[game_preservation] Release date of the Odyssey?

[Brian Taylor]

I'd personally prefer people give me their citations formatted Chicago...

On Thu, Aug 9, 2012 at 4:26 PM, Devin Monnens <dmonnens at gmail.com> wrote:

> While I think it's great to have all the data available immediately without

> much effort, I would support an annotated bibliography project. That way,

> all you need to do is submit the APA formatted source to the librarian and

> let them do the work for you :)

>

> Incidentally, I have been trying to assemble one for all the research I did

> on pre-1973 games, but there's a LOT to go through and I have been far too

> busy to turn it into anything intelligent.

>

>

> On Thu, Aug 9, 2012 at 3:58 PM, Henry Lowood <lowood at stanford.edu> wrote:

>>

>> Benj,

>>

>> From a library perspective and as a historian, it seems to me that all the

>> documents ARE available -- and they were discovered without that much

>> effort.  I'm not sure that setting up a collection is really necessary, and

>> yes, there are copyright issues, since access to the databases is governed

>> by  licenses.  From a copyright perspective, I think links and embeds are

>> the way to go, rather than hosting documents under copyright.  But my main

>> point is that these documents were discoverable and available.  An article

>> or an information resource (maybe what you mean in your last sentence)

>> pulling the information together and citing the sources would be a more

>> valuable project -- just my nickel's worth of opinion.

>>

>> Henry

>>

>>

>> On 8/9/2012 12:05 PM, Benj Edwards 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

>> <http://newspaperarchive.com>.

>>

>>

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

>> <http://MO5.COM>, Président <samurai at mo5.com <mailto: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 <http://MO5.COM>, Président

>>

>>     --

>>

>>

>>

>>

>>

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

>>     <http://MO5.COM>, Président" <samurai at mo5.com

>>     <mailto: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, AssociationMO5.COM <http://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

>>     <mailto: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

>>     <mailto: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

>>     <mailto: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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>>

>> --

>> Henry Lowood

>> Curator for History of Science & Technology Collections;

>>   Film & Media Collections

>> HSSG, Green Library, 557 Escondido Mall

>> Stanford University Libraries, Stanford CA 94305-6004

>> 650-723-4602; lowood at stanford.edu; http://www.stanford.edu/~lowood

>>

>>

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>

>

>

> --

> Devin Monnens

> www.deserthat.com

>

> The sleep of Reason produces monsters.

>

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