August 10, 2019|All Reviews, Retro Reviews
The Magnavox Odyssey² was always in my opinion, the red headed stepchild of the second generation of video games. Growing up, I was aware of the Odyssey² but didn’t know a single person who had one. All of my friends were rocking either an Atari 2600, Intellivision or Colecovision, the last being the one in the Leggo household. But when we look back at the Odyssey², was the system really all that bad, or was it just a victim of the marketing juggernauts that were the other companies?
Inside the box is 2 hardwired single button controllers, a hard wired power supply and coax out. The first version of the Odyssey² had removable and replaceable controllers, but the version I have is a later one, so if one of these bad boys goes I’ll be breaking out the soldering gun. Not terribly worried about this, as the controllers feel very solid and have already endured a lot of abuse without any problems.
Powering the Odyssey² is a 1.79Mhx Intel 8048, with 64 bytes of Ram with an extra 128 bytes of RAM for the Video and Audio. The Odyssey² had a 16 colour palette, but was only capable of using a few of these at a time. The system has a built in membrane keyboard, and the requisite cartridge slot. The keyboard, on top of having letters and numbers (useful for typing things) also have several function keys, including yes/no, and plus, minus, subtraction and division keys. These would be used in several games, including such games as Math A Magic! And Computer Intro! Yes, I’m not just terribly excited about these games, all Magnavox made games had an exclamation mark in their title, just to show you just how darn exciting they are, I guess?
The Games(!)
Inside the game case, you’re treated to a full colour manual and the game cartridge. The manual tells you all the important things, like which colour blob is the hero, and which colour blob you were supposed to do bad things to. Important video game stuff, especially for the time!
Honestly, after all the negative things I’d read about the Odyssey²’s graphical limitations, I found the graphics quite good and colourful. I’d have a hard time differentiating the graphics from the Atari games of the time. They more than do the job, which is a real testament to the games designers.
A grand total of 46 games were released by Magnavox in the USA, and 3rd party support was almost non-existent. They did have a few very innovative ideas for time. The three games Wall Street Fortune Hunt, Conquest of the World and The Quest for the Rings were hybrid board game/video games, which were extremely well received at the time.
The Expansion Hardware(!)
The Odyssey by itself was a little light on the processing power, as were all of the systems at the time, so a game like chess was completely out of its capabilities. So, they created a whole freaking module, the C7010, to beef up the power, and called it the Chess module. This sat on the already beefy Odyssey like a freaking tumour, but allowed you to make up for your lack of friends and play Chess against the Odyssey!
There was also an available voice synthesis module, similar to the Intellivisions Intellivoice. The Voice plugged into the cartridge slow and added voice effects to several games, but much like the Intellivoice, didn’t receive an awful lot of support. It was however, a very subtle module that you’d barely notice was plugged in..
The Verdict(!)
So, when all is said and done, is the Odyssey² worth picking up? Are politics worth bringing up at the Thanksgiving table? Are home-made fireworks a great idea?? Absolutely! The Odyssey² was an important part of video game history, and honestly, these go for a song, even in box right now. Collectors can scoop up the system and most of the games for relatively cheap and there is some real retro fun to be had here. So, if you find one in the wild for a good price, pick one up and you won’t be disappointed! Now if you excuse me, I’m off to figure out how I can add an exclamation mark to everything I say (!)
Share this post:
The Grumpy Old Gamers 
Leave a comment