19 Aug
1997
19 Aug
'97
4:34 a.m.
While scouring the garage sales this weekend I found 2 old video games,
an Atari Pong and a Magnavox Odyssey. They both work, and I could NOT
pass them up at the sellers asking price! Hopefully someone else collects
these older games. If anybody knows of a list or web site I would
appreciate the info.
P.S. My T/S 1000 hasn't been sold yet, I guess it is not yet a
collectors piece.
Regard, David Quackenbush dhq(a)juno.com
19 Aug
19 Aug
6:36 a.m.
On Tue, 19 Aug 1997, David H Quackenbush wrote:
While scouring the garage sales this weekend I found 2
old video games,
an Atari Pong and a Magnavox Odyssey. They both work, and I could NOT
pass them up at the sellers asking price! Hopefully someone else collects
these older games. If anybody knows of a list or web site I would
appreciate the info.
Is your Magnavox Odyssey the actual "Odyssey" or is it "Odyssey2
Microprocessor"? If its just the plain old "Odyssey" with the TV
overlays and the carthridges that have huge edge connectors then you've
got yourself a nice find there. Otherwise the Odyssey2 is pretty run of
the mill. The Atari Pong is a nice find.
Sam
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass
2:50 p.m.
New subject: video games/Odyssey
Unfortunately it is an Odyssey 2; but it came with a pile of games. The
Pong is still fun and it can run on batteries, and if I plug it into my 5
in. TV I'll have a portable video game to keep the grand kids busy! (What
a concept, maybe it should be revived :).
Regards, David Q.
P.S. I know of an Odyssey, complete with overlays, pistol etc., but it
is somewhere on the West coast of Florida and I've lost touch with the
owner of it :(
3:34 p.m.
New subject: video games/Odyssey
On Tue, 19 Aug 1997, David H Quackenbush wrote:
Unfortunately it is an Odyssey 2; but it came with a
pile of games. The
Pong is still fun and it can run on batteries, and if I plug it into my 5
in. TV I'll have a portable video game to keep the grand kids busy! (What
a concept, maybe it should be revived :).
Cool. The Oddyssey2 is nice. You might want to find out how rare the
games you got with it are. There's a web page (don't know off the top of
my head...e-mail me about it and I'll look in my bookmarks) that has
rarity listings for every game ever made for every game system.
P.S. I know of an Odyssey, complete with overlays,
pistol etc., but it
is somewhere on the West coast of Florida and I've lost touch with the
owner of it :(
Oooh, track that sucker down. Mine unfortunately does not have the
overlays but the guy who sold it to me is still looking. I picked mine
up for $20. It's in OK shape. The original batteries were still in it
when I got it which were probably about 20+ years old and leaked out all
over the battery compartment and corroded the battery spring contacts,
but it can be cleaned up. There were other accessories that came with
it, including poker chips and play money. Six "carthridges" came with it
as well. I also came across a lucky find in a thrift store a couple
months back. I got, in the original box, the Odyssey Shooting Gallery,
which is basically a light rifle (actually is a plastic toy rifle light
gun), with some overlays. UNFORTUNATELY, it did not come with any
carthridge, which I presume it came with. If someone knows otherwise
please chime in.
Sam
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass
10:48 p.m.
New subject: video games/Odyssey
On Tue, 19 Aug 1997, Sam Ismail wrote:
[re: Magnavox Odyssey]
Oooh, track that sucker down. Mine unfortunately does
not have the
overlays but the guy who sold it to me is still looking. I picked mine
up for $20. It's in OK shape. The original batteries were still in it
when I got it which were probably about 20+ years old and leaked out all
over the battery compartment and corroded the battery spring contacts,
but it can be cleaned up.
Ouch! The one I picked up is in pristine physical condition, though I
still don't know if it works (haven't bothered to get all those damn 'C'
cells for it yet). Frankly, it hardly looks used so maybe it doesn't work
(that's a guideline I'm starting to develop for the C64 - in great shape =
hardly used BECAUSE IT DIED YOUNG, but I might be wrong. ;) )
There were other accessories that came with
it, including poker chips and play money.
The poker chips with mine are still in the plastic, which is cool. I
haven't checked to see if all of the playing cards are there. There were
some dice with it as well.
Six "carthridges" came with it as well.
If you can really call them cartridges, yeah. I've seen them called
"wafers" which might be more apt. And multiple games use the same wafers,
you just paste up a different overlay and change the rules, and the same
little dots make a new game. :)
I also came across a lucky find in a thrift store a
couple
months back. I got, in the original box, the Odyssey Shooting Gallery,
which is basically a light rifle (actually is a plastic toy rifle light
gun), with some overlays.
Cool!
UNFORTUNATELY, it did not come with any
carthridge, which I presume it came with. If someone knows otherwise
please chime in.
Unfortunately, I don't know. I'm just a happy idiot who happened to walk
into the right place at the right time and pick up a pristine Odyssey
system for $5 (Canadian), including "Instrument Inspection Card" and
"Receive a free ODYSSEY game!" card, with only faint inklings of what it
was. I'm not generally into game systems, but this thing was so weird I
could NOT pass it up. The 1972 date on it helped me bring it home as
well.
Then I went out onto the 'net and found out what I had. :)
I've never seen one of those light rifles, and if I do I'll be sure NOT to
pass it up. I think someone in rec.games.video.classic will know if the
light rifle came with wafers/cartridges or not.
I think I read somewhere that there were 100,000 Odysseys manufactured. I
wonder how many of those are now in landfill. :/
Sam
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass
Doug Spence
ds_spenc(a)alcor.concordia.ca
20 Aug
20 Aug
8:34 a.m.
New subject: video games/Odyssey
On Wed, 20 Aug 1997, Doug Spence wrote:
On Tue, 19 Aug 1997, Sam Ismail wrote:
[re: Magnavox Odyssey]
> Oooh, track that sucker down. Mine unfortunately does not have the
> overlays but the guy who sold it to me is still looking. I picked mine
> up for $20. It's in OK shape. The original batteries were still in it
My Odyssey had original (or at least old) red Eveready transistor
batteries in it, as well. Oddly enough, they still held a charge - around
1.1 volts each with no load. The internal resistance is quite high,
though, so they're not good for much current.
Any interested dry cell collectors out there? :)
Opening up the Odyssey and taking a look inside is on my (ever-expanding)
list of things to do. From what I have read, the Odyssey was designed
several years before it was manufactured (1969?). At the time, even SSI
TTL ICs were impractically expensive for use in a home game system;
accordingly, the Odyssey is implemented in DTL using discrete
transistors and diodes.
Regarding the Odyssey cartridges/wafers: My brother-in-law remembers
having a book many years ago on designing homebrew Odyssey games. Given
the simplicity of the hardware (the wafers are apparently just connection
patterns on a PC board, with the occasional resistor or diode), it
shouldn't be too difficult to do. Desiging screen overlays and
interesting new games that can be played on the Odyssey hardware may be
more of a challenge.
I've thought about sending in the "free game" card as well, just to see
what would happen. Probably the same thing that happened when I sent in
the "free program" card that came with my 3b1 - nothing. Of course, I
don't imagine that the extra wafer is actually already there in /etc/fixes/
on the Odyssey. :)
If anyone is interested in scans of the original overlays, let me know
and I'll give scanning them a try.
--
Scott Ware s-ware(a)nwu.edu
9834
days inactive
9835
days old
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dastar＠crl.com -
dhq＠juno.com -
ds_spenc＠alcor.concordia.ca -
s-ware＠nwu.edu