Magnavox Odyssey FAQ Created 10/29/97 Original author: Shaun Gegan a.k.a. Loomis Now maintained by David Winter Version 2.8.1 revised March 8, 2001 For more infos about PONG, go to http://www.pong-story.com If you want to contribute to this FAQ, send en email to o1faq@pong-story.com You are welcome to link and use this FAQ as long as you credit the authors accordingly. No parts of this FAQ should be removed, altered or modified without permission. Version info: X.X.X | | | | | \_ Small modifications | \___ New sub-section added \_____ New section added and/or FAQ restructured Last revision: - Added sections 3.6 and 3.7 Contributors (in alphabetical order): ------------------------------------- Andrew Davie (adavie@mad.scientist.com) Anthony Leckington (ael@teleport.com) Jerry Greiner (JerryG@hevanet.com) Kai (kccomp@ix.netcom.com) Lee K. Seitz (lkseitz@hiwaay.net) Matthew Kiehl (waffles@swbell.net) Mattias Persson (lamperss@algonet.se) Ryan H. Osborn (rosborn@mindspring.com) Van Burnham (van@wired.com) Some info gathered from: ------------------------ Herman, Leonard. "Phoenix: The Fall and Rise of Video Games" Rolenta. New Jersey. (ISBN 0-9643848-2-5) 1995. http://www.rolentapress.com Contents: --------- 1 - What is the Odyssey ? 2 - What is the history of the machine's development ? 3 - Can you describe the Odyssey ? 3.1 - What sort of games were played with the Odyssey ? 3.2 - How were the games played ? 3.3 - What's inside the Odyssey and how does it work ? 3.4 - What was the 1974 re-release of the Odyssey ? 3.5 - Was the Odyssey improved ? 3.6 - Was there any "hobbyist" projects around the Odyssey ? 3.7 - Were there any foreign Odyssey clones ? 4 - What items came standard with the Odyssey ? 4.1 - Hardware 4.2 - Standard game accessories 4.3 - Loose documents 5 - What additional games were available ? 5.1 - Pack 1 5.2 - Pack 2 5.3 - Electronic rifle games 5.4 - Percepts 5.5 - Complete list of games 6 - Were there any add-on hardware accessories ? 6.1 - Organizer case 6.2 - Other add-on hardware accessories 7 - Are there different versions of the Odyssey ? 8 - Didn't Atari have a hand in the Odyssey ? 9 - What technical information is available ? 9.1 - Replacing the battery pack 9.2 - Cartridge pinouts 1 - What is the Odyssey ? ------------------------- The Magnavox Odyssey was the very first home video game system. It allowed to play "Ball and Paddle" games such as PING-PONG, TABLE TENNIS, VOLLEYBALL, BASKETBALL, and others. On January 27th, 1972, Magnavox began production on the machine, and the system was released in May. It was heavily advertised and reportedly sold 100,000 units in 1972 for around $100 each. The machine was discontinued in late 1974 or early 1975 with the release of the Odyssey 100. 200,000 units were probably sold in all. Additional games were also available, and a rifle pack known as "Shooting Gallery" was also available to play shooting games. The Odyssey allowed to play a total of 28 different games. 2 - What is the history of the machine's development ? ------------------------------------------------------ Much of this information has been gathered from David Winter and Mr. Baer himself. If you are interested in obtaining more historical information then please go to http://www.pong-story.com. The videogame invention dates 1951 when Ralph Baer entered at Loral, an electronics equipment manufacturer. Ralph was engaged for his television experience. Sam Lackoff, Chien Engineer, told him to "Build the best television set in the world". In the line, Ralph suggested to add some sort of "interactive game" to the television to distinguish his team from the crowd. Unsuccessfull, his idea will stay without investigation for the next 15 years. In 1966, Ralph Baer (who had immigrated to the U.S. from Germany in 1938), started the design his videogame invention. His system was roughly based on the "Ball and Paddle" principle. The genius of his invention was the use of a regular television set as screen, rather than an expensive monitor, oscilloscope, or other equipment that used a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube). At that time, Ralph was working at Sanders Associates. His idea was to design a system allowing to transform a regular TV set into a home game system. The story really began september 1st, 1966 when Ralph Baer wrote a 4-page description of his idea. No later than september 6th, he had drawn the schematics of a simple two-player game. He will first play with it on May 7th 1967, and will demonstrate it on June 14th, after having improved it with the addition of an electronic gun allowing to shoot targets on the television screen. After recruiting Bill Rusch (an engineer) and Bill Harrison (a technician) in Octover/November to assist him in the development of his system, Ralph will design the very first TENNIS videogame, later sold by Atari as PONG. He will demonstrate his complete system between November 9th and 13th to several manufacturers such as Teleprompter, and even NYC cable company as an interactive cable game system, but the company was skeptical, hence a bad success. This "interactive cable game system" idea was extremely advanced and new at that time, since games played in network only appeared 15 years later when computers were vastly sold for home use, and became a real standart in the 1990s with the growth of the internet. Ralph will patent his invention on January 15th 1968 and begin the design a more advanced system offering multiple games: the Brown Box. This system could be "re-wired" using simple switches placed on its front panel. The videogame system was born. The Brown Box allowed to play Tennis, Volley-Ball, Football, and two shooting games, all of which were played using transparent plastic overlays (used as background pictures) placed in front of the television screen. Note that the Brown Box had a feature that Magnavox did not include in the Odyssey for costs reasons: electronically-generated color background. Sanders Associates had the exclusive rights of the manufacture, sale and use of "ball and paddle" videogames. All other makers would require licensing to manufacture the games. Here's a good description by Ralph Baer himself of his Brown Box: "The two horizontal rows of switches on the front panel (also seen in pics on my website) were moved for each game with the aid of a card placed between the two rows of switches. Each card (for example the ping-pong card) had dots next to the switches to indicate which of them had to be moved downward. The replacement of these switches with the p.c. carts by Magnavox was the major difference between the Brown Box and the production version Odyssey 1 unit (good idea). The other difference was that my Brown box had electonically-generated colored backgrounds (green for ping-pong, blue for hockey etc,). Magnavox did not include the color-circuitry for cost-reasons (bad idea!)." In January of 1969, Baer demonstrated the revised unit (adding light gun and joystick interface). This is the very first fully programmable, multi player videogame unit. Demonstrations were made to several TV-set manufacturers, including RCA, General Electric, Zenith, Sylvania, Magnavox and Warwick-Sears. Most of these demonstrations took place at the Sanders Associates plant at Nashua, NH. This resulted in a first license agreement with RCA in March 1970, which was later canceled. On July 17th 1970, Ralph demonstrated his "Brown Box" to Magnavox TV-Set engineering, production and marketing management in their Ft. Wayne, IN plant. A preliminary License Agreement was signed with Magnavox on March 3rd. Between March and September 1970, Baer assisted Magnavox engineers in the production of the system, which was called Odyssey. The rest is history. In 1971 Ralph Baer patented the Television Gaming Apparatus: "The present invention pertains to an apparatus [and method], in conjunction with monochrome and color television receivers, for the generation, display, manipulation, and use of symbols or geometric figures upon the screen of the television receivers for the purpose of [training simulation, for] playing games [and for engaging in other activities] by one or more participants. The invention comprises in one embodiment a control unit, an apparatus connecting the control unit to the television receiver and in some applications a television screen overlay mask utilized in conjunction with a standard television receiver. The control unit includes the control, circuitry, switches and other electronic circuitry for the generation, manipulation and control of video signals which are to be displayed on the television screen. The connecting apparatus selectively couples the video signals to the receiver antenna terminals thereby using existing electronic circuits within the receiver to process and display the signals generated by the control unit in a first state of the coupling apparatus and to receive broadcast television signals in a second state of the coupling apparatus. An overlay mask which may be removably attached to the television screen may determine the nature of the game to be played or the training simulated. Control units may be provided for each of the participants. Alternatively, games [training simulations and other activities] may be carried out in conjunction with background and other pictorial information originated in the television receiver by commercial TV, closed-circuit TV or a CATV station." After an initial deal with RCA falls through, the unit was further marketed and Magnavox was licensed to manufacture and distribute what was released in May of 1972 as the 'Odyssey Home Entertainment System.' On a side note, the system was sold primarily through Magnavox- affiliated stores. Retailers (and perhaps Magnavox themselves) implied to potential customers that a Magnavox television was required in order to use the Odyssey. This was probably done to increase television sales. But alas, limited distribution combined with shady and uninformed retaillers proved to be fatal blunders that ultimately backfired and killed the machine within a year. However, the Odyssey was re-released in 1974 to be exported in 12 foreign countries (see section 3.4). 3 - Can you describe the Odyssey ? ---------------------------------- 3.1 - What sort of games were played with the Odyssey ? The Odyssey was a very simple machine by today's standards. Microchips were very expensive in 1972 (Intel had just released the microprocessor in 1971). Subsequently, the Odyssey was designed with only 40 transistors and 40 diodes. It did not keep scores, did not produce sound effects, and displayed a black and white picture with its very minimal graphic capabilities. The only objects it could display were two paddles (one for each player), a ball and a vertical line. All of them were not always displayed. TENNIS used them all, but for example, the game called "Simon Says" only used the paddles. Note that those paddles were squares and not rectangles like in the later PONG games. Even if those graphic elements were extremely simple, the Odyssey allowed to play 28 games of various types: sports games (Tennis, Table Tennis, Volleyball, Football, Basketball, Baseball), money games (Roulette), space games (Interplanetary Voyage), shooting games (Dogfight, Shooting Gallery), and even edicational games (Simon Says, States). 3.2 - How were the games played ? Due to the extreme simplicity of the few graphics displayed on the TV screen, most of the games required the used of additional accessories, and those were numerous. Except Table Tennis, all games used transparent color plastic overlays which contained the backgrounds of the games. Those were to be taped onto one's television, or stored when not in use. More than 300 other accessories came with the Odyssey, including several sets of paper cards and paper money, dice, and miscalleanous plastic chips. These items helped to improve the machine's aforementioned simplicity. The Odyssey games were mainly played using those parts, and they were selected by using small cartridges (six of them were originally provided). Each cartridge allowed playing a certain type of game, hence several games using a same cartridge. Some games even required the use of two or three cartridges, since they were not always played the same way. If the Odyssey allowed to play 12 games, other games were also released as add-ons. They were either sold separately or by packs of 6. Each game came with its overlays and accessories, and would sometimes come with a cartridge when not using one of the six cartridges originally provided with the Odyssey. Also, an electronic rifle called Shooting Gallery was available. This extension allowed playing four games. This simple light gun would only detect light, thus allowing the player to cheat by shooting a light bulb. Since no scores were displayed on the TV screen, cheating was obviously irrelevant. As mentioned earlier, a rumor wanted that the Shooting Gallery rifle would only work with a Magnavox TV set. Although wrong, lots of users didn't buy this rifle and only 20,000 or so were sold. 3.3 - What's inside the Odyssey and how does it work ? The game cartridges consisted in a small printed circuit board with no components but only jumpers which would merely enable the necessary parts of the machine (ball generator, paddle generators, central line height and location, collision detection) and select how the collisions between the ball and the other objects were detected and what those collisions would interract with. The Odyssey is a modular system since it is programmable. It contains five types of modules: spot generators (which display a rectangle with preset size, location and brightness; one for each player, one for the central line and one for the gray backround which "illuminates" the overlays), sync generators and RF modules (which generate some parts of the video signal sent to the TV set), flip-flops (which toggle the direction of the ball and where the english effect acts), and gate matrix (which determines how collisions happen and how they interract on the objects drawn). Therefore, opening the Odyssey will reveal a main board with all the modules mentioned before. 3.4 - What was the 1974 re-release of the Odyssey ? The Odyssey was re-released in 1974 to be exported in 12 foreign countries (Australia, Belgium, England, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Switzerland, USSR, Venezuela). So far, it has been found in France, England, and Germany. This lighter version had 10 games instead of 12. It is unknown if it was really sold in the USA, although a very few were found there. Games removed from the original package were Cat & Mouse, Football, Haunted House, Roulette, and States. To those 7 original games, were added three games originally available as add-ons: Soccer, Volleyball and Wipe Out. It is interesting to note that Soccer was rather a re-release of Football, in order to match the game rules used in the foreign countries. This game can only be found in a 1974 Odyssey package. Also, the Simon Says and Wipe Out paper cards were re-printed in order to contain texts in three languages (English, German and Spanish or Italian). To finish with this special version of the Odyssey, the user manual was smaller: 24 pages instead of 36, and the console came with an additional patent list on its back side, showing the 12 countries where it was exported. Surprisingly, the german Odyssey contained two special manuals replacing the original one. These were completely translated in german, and included much more detailed information. One manual was for the system itself, and the other for the game rules. Very last detail: this 1974 Odyssey was supposed to be released by ITT Schaub-Lorentz in France and Germany as the ODYSSEE (and not ODYSSEY). If only Magnavox versions were found, the german manuals show several pictures of TV sets made by ITT Schaub-Lorentz, and one console found in germany has been reported to have the ODYSSEE logo (but this one was still in a Magnavox box, and did not contain the 12 coutries patent list on its back side). Scans of the german manuals and trilingual cards are available at http://www.pong-story.com/odyssey.htm . 3.5 - Was the Odyssey improved ? Odyssey cartridges contain no electronic components. The Odysey does not have the on-screen scoring feature, does not produce any sound effect, and does not use any cable connection. However, Ralph Baer was interested by these features, mostly because Atari PONG had on-screen scoring and sound effects, which gave more tonus to the game itself. Ralph decided to modify an Odyssey in his lab. He made a small electronic circuit that he connected to the Odyssey (to the "Gate Matrix" module which manages collisions between the objects displayed on screen), which could therefore produce some sound when the ball hit a player. Thinking about the limited capabilities of this console, he also made improved cartridges by putting additional electronic components of them, which gave new features to the Odyssey. Then, he tried to use again his "cable TV" games where the overlays were replaced by constant pictures broadcasted through the TV cable. His idea was better, since in addition to the "broadcasted overlays", new moving [football] players were also broadcasted, thus giving the impression of playing with distant players. The modified Odyssey (that he called "Super Odyssey") was able to detect these additional players, and even act on them as if they were true players, thus letting users play against virtual ones. He demonstrated a working prototype which was successfull, just like his original idea. Therefore, Ralph decided to work on an improved but simpler version of the Odyssey that would use integrated circuits to replace the numerous discrete components of the original design. His idea was to integrate them into several chips to lower the cost of the console. Thus was born Odyssey 100, followed by improved models (Odyssey 200, 400 and 500; 300, 2000, 3000 and 4000 being made with a totally different technology based around a single game chip made by General Instruments). 3.6 - Was there any "hobbyist" projects around the Odyssey ? In the 1970s, there was a certain enthusiasm around computers and video games. At that time, "Make-It-Yourself" computer and video game projects was a quite common thing, where hobbyists were assembling their own systems and eventually proposing them to magazines. The Odyssey was a simple video game system, so there was not the same activity than with early computers, but at least some people remember an amazing Odyssey user hack. Some people discovered that the circuit boards of the Odyssey cartridges only contained jumpers. Thus, they designed custom "switch" cartridges to "try and see" what happened on their TV. Charles L., technician, remembers it quite well: "I am an electronics type by trade, and back in the mid 1970's I heard of more than one technician who had soldered up boards with switches. I never saw one, but I know it was done. I think they used a game board, cutting the game traces so it was "blank" (or they started with a blank card edge board, anyway), and extended the traces to either banks of "dip" switches, or rotary selector (switching would have been more sophisticated). The easiest thing would have been to wire in a "breadboard" that would accept jumper wires. The one I remember the most was, I believe, a design with the "dip" switches to jumper the traces as required; not many different configurations were possible (i.e. working configurations), so it wasn't that hard a project." 3.7 - Were there any foreign Odyssey clones ? 3.7.1 - ITT Schaub Lorentz version This is not a real clone, but a real Magnavox license sold to ITT Schaub-Lorenz so that the company could release its own version of the Odyssey. If ITT announced the release of the Odyssee (and not Odyssey) in several countries for 1974, only a german version was found so far. It is a US Odyssey that was repackaged with a different box (blue ITT Odyssee title, different photos), german-only accessories, and small plastic overlays on the molded english texts of the system. The carton box that was used for shipping the system is also different: it has a large black Magnavox logo, which is quite surprising for an ITT version, but at least it shows that the system was partially imported from the USA. The two manuals are same than the Magnavox version, but they have ITT Schaub-Lorenz logos instead of Magnavox logos. The exact date of this ITT version is still unknown, but the system that was found was surprisingly manufactured in 1976, which lets think that the ITT version might have been released later (at least after the 1974 Magnavox version). 3.7.2 - Sweedish "Channel 34" clone" This is, however, a true Odyssey clone that was released in Sweden. Called "Channel 34", this strange system was built in a bigger white case with a top-loading cartridge connector. The rest remained same (probably with different copytights for the overlays) and the system was announced in 1975 along with two other ananlog ones. However, no Channel-34 system seems to have survived. This is probably due to its expensive price, compared to the cheaper and more advanced analog systems that were announced at the same time. The "Channel-34" name looks a bit strange, but in fact it might come from the original Odyssey that sent video signals on channels 3 and 4. 4 - What items came standard with the Odyssey ? ----------------------------------------------- 4.1 - Hardware - Master control unit (ITL 200 1 of 4 pcs.) - 2 Player control units (ITL 200 1 of 4 pcs.) - Game cord (ITL 200 1 of 4 pcs.) - RF switch with 2 hanging hooks (ITL 001). Came in its own box. - 6 red-label Eveready C batteries - 6 game cartridges: #1 Table Tennis #2 Ski, Simon Says #3 Tennis, Analogic, Hockey, & Football (for passing & kicking) #4 Cat and Mouse, Football (for running), Haunted House #5 Submarine #6 Roulette, States - 22 Overlays (2 per game, for different screen sizes): Anologic Cat and Mouse Football Haunted House Hockey Roulette Simon Says Ski States Submarine Tennis 4.2 - Standard game accessories - Stick on numbers (642978-2) - Football Game board field/Roulette Layout board (642898 0001) - Odyssey stadium scoreboard (two versions) * 642964-1 for the normal 12-game Odyssey console * IB2874-1 with no detachable paper tokens for the 1974 10-game Odyssey - 2 Football tokens (attached to the Odyssey stadium scoreboard) - 2 Yardage markers (attached to the Odyssey stadium scoreboard) - 20 Pass cards - 20 Run cards - 10 Kick off cards - 10 Punt cards - 2 Pass card - 2 Run cards - 2 Punt cards - 30 Clue cards - 13 Secret message cards - 50 chips (16 red 16 blue 18 white) with ziplock bag - Money (approximately 100 each of $5 $10 $50 and $100) - 28 Simon says cards - 50 States cards - Affairs of states (answer folder) (591549-1) - States study map (591550-1) - Pair of dice 4.3 - Loose documents - Odyssey installation and game rules book (two versions) * IB2622-2, 36 pages. Came with the regular 1972 Odyssey models * IB2874-1, 24 pages. Came with the 1974 Odyssey release. - "How to get service" card (EL2811-2) - "Thank you" card (EL3018-1) - "Notice" card (EL3028-1) - 2 key punch inspection cards - A coupon that promised "free games" with registration (Percepts?) 5 - What additional games were available ? ------------------------------------------ (Major thanks to David Winter) Apparently add-on games were sold individually or in packs of 6. Each game was packed in a black 1x4x17 carton box. There are two different lots. 5.1 - Pack 1 - Fun Zoo (#ITL900) Included two overlays, 28 Fun Zoo Cards, and instructions. Used card #2 supplied with base system. - Baseball (#ITL700) Included two overlays, game board, scoreboard, 26 Line Up Cards (13 Red, 13 Blue), 10 Power Cards, 10 Big Break Cards, 12 runner tokens (4 red, 4 blue, 4 white), a pair of dice and instructions. Used card #3 supplied with base system. - Invasion (#ITL801) Included two overlays, 40 Treasure Loot Cards, 300 army tokens, 4 token chips, dice, invasion game board and instructions. Used cards #4, #5 and #6 supplied with the base system. - Volleyball (#ITL702), box 982329-1 Included two overlays, game card #7 and instructions (EL 2790-1). - Handball (#ITL701) Included two overlays, game card #8 and instructions. - Wipeout (#ITL800), box 982329-4 "... advance your car along the game board as you complete your laps. You must be fast, but also accurate, as you are timed and penalized by the timer light. (for 2 to 4 players)" Included two overlays, game board (which folds into thirds 643004-1), 25 pit stop cards, four car tokens (small, skinny plastic cars similar to the one in monopoly- red, yellow, green, and blue), and instructions (EL 2791-1), and instructions. Used game card #5 supplied with the base system. 5.2 - Pack 2 (one known to exist) - Win (#7302, 1973), box 982329-13 Included two overlays, 18 word cards, 9 image cards, 18 number cards, 4 crayons, 4 slates (643211-1), and instructions (EL2913-1). Used card #4 supplied with base system. - Interplanetary Voyage (#7175, 1973), box 982329-14 Included two overlays, game board (643208-1), 40 mission cards, 72 knowledge cards, 4 spaceship tokens, ? message chips, and instructions (EL 2910-1). Included cart #12. - Wipeout (see above). - Volleyball (see above). - Basketball (#7123), box 982329-7 Included two overlays, game card #? and instructions. Might have included other accessories, but the only copy known to exist misses every piece that was originally in the box. - Brain Wave (#7176, 1973), box 982329-15 Included two overlays, 1 game board (643210-1), 2 sets of 48 thought tiles, 2 dice, 2 memory banks (1 blue, 1 green. 643209-1), 2 power markers (1 blue, 1 green), and instructions (EL2911-1). Used game card #3. 5.3 - Electronic rifle games Those four games were included in the Shooting Gallery rifle pack. Three came with cartridge #9, and one came with cartridge #10: - #9 Shootout, Dogfight, and Prehistoric Safari - #10 Shooting Gallery 5.4 - Percepts Percepts was an add-on game which was originally avilable for free when customers would send a special pink paper included in the Odyssey package. It is also rumored that some systems included this game, but this is not proved. Due to the way of being available, Percepts is a very scarce game. It included two overlays, two decks of 15 Percepts cards (one green, one purple) and instructions. Used card #2 supplied with base system. 5.5 - Complete list of games Finally, here is the complete list of the 28 Odyssey games. It is still unknown if more were available. There's a very little rumor that maybe 15 extra games were released, but this is absolutely not confirmed. [David Winter]: "It is interesting to have a closer look at the black carton boxes of those extra games. As a matter of fact, there's a number written on one of the four little flaps of the box ends. Each different game box has the same number, which varies from 1 to 15. If we suppose that 15 different game boxes exist, this will mean that only 10 of 15 games are known to exist, and 5 are still unknown. Moreover, if we suppose that the games were originally available by packs of 6, the closest multiple of 6 is 18, which makes me believe that a maximum of 18 games could have been planned, some of which may have been never released. But this is really not something to consider, mostly because there are, for example, two games in common between the two packs listed below. Also, there is a cartridge #11, and the game which uses this particular cartridge is still unknown (note that we don't know which cartridge was used by Basketball in pack #2, since only the box of this game has been found). The sure thing is that 10 extra games are known to exist, and there're some chances that a few more have been released. Maybe one day we will discover more of them. The problem is that due to their age and since not a lot of people bought them, the latest ones (i.e. the pack #2) are nearly impossible to find, hence a strong difficulty to find the correct information about the additional Odyssey games." '72 = Included in the original 12-game release from 1972 '74 = Included in the later 10-game 1974 release EXTRA = Sold as an add-on RIFLE = Included in the Shooting Gallery pack +-----------------------+---+---+-----+-----+ | Game |'72|'74|EXTRA|RIFLE| +-----------------------+---+---+-----+-----+ | Analogic | X | X | | | | Baseball | | | X | | | Basketball | | | X | | | Brain Wave | | | X | | | Cat & Mouse | X | | | | | Dogfight | | | | X | | Football | X | | | | | Fun Zoo | | | X | | | Handball | | | X | | | Haunted House | X | | | | | Hockey | X | X | | | | Invasion | | | X | | | Interplanetary Voyage | | | X | | | Percepts | | | X | | | Prehistoric Safari | | | | X | | Roulette | X | | | | | Shooting Gallery | | | | X | | Shootout | | | | X | | Simon Says | X | X | | | | Ski | X | X | | | | Soccer | | X | | | | States | X | | | | | Submarine | X | X | | | | Table Tennis | X | X | | | | Tennis | X | X | | | | Volleyball | | X | X | | | Win | | | X | | | Wipeout | | X | X | | +-----------------------+---+---+-----+-----+ 6 - Were there any add-on hardware accessories ? ------------------------------------------------ 6.1 - Organizer case This is a special case which allowed to carry the Odyssey with its accessories, rather than using the original and fragile box. This case is white and included loading instructions (EL2942-1). This is a very rare item since not a lot were sold. 6.2 - Other add-on hardware accessories - AC adaptor (1A9179) output is 9V DC 40 mA - Shooting Gallery: electronic rifle with four games 7 - Are there different versions of the Odyssey ? ------------------------------------------------- Notes on this info, to be read before examining the following table, include research done by both David Winter and Andrew Davie. There are different ways of sorting the Odyssey versions. On the back side of the Odyssey, several references can be read, among which are the MODEL, RUN and SERIAL. Known models are 1TL200 BLAK, 1TL200 BK11, 1TL200 BK12 and 1TL200 BK13. Known RUNs are RUN-1, RUN-1B and RUN-2. Known serial ranges are 9xxxxxx-11xxxxxx and 72xxxxx-76xxxxx. The 9xxxxxx-11xxxxxx serials concern a range of consoles that sold between 1972-1974. This range was apparently used in both US and EXPORT releases of the Odyssey. The 72xxxxxx-76xxxxxx serials concern another range of consoles that sold between 1972-1974. Here, there's no difference in them, only the date of manufacture changes. These may be some of the earliest machines produced. About the Magnavox logo in the woodgrain of the console: the Odyssey exists both with and without a Magnavox logo on its woodgrain. Obviously, collectors are much more interested by the consoles with this logo since they are much harder to find than the others. This is why it is rumored that the consoles really manufactued in 1972 have this logo. For now, 6 different versions are known to exist. Those were sorted using the RUN and Magnavox logo presence, and not the serials. Obviously, more variations could be found if we would consider all the existing ranges of serial numbers. Since the RUN and logo are the most interesting details, we did not consider the serials, nor we considered the four models as the US ones are only ITL-200 BLAK and BK12 (of course, the only exception there is the 10-games 1974 release wich exists both in BK11 and BK13 versions). Also, other variants might exist in the accessories: large or smaller Blue/White/Red plastic chips, internal oragnisation of the top part of the box, etc. * RUN-1 "A": Has the word "Odyssey" stamped on the right of the cartridge slot and "Magnavox" stamped beneath it on the woodgrain. Originally released in 1972. 36 page manual, 12 games. * RUN-1B: Same as RUN-1 "A" except that the console does not have the "Magnavox" logo on the woodgrain. Beware: this is a true "1B". The sticker on the back side of the console shows a RUN-1 with a "B" letter stamped. This release exists with the two ranges of serials. * RUN-1 "B": This is the ever confusing run number. This one should rather be called "EXPORT model" since this is a special version of the Odyssey released in 1974 for 12 foreign countries. It appears that this release was also sold in the USA in extremely small quantities (about 2 consoles known to exist in the USA, and 5 in Europe). This is a RUN-1, not RUN-1B. Appart the different games set and date of release, the console itself is a RUN-1 "C". * RUN-1 "C": Same as RUN-1 "A" without the "Magnavox logo on the woodgrain. * RUN-2 "A": Same as RUN-1 "A" except that this is a RUN-2. * RUN-2 "B": Same as RUN-1 "C" except that this is a RUN-2. To avoid confusion, just keep in mind that both RUN-1 and RUN-2 models exist with and without the "Magnavox" logo on the woodgrain. In addition to this, there is the "EXPORT" RUN-1 and the RUN-1B. 8 - Didn't Atari have a hand in the Odyssey ? --------------------------------------------- Nolan Bushnell attended the "The Magnavox Profit Caravan" at the Airport Marina Hotel, Burlingame, CA, on May 24, 1972. After founding Atari on June 27th, 1972, Bushnell and Al Alcorn (his first employee) built the famous prototype coin-op Pong machine and installed it in Andy Capp's Cavern, a local Sunnyvale bar. Soon after Magnavox sued for copyright infringement. Although Bushnell insisted that he did not copy Pong from the Odyssey, US District Court Judge John F. Grady was not convinced that Bushnell had conceived Pong prior to seeing the 1972 Odyssey demo and ruled that Atari must pay royalties to Magnavox in order to market its games. A $700,000 settlement was awarded in the first ever video game lawsuit. 9 - What technical information is available ? --------------------------------------------- 9.1 - Replacing the battery pack After 25 years of sitting in the attic, basement or garage, batteries leak. In their little nasty leakage they create havoc for the Odyssey's battery area. This can easily be remedied. You can get these two parts from any decent electronics shop: * Caltronics 6 "C" size battery holder #BH-118 $4 * Workman battery snap #L11 $1 Even though the battery snap appears to be a normal 9 volt style, it in not. This snap is half an inch wider. You will have to remove the old solder with some solder wick and solder the new snap in place, making sure to allow enough wire length to reach the battery pack. 9.2 - Cartridge pinouts The following information comes from the original Magnavox Odyssey service manual, and has been verified and corrected from tests done with true Odyssey cartridges (the correction was a missing jumper on cart #4). As you will notice, all of the 12 Odyssey cartridges have a common jumper at pins 2-4. This is the power switch, as the console is turned on when a cartridge is inserted. The pinout of the connector is somewhat difficult to read since the pins are numbered vertically instead of horizontally. Thus, looking at the connector from the top, the pins are numbered as follows: 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 41 43 The "ODD numbers" side corresponds to the cartridge side which shows the cartridge number. Here are the jumper sets of the cartridges. Pins separated by a '-' are connected together. A space indicates an end of connection. For example, cartridge #2 has pins 2 and 4 connected, as well as pins 6 and 8. Cart #1 2-4 6-8-14-16-20-22 30-34 31-39 35-37 Cart #2 2-4 6-8 NONE Cart #3 2-4 6-8-10-20-22 30-34 42-44 31-39 35-37 Cart #4 2-4 6-8-18 21-23 33-37-39 Cart #5 2-4 6-8-10-20-22 30-34 21-23-25 31-33-39 35-37 Cart #6 2-4 26-28-38 3-5-9 Cart #7 2-4 6-8-10-14-16-20-22 30-34 42-44 13-27 23-25 31-39 35-37 Cart #8 2-4 6-8-12-14-20-22 34-36 9-11-13 15-17 31-39 35-37 Cart #9 2-4 6-24 21-23 Cart #10 2-4 6-8-10-20-22-24 30-34 23-25 31-39 35-37 Cart #11 2-4 6-8-12-14 20-22 34-36 38-40 9-11-13 15-17 31-39 35-37 Cart #12 2-4 6-8-18 26-28 3-5-7 21-23 33-37-39