[game_preservation] Release date of the Odyssey?

[Frank Cifaldi]

So...what's to prevent the first shipment or sale from being sometime
between May and July? Can anyone disprove that? Seems like all we have is a
range between the first Profit Caravan and that ad, so May 3 through August
30.

On Thu, Aug 9, 2012 at 7:26 AM, Benj Edwards <editor at vintagecomputing.com>wrote:


> Very interesting, Marty!  I only have a minute, but I wanted to share the

> results of some digging I did last night.

>

> I combed through various legal documents of the Magnavox vs. Activision

> case files provided to me by Ralph Baer (I think you (Marty) and Curt

> Vendel scanned some of them them -- if so, thanks!).  I found two

> references to the specific release month of the Odyssey.

>

> One source, written by Magnavox's legal counsel, says the Odyssey was

> released in "spring of 1972."  They were probably referring to the May 3rd,

> 1972 press introduction.  That is when the Profit Caravan first showed the

> Odyssey to the press.

>

> Another source, an examination of Thomas S. Briody (who was corporate

> patent counsel for NA Philips/Magnavox) in 1985, has Briody recalling that

> the Odyssey was released just before he joined Magnavox in September 1972,

> and definitely before Pong showed up in the Ft. Wayne area.

>

> And in a document written by Ralph Baer himself (circa 2001?) called

> "Videogame History: A little matter of record keeping", Ralph says "It went

> into distribution starting in the summer of 1972."

>

> So taken as a whole, I'd say everything we've found points to an August

> 1972 launch to consumers for the Odyssey.

>

> Regards,

> Benj

>

> P.S. As an aside, one of the documents says, "In the three years between

> 1972 and 1974, 218,000 Odyssey units were sold."  There's a good factoid

> for you.

>

>

> On 8/9/2012 10:08 AM, Martin Goldberg wrote:

>

>> 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<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 <http://www.vintagecomputing.com>

>>>

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>>>

>>

>>

>>

> --

> Freelance Writer / Editor in Chief VC&G

> http://www.benjedwards.com

> http://www.vintagecomputing.**com <http://www.vintagecomputing.com>

>

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