[game_preservation] Release date of the Odyssey?

[Martin Goldberg]

Just to add to this, the Odyssey certainly was being shown at local
retailers to consumers in August of '72 -

http://www.atarihq.com/Odyssey/magnavox%20odyssey%20dealer%20-%20Edwardsville%20Intelligencer%20-%20Aug30-1972.pdf


On Wed, Aug 8, 2012 at 2:07 PM, Benj Edwards
<editor at vintagecomputing.com> wrote:

> Frank and co.,

>

>     I thumbed through Ralph's book again and found the scan you mentioned,

> and realized that must be where I got the August 1972 release date.  I'm

> afraid I have to take credit for that bad date circulating now because I

> believe someone updated Wikipedia to that effect after one of my recent

> pieces on the Odyssey (I remember that the entry previously read May 1972,

> which is obviously wrong).

>

> Normally I'm much more careful about dates, but I was just trying to provide

> a rough estimate for my article since I couldn't put my finger on the

> precise month.

>

> Of course, the only thing that August 1972 Electronic Design article proves

> is that the Odyssey still wasn't released at the time that issue of ET went

> to press, and as someone mentioned (maybe you, Frank), there's the standard

> lead-time before publication.  That, and the article mentions availability

> in the fall of 1972.

>

> So I just emailed Don Emry, a former Odyssey game designer (and the only

> former Magnavox employee I know how to contact at the moment). I asked him

> if he remembered or had any documents about the Odyssey's launch date.  His

> answer: "My best recollection of the release time is October."

>

> If anyone really, really wants to get to the bottom of this, I recommend

> trying to find and contact George Kent (leader of the Odyssey engineering

> team) or Bob Fritsche (Odyssey product manager).  I don't know if either man

> is alive, but Baer says Kent was alive in 2003.  Neither Baer nor Emry know

> their whereabouts. They both lived in Ft. Wayne, Indiana at some point.

>

> You'd need some internal Magnavox documents or a good matching recollection

> from various folks to put together a somewhat accurate estimate of the

> actual release date.

>

> I may make some calls later.  If I find anything out, I'll let everybody

> know.

>

> Regards,

> Benj

>

>

> On 8/7/2012 4:53 PM, Frank Cifaldi 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?

>

>

> --

> Freelance Writer / Editor in Chief VC&G

> http://www.benjedwards.com

> http://www.vintagecomputing.com

>

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-- 
Marty