1973 End of an Odyssey
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1973 is in our retro-view mirror!
Only four games
W.I.N
Interplanetary Voyage
Brain Wave
Basketball
Something which I forgot to demonstrate about Interplanetary Voyage that I thought was pretty neato.
In the second game in the manual, "University of the Solar System", you draw cards to answer questions about the Solar System. Here is an example:
The interesting thing about this card, is that the answer isn't on it. Anywhere. See the little triangle/arrow in the middle of the right hand side. That points to the answer, but only if you put it on the gameboard.
See the part that says M.O.A.D.? you put the card on that and the arrow points to the name of the planet which is the answer. Nifty, eh?
This is the End of the Magnavox Odyssey games. They stayed on the shelves from May of 1972 until the Fall of 1975 and were replaced by the Magnavox Odyssey 100 at least that's what I've read. We'll talk about the Odyssey 100 later.
Just for the record, if you were to have purchased all of the games new in 1972 and 1973. (I'm giving rounded prices because I hate prices like $24.95. Why not just call it $25!?! Christ.)
Main Console: about $100
Shooting Gallery: about $25
1972 Optional Games: about $6 each
1973 Optional Games: about $6 each
So a complete Odyssey collection in 1972/73 might've cost about $200 brand spankin new.
In the course of trying to amass a complete Odyssey collection I spent about $1700 USD. I'm not bragging, in fact, I'm a little embarassed knowing that some of you find stuff worth that much at garage sales and only pay $50 for it. Of course, I ended up with doubles. I've got 5 Main consoles, 4 of which actually work and are complete; A carrying case in OK condition; Three complete Shooting Galleries; three Volleyballs (one missing manual); two Invasions; three Interplanetary Voyages (one missing two playing cards); two W.I.N (one horribly incomplete, but nice box); one Basketball; one incomplete Brain Wave (missing 10 out of 96 tiles), one Fun Zoo, one Baseball, one Handball, two Wipeouts (one missing one car token), and one Percepts. It should also be noted that I made some incredibly poor buying decisions and learned some harsh eBay lessons. I probably won't be able to sell all of this for more than $1200. Not looking for sympathy (or criticism), just FYI.
In all that mess and after spending all that money, I never saw a frackin' box for the RF Switch. 
Go figure. I bought my first Odyssey in November 2002 and bought my last item for it in September of 2004. During one week in September of 2004 every available Odyssey item that I know of, other than Percepts, arrived at my house via UPS. I've also got the shipping box for the 1973 games, the Shipping Box for my Odyssey with the silver Magnavox Logo on it, the original batteries and a roll of Odyssey tape.
Anyway, that's all for now, I'll be back after I find an original Atari or Tele-games PONG unit.
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