[game_preservation] Release date of the Odyssey?

[Benj Edwards]

Thanks, Frank.  It's good to see you too.  I have the highest respect 
for everyone I've seen so far on this list, so I'm glad I've finally 
joined up.

I've asked Ralph a few times about the release date of the Odyssey, and 
he simply points to his book, "Videogames...In The Beginning." From that 
book, I determined a general August 1972 release date (I don't have the 
exact page number on hand).

Ralph can't provide a more precise answer because he doesn't (and 
didn't) have access to internal Magnavox records, and he wasn't privy to 
internal marketing and distribution conversations at Magnavox.  
Essentially, he did his initial work (Brown Box prototype) and handed 
off to Magnavox, who made a commercial product out of it.

Coincidentally, I took apart a Magnavox Odyssey a few months ago and 
turned it into a slideshow for PC World.  Anyone interested in the 
Odyssey (and moss) might enjoy it.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/256101/inside_the_magnavox_odyssey_the_first_video_game_console.html

As an aside, you guys might enjoy looking at this US patent for the 
Odyssey's exterior plastic housing:

http://www.google.com/patents?id=kK4nAAAAEBAJ&zoom=4&dq=magnavox%20game&pg=PA1#v=onepage&q=magnavox%20game&f=false

It has the designers' names on it, if anyone feels like tracking them 
down.  I did a little work on that front, but had to abandon it to move 
on to another project.

Kind Regards,
Benj

On 8/7/2012 12:16 PM, Frank Cifaldi wrote:

> 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 <mailto: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 <http://www.deserthat.com>

>>

>>     The sleep of Reason produces monsters.

>>

>>

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>

>     -- 

>     Freelance Writer / Editor in Chief VC&G

>     http://www.benjedwards.com

>     http://www.vintagecomputing.com

>

>

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-- 
Freelance Writer / Editor in Chief VC&G
http://www.benjedwards.com
http://www.vintagecomputing.com

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