[game_preservation] Release date of the Odyssey?

[Frank Cifaldi]

Hi Benj! Great to see you here. I agree 100% too, there was no firm release
date for the Odyssey. In fact, I'd be curious to know where August even
came from, do you have a source for that Devin?

My go-to source for this would be Ralph Baer himself, who took meticulous
notes. I have in front of me a production copy of his book and a
pre-release manuscript (JUST IN CASE!). According to Baer, Magnavox started
showing the Odyssey on the traveling Magnavox Profit Caravan show on May 3,
1972, and "over the following months Magnavox began supplying the dealers
with production units."

On Tue, Aug 7, 2012 at 8:40 AM, Benj Edwards <editor at vintagecomputing.com>wrote:


>  Hi Devin,

>

>     I'm new to the list -- hope you don't mind if I jump in.

>

> From my experience, the concept of a firm "release date" for a product was

> much different in 1972 than it is today.  As far as I know, companies

> didn't set a single date for a worldwide or even nationwide release back

> then -- the supply chain to pull something off just wasn't that efficient

> at the time.  The marketing and communication methods of the day weren't as

> instantaneous as today either, so a simultaneous nationwide release, even

> if they could pull it off, wouldn't have meant as much for the product PR

> wise.

>

> What you'd probably find if you dug into the release dates for the Odyssey

> is that Magnavox started shipping units to retail distributors on a certain

> date (this might be the most definitive single date you could find), but

> the actual Odyssey units probably trickled into stores throughout the month

> of August 1972 and even further throughout the rest of the year.  So you'd

> have Odyssey units first available at different retailers at different

> times.  (And by the way, it's possible -- I don't recall -- that the

> Odyssey 1 was only sold through authorized Magnavox retailers.)

>

> Whenever I search for a single release date for a tech product released,

> say, before 1990, I almost never find one.  It's obvious through

> contemporary press reports that the companies did not announce such precise

> dates to the media.  Even if they did, the press didn't find it important

> enough to report the specifics of availability beyond a season like "Fall

> 1981" or a certain month (although even the specific month is rare, and it

> gets more uncommon the further back in the past you look) -- probably for

> the reasons I described above.  As far as I know, the precision to get

> product into every store nationwide by a certain date just hadn't been

> achieved in the electronics industry yet.  Either that or nobody cared

> enough to try to pull it off until much later.

>

> Kind Regards,

> Benj

>

>

>

> On 8/7/2012 11:17 AM, Devin Monnens wrote:

>

> Do we have a more accurate release date for the Odyssey than 'August

> 1972'? I know there was a big hullaballoo about how nobody knows the

> release date of Super Mario Bros., but one would think there would be

> better documentation from Magnavox (such as Sears ads).

>

>  -Devin

>

>  --

> Devin Monnens

> www.deserthat.com

>

> The sleep of Reason produces monsters.

>

>

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> --

> Freelance Writer / Editor in Chief VC&Ghttp://www.benjedwards.comhttp://www.vintagecomputing.com

>

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