Dick and Jane try to ignore the Baseball player standing on one foot in their living room.
Baseball for the RCA Studio II isn't terrible. If you can look past the monochrome graphics, the sluggish control of the outfielders, the uninteresting beeps, there's actually a game that's merely annoying.
Player at the "A" keypad starts off at bat. Player at the "B" keypad pitches and plays the field first. To pitch, player "B" depresses "5" to send a straight ball, "8" for a hook left (up, relat
Do you remember Biorhythms back in the 70s or early 80s?
I remember eating at a place called Ollie's in Clifton Heights, PA on Baltimore Pike. They had a Biorhythm machine. You put in your birthday and the day for which you wanted your Biorhythm reading. It would spit out a little card with graphs on it detailing how your life would be on that day. (It would also beep while doing so, for that "I'm computing" effect.)
Rubbish, of course, but it was fun with a group of other kids high on c
Two Home Videogames for 1975:
Atari PONG (aka Sears Tele-Games PONG)
Magnavox Odyssey 100
Sadly, I do not have Atari PONG yet. I wasn't intending to include it as part of the chronology (prefering to stick to programmable consoles) but I've changed my mind as it's too important to just skip over.
I actually HAVE a Magnavox Odyssey 100 so I can talk about that one, but it's not its turn yet.
So, I'm going to skip a day or two (maybe make a place holder?) and leave space for Atari
States (Magnavox Odyssey, 1972)
The overlay is a map of the USA. There are 50 cards, each highlighting a specific state with three questions about the state. There's an answer brochure ("Affairs of States") and what can best be described as a paper version of the overlay. They refer to it as a "study map", but it reminds me of a place mat they give my kids to color when we eat at a diner.
The questions are cute and range from little rhymes to help your memory with learning the captials t
Let's get this out of the way: I'M LONGWINDED! It's probably one of the many reasons I'm not a professional writer along with reasons like NOT being able to write about INTERESTING things, NOT being able to spell worth a damn and NOT caring (too much) about whether or not what I say makes ANY sense.
*ahem* Okay, we're stranded at the beginning of 1973 having only the videogames released prior to that year for entertainment OR we can watch Ultraman. (Notice I picked a show which actually has
I like to play computer/videogames. There are many of these games and I want to play them all, even the bad ones. In one lifetime, I can't. Well, I technically could, but then, at the end of it (the lifetime) would I be able to call it a life? With my clawed hands and burned out eyes on my deathbed, would I relish having consumed all possible videogames or would I curse my life as wasted? Nevertheless, I'd like to give it my best shot, while still trying to maintain a real life. We'll call this
Well, 1976 has come and gone and what have we learned?
*We've learned that Hockey, Tennis and Handball are the first things game designers thought of when putting together a dedicated console.
*We learned that if I were to try to play every single dedicated pong console that ever came out, even just from 1976-78, I'd be buried in them and I'd be bored stiff after the second one.
*"Videocarts", as the Fairchild VES calls them, made their debut in August 1976. This is the start of a Go
Videocart-3
NOTE: I hope I'm not risking the ruining of an illusion for some of you, but I'm not, actually, playing each of these games on the day that I write about them. In some cases, like for most of the Fairchild and RCA Studio II games coming up, I played them at the very beginning of the summer. So long ago, in fact, that I had even forgotten that I had taken notes after we had played them. I found the notes today and realized that in some instances they won't offer me much help. Here
Moving on to the cartridges available for the Fairchild VES in 1976.
Carts 1, 2 and 3. That's "it", I think.
I am not certain as to when these carts became available. They have a 1976 copyright on them so I'm assuming they came out that year. Since the Fairchild VES came out in August (according to Phoenix: The Fall and Rise of Videogames.) I'm going to have to say the following blogs take place during and between August 1976 and December 1976.
Videocart-1
I won't do this all of
Remember, we are pretending it's 1976. August, to be more precise.
It's been roughly three years since you've played with your original Odyssey. It's been about a year since Sears Tele-games introduced PONG to the world. Since then there's been nothing out but an endless string of dedicated consoles all playing variation of PONG, mostly Hockey, Tennis and Handball (though Handball is usually under a different name, like Smash or Jai-lai.)
Let's face it. If you're a gamer from the future,
The Odyssey 300 is near and dear to my heart.
My maternal grandmother gave one to my family for Xmas of 1976. I remember that any occasion any family members visited for a few days (we lived a four hour's drive away from everyone) there was an Odyssey Tournament in there somewhere.
On the outside, at first glance, the Odyssey looks like its previous brethren, the 100 and 200. A careful observer will notice only one knob per player. This Odyssey actually handled the deflection and "englis
Actually, it wasn't until August 1976 that the Fairchild Video Entertainment System came into existence. So we've got some other ground to cover until then.
First of all, let's list the dedicated PONG machines:
In the PBS version of this blog, which is now airing in a few select viewing areas, this scene occurs in episode four.
I start reciting the list of different PONG systems available during the great PONG Rush of 1976. Every time I say the name of another dedicated PONG machine,
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 m
In 1972 there was only one system: Odyssey by Magnavox
There were a total of 23 games released for that system during 1972 as far as I can tell. They were released in three groups:
12 with the Main Console plus 1 free game by registering your console.
4 with the Shooting Gallery add-on accessory
6 released for individual purchase or as a set of six.
I'm emoticoning these for future reference. The emoticon "system" is different from the Vs. Ultraman "system" and is just shorthand fo
A few words about the term "Crap Game from Hell".
While I was cajoling my son into playing Handball with me, I billed it as the "Last Crap Game from Hell from 1972!!!" This term isn't meant to malign the Odyssey or its games. It rather serves as a warning to my son that the game I'm asking him to play isn't going to be easy to enjoy, but that I need him to do his best for me. We tend to enjoy these old games a lot more when we expect that they are going to be hard to enjoy. Calling them "Cra
Forward to present day (2005, to those of you reading this in some 25th century museum/blog-vault), videogame volleyball will/has evolve/evolved into poly-polygonal, progressively scanned-tily clad women bouncing around on exotic beaches and buying each other cute gifts. Back here in 1972/73, where I am, Volleyball for the Odyssey is the primordial soup of videogame volleyball. Don't forget, those little figures on the Überlay are static; frozen eternally in those positions. The only movement on
Invasion! It's not Risk, but it tries to be!
The world is a small map with 12 territories each containing a castle. Surrounding the land portion of the map is an ocean perimeter. The land part of the world gets divided up and everyone gets an equal number of castles. The object of the game is to take over everyone else's castles using your armies. You can attack any castle if it is immediately adjacent to one of your castles. After capturing a castle you get to draw a loot card which gives y
I can't believe I almost forgot about Percepts!
Percepts was the free Odyssey game you got for registering your Odyssey. You know the drill, you fill out a little slip of paper and mail it in to Magnavox. They get your personal information for nefarious marketing purposes and you get a free game. Not a bad deal!
This game would fall into the "Simon Says" category in that you must determine where to go on the screen and get there before your opponent does. It also uses cards. Percepts com
Shooting Gallery turns out to be the coolest game from the group of Shooting Gallery games. It uses a different cart (#10), which makes the playfield very different from the other three games (which use cart #9). This configuration gives you two paddles between which you deflect your target. The target, in this case, is a relatively HUGE square. I didn't know the Odyssey could produce such a large, er, "sprite"! (of course, they don't call them sprites yet.)
This large square Target Spot goe
Above is the Überlay from Shootout. Shootout involves moving your little white square from window to window (starting at the upper left to the upper right, cross the street to the lower right then make your way to the lower left) while your friend, parent, spouse, offspring or other loved one tries to shoot you. The person playing the "outlaw" who sneaks from window to window, can't just zip through the window at a blinding speed. The "outlaw" has to stop in the window long enough to say "You'll
This is the Odyssey's version of Roulette and it isn't the relatively fun kind of Roulette where you use guns and risk killing yourself.
The game uses a gameboard with a Roulette betting table on it. It uses what everyone calls "poker chips". Since there is no poker game on the Odyssey, we'll just call them chips. There's also a big wad of cash to use. The game involves the BANKER handing a controller to a blindfolded or eyes-closed player, and having them "flip" the knobs on the controller.
I think that Submarine would count as the First Home Shooter, ever !
Player A plays the Convoy Commander. She is leader of of a convoy of cargo ships. She must navigate them safely through a twisty-turning path on the screen which represents the shipping-lanes. Player B plays the Submarine Commander and gets to shoot at the convoy! The Submarine Commander has more fun, obviously. When the Sub Com hits the Reset button he "serves" a torpedo that can be controlled with his ENGLISH knob. When t
Playing Football on Odyssey, for me and my son, is worse than staring at a blank wall.
We're not into football. We don't watch football. We don't even own a football. (well, we have a Nerf™ somewhere.) Beyond our lack of interest, I honestly think that if two football fans played this back in 72/73 they would have tried it for 15 minutes and said "Screw this, let's go outside and throw a football around."
Football is more of a "football abstraction". It's as if the game is asking you to
You: Didn't we just play Tennis yesterday?
Me: Oh, no, that was Table Tennis and this is Tennis.
You: I see. Well, what's the difference?
Me: For one, this game uses the videogaming technological breakthrough known as The Overlay, in parts of the world that speak German this would be Der Über-lay (though, probably not), which, to my mind, sounds a lot more exciting.
Yes, writing in the style of a Platonian dialog was never my strong suit… now let's move on.
When I get my sche
Okay, for those of you who didn't read my last entry (and who could blame you?) this blog is about pretending it isn't 2005. We're using our imaginations and pretending that it is 1973.
This isn't a historical blog. I won't bore you with relevant facts. I'm going to bore you with blow by blow descriptions of really old videogames. Before I do that, I'm going to bore you by talking about the Odyssey and how it may not have had anything to do with people loving video games nor was it ever mean
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