![]() A light gun accessory, Shooting Gallery, was available for purchase, and included four games on two cards that used the rifle. Another game, Percepts, was available for free to players that sent in a survey card. 13 games were included with the console-a set of 12 in America and a different set of 10 in other countries-with 6 others available for purchase either individually for US$5.49 or in a pack for US$24.99 the additional games primarily used the same game cards with different screen overlays and instructions. Despite these setbacks, Magnavox Odyssey made its mark by starting the video game console industry.”Ī total of 28 games distributed on 11 different game cards were released for the Magnavox Odyssey. Many potential consumers were under the impression-sometimes encouraged by Magnavox salesmen-that Odyssey would only work on Magnavox television sets. Among the contributing factors, poor marketing played a large role. With approximately 350,000 units sold, Magnavox Odyssey was not considered a commercial success, especially in comparison with Pong’s runaway popularity. These accessories were possibly included to make the Odyssey more like the physical games that existed at the time. Perhaps most surprising to modern gamers, the Odyssey also came with nonelectronic game accessories such as dice, decks of cards, play money, and poker chips. Since the Odyssey had limited graphic capabilities and displayed only a few small white blocks and a vertical line on the screen, Magnavox included translucent color overlays to provide settings and layouts for the games. Additional games and accessories, like a lightgun, were sold in separate packages. However, months earlier, Magnavox had released its Magnavox Odyssey, a home video game system based on the “Brown Box,” a prototype invented by Ralph Baer. “When most people think about the first video game, they think of Pong, the ping-pong arcade game released by Atari in 1972. The release of the Odyssey marked the end of the early history of video games, and the rise of the commercial video game industry along with the start of the first generation of video game consoles. Baer’s patents for the console and the games, including what was termed by a judge as “the pioneering patent of the video game art”, formed the basis of a series of lawsuits over 20 years, earning Sanders and Magnavox over US$100 million. One of the 28 games made for the system, a ping pong game, was an inspiration for Atari‘s successful Pong arcade game, in turn driving sales of the console. The console spawned the Magnavox Odyssey series of dedicated consoles, as well as the 1978 Magnavox Odyssey². After releasing the console in September 1972 through their dealerships, Magnavox sold between 69,000 and 100,000 units by the end of the year, and 350,000 by the time the console was discontinued in 1975. The seventh, known as the Brown Box, was shown to several manufacturers before Magnavox agreed to produce it in January 1971. The idea for a video game console was thought up by Baer in August 1966, and over the next three years he, along with Bill Harrison and Bill Rusch, created seven successive prototype consoles. ![]() The Odyssey console came packaged with dice, paper money, and other board game paraphernalia to go along with the games, and a peripheral controller-the first video game light gun-was sold separately. Players place plastic overlays on the screen to create visuals, and the one or two players for each game control their dots with the three knobs and one button on the controller in accordance with the rules given for the game. It is capable of displaying three square dots on the screen in monochrome black and white, with different behavior of the dots depending on the game played, and has no sound capabilities. The Odyssey consists of a white, black, and brown box which connects to a television set and two rectangular controllers attached by wires. ![]() Baer at Sanders Associates and released by Magnavox in the United States in September 1972 and overseas the following year. It was developed by a small team led by Ralph H. The Magnavox Odyssey is the first commercial home video game console. ![]()
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