears by the Odyssey 2's baseball game. He said he thought it was far superior to "baseball on the 2600". I asked him if he meant "Home Run" - which wouldn't take much to surpass - but I said there's no way it could be better than "RealSports Baseball".
I had an Odyssey 2. This was the first cartridge system I ever owned. My dad bought it in 1979. This was a simple system that had several fun games. I have fond memories of this system. They made several games that were knockoffs of Atari games. I think the knock off games were better than anything on the 2600.
I had a Philips Videopac G7000 as a kid, because of that, it's a system I want to have emulated on far more places than it appears emulators appear.
The Videopac G7000 was the European version of the Oddyssey 2 and looked identical to the Odyssey 2 except not only was everything hard wired (mine got chucked when the joysticks stopped working) and oh yeah, the system didn't have a power switch. To change cartridges, you had to unplug it from the mains.
The console you actually featured was the Videopac+ G7400 which was an upgraded, backwardly compatible version of the G7000.
You also had a G7200 which was a G7000 with a built in black and white monitor (VectrexRoli has avideo on it)
Also, you say that intellectual property wasn't a thing back then, yet KC Munchkin was actually the subject of a lawsuit! Atari sued Magnavox because of the similarity to Pac Man, the game had to be withdrawn! (probably because it was such a popular game that Namco and Atari couldn't *not* notice!)
You should try to find a copy of Pickaxe Pete. It was pretty good for the time!
Hey Adam i was at a retro game store near a Chicago suburb and they had a Magnavox oddesey 2 system in box now i seen 1 for sale some were.
As a kid i had the intelevision,atari 2600 and the Philips G7400 Plus+a lot of games😊
I got one of these for X-mas when I was a child.
I really like KC munchkin . I got most of the games that came out for the odyssey 2 and Fairchild channel F from my neighbor also because she had lost some of them and found them later and gave them to my grandmother to give to me from Santa they were all brand new in the box because I only played two games on each system that her grandchildren had tried them once and never used them again.
This is the highlight of my day!
+Mr Fahrenheit Woo!
Thinking back at the 80s, mine version hadn't the red button on top and the name and brand was different
8-bit computers were actually a lot more common than around this time, so i'm not suprised Magnavox made a weird hybrid to try and appeal to both markets.
Nobody knew for sure where the money was so they pocked everything.
ColasTeam 1
good video, mines still untested. will finish later
Kc rocked we got it after asking for intelivision at first we were disappointed but Kc was so cool and Alien invasion. The games we had were very good.
I could be wrong, but I believe the Magnavox Odyssey 2 was called the Philips VideoPac G-7000 here in the UK. I believe they are the same console Adam
Your corrrect it was released in Europe under that name and under another in Japan. Plus Brasil had a release.
Still got mine and a bucket load of games.
I have to add Adam if you want some of the best games on the Odyssey 2 get Attack of the Time Lord, Sid the Spellbinder, and Smithereens. Three of the most fun games of the 2nd gen bar none.
This was my first console. It was a hand-me-down from my sister.
+Rooks37 Like it?
AdamKoralik I loved it.
Interesting fact. The original Odyssey's cartridges didn't have roms. They were just a bunch of pins connected in different ways to select the different game variations. They could have just had a selector switch on the console.
I say Blockout/Breakdown is more of an improved version of Breakout, where some "demons" replace the blocks you knocked out. Alien invaders is more simplified but with a twist: When you get hit, you don't die but lose your ship and turn one of the shields into a new ship. You run out of shields, ur s.o.l.
Best system ever, for that time!!!! Having a keyboard and the voice, I remember KC munchkin you could make your own levels, it was hours of fun.
Actually there are several versions of this system ,the Odyssey 2 Voice was one,the Odyssey 2 Microprocessor was the one he showed in the video. Also in the video you can see that the box shows a slightly different console than the console in front of him. Console in front of him has black joysticks where as on the box there the silver ones. That's because at least two versions of the Microprocessor one. In addition to the joysticks where it says Odyssey 2 Microprocessor to left of game slot,some have that printed directly onto the console,where as some,(like mine) have a raised plate that says the same thing. I have no clue what the deal is with the two microprocessor versions is,but if someone does please let m,e know as I want to sell mine and don't want to screw myself. Finally,the game I have for mine is a little different too. Most I see are English only as far as what's written on the game cartridges. My game which is titled "UFO" has English,as well as a second language which I have discovered is Portugese, which makes me think it's likely the version released in Brazil. Need an expert to drop some knowledge on me please & thank-you.
I had a Philips g7000 but never had the voice Kings for it only found out recently about them but I heard that the 2600 Atari head voice games they sent the Mattel intervision was the best for The Voice
A later version on the system actually had detachable controllers, which were silver instead of black.
cool video tech talk adam
I say Blockout/breakdown is more of an improved version of breakdown in a sense that some "demons" replace the blocks you knocked out or you take on the role of the demons.
I had one growing up in 1982
Open the console up and its easily able to swap out cords for tv controllers can come out. You say no memories of this console that counts but you have the same one most collectors of this system have this day and age. I went out took a chance on an unknown retro system and played new vintage games I never played and found out how great a system it is
I had a friend back in the 80s who's dad had bought an Odyssey 2 before moving onto the Commodore VIC-20, the Commodore 64, and the Commodore 128. And he had Odyssey 2 joysticks that had actual DB9 connectors on it which they hooked up to their C64. I don't know if they were ever sold like that or if his father had done mods to them. The O2 was in his closet along with a Coleco Telstar and another Coleco pong console knock-off. I always found the O2 - mainly because of the odd alignment of its keyboard in relation to the rest of its case - to be really odd and kinda off-putting. The box art design for the O2 console box and cartridge boxes were always cool, if not cooler than the actual products. It was annoying that their game "Attack of the Time Lord" had nothing to do with the [real] Time Lords from "Doctor Who". Reminds me of how the Intellivision's "Night Stalker" game had nothing to do with "Kolchak the Night Stalker". I think both companies there really blew it on such licensing opportunities. "K.C. Munchkin!" is so well-liked in the retro community that the one man homebrew army that Bob Pac-Man Plus DeCrezcenzo, who has apparently made it his own personal mission to make more games for the Atari 7800 than GCC/Atari Inc/Atari Corp ever did during that console's original commercial lifespan, made an authorized version of it for the Atari 7800 and is sold in AtariAge's store. You are definitely right about the lack of third-party gaming on the O2; even the TI-99 4/A had third-party support. But the reason why the ex-Atari gang founded Activision was because they wanted residuals and compensation similar to what Hollywood gave to screenwriters, actors, directors, and producers. And why did they go for the Hollywood model? Because Atari's parent company at the time was Warner Communications, aka "Warner Bros. Pictures". When Ray "the Czar" Kassar, Atari's CEO, rejected their offer and said that they were no better than towel designers, they quit and founded Activision. Atari sued and kinda rightfully so since a lot of Activision's games were enhanced versions of existing Atari IP, but the courts didn't find a legit reason on copyright to prevent companies from making video games for another company's console(s) which opened up the flood gates to unauthorized third-party developers which greatly contributed to "The Crash"... It really sucked that The Crash took down the original Atari Inc but as a kid at the time, it was pretty sweet buying up a bunch of 2600 cartridges for $1 a piece. Star Wars toys also cratered at the time but us GenX kids had moved onto G.I. Joe and the Transformers around that time too...
It's actually the Odyssey^2 (squared) and the game versions are definitely more fun than most of the 2600 counter parts.
I always see a complete in box odyssey 2 at my go to retro game store in Sioux City Iowa. It was 60 but they recently just bumped it down to $50 because nobody wants it. I should really pick it up before somebody else gets it.
We used to play Odyssey² sports games at a kid's house in 1980-1: baseball, football, bowling and basketball, which were usually better than Atari's. Basketball on the Atari was better because it had a whole court and not just a line. I had hoped to see what volleyball looked like. Not interested in their space games or KC Munchkin.
Space Invaders was the must-have game for first quarter 1980 and Atari got the license. If Intellivision or Odyssey² had gotten it, then they might not have won the console competition since Atari would soon have other arcade games of their own to port to their system, but the one with Space Invaders would have been competitive at maybe 40% market share.
Odyssey² sold 1 million consoles in its lifetime, same as the Atari 5200 (5% of the market, each). I think Atari actually sabotaged their new system's rollout to sell more 2600s because they had dropped the manufacturing costs to $40 in Hong Kong or Taiwan. So they didn't want to retire the 2600 and sold another 2-5 million in 1982-3, mainly through Pac-Man Fever. The 5200 also came with Super Breakout, perhaps the worst game in their opening library. Had they saved Pac-Man just for that system, it would have sold it, and maybe the Crash of 1983 wouldn't have happened? Galaxians and Soccer were the only 2 games for the 5200 in 1982 not already released for the 2600.
(Intellivision would sell 3 million for 15% market share; 20% before Atari Pac-Man, since it sold 2-5 million more Atari consoles in 1982).
Never had the voice games for the g7000 but only found out recently about them
Just got a magnovox oddesy 2 this last weekend
I live in Canary Island. I have a Philips Videopac +G7400. It was much better than Atari at his time.
Thumps up from Germany!
Thanks from the US!
You HAVE to do a video on how video games are moving to handhelds, especially now that the Nintendo is betting all their chips on it. Obviously, there's a history there. The NOMAD is really the first to try what Nintendo is doing (how'd that go?).
NEC's TurboExpress handheld predates the Sega Nomad.
I got my oddessy 2 with 10 games and the voice module for $25 from the original owner. It's worth every penny
I don't mean to be rude or anything, but do you have a non-youtube job? It's just that you seem really successful, but I can't see RUclips making enough money to collect games and live in Chicago. Secondly, what neighborhood do you live in(seriously not trying to be creepy). I live in the suburbs and am looking to move into Jeff Park in the next year or two.
This stuff(game history) is so interesting to me, your channel is awesome!
Liz Walsh he is a member of a much more successful RUclips channel, game society pimps, that brings in a lot more money
the odyssey 1 came out before pong by like a few months , according to internet
I really have to get an odyssey 2 and an intellevision again for my collection.
Great video! And second.
+Technology Spotlight Thanks.
I love your T-shirt
super vidéo mon gars , je m abonne direct
I like the boxes for this system, but they often seem to be less than great condition. I swear I have one that has the same tape as the one you have!
I guess there was a version of the console with detachable controllers, but mostly they were made in this annoying way. I've seen them around here a few times for sale, that's how I got mine (in box).
Adam I seen a odyssey 2 with some games nice an clean for $110.00,do you think that is to much?
It does not have a box or any papers though.
There is another version of this console that is built into it's own TV, like the Nintendo SF1.
Yep! Actually 2: N60 in France and G7200 later in other parts of Europe.
I played 'Pick Axe Pete' for hours... high score 800+
Needed a much better quality controller.
I played it so much I FLIPPED the high score back to zero.
i love the history thank you
+leonard brown Thanks for watching!