1972

Magnavox Odyssey Video Game

Four years before the release of Atari and Intellivision, Magnavox Consumer Electronics Group engi-neers, working with inventor Ralph Baer (1924-2014), produced the Odyssey home video game in 1972. A cross between a board game and an electronic game, the first version of Odyssey had clue cards, score cards, 19-inch television screen overlays and controllers. The Odyssey II was produced in 1979, but was not able to compete with more advanced game systems and was discontinued in 1983. The Odyssey I in-cluded a Ping-Pong game similar to the Pong game for which Atari became so well-known. Magnavox filed suit against Atari over the similarities in 1974 and settled out of court. This original Odyssey game, Model 1TL200, includes all its original accessories including screen overlays, cards, chips, play money and dice. It is made of white and brown plastic and contains two controllers. It cost just under $100.