The Ultimate Guide to Classic Game Consoles. Kevin Baker

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      Philips Odyssey 2100 CC Image – Wikipedia – Pikkulino

      Developer: Philips

      Release Date: 1976

      Origin: Netherlands

      CPU: National Semiconductor MM-57105 -N

      Built-In Games: 3

      I think that most gamers out there have probably at the very least heard of the Magnavox Odyssey video game console. Well for those of you who have not heard of the Magnavox Odyssey, it was a system that was first released back in 1972 and had many different variations and improvements up until 1978. The Magnavox Odyssey has a very important place in gaming history as it was in fact the very first home video game console. This makes the original Magnavox Odyssey a huge collectors item for gamers. Not because of the quality of the the console, but purely because of its importance in the history of video games.

      Well, Philips also released their own version of the Odyssey system, but instead of being called the Magnavox Odyssey it was simply known as the Philips Odyssey. Philips actually bought Magnavox up at some point during the mid 70s and started to release the consoles under the Philips Odyssey brand. From 1976 until 1978 there were three different Philips Odyssey video game consoles released and here we are going to take a closer look at them.

      Philips Odyssey 200 - 1976 (Europe)

      The Philips Odyssey was released in 1976 and was actually the same console as the Magnavox Odyssey 200 that was released a year earlier in the USA.

      The games were as basic as you could get and what you were really getting were three different Pong clones. The games that the Philips Odyssey 200 offered gamers were Tennis, Hockey and a game called Smash. One really cool feature was that the game had a score board on the TV screen. Granted, all it really was was a little white square that would move up when someone scored a point, but it was still a pretty cool feature for a console to have. It was also the first console to offer multi-player gaming that enabled two or four-player action.

      As far as the aesthetics of the console go, it has a white plastic box with the standard dials that are used to control the action on the screen. It has a black strip down the middle where you can select the game and it also has a score dial if you are not into the on-screen scoring system. Like most consoles of this era the Philips Odyssey 200 can be either powered with a power cable or batteries.

      Philips Odyssey 2001 – 1977

      The Philips Odyssey 2001 is very similar to the Magnavox Odyssey 4000. However the Philips Odyssey 2001 does not play the same games as the Magnavox model.

      The Philips Odyssey 2001 was quite a high end video game console for its time. The usual suspects are here: Tennis, Hockey and Squash and they are all displayed in glorious colour. One feature that is really interesting is that the games did feature sound, but what made this so special was that the sound came from the TV and not the console itself.

      The console has a somewhat futuristic look to it. It's the sort of thing that you would expect to see Kirk and Spock playing on the Enterprise. It has a grey plastic casing along with two detachable paddle controllers. There were no buttons on the actual console to change the games as this was all done on the controller. Also, controller one had blue decoration around the buttons and paddle and controller two had green decoration. This was kind of cool, as instead of just being player one and two you could opt to be in either the blue or green team.

      Philips Odyssey 2100 – 1978

      The Philips Odyssey 2100 was released hot on the heels of the 2001 model.

      The Philips Odyssey 2100 at a glance may look just like the 2001, but with a black casing. However, this model contains an amazing six different games that like the 2001 are all in colour. The games are Tennis, Hockey, Football, Handball, Flipper and Wipe Out. If that was not enough each game had a variety of different options where you could tweak the game settings slightly. So in all, if you count each variation as a different game, the Philips Odyssey 2100 offers a phenomenal 23 games. Just imagine how huge this was back in 1978 to get a console that could let you play 23 games!

      The look of the console is exactly the same as the Philips Odyssey 2001, but this time it is in black. The controllers had the same blue and green detailing on them.

      11 – Radio Shack TV Scoreboard