Philips Videopac G7000 - Review & Overview
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- Опубліковано 6 вер 2024
- A review and overview of the Philips Videpac G7000 console, the European version of the Magnavox Odyssey 2.
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#RetroGaming #TechReview #Videopac
My brother had one of these as a kid. My mom bought it for his birthday, way back in the early 80s (probably 1980) before I was born. When I was a couple years old, he was in his early teens (we were 9 years apart) my parents gave him a C64 and he gave his G7000 to me, with at least 20 or so games. I played with it a ton, until, eventually, I inherited his old C64 when he moved on to the Amiga. Sadly my brother died in November 2013 at age 38. I still have his G7000, but it's no longer working. Kind of symbolic. in a sad way. But I will never get rid of it. Never, until the day I die.
Very sad story, but also a kind of wonderful one, nice to have something to remember him by. Thanks for sharing your story!
Good review thanks, yeah when I was a kid the box artwork blew my mind… like you say, they are really classy and I think the continuity creates such a strong brand
Also my first gaming machine, I got it as second hand when I was a kid. I had only a few games for it: Monkeyshines, Neutron Star, Casino Slot Machine, Pick Axe Pete, Speedway/Spin Out/Cryptologic, and Air-Sea War/Battle. Such fond memories, I had hours of fun with it. 😁❤👍I also really still like the box art on the game cartridges.
The Joysticks plug into the main board and are digital. They use a 3 layer membrain instead of switches. The bottom layer is the ground contact, in the middle is a seperator and the top layer is the 4 directions and action contacts, which makes them impossible to repair if they actually break. Luckily the joysticks I salvaged off mine are still going strong. I put 9 pin D plugs on wired for the Atari standard. :)
My first game console 😎
Brother and I got one for Xmas (with lots of games from other relatives) in '82, Cape Town, South Africa.
Growing up a friend had this and I always found it neat. May have to see if I can find a descent collection to get in the future. Enjoyed this. Thx
The controllers are 2nd release. Original controllers were silver & Black & no star shaped grooves . Just a square & were far better for touch & control.
My dad worked for polydor/phonograph/phillips at the walthamstow factory site & the staff shop was at the chadwell heath site.
A great game console
My neighbour had one of these when I was at junior school, my lasting memory is the weird joysticks. Although Pick Axe Pete and Turtles were good fun.
My very first game console. Still remember it fondly
I owned one at the time, and thought that Atari 2600 games were more advanced. Having said that I did enjoy the games, my favourite being Pick Axe Pete. I liked playing Gunfighter; not because of the game, but because of a possible bug. If you continued shooting the downed opponent, the body would shrink.
I kept until 5 years ago when I moved and downsized. The joysticks were a bit battered but the console itself was ok. I wish I had kept it.
I still have this. It worked a few years ago. Need to give it another try
The Odyssey 2 was my second console after the Fairchild Channel F. I had a lot of fun with it and had a fairly extensive library of games. The box art on the North American cartridges was outstanding!
bought mine in 1982 (finalnd) - if I recall it was around 700-800 marks (120 USD)
I'm actually from Eindhoven and my dad, who worked as a Production Manager in one of the Philips television factories, brought this home one day. I'm watching this with a big smile because I finally figured out what this damn thing is called. Actually I vividly remember the games having Dutch names, which was peculiar because at the time most electronics and software didn't have localization. Though it makes sense now of course. For instance, Pick Axe Pete was called in Dutch: "Houwelen Henkie".
Great story!
True story. 'take the money and run' was called 'pak het geld en neem de benen'.
Ive yet to go through the cartridge dumps for this. I manage a multiplayer game preservation group and occasionally take break from the modern service games we monitor to see what multiplayer games are available on systems I never had.
Definitely an interesting system. great video!
Got one of these left from my father, although a cord is torn off. Guessing it's repairable. Vaugely remember playing something on it in my youth. I'm born 90 though so it really wasn't anything exciting at the time. Just some good ol' nostalgia.
Yeah, would be easy enough to fix.
I found one of these guys a couple weeks ago. The Odyssey 2 being as I'm in New England. It contained the original box and it was $25. Sadly it didn't come with games, so I'm looking around.
It did turn on, but I didn't want to turn it on too many times without a cartridge. It appears it will have a nice picture.
Unless I find a 3DO or CDI Neo Geo cheap in the wild, I'm done collecting consoles. A Fairchild would be cool. I don't care much to collect the RCA, Bentley, or the Bally.
Awesome Video. This was my first "proper" console after nagging my parents for a 2600 but really loved getting this for Xmas one year (1979 if I remember correctly). K.C. Munchkin (or just Munchkin as it was called here in U.K.) was way ahead of its time and even had a maze editor. I used to spend almost an hour before actually playing the game putting in a maze as close to arcade Pac-Man as I could. Of course this would dissappear when you turned the machine off so had to do it every time I wanted to play!
Thanks for bringing back those memories.
Great story - thanks for sharing!
there were ports on some. the one we had back in the 80s can unpluggable joysticks as they were not that durable. pretty sure there was a tv out as well. Loved this machine as a kid. There was a great conquest game on it which had 4 games, tank vs tank, tank vs plane, plane vs plane and sub vs sub. these were used to decide fights on a risk style magnetic board game
14:27 I noticed this in another video. The driving sound heard in Speedway seems to be different between the PAL and NTSC versions of the hardware. Here on PAL, it sounds basically like the console's version of white noise. On the NTSC version of the game, the sound is instead a steady rumble that gives a much better impression of a running engine. It makes me wonder whether the game was originally developed for NTSC, but then the different timing on the G7000 led to the rumble being unintentionally distorted. You can compare the sound in this video with the NTSC rendition heard in another video: ua-cam.com/video/_zP1Q287H_w/v-deo.html
It was an American programmed game, so yeah, the latter is no doubt true.
The game packs were very much of their time that were trying to be high class along lines of video media which was also in its infancy..the idea was to encourage the buying if the full set of games...hence numbering.
I had this when I was little I am now 41
I had loads of games it was great fun
The circus game was the best
Yes I've commented the same...the balloon catching clowns.
My local Co-Op were still trying to sell this in the late 80's when the NES was far in advance. Really happy I chose the NES back then but for late 70's to early 80's this was a nice machine
For anyone looking for a taste of Philips Videopac games, Pixel Games Ltd have released Videopac Collection 1 on Steam and will only costs you a few of your UK pounds. Great video and glad I stumbled upon it :-)
They certainly took their time with that, they've been teasing it for about 3 years. Pixel Games are owned by the same person/company who used to publish my books.
@@TheLairdsLair Good things come to those who wait ;-)
The Videopac boxes were originally black and made of cardboard 😉
I played satellite attack (nr 34) for many many many hours as a kid and 2 years ago bought this philips game console and the 34 game again and now sometimes play satellite attack for a while again. Nostalgia :) I am 56 years old now
If This were a more common console, I would try to adapt these joysticks to the Atari 5200.
+1 for knowing dutch in the manual! wow! :))
My very first computer/game console. Thanks for creating this video! My Dad chose this one over the Atari because it had the keyboard and more educational application potential. Does make sense even it didn't quite work out that way. I had much fun with the games! Slingshot the game with the catapults was my fav I would say. Lots of fun with a friend.
I remember you had two lines on which you could write text and it was in different colours quite impressive at the time.
I had one of these, but I seem to remember it was a bit wider. And on my concole, I could unplugg the controllers. I know because I had to return one of them for service a couple of times. I also remember there came a new version that had background pictures to the games (the games that supported them though). I never got that version though.
Yes, there is a revision of the console with removable controllers and the Videopac G74000 is the upgraded console with better graphics, sound and more memory - I did talk about it at the end of the video.
I found an Odessey !! with controller ports on the back, needs some work, but maybe I will send you a photo of it if you would like.
10:07 actually, if U open it, U discover that the controller are attached to the board trought a 4 pin connector, my G7000 had an external power brick.
anyway, I had modded it: ua-cam.com/video/G7BJjCYLAqQ/v-deo.html
I bought the G7000 in mid '81. Had the same type of controllers as yours, but was detachable, witch was a good thing because my younger brother kept smashing them into the floor, so they broke. I still have it somewhere.
This was my first gaming machine, but before that i had tried various Pong clones. First own one anyway, got in Christmas 1981 IIRC. And gaming hasn't stopped since. Good memories with Stone Slinger, Muncher and Pickaxe Pete.
G7000 is second generation, the ping pong clones where first generation.
Mine has the controllers and power in the blocked spaces on yours ;-) So - some of them had it that way ;-)
My videopac has the ports on the back...now the fun part is that one has a mono jack style power suply adapter, while the other has one that looks like a gameboy power lead. they both had external power adapters, since the videopac runs on 12V. nothing was wired in apart from the signal cable
This is actually due to the year it was manufactured in, the games for it have the same method of knowing when it was made!
Now i understand.. we had that basic rom. Our system was hacked. But we never understood how to save the file. That should have been with that extension unit, which we did not have.
We had the manual for that basic, a copied version on paper.
Neat, my father worked at Philips at that time and could get the cartridges cheaper in the philips store there :-)
We owned one briefly..the best game we had on it was the 2 clowns who had to collect falling ballons..sure we got it exclusively for miner 49er (?)
I think you mean Pick Axe Pete
My first console, oh the memories!
Does the console support pal60 when playing ntsc carts or is it only an atari 2600 thing
The Microsoft Basic videopac exspansion only works on the G7400
Thanks for the correction!
@@TheLairdsLair and thanks for taking the time to cover this underdog console, I still love playing on mine!
Too bad you didnt mention the names of those games you did shown footage of it,oh well,it is what it is,
But that system just is technically very primitive and it’s membrame keyboard,it’s wired power supply,rf and controllers,was just an annoying decission,ouch,the only games i will consider worth it is popeye and frogger and certain clones of games for it but that’s it.
I recall seeing it in shops, I think. Even though it was clearly a bit basic, just seeing other versions of those early conversions (Pac-Man variant springs to mind) just added to the excitement at the time. Really enjoying the lack of 'trying too hard to be funny' and other junk which seems to afflict many other similar channels! (Just my preference).
Thanks, there is a time to be funny in videos for me, I too hate the way so many channels force it.
Mucher was expensive as hell. 120 guilders back then. Two or three full days of work.
Indeed! I remember this one around here! Was kinda popular around Brazil, especially south!
what about inside? cpu chips and touch panel
We had one. And it was hacked. Had an eprom reader instead of a cartridge. We had a box full of eproms. Think we almost had all games.
I always knew it as Philips gpac
أنا مشترك جديد من العراق واحب اعمالك الرائعة
HAD IK,OOK DE VIDEOPAC PLUS
I had one of these
Cowboy game hiding behind mushrooms
That would be Gunfighter, also known as Showdown in 2100 AD in North America.
@@TheLairdsLair I seem to remember a game called duel too. At the time they looked so futuristic with the touch pad keys. 😂
It was called Duel in Europe.
Bought it in 1981
I watched the whole video to find out how to bloody turn on my G7000 and you didn't even turn it on :(
There is no power button, once its turned on at the plug it's on!
You hold down reset when you switch games.
@@TheLairdsLair Thank you, I investigated and the controllers are not soldered to the board. You can actually easily unplug them from the PCB as they are socketed. Check here for pictures of the sockets (the two grey ones) and controllers unplugged of my system:
ibb.co/album/ZS9Srk
I removed them as I do not intend to use my system, it is for display only so got rid of all the cables sticking out (you can also remove the antenna cable, it takes a bit more work but it is also socketed. In my case I rolled up the antenna cable, tied it together and stashed it on the inside, there is plenty of empty space in there!
Also all of the games you have there are launched after 1980, when they changed from the old style of cardboard box to the new styke you show there.,..
please dont spread around misinformation, and do better reseach before doing a video on my favourite console ever. its just mean and it looks cheap...you didntn even bother to check wikipedia...
There is no misinformation in my video, I research all my subjects and literally write about this stuff for a living. And I certainly wouldn't be checking Wikipedia when it's full of misinformation, there are much better sites I can use, I am guessing that's why you have got so confused.
@@TheLairdsLair oh and you don't have any cardboard boxed games? Just do a Google image search and you will find them. They where mare in the USA, until 1980,wheb they switched production locally, and the manuals are only single language, not multi lingual, to save on costs. That is when they switched from cardboard box to plastic one.
Phillips's best console better than that CDI trash :P
I prefer the CD-i :P
But I like both :-)
I’m a fan of the 2600 and not this, but I’m not sure I’d agree that the 2600 has superior graphics. Sound maybe, but this appears similar to the Intellivision, which I believe also has slightly better looking video than the 2600.
Look at 2600 titles like Solaris, Kung Fu Master and California Games - there's no way the Videopac could pull them off.
Are you crazy? All you have to do is just look at the third party games that are on both systems like Popeye, Qbert, Atlantis, Demon attack, etc. And see that the Odyssey 2/Videopac is not even close to the full capabilities of the 2600. Mostly because of how the TIA chip was designed since it had more flexibility and could be made to do more than what was originally intended.
I as a left handed imposed user by parents. This system was poorly thought out and poor quality over priced and extremely limited in use.
It grouped it as the worst Christmas present ever. My heart aches for a commodore 64
those controllers look like shit btw and they are not a videopat controller at all...or not the videopac i know...
so either you got a weird videopac in your area, or have nbo idea what you talking about :)
I have 3 Videopac consoles now and they ALL have the same controllers. I have also played on numerous consoles at events in the UK and only ever seen these controllers. So I think you are the one who doesn't know what they are talking about and you aren't much of an expert really.
I have 5 videopac consoles, including the one with the crt monitor and a boxed one, have all the games in both cardboard and jewel case... So again, do your research before
@@TheLairdsLair Correct. They are same as the ones mine came with in 1982. Sageverde is clearly clueless and childish.
I have had 3 versions of videopac. 2 with the silver & Black controllers & 1 with the black controller.
My Original came from polydor/Philips staff shop & had the silver & Black controller, which were far better than the black for touch sensitivity & control. However they tended to break & the black controller was the model which eventually took over.
If you get the chance grab a pair of the silver controllers & you'll see what I mean.