video game swithbox who made them first?

[bradhig1]

Was Atari the first to make the switchboxes used to switch between game and TV? How is it some many other companies made them and no one got sued

[alex_79]

Probably, it didn't met requirements to be patentable.

It's just a switch.

[Schizophretard]

It was first on the Magnavox Odyssey. The switch box didn't need a patent because they patented the whole idea of a video game console. Companies like Atari and others did get sued.

[bradhig1]

I bought a lot of them off ebay and got one with a 75 ohm coaxial screw in cable on it and I get a real snowy picture I think its because the lead inside the end of the cable is short. Even with a 75 coaxial to rca adapter to plug my atari into the tv without a switchbox I still get some rf noise on the picture. Wavy lines on blue areas of the picture.

[DavidMil]

Didn't Odyssey plug the power in through the switch Box? To my knowledge that was the only system that did that.

I guess that since none of the others did this they we considered different enough to get by the patent office,

because they all got patents.

 

DavidMil

[Schizophretard]

Didn't Odyssey plug the power in through the switch Box? To my knowledge that was the only system that did that.

I guess that since none of the others did this they we considered different enough to get by the patent office,

because they all got patents.

 

DavidMil

 

It used batteries. I think you are thinking of the Atari 5200.

[alex_79]

The RCA Studio II did that as well:

http://www.old-computers.com/magazine/view.asp?r=1&a=14

[DavidMil]

I knew it didn't use batteries, so I climbed up to the attic to see what it did use. I don't know if Magnavox

made an Odyssey I, but mine is an Odyssey II and I was wrong; the power supply plugged into the back

of the game machine. The output was 11.5 VAC @ 400mA. So if you were talking about a different model, I apologize

for confusing matters.

 

DavidMil

[Schizophretard]

I knew it didn't use batteries, so I climbed up to the attic to see what it did use. I don't know if Magnavox

made an Odyssey I, but mine is an Odyssey II and I was wrong; the power supply plugged into the back

of the game machine. The output was 11.5 VAC @ 400mA. So if you were talking about a different model, I apologize

for confusing matters.

 

DavidMil

 

I was talking about the original which was the first video game console. It is this one:

 

[DavidMil]

That, is a very neat video! When that game machine came out I was sitting in a foxhole. I never knew it existed. My parents bought the Odyssey II,

which I now have in the attic. Thanks for the video and the info!

 

DavidMil

[Schizophretard]

That, is a very neat video! When that game machine came out I was sitting in a foxhole. I never knew it existed. My parents bought the Odyssey II,

which I now have in the attic. Thanks for the video and the info!

 

DavidMil

 

My pleasure. The first time I saw an Odyssey II was when I was in junior high in the early 90's. My best friend had one which I think he found in an attic or maybe closest in his house. I'm not sure of the history of that specific unit but it seems like I remember it being something just found in the house they moved in or something like that. He found it much earlier than when he showed me because he showed it to me because he knew I was into Atari and wanted me to see his "Atari" that he used to play. When I first saw it I thought it looked amazing. It immediately reminded me of the first and only time up to that point that I saw an Atari 400 and because of that I didn't know it was a console until the internet because it looked like a computer. Or maybe another way to put it is that I thought of it as both a console and computer just like I did for the Atari 400. In other words, I thought they were in the exact category of gaming devices. Anyway, he showed me some games but the one we spent hours on was Speedway! because once we figured out the pattern we competed to see who could go the longest. At the time I didn't know it was a successor to a first one. I thought the 2 meant to the second power. Even after the internet I was confused a little because once I figured out that there were a variety of Odyssey pong machines I understood it was a successor but thought it was to them and still thought it meant to the second power as if it was saying it is more powerful than them. Later I discovered that there was an Odyssey 1 but I still wonder if the name was chosen to be written like that still meant to the second power as if it was saying it is the successor to the first one but also a successor to the whole prior generation of them.