Magnavox Odyssey 2

In 1978, Magnavox released the successor to its popular video game system, the Odyssey. Known as the Magnavox Odyssey², Philips Odyssey² and the Philips Videopac G7000, this second-generation video game console was designed to play programmable ROM game cartridges, and unlike any other system at that time included a full alphanumeric keyboard, which could be used for programming, selecting options or playing educational games.

The unit also featured a removable silver joystick, which was designed to be held in one hand whilst its eight-direction stick was manipulated with the other hand. Later releases featured a hardwired black controller with an 8-pointed star-shaped housing for its eight-direction joystick. Both versions had a single 'Action' button in the upper corner of the joystick: silver on the original controllers and red on the black versions.

By using programmable cartridges, an unlimited number of games could be individually purchased by players, allowing them to tailor their library of videogames to their own interests. Each game offered a unique experience, with its own gameplay, foreground graphics, background graphics, scoring and music. The Odyssey² was partricularly renowned for its pioneering fusion of board and video games: The Master Strategy Series. The first game released in this series was the instant classic Quest for the Rings!, with gameplay that was somewhat similar to Dungeons & Dragons. Other popular games included:

• Alien Invaders - Plus!
• Alpine Skiing!
• Armored Encounter!
• Atlantis
• Attack of the Timelord!
• Baseball!
• Blockout!
• Bowling!/Basketball!
• Buzzword!
• Casino Slot Machine!
• Frogger
• K. C. Munchkin!
• Las Vegas Blackjack!
• Popeye

The console sold moderately well in the US, selling over a million units by 1983. However it was even more popular in Europe (where it was known as the Philips Videopac G7000) and Brazil (known as the Philips Odyssey), where it was used in tournaments for popular games such as Come-Come.

Specifications

CPU

• Intel 8048 8-bit microcontroller running at 1.79 MHz

Memory

• CPU-internal RAM: 64 bytes (1/16 KiB)
• Audio/video RAM: 128 bytes (1/8 KiB)
• BIOS ROM: 1024 bytes (1 KiB)

Video

• Intel 8244 custom IC
• 160x200 resolution (NTSC)
• 16-colour palette; sprites may only use 8 of these colours
• 4 8x8 single-colour user-defined sprites; each sprite's colour may be set independently
• 12 8x8 single-colour characters; each character's colour may be set independently
• 4 quad characters; groups of four characters displayed in a row
• 9x8 background grid; dots, lines, or solid blocks

Audio

• Intel 8244 custom IC
• mono
• 24-bit shift register, clockable at 2 frequencies
• noise generator

Input

• Two 8-way, one-button, digital joysticks.
• QWERTY-layout membrane keyboard

Output

• RF Audio/Video connector
• Puritel/SCART connector (France only)

Media

• ROM cartridges, typically 2 KiB, 4 KiB, or 8 KiB in size.

Expansion modules

• The Voice - provides speech synthesis and enhanced sound effects
• Chess Module - The Odyssey2 didn't have enough memory and computing power for a decent implementation of chess on its own, so the C7010 chess module contained a secondary CPU with its own extra memory to run the chess program.