Back in the early 1970s, Magnavox was an innovator in the home video game industry. They succeeded in bringing the first home video game, the Odyssey 1, onto the market in January, 1972. It reportedly sold over 100,000 units that year; systems sold for about $100. Compared to later 8-bit and 16-bit videogames, the Oydssey 1 was extremely primitive. The system could only display black and white blocks, moving dots and plain straight lines. It was unable to keep score, have any background graphics, nor did it have sound effects. It was soon followed by a few of later models, each with a few small technological improvements and game variaitions.

Much more information is available on this topic, and can be found in Shaun "Loomis" Gegan's comprehensive Maganavox Odyssey 1 FAQ. This FAQ is available at http://www.digitpress.com/faq/odyssey1.txt Shaun Gegan can be contacted at: loomis@neo.lrun.com

In 1974, Magnavox joined forces with Philips Electronics, the high tech company giant responsible for such innovations as the compact disc. Together, these two companies became Philips Consumer Electronics. They are headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee, and their homepage is at: http://www.philipsmagnavox.com/index.html

In 1978 Magnavox, now a subsidiary of North American Philips, released a totally new game system for the home market: The Odyssey^2.

The original Odyssey had a number of removable circuit cards that altered the 'pong'-like gameplay in order to increase the gameplay options, but the Odyssey^2 took a great leap forward by being designed to play programmable 2K ROM (read-only memory) game cartridges ; With this innovation, each game could be a completely unique experience, with its own background graphics, foreground graphics, gameplay, scoring and music. The potential was enormous, as an unlimited number of games could be individually purchased; a game player could purchase a library of videogames tailored to his or her own interest.

Unlike any other system at that time, the Odyssey^2 included a full alpha-numeric touchpad keyboard, which was to be used for educational games, selecting options or programming. In Europe, this system was sold as the Philips G7000 Videopac computer.

The Odyssey^2 used the standard joystick design of the 1970s and 80s: A moderately sized black joystick, held in the left hand, with an eight way joystick that was manipulated with the right hand. In the upper corner of the joystick was an 'Action' button. Even three or four years later, with Atari, Intellivision, and a number of third party companies producing hardware, many people still felt that the Odyssey^2 joystick was the best of the lot.

It sold moderately well in the US, and in Europe and Brazil did very well. In 1977 Atari introduced its own programable home video system, the VCS 2600, and they had a much better marketing campaign. Whoever was running their business, they knew what they were doing, and in a short period of time they had more games available, each with more options than the Odyssey^2. By 1981, Atari sales had grown in leaps and bounds beyond the Odyssey. Nevertheless, Magnavox still supported its system, and the programmers made steady improvements in gameplay and graphics. Even without massive third party support, eventually (by 1983) over a million Odyssey^2 units were sold in the US alone.

For quite some time, Odyssey^2 fans griped that there was no third party support, thus keeping the number of new games very limited. Unbeknownst to American gamers, the success of the Philips G7000 Videopac overseas led to two other companies producing games for it: Parker Brothers released Popeye, Frogger, Q*Bert and Super Cobra, while Imagic released outstanding versions of their hit games Demon Attack and Atlantic. Finally, in 1983 the two Imagic games were brought to the states; "Demon Attack" and "Atlantis". These became strong sellers for the Odyssey^2.

At the time of their release, the original games available for the Odyssey^2 were nothing short of remarkable. Its hard to estimate how many gamers with a love for racing spent their weekend with "Speedway!/Spin-Out!/Crypto-Logic!". The roar of the motors, and high speed chases and tight turns! The explosive crashes! Yes sir, those were hours well spent. Beyond racing, friends could spend all night working against world peace by destroying each other's tanks, planes and subs with "Sub Chase!/Armored Encounter!". And with "Bowling/Basketball!" all the Odyssey^2 owners could...well, get bored. That one sucked.

In an innovation that wasn't matched for years on any other system was the special cartridge "Computer Intro!". Not a game at all, this was actually a system that allowed you to learn assembly language, with the huge instruction book provided; you could actually program the Odyssey^2! While few people had the patience to work with this, for those who did it was a learning experience that they treasure forever.

Among the initial games were a lot of average quality sports simulations, such as Baseball, Football and Hockey/Soccer. That last one was especially special, as when a puck was just in between two opposing players, they would turn and bang their sticks at each other in a raucous fight. It does seem likely that this was more of a programming flaw than an intended feature, but it sure added charm to the game. In later years, Mattel released some really outstanding sports games for the Atari 2600, which surpassed anything previously seen on the Atari 2600, the Odyssey^2 or Bally Astrovision. Unfortunately, the people at Maganzov evidently didn't think that the Odyssey^2 could handle games of this complexity, or didn't think that such games would be profitable. That's too bad, because a large number of videogame buyers were also sports fans; When they saw that the Mattel's Atari games far surpassed those available on the Odyssey^2, it gave the O^2 a black eye, and probably was one of the factors that caused the O^2 to lose its market share.

What really brought people to love the system were the expanded memory Challenger series games, which were now doubled to 4k ROM. "U.F.O.!" was more or less the Odyssey^2 version of Asteroids, and it _rocked_. Unlike the Atari 2600, the Odyssey^2 could have up to 16 objects moving around the screen at once, so there was never any of that terribly annoying Atari-flicker which made so many of their on-screen characters look like see-through ghosts. Nowhere was the Odyssey advantage in this respect more obvious than "U.F.O!". Another strong entry in this series was "Freedom Fighter", modeled after the arcade hit "Defender". The home version of "Defender for the Atari 2600 had great playability, but terrible on-screen flicker. The Odyssey^2 clone had bigger characters, no flicker, and smoother game play, and in these respects was superior. On the other hand, the Atari version had the landscape and viewer, and this gave the feeling of flying over a vast terrain, a feeling that was completely lacking in the O^2 version.

When it came to making original games, few could forget the adorable animation of the monkeys climbing around the monkey-bars in "Monkeyshines!". And when it came to making clones, no one came closer to the arcade's Pac-Man than the Odyssey^2 classic "K. C. Munchkin". Unlike the - let's face it - incredibly ugly version of Pac-Man that Atari foisted upon its gamers, "K.C. Munchkin" had huge, brightly colored monsters, with fine animation, and not a trace of that 'Atari-flicker' that plagued Pac-Man. Unfortunately, Magnavox came a bit _too_ close, and their game was ruled to be a patent infringement on Atari's rights; Magnavox was forced to withdraw K.C. from the shelves. Of course, soon after Magnavox released its first ever sequel game "K. C.'s Krazy Chase", which had the original K.C. tumbling around in a similar maze, but with all new gameplay, as K.C. had to face off against the dreaded "Dratapillar". Its hard to explain the game if you have never seen it, but if you let Pac-Man loose in 'Centipede' you'd come close to imagining it.

One of the strongest points of the system was its excellent speech synthesis unit, which was released as an add-on for speech, music, and sound-effects enhancement. Compared to the similar systems that were later released for the Atari 2600 and Mattel Intellivision, the "Voice of Odyssey^2" was far and away the superior product.

The area that the Odyssey^2 may well be best remembered for was its pioneering fusion of board and video-games: The Master Strategy Series. The first game released was the instant classic "The Quest for the Rings!", with gameplay somewhat similar to Dungeons and Dragons, and a storyline reminiscent of J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings". In my mind, there was nothing that could hold a candle to this game.

Near the end of its commercial lifespan, the programmers at Magnavox finally seemed to come to learn how to wring more power out of the machine, and they released games such as "Attack of the Timework!" , "Turtles", "Killer Bees" and "Power Lords". All of these games exhibited higher detailed graphics, fast and exciting gameplay, and good design. Imagic even released an Odyssey^2 version of Atlantis that captured all of the charm and most of the graphics of the Atari 2600 version. While Odyssey^2 owners were saddened to see the system eventually lose its place in the videogame market, it is good that it went out on such a high note.

Actually, this wasn't quite the end of the story, as there was an Odyssey^3. Yes, it actually was released in Europe as the Philips G7400. To get the story on this, check out my Odyssey^2/Odyssey^3 FAQ

Happy gaming!

Robert D. Kaiser

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Magnavox's Odyssey^2 was a popular American videogame console, sold in the United States from 1978 to 1983. It never was quite as popular as the Atari 2600 or Mattel's Intellivision, but it did sell more units that the GCE Vectrex, Bally Astrocade, Emerson Arcadia 2001, Fairchild Channel F or the RCA System II.

It is less well known that the Odyssey^2 was even more popular in Europe, where it was marketed by Magnavox's parent company, Philips Electronics. In Europe (and in other parts of the world as well) the Odyssey^2 was sold as the Philips G7000 Videopac console. In France, it was known as the Philips C52. In Brazil it was known simply as the Odyssey, because the original Odyssey, a pong-like videogame, was never released in Brazil.

Around 1983, the videogame market began to contract, which ended in the infamous videogame 'crash' of 1984. In this time period the Odyssey^2 totally lost its remaining market share to the next generation 8 bit videogames like the Colecovision, Atari 5200, and the 8 bit Nintendo Entertainment System. In order to compete, North American Philips/Magnavox developed their own next generation 8 bit system, code named the Odyssey^3. Later press releases revealed that it would be termed the Command Center.

The Odyssey^3 Command Center was to have 16k ROM, 16k RAM, and a capacity for detailed background and foreground graphics. The keyboard was redesigned to have more keys, and a real computer keyboard was added in place of the Odyssey^2's flat plastic membrane. There was a built in joystick holder, so that one person could use both joysticks at once, for arcade style games. The unit also had two planned accessories: A voice synthesizer and a 300 baud modem. The Odyssey^3 Command Center was hyped to the press, and previewed at the 1983 Consumer Electronics show.

It never was released.

For years, American classic videogame collectors searched for prototypes of this unit. In time, the Odyssey^3 became known as vaporware. It became a 'holy grail' of classic game collecting among those videogame collectors who knew that a few prototypes really existed.

In 1995 I believe I became the first American game collector to discover that Philips had indeed released the Odyssey^3 ! It was only sold for a limited time in 1983, and only 16 cartridges were ever made for it - but it did exist! It was sold only in Europe, and was dubbed the Philips Videopac + G7400. The Videopac + console had almost exactly the same internal hardware as the American Odyssey^3 prototype, but externally it was very different. The keyboard did indeed have extra keys, but a flat plastic membrane keyboard was used instead of a real keys to save costs. Also, there was no built in joystick holder.

The Philips Videopac + G7400 could play four types of cartridges.

(1) All the standard Odyssey^2 / Philips G7000 cartridges. The backward compatibility would ensure that many Odyssey owners would upgrade to this system and still be able to use all their old games.

(2) A series of remakes, in which popular Odyssey^2/Philips G7000 games were re-released with high resolution, beautifully rendered background graphics, similar in quality to what one would see on a Colecovision. If these game were played on a regular Odyssey^2/Philips G7000 the game would play just like the classic version, but the high-res background graphics would not be visible.

(3) A series of totally new Odyssey games. These had standard Odyssey foreground graphics but also had high resolution background graphics. If these game were played on a regular Odyssey^2/Philips G7000 the game would play correctly, but the high-res background graphics would not be visible.

(4) A series of totally new Odyssey^3/Philips G7400 only games that could only be played on the Odyssey^3 or G7400. These games not only had hi-res background graphics, but they had hi-res foreground graphics, scrolling screens, multiple screens and the ability for more complex gameplay. Only four such games were ever made: Norseman, Helicopter Rescue, Trans-American Ralley and the Home Computer Module.

Rarity: C = Common, U = Uncommon, R = Rare, ER = Extremely rare, UR = Ultra Rare, P = Only exists as confirmed prototype, NR = Never released/No known prototypes. Games in this category may have been advertised, or just planned, but apprently never even made it to the prototype stage.

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* Magnavox Odyssey^2 *
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Model number / name Rarity
------------------------------------------------------------
AC9400 Speedway!/Spin-Out!/Crypto-Logic! C
AJ9401 Blackjack! R
AJ9402 Football! U
AJ9403 Sub Chase!/Armored Encounter! C
AJ9404 Bowling!/Basketball! U
AJ9405 Math-a-Magic!/Echo! R
AC9406 Computer Intro! U
AJ9407 Matchmaker!/Buzzword!/Logix! C
AJ9408 Baseball! C
AJ9410 Computer Golf! U
AJ9411 Cosmic Conflict! C
AJ9412 Take the Money and Run! U
AC9413 I've Got Your Number! R
AK9414 Invaders From Hyperspace! C
AK9415 Thunderball! R
AK9416 Showdown in 2100 A.D. C
AK9417 War of Nerves! U
AK9418 Alpine Skiing! U
AC9419 Out of This World!/Helicopter Rescue! R
This game is not the same as Videopac#59 "Helicopter Rescue", which was only released in Europe. Only the titles are similar.
AK9420 Hockey!/Soccer! U
AK9421 Dynasty! U
AA9422 Volleyball! R
AA9423 Electronic Table Soccer! R
AC9424 Pocket Billiards R
AA9425 Pachinko! R
AA9426 Casino Slot Machine! U
AA9427 Blockout!/Breakdown! C
AA9428 Alien Invaders - Plus! C
AC9429 The Quest for the Rings! U
AB9430 U.F.O.! U
AB9431 Conquest of the World! U
AM9432 Monkeyshines! R
AC9433 Keyboard Creations ER
AC9434 The Great Wall Street Fortune Hunt R
AC9435 K.C. Munchkin! C
AC9436 Freedom Fighters! C
AC9437 Pick Axe Pete! U
AC9438 S.I.D. the Spellbinder (voice) ER
AC9439 Nimble Numbers Ned! (voice) ER
AC9440 Type & Tell! (voice) R
AC9441 Smithereens (voice) ER
AC9422 K.C.'s Krazy Chase! (voice) U
AC9433 P.T. Barnum's Acrobats (voice) ER
AC9445 Attack of the Timelord! (voice) R
AC9446 Turtles (voice) ER
AC9447 Killer Bees! (voice) ER
AC9448 Power Lords UR This game is now available on the new Odyssey^2 multicart.
??7605 The Voice of Odyssey^2 R Voice and music synthesizer.
Odyssey^2 Sherlock Holmes P Only one copy of this Master Strategy games has even been found by a collector, Jayson Hill. It may be a completed game, but is unplayable without the instructions (which have never been found).
Odyssey^2 Pink Panther NR Rumor has it that a prototype version was shown at a Consumer Electronics Show in the early '80s (probably 1983 or 1984), but none has yet been found.

Atari 2600 Pink Panther P In the dying days of the Odyssey 2, North American Philips tried to branch out into producing games for other systems. They were to release these games under the "Probe 2000" label. Probe 2000 planned to release four games on the Atari 2600: Pink Panther, Power Lords, War Room, and Lord of the Dungeon. Of these, only Pink Panther has been found. (Perhaps this is what people viewed at the Consumer Electronics Show, and mistook for an Odyssey^2 version?) Collector Steve Averitt owns the only known prototype of this game, and he wrote a review of it for the newsletter "The 2600 Connection." The review, with screenshots, is available on its website.

GE7710 Odyssey^3 Command Center P
GE7610 Odyssey^3 Voice Module P
Odyssey^3 Modem P
Odyssey^3 Flashpoint P
Odyssey^3 Baseball P
Odyssey^3 Killer Bees P As an American release, this only exists as a prototype. The prototype for the American version has not yet been found, but I have seen a videotape of this game in action. An altered version of this game was released in Europe (UR), the difference being that the background graphics are completely different. In the American prototype video we see a colorful geometric background, while in the European release we see a yellow honey comb, and several large 'Killer Bees'.
Odyssey^3 Attack of the Timelord P As an American release, this only exists as a prototype. However, this game was released in Europe as "Terrahawks +" (ER). Oddly, two large stars blink in the American version, yet are static in the European version.
Odyssey^3 Freedom Fighters P As an American release, this only exists as a prototype. However, this game was released in Europe as "Freedom Fighters +" (ER). One notable difference is that the background graphics for this American version are not used on the European version. Instead these background graphics (of a big red floating asteroid and a starfield) are used on the European Videopac "Satellite Attack +" which is the European Odyssey^3/Philips G7400 version of "U.F.O.!" The G7400 version of "Freedom Fighters" features a background with several planets (one with rings) and a starfield.

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* Probe 2000 / Magnavox Odyssey games for Colecovision *
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War Room R This was the only Odyssey game that ever made it to the Colecovision market. It was sold under the label 'Probe 2000'.
Power Lords NR This game was advertised with drawings of screen shots, but it was never sold and no prototype has yet been found. The Odyssey^2 version is UR, and was commercially released. It is also now easily available on the new Odyssey^2 multicart.
Pink Panther NR
Flashpoint NR
Creatures and Caverns NR I have heard that Probe 2000 was planning a game called "Lord of the Dungeon", which is most likely just another name for "Creatures and Caverns". All these games were planned but apparently never even made it to the prototype stage. No Colecovision prototypes of these last three games have ever been found.

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* Imagic Odyssey^2 *
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Model number / name Rarity
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Atlantis ER
Demon Attack ER
Demon Attack Plus UR Demon Attack Plus was a limited release for the Philips G7400, known only to have been sold in France and Portugal. One known copy has a label showing that it was released by To Tec International, and liscenced by Imagic. In addition to the regular release of these Imagic games, they were also sold in some European countries under the Philips label.

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* Parker Brothers Odyssey^2 *
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Model number / name Rarity
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Popeye UR
Q*Bert UR
Super Cobra UR
Frogger ER
Tutankham NR While Popeye and Super Cobra both work on American Odyssey^2 units, Frogger and Q*Bert do not. Frogger shows the title screen, but the two play screens (the first being the road and the second being the river) are totally messed up and unplayable. Q*bert reportedly works fine on a few machines (Maybe about 10% ?) while on most other machines it is non-controllable. These games were also released in some European countries under the Philips label. Tutankham was advertised in some old German videogame magazines, but was never released, and no prototype has yet been found.

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* Philips Videopacs for the G7000, G7200, or G7400 *
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In the following list, if there is a '+' sign next to the Videopac number, then this means that there was a '+' version of this game released.

Videopac number / name Rarity (followed by name of American version.)
------------------------------------------------------------
Philips G7000 ER Videogame console; equivalent to an Odyssey^2.
Philips G7200 UR Videogame console with built-in B/W monitor.
Philips G7400 UR Videopac '+' console, equivalent to the unreleased Odyssey^3 Command Center.
01+ Race/Spinout/Cryptogram C Speedway/Spinout/Cryptologic
02 Pairs/Space Rendezvous/Logic R Matchmaker/Out Of This World/Logix These games were released in the US, but not together on one cartridge.
03 American Football R Football
04 Air-Sea War/Battle R Armored Encounter/Subchase
05 Blackjack R Las Vegas Blackjack
06 Ten Pin Bowling/Basketball R Bowling/Basketball
07 Mathematician/Echo R Math-a-Magic/Buzzword
08 Baseball R
09 Computer Programmer R Computer Intro
10 Golf R
11+ Cosmic Conflict R
12 Take the Money and Run R
13 Playschool Math UR I've Got Your Number
14 Gunfighter R Showdown in 2100 A.D.
15 Samurai ER Dynasty
16 Depth Charge/Marksman R Never released in US
17 Chinese Logic R Never released in US
18 Laser War R Invaders From Hyperspace
19 Catch the Ball/Noughts and Crosses R Never released in US
20+ Stone Sling R Smithereens
21 Secret of the Pharoahs ER Never released in US
22 Space Monster R Alien Invaders - Plus!
23 Las Vegas Gambling R Casino Slot Machine
24 Flipper Game R Thunderball!
25 Skiing R Alpine Skiing
26 Basket Game R Pachinko
27 Electronic Table Football R Electronic Table Soccer!
28 Electronic Volleyball R
29 Dam Buster R Blockout/Breakdown
30 Battlefield R War of Nerves
31 Musician (by Sierra) ER Never released in US
32 Labyrinth Game/Supermind R Never released in US
33 Jumping Acrobats R P.T. Barnum's Acrobats
34+ Satellite Attack ER U.F.O.!
35 Electronic Billiards R Pocket Billiards
36 Electronic Hockey/Electronic Soccer R
37 Monkeyshines R
38 Munchkin R K.C. Munchkin
39+ Freedom Fighters R
40 Microcat / 4 in 1 Row R Never released in US
41 Conquest of the World ER
42 The Quest for the Rings ER
43+ Pick Axe Pete R
44 Crazy Chase R K.C.'s Krazy Chase
45 Morse ER Never released in US
46 The Great Wall Street Fortune Hunt ER
47 The Mousing Cat / Adversaries ER Never released in US
48 Backgammon ER Never released in US
49 Turtles ER
50 Super Bee UR Never released in US
51+ Terrahawks ER Attack Of The Timelord
52+ Killer Bees ER
53+ Nightmare UR Never released in US
54+ Looney Balloon ER Never released in US
55+ Neutron Star ER Never released in US
56+ Norseman UR Never released in US - for G7400 only
57 Blobbers ER Never released in US
58+ Air Battle UR Never released in US
59+ Helicopter Rescue UR Never released in US - for G7400 only
60+ Trans-American Rally UR Never released in US - for G7400 only
74 Clay Pigeon UR One copy of this game has finally been found in South America. To the delight of classic game collectors, this game is now available on the Odyssey^2 multicart. Since the box lists it as Videopac #74, this raised the possibility that there were 13 more games yet to be found by classic game collectors. However, it is much more likely that the numbering system was simply be different. This seems quite likely, as there are about this many known 'plus' games. Some of  these may simply have been released in South America with different Videopac numbers. Also, one contact in Brazil has noted that this game was numbered '54' in some Odyssey catalogs.
A Newscaster UR Type'n'Tell
V Kinder Im Verkehr UR A German released only. An Odyssey^2 safety and educational game for kids. Only a few hundred are rumored to exist.
c7010 Video Chess Module UR The G7000 didn't have enough memory and computing power for a chess program, so Philips equipped the chess cartridge with an add-on computer module that sat on top of the G7000 console. The module got its power from the main console.
c7420 G7400 Home Computer Module UR A BASIC programming module.

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* Jopac Videopacs for the Philips Jopac (G7400) *
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These games were only released in France; All of these are UR.

Syracuse - A ricochot" game. You must catch sunrays (dots) with a mirror and "shoot" them at a certain angle to a city to destroy the houses.
Chex Maxime - A platform game. It is a restaurant with three stores, and you are the waiter and you have to serve people in a certain time limit.
Exojet Plus
Billiards Plus (Pocket Billiards Plus)
Catapult Plus (Smithereens Plus)
Motor Crash

Thanks goes out to: