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{{Template:Infobox console|image = [[Image:Magnavox-Odyssey-Console.jpg|230px]]
|Manufacturer = Magnavox
|Release date = 1972 (NA) <br/>1973 (UK) <br/>1974 (EU/JP)|Input Controller controller = Two 2 paddles|Successor = [[Magnavox Odyssey 2Odyssey²]]|Generation = [[:Category:First_generation|First Generationgeneration]]|Media type = CartridgesROM cartridges}}Magnavox released the first video game console, the '''Odyssey''', in 1972, predating the Pong machines by three years. However, the games were all included on the circuitry; the cartridges were nothing more than a series of jumpers to select the game. When the [[Fairchild Channel F]] and the [[Atari 2600]] released in 1976 and 1977 respectively, which both featured programmable ROM cartridges, Magnavox responded with the Odyssey2 (also known as the Philips Videopac G7000 or the Philips Odyssey). While inferior graphically and with a smaller library than it’s competitors, the Odyssey2 managed to last until the crash of 1983.
Sales of the console were hurt by poor marketing by Magnavox retail stores, in addition to many consumers being led to believe that the Odyssey would work only on Magnavox televisions. For that reason, most later "Pong" games had an explanation on their box saying ''"Works on any television set, black and white or color"''.
The Odyssey brought the arcade experience into the home and helped pave the way for the next generation of home video games such as the 1970s icon Pong. It demonstrated that the home console system would work and that there was a viable market.
==Technical specifications==
Ralph Baer, often considered the "father of video games" designed the Odyssey. Magnavox released it in the fall of 1972, but Baer had already created a functional prototype a few years earlier. The game console looks similar to today's games, but its functions were not. To play a game, one inserted a circuit card (similar to a game cartridge) into the console. The card did not contain the actual game program, though. Rather, it altered the signal path in the machine to change the light output coming through the television screen. Depending on the game, the light, which showed through the overlay, could be a race car, a baseball, a hockey puck, etc.
===Identification===
The model, serial and RUN numbers are written on the under side of the unit. The RUN number stands for the production run, the US model is either 1TL200BLAK, 1TL200BK12 or 1TL200BL99. Only specimens sent back to Magnavox to have the warranty renewed had their model updated to 1TL200BL99 (the original BLAK serial, if sticked inside the unit, was left, and the new serial was sticked over the original under the unit). Serial numbers start from 06xxxxxx to 11xxxxxx although the 0 was not printed. All of these models differ by small electronic changes, and sometimes with minor variations of game accessories
{| border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0"
! align="center" colspan="3"|'''MAGNAVOX ODYSSEY Magnavox Odyssey 1TL200 PRODUCTION BETWEEN production beetween 1972 AND and 1975'''
|-
!Model !! RUN !! Differenciation
|Export Model made in 1974.<br />Comes with only 10 games, trilingual playing cards.
|}
To identify the exact date of production follow this guide [http://www.pong-story.com/odyssey_dating.htm HEREhere].
==Dedicated Odysseys==
If Atari started to sell a whole range of PONG systems in 1975, Magnavox (the originator of home video game systems) also started a new range of systems in 1975, the first of which was a much simpler version of the 1972 Odyssey: the Odyssey 100. More models followed shortly.
! Model !! Particularities
|-
|style="text-align:center"|Odyssey 100[[File:Odyssey_100.jpg|100px|center]]||
The Odyssey 100 dedicated console was released in 1975. It uses a multi-chip discrete component design, which makes it much simpler than all later dedicated consoles Magnavox would eventually release. Magnavox already had a single-chip design in mind that year, but wanted to have a product they could release immediately if Texas Instruments, the supplier of their single video game chips, was unable to deliver in a timely manner.
*The export version of the Odyssey contained a SOCCER game, which replaced the FOOTBALL game provided with US Odyssey consoles. It is not known whether this game was sold separately in the USA, though no specimens were found outside of export Odyssey consoles.
[[Category:Console]]
[[Category:First generation]]
