[game_preservation] Release date of the Odyssey?

[Frank Cifaldi]

I think the next step is to confirm where some of those initial 19 launch
areas were and start looking at all of the Magnavox dealer ads that ran in
August in their papers and manually find the earliest mention of the
Odyssey, just in case the OCR scrapes didn't find the word "Odyssey." Right
now we've got it narrowed down to August 1-28, since we're pretty confident
in an August rollout and the earliest ad we've got ran on the 28th.

On Thu, Aug 9, 2012 at 12:05 PM, Benj Edwards
<editor at vintagecomputing.com>wrote:


>  Excellent work, Frank and everybody.  I did come across the following

> article references in my search through the Magnavox legal papers last

> night:

>

> Article on Magnavox ODYSSEY from the Wall Street Journal for May 11, 1972

> (CDIPX 7B, MPX 78)

>

> Article on Magnavox ODYSSEY from the Television Digest for May 15, 1972

> (CDIPX 1C, MPX 79)

>

> Article on Magnavox ODYSSEY from Time Magazine for May 22, 1972 (CDIPX 7D,

> MPX 80)

>

> Those were submitted as evidence for the 1984 Activision v. Magnavox

> trial.  The WSJ article was already mentioned by Brian, but I thought I'd

> include it for completeness (it's interesting to know what the lawyers knew

> about).

>

> On a related subject, with all these attachments flying around, perhaps we

> should set up an archive of scans of source material like this that would

> be free for any researcher to access.  Mainly so future historians

> (presumably those not connected to this group of people) don't have to go

> through what we just did to figure out (and confirm) the launch date of a

> particular machine.

>

> There may be copyright issues, but I'd be willing to risk hosting select

> newspaper and magazine clippings on my server.  It could be a big date and

> fact archive with numbers like launch dates and retail prices that only

> come from hard sources.

>

> Regards,

> Benj

>

>

>

> On 8/9/2012 12:59 PM, Frank Cifaldi wrote:

>

> BREAKING NEWS!

>

>  Via the July 27, 1972 edition of The Daily Herald (Chicago):

>

>  "Available to Magnavox dealers in August, Odyssey's initial price tag of

> just under $100 will include 12 different games."

>

> This was in a report about Magnavox's annual zone meeting for its dealers.

> There you go!

>

> Article is available (for pay) at newspaperarchive.com.

>

> On Thu, Aug 9, 2012 at 9:37 AM, Philippe Dubois, association MO5.COM,

> Président <samurai at mo5.com> wrote:

>

>>  Thanks everyone for your answer.

>>

>> The biography of M.Baer just came out in France this month through the

>> edition "Pix'n Love", i'm sure it will be delightful to read it in details

>> ;)

>>

>>

>>  Best regards,

>>

>> -----------

>>

>> Cordialement,

>>

>> Philippe Dubois, Association MO5.COM, Président

>>

>> --

>>

>>

>>

>>

>>  On Aug 9, 2012 11:25 AM, "Philippe Dubois, association MO5.COM,

>> Président" <samurai at mo5.com> wrote:

>>

>> >

>>

>> > Hi everyone !

>>

>> >

>>

>> >

>>

>> > How can it be possible for M.Baer, with all the respect i have for him,

>> not to know the exact date the Odyssey was publicly launch and available in

>> stores ?

>>

>> Because he had nothing to do with that. Remember, he was with Sanders.

>>

>> The Odyssey's launch, distribution, etc. was a Magnavox issue.

>>

>> What about the date when M.Baer showed up the tennis game to M.Bushnell

>> so he went into the idea of cloning this as "Pong" ?

>>

>> >

>>

>> >

>>

>> He didn't show anything, Magnavox did.

>>

>>

>>  >

>>

>> > Best regards,

>>

>> >

>>

>> > -----------

>>

>> >

>>

>> > Cordialement,

>>

>> >

>>

>> > Philippe Dubois, Association MO5.COM, Président

>>

>> >

>>

>> > --

>>

>> >

>>

>> >

>>

>> >

>>

>> > Maybe we just have different philosophies but I'm going to have to

>> strongly disagree here. The only thing we know as solid fact right now is

>> that sometime between May 3 and August 30, the Odyssey was in at least one

>> store. Saying "by August" is safe, I agree, but I fail to see how saying

>> the first sale was in August is any safer than saying the first sale was in

>> July. We just don't know.

>>

>> >

>>

>> >

>>

>> >

>>

>> > On Thu, Aug 9, 2012 at 9:02 AM, Bill Loguidice <bill at armchairarcade.com>

>> wrote:

>>

>> >

>>

>> >

>>

>> > August is safest at the moment because the ad is thus far our earliest

>> proof of a unit physically being in a store. Again, it doesn't mean it was

>> for sale - it could have been a demo unit - but even if it wasn't

>> necessarily in stock, it was likely available for order. If we have some

>> type of earlier proof a unit was in a store, we can revise the estimate.

>> That's why I personally think August is "safe" and the best available time

>> period. If someone can dig up earlier availability at a Magnavox dealer,

>> all the better...

>>

>> >

>>

>> >

>>

>> > ===================================================

>>

>> >

>>

>> > Bill Loguidice, Managing Director; Armchair Arcade, Inc.

>>

>> >

>>

>> > ===================================================

>>

>> >

>>

>> > Authored Books and Film; About me and other ways to get in touch

>>

>> >

>>

>> > ===================================================

>>

>> >

>>

>> >

>>

>> >

>>

>> >

>>

>> > On Thu, Aug 9, 2012 at 11:36 AM, Frank Cifaldi <fcifaldi at gmail.com>

>> wrote:

>>

>> >

>>

>> >

>>

>> > Why is August the safest estimate? And do we want a "safe estimate" or

>> do we want an exact range?

>>

>> >

>>

>> >

>>

>> >

>>

>> > On Thu, Aug 9, 2012 at 8:30 AM, Bill Loguidice <bill at armchairarcade.com>

>> wrote:

>>

>> >

>>

>> >

>>

>> > I think right now August is still our safest estimate, though you're

>> right, it could certainly have been released sooner. Even the ad - which at

>> least proves the system was at dealers by August - doesn't necessarily mean

>> it was for SALE in August (it's a relatively modest "come see" - you would

>> think they would advertise something so "cool" with the TVs and indicate

>> its actual availability).

>>

>> >

>>

>> >

>>

>> >

>>

>> > _______________________________________________

>>

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>>

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>>

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>>

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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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