Flashback: Magnavox Gets in on the Video Game Action

May 13, 2008

With games out today like Grand Theft Auto, it's hard to imagine anyone was entertained by this self-described "electronic game of the future." You attached the Magnavox Odyssey to your color or black-and-white television, and it allowed you to play games such as hockey, tennis and. . . geography(?!) I have a feeling the Magnavox Odyssey tanked, but at least we have this awesome commercial to look at!

5 Comments

Nyrina Windu 5 years 1 week

Wow! Now that is super ancient.

se7a7n7 5 years 1 week

All early video games were just variations of Pong for several years. The only difference would be small things, like the ability to keep score, number of players or being able to play against the computer.Notice that they had to put a plastic overlay on the TV screen. So the only thing the game had to actually produce was a little white block.As antiquated as it looks, this stuff was amazing at the time.I can't imagine how the "learning game" did any good. Where they put a plastic map over the screen and you moved the cursor over a state?

se7a7n7 5 years 1 week

All early video games were just variations of Pong for several years. The only difference would be small things, like the ability to keep score, number of players or being able to play against the computer. Notice that they had to put a plastic overlay on the TV screen. So the only thing the game had to actually produce was a little white block. As antiquated as it looks, this stuff was amazing at the time. I can't imagine how the "learning game" did any good. Where they put a plastic map over the screen and you moved the cursor over a state?

WhatTheFrockBlog 5 years 1 week

I think it's hilarious that every game looks basically like Pong.

se7a7n7 5 years 1 week

NERDGASM!!!! I love it!! It's funny that they say that the system will work on any brand television because the Odyssey had a major problem with sales because salespeople were telling customers that it would only work on Magnavox TVs. I don't know what kind of chump would have believed that...

Link Love

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