Howdy Dieter,

I looked at the photos and web page. I don't have any additions or corrections.

I'm amazed that the whereabouts of 6 Odyssey3's is known. That might be all that there were, a dozen at most. Usually in a typical prototype run, there would be a few that were run through 'bake-in' to see how they could last running for days in a hot environment; some of these would die. And a few others from the run would invariably have some circuit problems. Whether or not these would have been fixed would depend on how much need there was for the units.

I'm not sure what would have happened to the protos after the project was scrapped. Some places I've worked would give protos to the people who worked on the project. This would be true regardless of whether the project was a success or not, as for tax reasons it's illegal in the US for a company to sell protos to the public (at least that's my ignorant understanding of tax/business laws). I don't recall Magnavox/Philips doing
that. Most likely, people who had them just took them home. When the games group moved to a new building, the units probably just disappeared.

Good Luck!
Bob Harris
15-Aug-2001

Dieter,

I found a total of four Odyssey3's, two voice modules, one 300 baud modem and four prototype cartridges when I lived in Knoxville, Tennessee. The cartridge protos I have are Flashpoint, Baseball, Attack of the Timelord and the modem software.

Three of the systems I sold over the years. Still have one complete set in the travel case the Philips people used to carry it around to show press back in 1983.

Jayson Hill
20-Aug-2001

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Erstellt am 21.08.01. Zuletzt bearbeitet am 08.09.03.