[game_preservation] Release date of the Odyssey?

[Frank Cifaldi]

So do we think that an August article date means that the system came out
in August? Because my assumption would be that there was a standard
three-month lead time before print, and these articles are based on seeing
the Odyssey during the Carvan Tour in May/June.

On Tue, Aug 7, 2012 at 2:54 PM, Devin Monnens <dmonnens at gmail.com> wrote:


> Thank you for clarifying the release dates, Benj and Frank. I think this

> holds true for the US, but probably not so much for Japan where they had

> mastered the system of 'on-demand shipping' as part of the economy. Surely

> this was the case during the Famicom era, at least, hence why there are

> release dates for those games. It does seem pretty silly to think about

> 'release dates' when those didn't exist at the time. It's more about 'when

> and were did this go on sale first?' or 'when was it first shipped from the

> warehouse?' or 'at about what time would these have been available?'

>

> Yeah, I think the August date comes from the August and September articles

> from 1972 here:

>

> http://www.magnavox-odyssey.com/Advertising.htm

>

> Either that, or from one of the earlier game history books. Electronic

> Design suggests that the system was coming out after August, but the others

> suggest it is available at the date of publication. (Sadly, the 1973

> Consumer Reports article is missing the very beginning!).

>

> I think the surefire way to tell would be to locate ads and sales flyers

> from the period. If it's available for sale, it's advertised. However, I

> doubt those are easy to find... Same would go for shipping orders, but it's

> probably easier to just find receipts!

>

> BTW, here's the Christmas 1972 Sears Catalog:

>

> http://www.wishbookweb.com/1972_Sears_Christmas/index.htm

>

> ADDENDUM: Ok, there's actually NO Magnavox Odyssey advertised in this

> catalog! Looked under games and TVs. Nothing. Either I missed it (and

> again, I looked pretty thoroughly), or it's not advertised. No wonder the

> Odyssey didn't sell well - if it's not in the Christmas catalog, how are

> people going to know to buy it?? For this reason, I don't think you'll find

> ads for the Odyssey, unless it's from a local Sears in the Sunday paper.

>

> Was anyone aware of this?

>

> However, check out these pages from the 1975 catalog:

>

>

> http://www.wishbookweb.com/1975_Sears%20C%20Web/images/SearsC1975_Page410.jpg

>

> http://www.wishbookweb.com/1975_Sears%20C%20Web/pages/SearsC1975_Page537.htm

>

> Anyone have a clue what those electromechanical Pong games are on 537?

>

>

> On Tue, Aug 7, 2012 at 4:53 PM, Frank Cifaldi <fcifaldi at gmail.com> wrote:

>

>> I still can't find where August came from. The closest I can find is the

>> review in the August 17, 1972 issue of Electronic Design (scanned and

>> printed in Ralph's book), which simply says "starting this fall." Anyone

>> able to back this up, or is this another one of those "internet truths"

>> that gets spread without an actual source?

>>

>>

>> On Tue, Aug 7, 2012 at 9:49 AM, Benj Edwards <editor at vintagecomputing.com

>> > wrote:

>>

>>>  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> 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.

>>>>

>>>>

>>>>  _______________________________________________

>>>> game_preservation mailing listgame_preservation at igda.orghttp://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_preservation

>>>>

>>>>

>>>> --

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

>>>>

>>>>

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>>>>

>>>>

>>>

>>>

>>> _______________________________________________

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>>>

>>>

>>> --

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

>>>

>>>

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>>>

>>

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>>

>

>

> --

> Devin Monnens

> www.deserthat.com

>

> The sleep of Reason produces monsters.

>

> _______________________________________________

> game_preservation mailing list

> game_preservation at igda.org

> http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_preservation

>

>

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