[game_preservation] Release date of the Odyssey?

[John Andersen]

I thought I'd pass along some research I went public with during a panel at PAX East several months ago: Philips Electronics (the conglomerate that acquired Magnavox) informed me a few years ago that they found absolutely nothing in their official corporate archive in the Netherlands on the Odyssey, Videopac or anything related to video games they made.  
 
Philips would close the actual campus office that previously handled the Odyssey2 in Knoxville, TN during 2006 - they originally constructed this building to handle its consumer products in 1980.  It's now home to a Pellissippi State Community College campus as of this year.  Any hopes of company records in a Philips warehouse are pretty much doubtful.  It's also unclear if the other Philips business affairs office in NYC maintained any kind of records archive either.  Once again, pretty much doubtful.  
 
On another note, the former Magnavox office that filed for copyright on the Odyssey name in June of 1972 (still known as 1700 Magnavox Way Fort Wayne Indiana) now houses a General Dynamics C4 Systems company office.
 
- John Andersen 
 

> Date: Wed, 8 Aug 2012 15:11:36 -0400

> From: editor at vintagecomputing.com

> To: game_preservation at igda.org

> Subject: Re: [game_preservation] Release date of the Odyssey?

> 

> Oh, and one other thing: there is a Magnavox memo in Ralph's book by Bob 

> Fritsche dated November 28th, 1972 that details positive customer 

> feedback about the Odyssey. So the console had to have been released 

> sometime before November 28th.

> 

> Regards,

> Benj

> 

> -- 

> Freelance Writer / Editor in Chief VC&G

> http://www.benjedwards.com

> http://www.vintagecomputing.com

> 

> _______________________________________________

> game_preservation mailing list

> game_preservation at igda.org

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

 		 	   		  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/game_preservation/attachments/20120809/07bd6fc3/attachment.html>