Past Games Consoles – Magnavox Odyssey
The first ever commercial games console for people to buy
and use within their household was the Magnavox Odyssey which was released in
1973. This console sold 330,000 units worldwide, and contained cartridges which
you put in the front to play, all together there were 12 cartridges which
contained 27 games across the cartridges some of these games were the Table
Tennis, Ski, Simon Says, Tennis, Analogic, Hockey, and Football Part 1, Cat and
Mouse, Football Part 2, Haunted House, Submarine, Roulette, StatesFootball and
many more. To actually play the console two paddles were given to control the
in game movements. Furthermore to play the console you had to put batteries
into the back of it, which is almost unheard of nowadays for games consoles.
The games on the Magnavox Odyssey were played completely
differently to how we play games nowadays, then for these games you selected
which game you wanted to play and then you but a translucent plastic cover over
the top of your TV screen and then you played games by moving your light-up
square which would shine through the screen and the plastic cover as shown in
the image on the right. The simplicity of these games was really simple for
that time however it was really effective as evidently a lot of them were sold
and played by people at the time.
The games on the Magnavox Odyssey were played completely
differently to how we play games nowadays, then for these games you selected
which game you wanted to play and then you but a translucent plastic cover over
the top of your TV screen and then you played games by moving your light-up
square which would shine through the screen and the plastic cover as shown in
the image on the right. The simplicity of these games was really simple for
that time however it was really effective as evidently a lot of them were sold
and played by people at the time. 