page_title: Magnavox Odyssey
section_title: Design
hierarchical_section_title: Magnavox Odyssey / Design
caption_attribution_description: The controller of the Magnavox Odyssey, the very first video game console. Released in 1972, the Odyssey was a simple and crude device that generated shapes on the television that could be controlled and interacted with. It only produced black and white graphics and had no sound, but was limited to only using discreet components like diodes and transistors. It was replaced in 1975 with the Magnavox Odyssey series, a line of dedicated Pong consoles.
context_page_description: The Magnavox Odyssey is the first commercial home video game console. It was developed by a small team led by Ralph H. Baer at Sanders Associates and released by Magnavox in the United States in September 1972 and overseas the following year. The Odyssey consists of a white, black, and brown box which connects to a television set, and two rectangular controllers attached by wires. It is capable of displaying three square dots on the screen in monochrome black and white, with differing behavior for the dots depending on the game played, and with no sound capabilities. Players place plastic overlays on the screen to create visuals, and the one or two players for each game control their dots with the three knobs and one button on the controller in accordance with the rules given for the game. The Odyssey console came packaged with dice, paper money, and other board game paraphernalia to go along with the games, and a peripheral controller—the first video game light gun—was sold separately.
  The idea for a video game console was thought up by Baer in August 1966, and over the next three years he, along with Bill Harrison and Bill Rusch, created seven successive prototype consoles.
context_section_description: The Odyssey consists of a black, white, and brown oblong box connected by wires to two rectangular controllers. The primary console box connects to the television set through an included switchbox, which allows the player to switch the television input between the Odyssey and the regular television input cable, and presents itself like a television channel. The controllers, which are designed to sit on a flat surface, contain one button marked Reset on the top of the controller and three knobs: one on the right side of the controller, and two on the left with one extending from the other. The reset button does not reset the game, but instead is used by different games to reset individual elements, such as making a player's dot visible after it is turned off during a game. The system can be powered by six C batteries, which were included. An optional AC power supply was sold separately. The Odyssey lacks sound capability and can only display monochrome white shapes on a blank black screen.
  Internally, the Odyssey architecture is composed of digital computing parts.  The circuitry is implemented in diode–transistor logic using discrete transistors and diodes, rather than the newly emerging transistor–transistor logic integrated circuits, due to cost concerns. The games themselves do not use ROM cartridges like later consoles, but instead use "game cards" composed of printed circuit boards that plug into the console. These cards modify the internal circuitry like a set of switches or jumpers, causing the Odyssey to display different components and react to inputs differently. Multiple games use the same cards, with different instructions given to the player to change the style of game.
  The Odyssey is capable of displaying three square dots and a vertical line on the screen. Two of the dots are controlled by the two players, and the third by the system itself. The main console has two dials, one of which moves the vertical line across the screen, and one which adjusts the speed of the computer-controlled dot. Different games direct the player to adjust the dials to different positions, for example to change the center line of a tennis game into the side wall of a handball game. The games include plastic overlays which stick to the television via static cling, to create visuals for the game. Different games that use the same game card can have different overlays, which can change a game with the same controls from, for example, a mountain ski path to a movement-based Simon Says game.
  In addition to the overlays, the Odyssey came with dice, poker chips, score sheets, play money, and game boards much like a traditional board game. One peripheral controller was released for the Odyssey, the first video game light gun. Named the Shooting Gallery, the rifle-shaped device registered a hit when pointed at a light source such as a dot on the television screen. Four shooting-based games were included with the light gun.
caption: An Odyssey controller
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