Oh man, does this ever bring back memories. I remember my dad buying this on sale for $29 at the local Best store due to being the uncoolest man in our town. What I did like about this system was the fantastic box art, which almost made up for the admittedly weak games.
About hard wired game consoles: Nintendo Famicom and most of its clones sold in Brazil in the 80s and early 90s had their controllers hard wired to the console.
I had a borrowed Odyssey in my home for a couple of days back when I was a kid. I found it a really cool console, for some reason; the games felt more advanced than the Atari 2600, and a couple of them were pretty weird. Nice episode!
Wall cords are not hardwired since they want to sell this internationally. They can produce the base unit and include whatever power supply cord is appropriate for that country.
I owned one of these in 1980-81 and I was about 12. I got this over the Atari (my dad asked me 3 times if I was sure) because it had a B.A.S.I.C cartridge. The keyboard was a finger-buster.
The scary thing is I'm old enough to remember when this was new. I was looking at board games like battleship remember before video games in the home had to entertain.
i had one of these as a boy.. me and my little brother use to play this all the time. :) brings back good memories. :D i think we played football and basket ball.. and also tank! and of course the airplane game.. yeah we had the race car game too.. as soon ou starting playing flash back two being like 5 or 6.. and i was lucky to have a color tv for it. even tho i only had a black and white tv in my bedroom.. where i use to pretend i was asleep.. and stay up late and watch the show V. heh. i loved that show as a boy for some reason.. my friend had a Texas instrument.. anyone remember that gaming system ( i forget which games we played on that system. maybe pitfall? or some maze game..? I was pretty young.. early 80s im almost 42..)
I'm a little jealous that your sticks are practically flawless. My Odyssey 2 has a bum joystick. I swapped them around inside the case but the games can't seem to decide which one they want to use. I'm not a big fan of the console's library (save for one or two titles) but I thought their voice module was actually really good - much better than Intellivision's Intellivoice. And I would like to find a complete copy of one of the board games that you play in conjunction with the Odyssey 2.
If you are struggling for a date you can always examine the date code on the chips - you will usually get a year and a week number that is obvious to decode. They will obviously not give a precise answer, but at least put a lower boundary to your estimate. SRAM and DRAM are especially good for this.
Actually there were many consoles at that time where everything was hardwired (e.g. Intellivision, most pong consoles, etc.). Also most of the games for the system were programmed by one guy if memory serves me right.
Matel Intellivision had hardwired disc controllers that slid into the base, also had the best sports video games of that generation unyil colecovision Hopefully the new Intellivision Amico gets released sooooon.... lol
Ah yes, The Odyssey2 AKA the Philips G7000 Videopac. The games seem... less than compelling. Though Muchkin was a better Pac Man clone than what the Atari 2600 had back in the day. Especially with the maze editor. The G7K might have beaten the 2600, especially in Europe had they just had the games. But of course, consoles like these lost out to home computers (which were easier to develope for, your platform _was_ the devkit) with games on audio cassette (which were a lot cheaper to produce and retail than cartridges)
videopac -> videopac plus -> P2000 -> MSX -> MSX2 -> PC (shortened version of Philips' adventures in video games -> home computers -> personal computers) good times ;)
Why would you buy something to throw it away? Wasteful idiot. You repair it or sell it to someone that can repair it. All you have to do is crimp on a new connector. You don't just throw things out, typical Americans.
MrWolfSnack Hey, it was his idea to throw it out, not mine. That's just the way my father is. It has nothing to do with being American, he's just stubborn like that.
I av moded mine and it looks so much better I first replace rf unit but to no aval so I then did the av mod and wow. now I am working on a mod no one elce is doing a hdmi mod
Ben- I have the voice module and a couple games that use it. I would be willing to donate to the cause if you wanted to do a vid on it down the line. I think you can contact me via Google+. Or message me on Facebook....
"Junk" in the title is appropriate in this case. This thing is garbage! I just bought one a week ago at the time of this comment, and had to return it as it barely turned on and the controllers were so cheap they were broken!
Oh man, does this ever bring back memories. I remember my dad buying this on sale for $29 at the local Best store due to being the uncoolest man in our town. What I did like about this system was the fantastic box art, which almost made up for the admittedly weak games.
The box art was always the coolest visual thing about Atari 2600/Odyssey 2/TRS-80/Apple II games because the graphics were so low-res.
About hard wired game consoles: Nintendo Famicom and most of its clones sold in Brazil in the 80s and early 90s had their controllers hard wired to the console.
I had a borrowed Odyssey in my home for a couple of days back when I was a kid. I found it a really cool console, for some reason; the games felt more advanced than the Atari 2600, and a couple of them were pretty weird. Nice episode!
Wall cords are not hardwired since they want to sell this internationally. They can produce the base unit and include whatever power supply cord is appropriate for that country.
I owned one of these in 1980-81 and I was about 12. I got this over the Atari (my dad asked me 3 times if I was sure) because it had a B.A.S.I.C cartridge. The keyboard was a finger-buster.
The scary thing is I'm old enough to remember when this was new. I was looking at board games like battleship remember before video games in the home had to entertain.
i had one of these as a boy.. me and my little brother use to play this all the time. :) brings back good memories. :D i think we played football and basket ball.. and also tank! and of course the airplane game.. yeah we had the race car game too.. as soon ou starting playing flash back two being like 5 or 6.. and i was lucky to have a color tv for it. even tho i only had a black and white tv in my bedroom.. where i use to pretend i was asleep.. and stay up late and watch the show V. heh. i loved that show as a boy for some reason..
my friend had a Texas instrument.. anyone remember that gaming system ( i forget which games we played on that system. maybe pitfall? or some maze game..? I was pretty young.. early 80s im almost 42..)
The reset button is right by the enter button. Great design! I'm sure that never caused any problems.
Especially when your sister presses it after you spent a long time typing in a B.A.S.I.C program!
I'm a little jealous that your sticks are practically flawless. My Odyssey 2 has a bum joystick. I swapped them around inside the case but the games can't seem to decide which one they want to use.
I'm not a big fan of the console's library (save for one or two titles) but I thought their voice module was actually really good - much better than Intellivision's Intellivoice. And I would like to find a complete copy of one of the board games that you play in conjunction with the Odyssey 2.
Some of the Intellivisions were hardwired. The Fairchild Channel F (an older than 2600 beast) also had hard wired controllers.
If you are struggling for a date you can always examine the date code on the chips - you will usually get a year and a week number that is obvious to decode. They will obviously not give a precise answer, but at least put a lower boundary to your estimate. SRAM and DRAM are especially good for this.
Actually there were many consoles at that time where everything was hardwired (e.g. Intellivision, most pong consoles, etc.). Also most of the games for the system were programmed by one guy if memory serves me right.
Even the Famicom had hardwired controllers -- and slots in the sides to hold them when not in use.
the original famicom was also hardwired!
The fuzz really fucks up the video compression
The Famicom in Japan and the first version of Intellivision had hard-wired controllers aswell.
BOY, I SURE LOVE THIS SHOW, *EBUSNJNK*
9:42 fyi
the good old Video Pac :)
I'd like to see the Intellivison and ColecoVision get covered next.
I think the boxes with gold on the bottom instead of silver are pack in games.
Other hard wired consoles include the intellivision rev 1 and the Japanese nintendo, aka the Fanicom
happy 17k!
I had one!!!! Played the hell out of Pick Axe Pete!
One of the best there ever was!
Indeed! I completely agree!
Man, you ain't lived unless you played KC Munchkin on this thing!
Sick
Matel Intellivision had hardwired disc controllers that slid into the base, also had the best sports video games of that generation unyil colecovision Hopefully the new Intellivision Amico gets released sooooon.... lol
Ah yes, The Odyssey2 AKA the Philips G7000 Videopac. The games seem... less than compelling.
Though Muchkin was a better Pac Man clone than what the Atari 2600 had back in the day. Especially with the maze editor.
The G7K might have beaten the 2600, especially in Europe had they just had the games. But of course, consoles like these lost out to home computers (which were easier to develope for, your platform _was_ the devkit) with games on audio cassette (which were a lot cheaper to produce and retail than cartridges)
videopac -> videopac plus -> P2000 -> MSX -> MSX2 -> PC (shortened version of Philips' adventures in video games -> home computers -> personal computers) good times ;)
At least Europe got the Odyssey 3. In the US, there were only 10 made for CES back in 1983. They're now worth a ton of money.
My dad recently bought an Odyssey 2. Sadly, the RF cable was broken, so we ended up throwing it away.
Could've tried replacing the cable.
Why would you buy something to throw it away? Wasteful idiot. You repair it or sell it to someone that can repair it. All you have to do is crimp on a new connector. You don't just throw things out, typical Americans.
MrWolfSnack Hey, it was his idea to throw it out, not mine. That's just the way my father is. It has nothing to do with being American, he's just stubborn like that.
BikerBoyNJ
You have a voice too. Don't live in silence.
MrWolfSnack He never listens to my advice. I tell him things, and he just ignores me. He's a great father, sure, but he's still stubborn as all fuck.
The original Nintendo Famicom had hardwired controllers.
Ah, the days when you had a joystick, a button, and no more than that. You want loads of buttons? You can bugger off.
2 buttons are better
I av moded mine and it looks so much better I first replace rf unit but to no aval so I then did the av mod and wow. now I am working on a mod no one elce is doing a hdmi mod
I have an Odyssey 2. At least we had the better version of Pac-Man back in the day.
Ben-
I have the voice module and a couple games that use it. I would be willing to donate to the cause if you wanted to do a vid on it down the line. I think you can contact me via Google+. Or message me on Facebook....
"Junk" in the title is appropriate in this case. This thing is garbage! I just bought one a week ago at the time of this comment, and had to return it as it barely turned on and the controllers were so cheap they were broken!