Unboxing a 50 Year Old Game Console | Tech Nibble
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- Äas pĆidĂĄn 5. 10. 2022
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The first ever commercial game console is the Magnavox Odyssey and incredibly we have a complete, in box example, so I couldn't pass up the chance to share an unboxing with you.
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It might just be me, but that console design is a work of art. It looks like it was sculpted rather than assembled.
I thought the same đ
As did I! The future was bright and sculpted back then!
@@philjohn2649 the futuristic design was very clear in concept and design. When was the last time you looked at a console and thought "Wow! What a great piece of design?"
It's a very cool shape
It's beautiful!đ€©
That thing deserves its own ROOM, let alone cabinet. It's beautiful and a wonderful piece of history.
To my knowledge the set is complete, there is minor damage to a couple of the overlays (someone tried to remove residue from the tape that was used to stick the overlays to the TV according to the previous owner) but the damage was not too bad.
I'm glad you are enjoying the Odyssey. Hopefully you can get it fully working again with a screen the correct size! I'm pretty sure it all worked last time I tried it several years ago. I look forward to seeing it running in the Cave for people to play!
-Rowan
Every time Neil says wood grain, I'm expecting LGR to pop in. đ€Ł
That is one piece of early 1970s awesomeness.
Fascinating. For those younger viewers who might not remember that font it was based on MICR (Magnetic Image Character Recognition) which was an early form of OCR, allowing computers and humans alike to 'read' the same font. Accepted during the Space Age as the 'Font of the Future'. Great video as always!
Well, no, not OCR: the point of MICR is that theyâre human-readable, but the computer character recognition was magnetic, not optical. The ink itself is magnetic, allowing a magnetic head to detect the oversize bars. (Iâm sure some later implementations used OCR to read it, but when MICR came out, OCR would have been vastly more expensive than magnetic heads.)
This is like the evolutionary link between board games and game consoles.
It is a console.
Totally agree, this device should be restored to working condition.
imagine Playing Magic Pokémon and Yugioh with the TV as you play with your friends or play with the console using your physical deck
Fascinating to watch the unboxing of a 50-year-old game console. I canât imagine many people being able to afford one of these in the UK in 1972. My family wouldâve rented their telly back then.
For those sticky cables, you can use rubber tire cleaners/polishers with high silicone oil content to make them sparkling newđ
You know, I love the incredible simplicity of games from the 1970s. You just wouldn't believe they could be enjoyable at all. Yet, if you're not cynical, they were great fun. It's the sheer inventiveness that gets me. Part electronic wizardry, part board game... try coming up with a new idea today and you'd see how difficult it can be. Love this one. Pure an unassuming genius, that's what it is!
this was true of toy design in particular. The mechanical madness of having one motor that could perform several different functions across a toy. I marvel today at them being taken apart and explained. Modern toys lack any of this engineering genius. Its just a microchip based controller that if it has one motor will only perform one function. I remember all kinds of crazy little contraptions with probably not very safe mercury and really quite engaging puzzles. Rubiks cube is a perfect example of something that would never be designed today for the toy market.
This console sits in the middle of transition from board games to video games, quite an incredible object.
Iâm 50 next month. Not only were the first episodes of âEmmerdale Farmâ, âRainbowâ and âCrown Courtâ broadcast on UK TV within a month of my birth, but now I discover the first commercially available home console is also less than a month older than me. Awesome stuff!
Also, the first episode of M*A*S*H (if you had it over there)
My goodness that condition is simply amazing! Survived the test of time better than my 44 years. :)
Yep, me as well. I'm 43 and also was born well after this came out.
Fun fact: the "futuristic" "computery" font mentioned in the beginning is based on Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR for short) characters on the bottom of bank checks. At the time it was considered an amazing futuristic sci fi thing, and now it goes unnoticed because no one uses bank checks anymore. Real MICR only consists of the digits 0-9, so every MICR-like font with letters is completely fictional.
Incidentally, I worked at a bank for three years tending to the 1990s era machine that read the MICR on the checks. It was eventually replaced with 2000s era scanning technology, and I don't think there are many devices specifically for reading MICR in active use anymore.
It's interesting how pseudo-MICR fonts have gone from futuristic to old-fashioned.
Oh no, and I just went and claimed OCR A was the only true such font! Time to go fixâŠ!
It was incredible to see such a great boxed example of this and I was amazed to see how many additional items were added. You can certainly see how they were looking to bridge the old board games to help the public of 1972 to buy a computer of the time.
Being of a certain age, this was my first console as a kid. I was very young though. I just remember seeing the box and my dad telling me that you play games on the TV. I only remember playing the 2600 a few years later.
yeah my early memories of TV pong are so bad I don't think I'd even recognise the console if i saw it today. I really didn't take to these early consoles. They were fun if you had two people of fairly equal skill. So playing against mum or dad was just useless lol It wasn't until that 2600 that games really got engaging in a big way.
The 2600 was the longest officially supported console of all time. It was fully supported up to 1992 and even now there are homebrew enthusiasts building new games and modding old ones.
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I love that about the RMC project! I don't think many other channels can boast the same thing.
This has the feel of a board game, one you'd store in it's box in a closet with all it's bits and pieces, and then set up for a game night. Like a, board game. :)
They Created Worlds podcast has an episode about the history of Odyssey 1. Is fascinant to see how they were able to make at a consumer level price in early 70s.
It's in better shape than me at 50.
You should have just stayed in a box for most of your life.
The 'Computer' font was specifically created to aid Optical Character Recognition. Each character can be collapsed vertically to create a bar graph. The shape of the 'graph' for each character is unique. An optical scanner simply has to run over the character and assess how much of each vertical slice has ink and compare it to the table of characters.
Very nice demo of the Odyssey! Always a pleasure to tune-in to your show!
Pong was my first video game. My uncle owned the console after this one. Amazing to see how far it's all come. Pong to Cyberpunk it's been quite an evolution to watch.
Honestly the condition of this is amazing and I love how it comes with all the extra games components and overlay..... brilliant episode
That is such a pristine condition machine, a true piece of working history. I picked up a boxed Fairchild Channel F a few years back, also very cool.
We went from 3 blocks on the screen to Cyberpunk 2077 in 50 years. Can't imagine what games will look like in another 50!
Well, and it went from the Odyssey to the C64 running Bruce Lee in 10 years time (technically longer as the game was created later, but hey)
The last 10 to 15 years have been disappointing only minor improvements and they now make games pay2win and force you to go online and log in for single player games.
â@@belstar1128 đđđ
@@belstar1128 Yep, I agree. no more DVD with all data so you can still play the game in 20 years time, buy stuff to get past unnecessary griding parts (because the game is actually smaller than you might expect for the money) and of course always be online. Bleh.. I don't buy the consoles new any more, just after they are jailbroken and run the pirated versions. Not that I want to, but simply because I can't buy a version that I actually want of a game..
@@belstar1128 shadow of the tomb raider with proper ray tracing on pc would explode my 11 year old mind lol
compare it to TR on ps1 đ
What an absolutely wonderful machine that thing is! Deffo deserves its own cabinet
It really does. It's literally THE original and that one looks freakin' gorgeous!
What a great machine! It wouldn't have looked out of place on the set of Space 1999. Great video, hope you can get it fully working.
We had a Grandstand SD-070 all those years ago! Great machine, all the logic was on the cartridge, the base was just an interface to the analog joysticks, lightgun, aerial and power... Managed to buy one recently for just ÂŁ20 with 2 game cartridges, just need a suitable TV now! They are part of the PC-50x series of consoles, made by a whole host of manufacturers.
Amazing find.I love the box. The condition is incredible.
Everything used to have such taste and character built into it. From our buildings to our home consoles. Just gorgeous.
1960s and 1970s brutalist concrete carbuncles? No, the 70s here in Britain were a grey miserable time.
@@handlesarefeckinstupid Okay? The whole world isn't 1970s England mate.
My dad bought one of these at a yard sale in '82 or so. It was MARVELOUS.
I have 3 of the oddessy 2 consoles. My neighbor use to sell magnavox products in his music shop. When he retired he asked if I wanted the last 2 consoles he had. My parents had bought one for Christmas one year and I loved playing the games so I jumped at the chance to have two more. So much fun back then.
I enjoyed that. Thank you very much for making this video. I can't believe they got that much out of it with so little electronics.
Very interesting, never seen this console in person. Hope to see more in-detail videos about it :) September 1972, that's over 2 years before my time :P
My dear late uncle had one of these back then. First home video console I ever got my hands on! There was a realistic looking hunting rifle accessory available for sure.
I'm so glad that I discovered your channel via this video. So amazing, this console, and your unboxing was perfect. I was born in 1974 and to think this pre-dates even my old arse is mind blowing.
The contents is in amazing condition and I hope you get the console working.
Interesting to see how this first foray into videogames was more 'How about family board games but on the TV?' than what it would eventually become.
I couldn't figure out why it specified the TV size on the box until you opened it up and I saw the overlays. Quite clever for 1972 to be honest.
I do think considering the condition of nearly everything this should be kept as a museum piece, and maybe having a 2nd device for people to test out and play with. as be a shame to see it ruined when it is nearly 100% pristine condition after so many years. makes me kind of wonder if the previous owner had a 2nd machine, and only brought this out for a holiday or when the other machine was in for repair. would also like to see the replacement of parts and repair of such a vintage console,
I totally agree, it's now in a glass cabinet on display for visitors to see. If it does come out for a game (when we've fixed it) it will be under supervision for short periods. It looks great in the cabinet now
My dad had one of these when it came out, he paid a little more when he bought a new Magnavox TV to throw in the Odyssey with it, that was when there were door-to-door salesmen. Sadly he didn't keep it, he left it with his first wife along with a lot of other cool stuff that would be worth a pretty penny today.
I had a hand-me-down Odyssey in the late 70s! I was bugging my parents for a console at the time, and their friends had an Odyssey that they'd bought for their kids when it came out. My 9 year old self didn't realize what it was, and hated it (I wanted an Atari or Intellivision, and this just seemed like Pong to me). If only I knew (and kept it!).
I remember the commercials on tv. I was amazed at 8 years old. Never got one though.
Amazing to think that 50 years ago games consoles were even a thing someone thought about. I just hope when you do do a repair you please have it on video as I would love to see inside it. Thanks for a very interesting video.
My dad bought one in '73 when I was five. It was incredible. It was like something from another world. When you turned the dial things moved on the screen. We even had the rifle. I've loved video games ever sinse
Could be that you had the 'Submarine' game 'cartridge' inserted instead of the tennis one as that has similar functions to the tennis game and no centre line. (looking at other YT vids of odyssey games)
Wow. An amazing find. All those accessories.. nowadays, youâre lucky if your console or computer includes a paper manual.
Such a work of art rather than a game console. This artistic design plus the black and white colors reminds me somewhat of the playstation 5 design with its artistic curves and black and white contrast colors. It's an amazing piece of retro gaming from years gone past.
What about some kind of app for printing overlays according to your television size? Choose the game, enter the dimensions of your telly, and it gives you a file to print off at a professional printers (on something see-through like cellophane)
In the US, we still see that font used on the bottom of checks (if and when you get or use one) for the MICR - a series of numbers printed with magnetic ink that contains the bank routing code, account number and check number.
I believe thatâs OCR A, also from 1968, as opposed to Computer which was inspired by it :) Cheques and debit/credit cards still have them in the UK too!
Edit: another commenter says the true original font is actually just numerals. Whoops! That said, something must do the names on the cards, I thought it was OCR A. Maybe I need to look closer at my own cards!
I love it. The graphic design of everything is so completely 1972. It's a beautiful time capsule and I would love to see the clever screen overlays in action. đ
Unbelievable condition considering it's age. Four whole months older than me, and has faired exceptionally đ
Very nice. It reminds a bit of a "computer" my Dad once brought home. Basically, you can had to plug the blue wires in yourself in a simplified circuit board, and then could play simple games that involved pulling sliders, lighting up different light bulbs that sat in a row. There was even a version of chess. Some of the circuit diagrams were fiendishly complicated and poor connections often resulted in unexpected behaviour. Probably from a similar era, but no idea what it was called now.
Ah yes, the radio shack "computer" kit that was really just a set of logic circuits. It was very disappointing because you couldn't actually build a Turing-complete computer out of it, which at the time of release was what most people understood "computer" to mean, but whoever developed the kit used the old term, that included stuff like simple electronic addition/multiplication devices -- technically "computers".
@@NozomuYume Looking at the pics, it was likely like that in operation, but different design. A white body, with blue wires, row of bulbs encased in transparent orange housing at one end, and red sliders IIRC at the other. I remember being pretty disappointed as my school peers had Spectrum 48K, etc at home.
We had one of these in 1972, with light gun -- I remember very well going to the TV / Appliance store to buy it and the sales staff not having much of an idea of what it was or why anyone would want one :) also you could cheat at the gun games by pointing the rifle at a lamp or other light fixture lol
What a lovely moirĂ© pattern shirt! haha đ
Should be an easy repair. The Odyssey has a bunch of cards on pin connectors inside, I was able to get mine going by re-seating them and swapping a few of the interchangeable ones around.
theres a pot in there i believe that lets u adjust the "width" of the center line also but its been several years since i poked about inside
I love this console. It looks beautiful. I've got quite a few British "pong" consoles that have built in games like tennis and football. Each one does the same thing but all look so different. I love the twiddly joysticks too.
Nice video Neil.
I was a child in 1972, but wasnât aware of this. (We got an Atari when it came out). But funny enough about this time I DID have my own TV in my room. It was black & white, mustâve been an old spare. Iâve never had a TV in my bedroom since; Iâd never do that today, I think thatâs a really bad idea đ€Ł
We had that Odyssey when I was a kid. Amazing how far video games have come since then.
My family had one of these in 1973, they were extremely hard to get at the time.. it looks like you have the 21" screen masks, you could write them at Magnavox and have them send you the 26" ones. We had the larger set.. "Haunted House" was usually left stuck on the TV in our house. The static electricity on the face of the picture tube was usually good enough to adhere it in place. The Odyssey console was a bit ahead of its time with the cartridge game design, most had just a multi-position switch for selecting games if at all. Everyone was making these things in the early 70's, all being some sort of "Pong" variant until 2nd Gen Atari and Coleco's upped the anti with colored graphics and better controllers.. the 80's was a great time to grow up in, the upright game console experience eventually came home in the form of systems like the intellivision and 2600.. I loved my intellivision console, at the time you were either into the 2600 or the intellivision and by the beginning of the 80's came the ColecoVision.. this was truly the beginning of a multi-function console that had so many options to keep it interesting.
Ammmmmazzzzing!!! Thank you very much!
Family bought an Odyssey 2 back in 1979, We still have it and it still works, The Master games on the Odyssey 2 were my favorites. Quest of the Rings, Conquest of the world and The great wall street fortune hunt! Magnavox never gets the credit for being one of the first. Love to see a show on the Odyssey 2
Fantastic job
Awesome video!
We had one of those when I was a kid. Quite different than modern day. I don't recall ever using the cards and such. We mostly just used the rifle. Once you got used to the controllers they were pretty easy to move with some precision.
In 1972 my dad's family got there first color tv and he recalls going down the street and playing the odyssey over at a friend's house.
Magnificent find, in pristine condition. What a lucky guy.
I found the console at a flea market for which I paid around 1 dollar. No box, overlays, controls or "game cartridges". But it came with batteries, look how lucky I am. :) I think they were there since the 70's and obviously they were completely rusted. I've never taken the console apart to see the inside, but it must be just as wrecked.
A lovely addition to The Cave.
My 1st game system was the Odyssey 2 back in 1980 (Still have it and it works), and my favorite game is the infamous KC Munchkin... the best Pacman clone out there in my humble opinion.
The G7000 was my childhood console. My brother and I played the hell out of ours. I would love to see the machine you have out in back m
That light gun... We had the pump-action shotgun that basically worked like a light-pen, checking for brightness of the screen at the "precise" spot you were aiming. ISTR it worked with the haunted house game in particular.
If the room wasn't dark, you could simply aim at the ceiling and score every time.
It looks more stylish in design đthan the PS5 console.
Very true. Then again, so does a jar of pickled gherkhins.
My Dad bought the family one of these, and I still have it. Mine also has a toy pump shotgun and shooting gallery games.
My father bought me and my brother end 70's a Magnavox with a bunch of Pong variants on it, alwyas tought it was a Magnavox Odyssey but it had different controllers and with a orannge color.
The first console I can remember as a kid was a binatone, it had pong , tennis, squash etc, and it even come with a light gun. You could only shoot at a little square on the screen.
My family had one, must have been around 1976. I remember the gun being the most fun. Also remember the overlays used to fall off the screen sometimes.
I picked one of these up used for like $5 several years after it came out. They were really trying to do a lot with the tech that they had.
"it doesn't matter if it works or not" because Mark fixes stuff!"
I've got a Philips VideoPac G7000 (aka Magnavox Odyssey 2, aka Philips Odyssey 2) up on the shelf. And I have always wondered about its "predecessor". But I had never imagined it to be such and odd-yssey... really cool, it its own odd way đ
Looking forward the Odyssey Mini đđ
Wow, it's in amazing condition. The whiteness of the plastic after so many years is astounding.
I bought one of these at an estate sale a couple years back for 1 dollar. came with the gun a couple games and a few screens.
Get a multimeter and tone out the contacts on the game cards and publish your findings for history and science. Also that 'center' pot on the back could be the line problem.
I'd like to see more episodes about the gameplay on this machine. Seeing the paper money and answer cards etc tripped some nostalgia for the old board games my family played (Monopoly, Game of Life, etc etc). Of course, computers like the Amiga 500 opened up a whole new world, but there was something tactile about having your own money and writing scores on a bit of paper that computers never replaced (kinda like e-books vs the real thing).
Great looking games machine in fantastic condition.
2 of the pins on the carts might activate the power. If you don't have all the game carts, you could map all the pins for each of your games and you might be able to discover the rest of them. (?)
1972! This would have been for well off homes and not for UK at all. We (IN UK) had a TV back then (rented B&W) . People followed their various programs which of course were not able to be recorded so a Console like this would have been in the way of watching . Maybe it was similar in the USA and that is why it has gone mostly unused.
Have to say that is a stunning item, shame it's not fully working but it's still a wonderful piece of art as it is, and in stunning complete condition by the looks of it. Just such a cool design that's very much of it late 60's origin's
Will look forward to see that on my next visit đ
With the wave of retro 60âs designs this would not be 100% not out of place in a modern living room. It has a very classic James Bond-y vibe.
Inspires me get my Odyssey running again and bring it to PAX for the old consol area. Also to recreate the lightgun rifle with a 3D printer.
RIP Ralph Behr
Baer.
@@Safetytrousers Bear
@@Xcalibur2679 Where?
To get the full experience you'll really need a period correct giant American console TV. Made of chipboard with walnut veneer, red velvet inlays and tacky rococo styling. two giant inbuilt speakers and a stereo/LP system in the top. Maybe you can get Shango to send you one.
I have a couple of these and the complete US set of games with rifle. I bought them from a man in Florida who new Ralph Baer. He said most of the squares and lines can be adjusted inside the console. I wish I could tell you how to do it, but I don't know. He had made a CD on making adjustments to the Odyssey that you may find online somewhere. His name was Richard Sanford. Unfortunately he has passed away.
Did his daughter ever get her late father's inventory sorted out? I'm sure it was him whose daughter hired out an appraiser who stole all of his inventory of consoles and parts.
Yes I think so. All sorted out. He was a nice guy.
Thinking about it they kind of brought back the game console hybrid with the boxed board game series. I have Quest for the Rings and they also released two others... Conquest of the World and The Great Wall Street Fortune Hunt.
I have one of these in my closet with extra games. Have not opened the box in a long time.
The design looks like the old Zenith TV we had back in the early 70s. Cool!
I still have mine from my childhood. I just pulled it out if my shed last week.
Really cool
The "family gaming experience" definitely happened with the wii.
Mine is an early UK model complete with the light gun. But Iâm missing some of the items such as the scoreboard and stickers. I think I only had to replace one transistor to get it working, and at that time I still had a 27â 4:3 CRT to stick the overlays on.
I have one in pristine condition with a brown outer original shipping box. It's completely awesome to look at all the contents! Ofcourse it lacks the original schotch tape. đ