The World's First Videogame Console!
The idea that eventually turned into the Odyssey started in the mind of a German immigrant named Ralph Baer in 1951 while working for a Television manufacturing company called "Loral". He posited the idea that the television had the potential not just for viewing entertainment programs, but also playing visual games. The executives quickly trashed the idea, but Baer never forgot it. In 1966, while working for Magnavox, he pitched the idea again and came up with a prototype that would be external from the television instead of built-in. Six years, and a lot of investment capital later, and Magnavox released the first ever videogame console -- the "Odyssey". This achievement set Ralph Baer as the father of the home videogame console.
The Odyssey system was pretty simple from a technical perspective. There was no CPU, so the system worked with only a number of transistors and diodes, whose switch settings would manipulate the behavior of dots on the TV screen. Games were not held on cartridges, but on cards which contained electrical circuits, which acted as toggles on the internal switch system. Inserting these cards (and thus their circuits) reconfigured the system's discreet internal logic. As you can imagine, this incredible limitation of functionality was used to make equally limited games.
For instance, the Odyssey's graphics were EXTREMELY simple. The system was capable of drawing two large blocks, a small block, and a vertical line. These could be "programmed" by the game cards to act in a variety of ways, allowing more than one actual game. For instance, "Table Tennis", which is remembered as the first ever "Pong", would use the two larger blocks as "paddles", the small block as a ball, and the vertical line as the center net. Other games might only actually use the large blocks as "paddles". The backgrounds were available, but as semi-transparent TV-screen overlays, two sizes for two different sizes of television screens popular at the time of its creation. These would be used with the matching game to highlight the game's intended background. Sound effects are noticeably absent.
The system had no concept of score keeping in the console itself. Instead, lots of accessories came with the system's in-box games, and with those games which were sold separately. Accessories would include score cards with stick on numbers, red, white, and black chips, play money, etc. Some games even came with gameboards. It was up to the gamer to keep his own score using these accessories. This gave some (though not all) of the games the distinct feeling of being little more than board games with a televised component.
The handheld controller consisted of two turning dials on each edge, one moving vertical and one horizontal. The horizontal control also contained an extra dial, called the "English" control, which was used to control the direction of the ball on games which used one. For those of us who remember the Etch-A-Sketch, imagine if you could use an Etch-A-Sketch as a game controller. It was virtually impossible to make straight diagonal lines, though only one control direction was necessary for some games. Controlling the shooting-type games was not as difficult as the regular controlled games. The shooting controller consisted of a light sensing rifle which could detect the difference between the black television screen and the lighted dots. Unfortunately, this light sensing rifle was not very distinquishing. Shooting at a light bulb would register success as easily as a lighted screen dot. Though this might seem to be an easy way to cheat for scores, again, the scores were manually calculated by the very gamer who was playing the game, so such cheating had no visual effect.
Its hard to judge a system like this. I mean, it was truly revolutionary, and is responsible for starting the domino effect of improvements that the gaming industry has made. Yes much much better games are made on much much better consoles today, but those who are making such games today are relying on the history of knowledge and technology that systems like the Odyssey, Atari, and all game systems since then have laid. Odyssey isn't just an important step in the evolution of video games, its the genesis of the entire industry.
I judged the system with that history in mind, and took into account that my own tilt in favor of the system is very large. My grandparents bought me an Odyssey for my birthday in 1974, when I had just turned three years old, and though I didn't start playing it until I was age five, and even then only at their home, I played it when possible all the way up until the early 80s, when I received an Atari 2600 as a replacement. Hence, for me personally, it was a system that had great lasting value, and I am definitely biased from being able to say that I was one one of the few people on earth to own and play the very first videogame console. However, I have to be honest about things like gameplay, graphics, etc. They were absolutely revolutionary for their time, but they are what they are, and I can't rate them as anything but the most basic. If they were any more basic, they would be "imagination".
In summary, for those who require complete modernized gameplay and professional environments to really enjoy a game or gaming system, the Odyssey will not impress you. This experience isn't as much for the old schoolers as it is for the ancient schoolers. For those of us who like to live in the past every now and then and remember what was, this system is perfect, acting both as a nostalgic reminder of our past, and a concrete icon of how this industry and hobby we all now know and love got its start. Once you get past the perks we all benefit from in modern gameplay, it can also be quite fun.