Opinions on the Odyssey 2

[simbalion]

Well, my last thread about pondering a Fairchild Channel F has become interesting. So now I have to ask about that other famous console that seems to be a bit of a throw-back when compared to the 2600. The Magnavox Odyssey 2! What is the general opinion of this console here? I have two working units. One earlier with the hard-wired controllers and one later with the removable controllers and both have worked fairly well for me. My only issues have been the controllers, which can sometimes puncture through the film inside and make the fire button quit working. That said, my 'hard-wired' O2 console is currently using a controller I found in a basement that had been flooded and I only tried out of desperation. Despite looking ugly, it is the best working O2 controller I have ever had! Wierd.. Only other issue I have is I NEED a better power supply and one that can power the Voice Module if I find where I put it again. Anyways, when I get in an O2 mood, I actually enjoy it, in spite of its crudeness compared to the 2600 at times. I still wish I had gotten to the old TV shop in down in time to have rescued that O2 store display they junked out.

[+save2600]

O2 store display would be cool to have! Like you said though, it's a pretty crude system. A little too blocky and simplistic for my tastes. Still, the machine has its charms: keyboard to input your name, etc. is cool, game boxes/marketing is attractive and there are a (very small IMO) handful of original gems, including the Munchkin series and the history behind it. Haven't played them much myself, but I bet the board games (Wall Street, etc) are fun for a while.

[metarog]

Graphically it is inferior to the 2600 but just recently I have been playing it a lot more than my Atari. The games are tougher to find but are really cheap when I do get them. KC Muchkin is better than the 2600 Pac-Man and various other O2 clones are about the same or better as far as gameplay. The joysticks are superior to my Atari ones for sure as all directions response quickly unlike some of my Atari ones which I have to really strongarm. Overall I prefer my O2 at this stage more because it has been so reliable and every game works the first time in unlike so many of my 2600 games. I also like the multiple games on a cart unlike the variations of the same game on the 2600. I have been a likelong Atari guy but if I had to choose between the 2 right now I would keep my O2.

[BydoEmpire]

I actually really like mine. I don't play it a lot, and there aren't tons of games I play on it, but the games I do enjoy are a lot of fun.

[youki]

I simply LOVE that console.

[+atari2600land]

I love the Odyssey 2 so much I program homebrew games for it. Graphically speaking, it is IMO better than the Atari 2600 because it can display four sprites and a dozen characters at a time.

[mckafka99]

I really like the O2 - Turtles and Killer Bees are a couple of the better games.

[simbalion]

Seems like the O2 does get some love. I dug my early model back out and... it wouldn't work! I could wiggle the power cord right at the connector on the system and would ger power at certain spots, so I cracked the system open and found two out of the three legs on the power connector had come loose from the board, cracking one of the solder connections. A couple rounds of solder and a little glue seems to have repaired that issue. I must admit, the O2 is so easy to get opened up for work, only three screws! I will hook it back up later to see how the repair holds.

[desiv]

Yeah, I love my O2 as well..

Partially because it was the console my family had growing up, but also because some of the games are really fun..

I love UFO.. KC Munchkin..

 

And I really like the controllers..

 

If you are going to open it and work on it, you might as well (if you haven't already) mod it composite.

I have do that that for mine yet, but it's on the list of projects...

 

Also, The Voice is great fun if you have that and some voice games (or a multicart).

 

desiv

Edited December 21, 2013 by desiv

[potatohead]

I really like the O2. It has one of those distinctive feels like the VCS does. The sharp limits on it's capabilities translate into some real fun when a game exploits those well. UFO! is one of those, and it's probably my favorite on the console. It feels great to play, and the limited graphics were used to great effect. It's just ART. Beautiful.

 

The console is worth owning to play on. If you have room, etc... highly recommended for a great, distinctive retro experience. The marketing surrounding it, box art, etc... is very good as well. it's just fun to look at and think about.

[Seob]

Well looking at my avatar i think it's clear that it's one of my favorite consoles. Recently i got the c7060 multicart, and love to play the hard to get games for the system on my g7000 and g7400. The system also has a nice collection of great homebrews like the Mage series from Revival Studios. Also KTAA is a great homebrew.

A little gem on the system is Robot City. Developed back in the day by Graham Thomasson, who also programmed the Parker Brothers Super Cobra version for the videopac.

[gamecat80]

I think it's an interesting system for it's time. Definitely has it's own personality. The built-in membrane keyboard is a pretty cool thing. That said.........

 

- Graphics are probably even more primitive (and blocky) than the Atari VCS, but without the bad flicker the Atari VCS suffers from. Graphically it is probably somewhere between the Channel F and Atari VCS.

 

- Sound is even more limited than the Atari VCS, but maybe not as "ugly" as some of the Atari VCS' "twangy" sounds. Again, probably somewhere between the Channel F and Atari VCS.

 

- Controllers are pretty decent for the time, imo. I like them better than the Atari VCS joysticks.

 

- The KC Munchkin and Pick Axe Pete games are must-haves for the system. Lots of games on the system seem to have good, unique animation. KC Munchkin winks like this when he clears a stage -->

 

- The O2 is pretty light for it's size, due to it's small PCB.

[+pboland]

Can't go wrong with an O2. "Attack of the Time Lords" is one of my favorite titles. I like the O2's joysticks much better than the standard Atari 2600 one. A good way to protect the fire button inside the joystick is to put a piece of black electrical tape over the area the fire button touches on the PCB/flex circuit. Works like a charm. You can also use a small rubber adhesive dot. You know, the kind that are used on the bottoms of small electrical devices to keep from sliding on a smooth surface. The thinner the better.

[simbalion]

Can't go wrong with an O2. "Attack of the Time Lords" is one of my favorite titles. I like the O2's joysticks much better than the standard Atari 2600 one. A good way to protect the fire button inside the joystick is to put a piece of black electrical tape over the area the fire button touches on the PCB/flex circuit. Works like a charm. You can also use a small rubber adhesive dot. You know, the kind that are used on the bottoms of small electrical devices to keep from sliding on a smooth surface. The thinner the better.

Hmm, I think I will try that electrical tape trick. I'll let you know how it works. The joysticks are just about as easy to open up as the system is.

Edit: I just did the tape trick and it worked fine. The action buttons even seem a tiny bit more responsive now.

Edited December 22, 2013 by simbalion

[Jess Ragan]

It's an odd system, and it's nowhere near as good as the 2600 or Intellivision, but it has its quirky charm. I agree with an earlier poster that the system's games are an exercise in minimalism, where developers (Ed Avarett and...?) had to abstract the gameplay to make them work within the machine's tight constraints. Many games suffer because of this (what the hell is Pachinko! supposed to be?!), but others benefit from the twisted imagination of the designers. I love how you're in the middle of the food chain in K.C. Munchkin!, and forcing the player to sacrifice their shields for another ship in Alien Invaders: Plus! adds a lot of risk to the classic Space Invaders formula. K.C.'s Crazy Chase is the most clever of them all; a Pac-Man clone where you have to put the bite on a centipede while avoiding its head... apparently, this was a big middle finger to Atari, which sued to have to previous game removed from store shelves.

 

The best part of the Odyssey2 is the box art. It's really cool, neon-colored, science-fictiony stuff, looking like something that belongs on the cover of an Asimov book. While the box art for 2600 games looked like it was anchored to the 1970s (check out those bowl haircuts!), Odyssey2 art looked ahead to the futuristic 1980s.

[mbd30]

"(check out those bowl haircuts!)"

 

They were looking ahead to Justin Bieber.

 

[BassGuitari]

I love the Odyssey 2! Like the Channel F, it only has a few truly outstanding titles, but they're worth getting an Odyssey for. And they're cheap (or at least, they used to be...haven't checked recently); you should be able to get an Odyssey 2 and most of the best titles for ~$50-75. Probably even less...it wasn't too long ago when you could barely even give Odyssey 2 stuff away.

[Ransom]

I like the Odyssey² as a system, and my favorite games are Killer Bees!, Robot City!, and Turtles!. I keep the system hooked up, but I don't play it as often as I used to. Mostly because I have little time for gaming these days and there are a lot of great homebrews coming out for other systems lately.

[JamesL]

My cousin had on O2 growing up, and when I was at his house we spent countless hours playing it. There is a bug in Take the Money and Run! where you could go through the wall on one side of the screen and reappear on the other side. We didn't even understand the concept of the game; we just constantly went through the walls to avoid the enemies. That and trying to unravel one of the mysteries of the universe-how to get a strike in Bowling!

[BassGuitari]

My cousin had on O2 growing up, and when I was at his house we spent countless hours playing it. There is a bug in Take the Money and Run! where you could go through the wall on one side of the screen and reappear on the other side. We didn't even understand the concept of the game; we just constantly went through the walls to avoid the enemies. That and trying to unravel one of the mysteries of the universe-how to get a strike in Bowling!

Finding bugs in Odyssey games was great...and there were so many of them! And they were cool because they were usually more bonus/easter egg/secret trick kinds of things rather than real game breakers. Some of my favorites:

 

-Bowling!: Shooting the ball through the floor, when it flies down from the top of the screen and the time becomes "0:00!"

-Monkeyshines!: "Leapfrogging," where if one player jumps on top of the other and they both hold up and jump, the players continue to jump up the screen as if from invisible platforms.

-Take The Money And Run!: Hiding "behind" the other player; robots can get him, but not you! (This doesn't work so well when playing with another player. )

-Showdown In 2100 AD!: Defiling your opponent's corpse by shooting it into an unrecognizable shape.

[someone3760]

I really want one but haven't been able to find one. Anyone have a cib or loose system they dont want?

[famicommander]

I like it quite a bit. As far as second generation consoles go, I see it like this:

1. Atari 2600

2. Colecovision

3. Intellivision

4. Odyssey²

5. Vectrex

6. Atari 5200

 

Those are the ones I own, and I really do like them all. I've never been able to justify an Astrocade, Arcadia, Studio II, or Channel F. I just don't see enough interesting games to put up with each of their respective shortcomings (price, reliability, scarcity, poor controllers, etc).

 

I love the flicker-free graphics of the O². Its visuals may be modest in other respects compared to other systems of the day (particularly in terms of backgrounds) but the games always looked clean and smooth in their own way.

 

I have the hard-wired controller model and both of my controllers are holding up well thus far. They are both responsive and springy. I wish it had a larger selection of games and I wish it didn't take up quite so much space, but it's a really enjoyable system overall. Quite underrated and they're very reasonably priced compared to classic systems of similar quality.

 

EDIT: Forgot to mention my favorite part about the whole system, the cartridges! Awesome convenient handles make it easier to insert/remove games, and the grooves make it really easy to stack loose carts. I often knock over stacks of loose carts for my NES or 2600.

Edited December 23, 2013 by famicommander

[simbalion]

The more I read about the Odyssey2, the more intriqued I am with the thing. It seems some of the short comings we deal with game-wise are because of Magnavox not really wanting to go on with the system after it was developed. The O2 almost got killed off twice here in the US, but a couple programmers kept it alive and proved it could sell well and overall, it did. Now European users got treated even better, because Magnavox's new parent company, Phillips did support the system there a bit better and ultimately they got Vidpac7400, what was basically going to be our Oddysey3! Anyways, my Odyssey2 has really helped me out these past few days with the blahs and getting over being sick. Also, it seems to work fairly well on my flatscreen TV, the graphics not looking as washed out as my 2600 does on that set. One can only imagine what might have happened if Magnavox had supported the system better and third party programmers had gotten the chance to push its limits like they did the 2600.

Now, to get a working voice module. I have one of those, but I think I have the incorrect power supply to work it.

[VectorGamer]

If you were a kid with an Odyssey 2 in the 80s you were poverty.

 

I own a boxed Odyssey 2 and I rarely play it. On the rare occasion that I do play it, I enjoy playing Speedway and KC Munchkin.

 

Whenever I host a gaming party at my place and I hook up the Odyssey 2 nobody plays it. Nevertheless, I do like having it in my collection but it's just not my go-to system.

[CatPix]

Yep, the Videopac was big here.

 

It was probably helped alot because unlike other systems, it was made locally (I know that most models were made in France, but maybe others were made in Netherlands?) so it was cutting on import taxes, and also, while the Videopac was released in 1978, the main competitor, the good old VCS, was released in 1980/1981 (France) only. Which means that up until 1980, the Videopac had NO competitors. There was some game systems, mostly Pongs, the 1292 APVS family and Channel F licenced clones (in Germany mostly) but not much else. And nothing BIG.

 

And Philips supported it a lot. All competitors had cardboard boxes. We had stiff plastic boxes with awesome, very realistic/sci-fi styled artwork, far away from the neon 80's style of the O² (but bland labelson the carts). In order to make it sounding like a "standard" rather than being just one system, it was sold under various brands; Philips of course, and also Radiola in France, and Siera in Belgium (all belonging to Philips) (note that both versions were available. As a result, Radiola games in France are a bit rarer than Philips ones). It was also sold under licence by Brandt and Schneider.

Of course, knowing the success Philips had previously in creating standards (the audio cassette, the CD, the Laserdisc (yes, Philips created them, they just didn't know how to sell them!) it's no wonder why they tried to create a video game standard and also participated in the MSX standard by selling it in Europe.

 

In 1983 tho, everyone was turning to computer, so it's where Philips gave up eventually on the Videopac. The Videopac+ was poorly supported (IMO) with only 2 games being V+ only : all other games can play on a regular Videopac system; they just get a hi-res background on the V+! An interesting feature, but nothing too exciting, expecially in 1983 with computers like the C64 on the market, the MSX and Amstrad CPC coming, and even the Spectrum could deliver graphisms a bit more detailed.

 

 

 

(really click on that one for hi res!)

 

 

 

Even homebrews come with the plastic case. (Really AtariAge, is that asking too much to have games with a lil cardboard box?)

 

 

 

Edited December 23, 2013 by CatPix