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56-772: The Magnavox Odyssey 2 (stylized as Magnavox Odyssey² ), also known as Philips Odyssey 2 , is a second generation home video game console that was released in 1978 . It was sold in Europe as the Philips Videopac G7000 , in Brazil and Peru as the Philips Odyssey and in Japan as Odyssey2 (オデッセイ2 odessei2 ). The Odyssey 2 was one of the five major home consoles prior to the 1983 video game market crash , along with Atari 2600 , Atari 5200 , Intellivision and ColecoVision . In

112-490: A microprocessor , which was the driving technology that allowed the consoles to use cartridges. Other technology such as screen resolution, color graphics, audio, and AI simulation was also improved during this era. The generation also saw the first handheld game cartridge system, the Microvision , which was released by toy company Milton Bradley in 1979. In 1979, Activision was created by former Atari programmers and

168-591: A 16-bit microprocessor and offer downloadable content through the PlayCable service. It also provided real-time human voices during gameplay. It was the first console to pose a serious threat to Atari's dominance. A series of TV advertisements featuring George Plimpton were run. They used side-by-side game comparisons to show the improved graphics and sound compared with those of the Atari 2600. It sold over 3 million units before being discontinued in 1990. The ColecoVision

224-477: A cartridge called Computer Intro! with the intent of teaching simple computer programming ). The Odyssey 2 used the standard joystick design of the 1970s and early 1980s : the original console had a moderately sized silver controller, held in one hand, with a square housing for its eight-direction stick that was manipulated with the other hand. Later releases had a similar black controller, with an 8-pointed star-shaped housing for its eight-direction joystick. In

280-637: A distant third behind the Atari 2600 and Mattel Intellivision. To sell would-be customers on its resemblance to a home computer , the Odyssey 2 was marketed with phrases such as "The Ultimate Computer Video Game System", "Sync-Sound Action", "True-Reality Synthesization", "On-Screen Digital Readouts" and "a serious educational tool" on the packaging for the console and its game cartridges. All games, aside from Showdown in 2100 AD, produced by Magnavox/Philips ended with an exclamation point, such as K.C. Munchkin! and Killer Bees! . No third-party game appeared for

336-404: A hardware unit with a single dedicated game with only three-month shelf life before it was outdated by other competitors' offerings was not a practical business model, and instead some type of programmable console would be preferred. Intel introduced the first microprocessor, the 4004 , in 1971, a special computer chip that could be sent a simple instruction and provide its result. This allowed

392-578: A new story, like Pick-axe Pete! , that became Didi na Mina Encantada! (Didi in the Enchanted Mine) referring to Renato Aragão 's comedy character, and was one of the most famous Odyssey games in Brazil. The Odyssey 2 was released in Japan in December 1982 by Kōton Trading Toitarii Enterprise (コートン・トレーディング・トイタリー・エンタープライズ, a division of DINGU company) under the name オデッセイ２ ( odessei2 ). "Japanese" versions of

448-501: A science and media columnist in such magazines as Analog , Omni , and Famous Monsters of Filmland . His How to Play video game books of the 1980s and 1990s detailed strategies for dozens of games for the Nintendo Entertainment System , Sega Genesis , and Game Boy . This series was preceded by his The Complete Guide to Conquering Video Games in 1982, and followed by his Gamemaster series that lasted until

504-621: A storyline reminiscent of J. R. R. Tolkien 's The Lord of the Rings . Later, two other games were released in this series, Conquest of the World and The Great Wall Street Fortune Hunt , each with its own gameboard. Its graphics and few color choices, compared to its biggest competitors at the time—the Atari 2600 , Mattel's Intellivision and the Bally Astrocade —were its "weakest point". Of these systems,

560-466: A technique that allows two or more different parts of the program to use the same memory addresses , was required for the larger cartridges to work. The Atari 2600 cartridges got as large as 32 kilobytes through this technique. The Atari 2600 has only 128 bytes of RAM available in the console. A few late game cartridges contain a combined RAM/ROM chip, or an additional separate RAM chip, thus adding another 256 bytes or more (up to 2 kilobytes) of RAM inside

616-1768: Is a raster display.) At the time, many of the most popular arcade games, sch as Asteroids , used vector displays. Through a licensing deal with Cinematronics, GCE was able to produce high-quality versions of arcade games such as Space Wars and Armor Attack . Despite a strong library of games and good reviews, the Vectrex was ultimately a commercial failure. It was on the market for less than two years. 240 x 8-bit scratchpad RAM 512 x 8-bit graphics pattern table RAM circa 102×58 160×240+ (sprites) 40x240+ (playfield) True: 160×102 Basic: 160×88 Expanded RAM: 320×204 160×200 (NTSC) 160x96 (20x12 tiles of 8x8 pixels) 8 colors 128 colors (NTSC) 104 colors (PAL) 8 colors (SECAM) 32 colors (8 intensities) 16 colors (fixed); sprites use 8 colors 16 color 8 simultaneous (maximum of 4 per pixel row) 128 simultaneous (2 sprite colors [1 color per sprite] and 2 background/ball colors per scanline) True: 8 Basic: 2 Unknown 16 simultaneous Only by software per scanline: Unlimited (software controlled) 8 sprites, 8x16 half-pixels 128x208 / 128×104 256×192 80×192 (16 color) 160×192 (4 color) 320×192 (2 color) 16 colors 15 colors, 1 transparent 256 colors 2 (black and white) 16 simultaneous (1 color per sprite) 16 simultaneous, Up to 256 (16 hues , 16 luma ) on screen (16 per scanline) with display list interrupts 2 simultaneous (black and white) Jeff Rovin Jeff Rovin has been editor-in-chief of Weekly World News , an assistant editor and writer for DC Comics , and an editor for Warren Publishing and Seaboard Periodicals , as well as

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672-621: Is the only emulator to emulate The Voice expansion module without using sound samples. Second generation of video game consoles In the history of video games , the second-generation era refers to computer and video games, video game consoles , and handheld video game consoles available from 1976 to 1992. Notable platforms of the second generation include the Fairchild Channel F , Atari 2600 , Intellivision , Odyssey 2 , and ColecoVision . The generation began in November 1976 with

728-558: The AY-3-8500 were produced to replicate these circuits within a single chip, but still presented only a single fixed logic program. Once a game was shipped, there were only minimal variations that could be made by adjusting the positions of jumpers (effectively the behavior of the "cartridges" that shipped with the Magnavox Odyssey ). As Atari, Inc. recognized, spending from $ 100,000 to 250,000 and several months of development time on

784-684: The Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS or later known as the Atari 2600), was released in 1977 and based on the MOS Technology 6507 microprocessor, with a cartridge design influenced in part by the Channel F system. Other console manufacturers soon followed suit with the production of their own programmable consoles. At the start of the second generation, all games were developed and produced in-house. Four former Atari programmers, having left from conflicts in management style after Atari

840-520: The first generation , saw limited use during this era. Though the first generation Magnavox Odyssey had put games on cartridge-like circuit cards , the games had limited functionality and required TV screen overlays and other accessories to be fully functional. More advanced cartridges , which contained the entire game experience, were developed for the Fairchild Channel F, and most video game systems adopted similar technology. The first system of

896-426: The Channel F. By 1979, only an additional 100,000 units of the Channel F were sold for lifetime sales of 350,000. In 1978, Fairchild redesigned the system into a new model, the Channel F System II. The System II streamlined some of the initial Channel F to reduce cost and improve consumer usage compared to the Atari 2600, such as improved controller connections and using the television speakers for audio output, but by

952-498: The Fairchild Video Entertainment System (VES), was released by Fairchild Semiconductor in November 1976 and was the first console of the second generation. It was the world's first CPU-based video game console, introducing the cartridge-based game-code storage format. The console featured a pause button that allowed players to freeze a game. This allowed them to take a break without the need to reset or turn off

1008-460: The Odyssey 2 and its games consisted of the American boxes with katakana stickers on them and cheaply printed black-and-white Japanese manuals. The initial price for the console was ¥ 49,800 , which is approximately US$ 200 (equivalent to about $ 630 in 2023). It was apparently not very successful; Japanese Odyssey 2 items are now very difficult to find. An open source console emulator for

1064-523: The Odyssey 2 called O2EM is available. It includes Philips Videopac G7400 emulation among other features. The emulator works on Linux , Microsoft Windows , DOS and other platforms, and is included within OpenEmu for Mac OS X . O2EM (originally not open source) was created in 1997 by computer programmer Daniel Boris and further enhanced by André Rodrigues de la Rocha. The open source multi-platform multi-system emulator MAME has Odyssey 2 support, and

1120-527: The Odyssey 2 did very well on the market. The console was most widely known as the Philips Videopac G7000 , or just the Videopac , although branded variants were released in some areas of Europe under the names Philips Videopac C52 , Radiola Jet 25 , Schneider 7000 , and Siera G7000 . Philips used their own name rather than Magnavox's for European marketing. A rare model, the Philips Videopac G7200 ,

1176-521: The Odyssey 2 in the United States until Imagic 's Demon Attack in 1983. The lack of third-party support kept the number of new games very limited, but the success of the Philips Videopac G7000 overseas led to two other companies producing games for it: Parker Brothers released Popeye , Frogger , Q*bert and Super Cobra , while Imagic also released Atlantis . In Europe ,

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1232-490: The Odyssey 2 was listed by Jeff Rovin as being the third in total of sales, and one of the seven major video game suppliers. The console sold moderately well in the U.S. Prior to the nationwide release of the Mattel Intellivision in 1980, the console video game market was dominated by the competition between the Odyssey 2 and Atari 2600 . It remained one of the three primary consoles from 1980 to mid- 1982 , though

1288-427: The Odyssey 2 was not capable of displaying). The potential was enormous, as an unlimited number of games could be individually purchased; a game player could purchase a library of video games tailored to their own interest. Unlike any other system at that time, the Odyssey 2 included a full alphanumeric membrane keyboard , which was to be used for educational games , selecting options, or programming (Magnavox released

1344-431: The ability to create software programs around the microprocessor rather than fix the logic into circuits and ICs. Engineers at both Atari, Inc. (via its Cyan Engineering subsidiary) and at Alpex Computer Corporation saw the potential to apply this to home consoles as prices for microprocessors became more affordable. Alpex's work led to partnership with semiconductor manufacturer Fairchild Camera and Instrument and lead to

1400-459: The animated series The Simpsons . Additionally, he has written quiz and joke books. Rovin's novels are in the fields of thriller, horror, adventure, and mystery, in addition to the military field with books in the Force Five and Tom Clancy's Op-Center series. His Tom Clancy's Op-Center: War of Eagles became a New York Times Best Seller . His later Unit Omega books were written under

1456-485: The cartridge itself. The Atari 2600 standard joystick is a digital controller with a single button, released in 1977. The Atari 2600 also supports 4 analog paddle controllers (or, in theory, 2 analog joysticks ). The Bally Astrocade was released in 1977 and was available only through mail order. It was originally referred to as the Bally Home Library Computer. Delays in the production meant that none of

1512-490: The cases were thrown out of court and the two companies settled in 1982, with Activision agreeing to pay Atari for a "technology license". This established Activision as the first third-party developer for a console. It also established a working model for other third-party developers, and several such companies followed in Activision's wake, partially contributing to the video game crash of 1983 due to oversaturation. As

1568-441: The console so they did not lose their current game progress. Fairchild released twenty-six cartridges for the system, with up to four games being on each cartridge. The console came with two pre-installed games, Hockey and Tennis . Following the release of the Atari 2600, the Channel F's popularity waned quickly as the more action-driven games of the Atari 2600 drew more attention than the more educational and slow-paced games on

1624-446: The console to play 2600 games, resulting in a lawsuit from Atari. The ColecoVision was a victim of the video game crash, ultimately being discontinued in 1985. The Vectrex was released in 1982. It was unique among home systems of the time in featuring vector graphics and its own self-contained display (necessitated by the fact that a normal TV set cannot display vector graphics, since the TV

1680-620: The console. A number of additional games were released in Europe that never came out in the U.S. In Brazil, the console was released simply as Philips Odyssey (since the original Odyssey had had only a limited release by a local company, Planil Comércio, under license). The Odyssey 2 became much more popular in Brazil than it ever was in the U.S.; tournaments were even held for popular games like K.C.'s Krazy Chase! ( Come-Come! in Brazil). Titles of games were translated into Portuguese, sometimes creating

1736-440: The decade. At this stage, both consoles and game cartridges were intended to be sold for profit by manufacturers. However, by segregating games from the console, this approach established the use of the razorblade business model in future console generations, where consoles would be sold at or below cost while licensing fees from third-party games would bring in profits. The Fairchild Channel F, also known early in its life as

Magnavox Odyssey 2 - Misplaced Pages Continue

1792-409: The discontinuation of the Atari 2600. The primary driver of the second generation of consoles was the introduction of the low-cost microprocessor . Arcade games and the first generation of consoles used discrete electronic components including simple logic chips such as transistor-transistor logic (TTL)-based integrated circuits (ICs). Custom application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) like

1848-455: The early 1970s , Magnavox pioneered the home video game industry by successfully bringing the first home console to market, the Odyssey , which was quickly followed by a number of later models, each with a few technological improvements ( see Magnavox Odyssey series ). In 1978 , Magnavox, now a subsidiary of North American Philips , decided to release an all-new successor, Odyssey 2. In 2009,

1904-477: The generation and some others, such as the RCA Studio II , still came with built-in games while also having the capability of utilizing cartridges. The popularity of game cartridges grew after the release of the Atari 2600. From the late 1970s to the mid-1990s, most home video game systems used cartridges until the technology was replaced by optical discs . The Fairchild Channel F was also the first console to use

1960-460: The generation. It was discontinued in 1984. The Intellivision was introduced by Mattel to test markets in 1979 and nationally in 1980. The Intellivision console contained a 16-bit processor with 16-bit registers and 16-bit system RAM . This was long before the " 16-bit era ". Programs were however stored on 10-bit ROM . It also featured an advanced sound chip that could deliver output through three distinct sound channels. The Intellivision

2016-469: The holiday season. Atari held exclusive rights to most of the popular arcade game conversions of the day. They used this key segment to support their older hardware in the market. This game advantage and the difference in price between the machines meant that each year, Atari sold more units than Intellivision, lengthening its lead despite inferior graphics. The Atari 2600 sold over 30 million units over its lifetime, considerably more than any other console of

2072-951: The late 1990s, which began containing a violence rating for the games included in these books. Rovin's publisher at the time, St. Martin's, later decided to continue the "How To Win At", series, but this time written by Hank Schlesinger, to cover Nintendo 64 , PlayStation games, and Pokémon . Rovin has written encyclopedias about popular culture , including The Encyclopedia of Superheroes (Facts On File, 1985), The Encyclopedia of Super Villains (Facts On File, 1987) The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Cartoon Animals (Prentice Hall, 1991), and The Encyclopedia of Monsters (Checkmark Books, 1990). He has worked on biographical and film books on such performers as Kelsey Grammer , Lana Turner , Adam West , Ellen DeGeneres , Jackie Chan , Charlton Heston , Elvis Presley , Sylvester Stallone , Richard Pryor , Luke Perry , Jason Priestley , and Julio Iglesias , and on

2128-484: The market, saw the video game industry crash in 1983 and marked the start of the next generation. Beginning in December 1982 and stretching through all of 1984, the crash of 1983 caused major disruption to the North American market. Some developers collapsed and almost no new games were released in 1984. The market did not fully recover until the third generation . The second generation ended on January 1, 1992, with

2184-539: The medium resulted in many games for second generation home consoles being ports of arcade games . Space Invaders , the first " killer app " arcade game to be ported, was released in 1980 for the Atari 2600, though earlier Atari-published arcade games were ported to the 2600 previously. Coleco packaged Nintendo's Donkey Kong with the ColecoVision when it was released in August 1982. Built-in games, like those from

2240-581: The name pen name Jim Grand . He then began writing further military suspense novels under his own name, such as Tempest Down , Dead Rising , and Rogue Angel . In October 2016, during the last days of the Donald Trump campaign , Rovin appeared on Hannity , in Breitbart News and the front cover of National Enquirer , claiming to have been a "fixer" for Bill and Hillary Clinton, hiding family scandals. His allegations included that Hillary Clinton

2296-560: The name of the console to the Astrocade to follow suit. It sold under this name until the video game crash of 1983 when it was discontinued. In 1978, Magnavox released its microprocessor-based console, the Odyssey 2, in the United States and Canada. It was distributed by Philips Electronics in the European market and was released as the Philips G7000. A defining feature of the system was

Magnavox Odyssey 2 - Misplaced Pages Continue

2352-451: The rear of the base unit itself. One of the strongest points of the system was its speech synthesis unit, which was released as an add-on for speech, music, and sound effects enhancement. The area that the Odyssey 2 may be best remembered for was its pioneering fusion of board and video games: The Master Strategy Series . The first game released was Quest for the Rings! , with gameplay somewhat similar to Dungeons & Dragons , and

2408-487: The release of the Fairchild Channel F. This was followed by the Atari 2600 in 1977, Magnavox Odyssey² in 1978, Intellivision in 1980 and then the Emerson Arcadia 2001 , ColecoVision , Atari 5200 , and Vectrex , all in 1982. By the end of the era, there were over 15 different consoles. It coincided with, and was partly fuelled by, the golden age of arcade video games . This peak era of popularity and innovation for

2464-524: The release of the first such programmable home console, the Fairchild Channel F released in 1976, based on the Fairchild F8 microprocessor. The Channel F also established the use of ROM cartridges to provide the software for the programmable console, consisting of a ROM chip mounted on a circuit board within a hard casing that can withstand the physical insertion into the console and potential static electricity buildup. Atari's own programmable console,

2520-442: The second generation of consoles coincided with the golden age of arcade video games , a common trend that emerged during the generation was licensing arcade video games for consoles. Many of them were increasingly licensed from Japanese video game companies by 1980, which led to Jonathan Greenberg of Forbes predicting in early 1981 that Japanese companies would eventually dominate the North American video game industry later in

2576-567: The second generation. In 1982, Atari released the Atari 5200 in an attempt to compete with the Intellivision. While superior to the 2600, poor sales and lack of new games meant Atari only supported it for two years before it was discontinued. Early Atari 2600 cartridges contained 2 kilobytes of read-only storage. This limit grew steadily from 1978 to 1983: up to 16 kilobytes for Atari 5200 cartridges. The Atari 2600 directly supports up to 4 kilobytes (4096 bytes) of cartridge ROM. Bank switching ,

2632-482: The speech synthesis unit add-on which enhanced music, sound effects and speech capabilities. The Odyssey² was also known for its fusion of board and video games. Some titles came with a game board and pieces which players had to use in conjunction to play the game. Although the Odyssey² never became as popular as the Atari consoles, it sold 2 million units throughout its lifetime. This made it the third best selling console of

2688-480: The time it was released, the Atari 2600 had too much market advantage for Fairchild to overcome. After releasing 21 games for the system, Fairchild sold the Channel F technology to Zircon International in 1979, who then discontinued the system by 1983. In 1977, Atari released its CPU-based console called the Video Computer System (VCS), later called the Atari 2600. Nine games were designed and released for

2744-696: The units shipped until 1978. By this time, the machine had been renamed the Bally Professional Arcade. In this form, it sold mostly at computer stores and had little retail exposure, unlike the Atari VCS. The rights to the console were sold to Astrovision in 1981. They re-released the unit with the BASIC cartridge included for free; this system was known as the Bally Computer System. When Astrovision changed their name to Astrocade in 1982 they also changed

2800-425: The upper corner of the joystick was a single 'Action' button, silver on the original controllers and red on the black controllers. The games, graphics and packaging were designed by Ron Bradford and Steve Lehner. During the time of Odyssey 2's manufacturing, some came with controllers that could be plugged and unplugged from the back of the unit via their DB9 connector, while others had their controllers hardwired into

2856-510: The video game website IGN named the Odyssey 2 the 21st greatest video game console, out of its list of 25. The original Odyssey had a number of removable circuit cards that switched between the built-in games. With the Odyssey 2, each game could be a unique experience, with its own foreground graphics, gameplay, scoring, and music (some Odyssey 2 games were later re-released for the G7400 with added background and updated foreground graphics that

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2912-450: Was introduced by toy manufacturer Coleco in August 1982. It was more powerful than previous consoles, providing an experience that was closer to Arcades than what the 2600 could provide. The console launched with several arcade ports, including Sega's Zaxxon , and later saw third-party support from many developers such as Activision and even their competitor Atari. The ColecoVision is notable for its Atari 2600 expansion module, which enabled

2968-417: Was only released in Europe; it had a built-in black-and-white monitor . Videopac game cartridges are mostly compatible with American Odyssey 2 units, although some games have color differences and a few are completely incompatible, such as Frogger on the European console, being unable to show the second half of the playing field, and Chess on the American model, as the extra hardware module could not work with

3024-483: Was purchased by Warner Communications in 1976, established Activision in 1979 to develop their own VCS games, which included Dragster initially and the hits Kaboom! and Pitfall! later. Atari sued Activision and its founders on the basis of theft of trade secrets and violation of their non-disclosure agreements , and for Dragster allegedly infringing on the Drag Race arcade game from Atari's arm Kee Games ;

3080-631: Was the first third-party developer of video games. A small company through the 1980s, it gradually grew into a 21st century gaming giant. In the early 1980s, many large corporations, spurred by the success of the home video game industry and especially the VCS, launched or bought subsidiaries to produce video game console software. By 1982, the shelf capacity of toy stores was overflowing with an overabundance of consoles, over-hyped game releases, and low-quality games from new third-party developers. An over-saturation of consoles and games, coupled with poor knowledge of

3136-418: Was the first console with a thumb-pad directional controller and tile-based playfields with vertical and horizontal scrolling . The system's initial production run sold out shortly after its national launch in 1980. Early cartridges were 4 kilobyte ROMs , which grew to 24 kilobytes for later games. The Intellivision introduced several new features to the second generation. It was the first home console to use

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