1972 Odyssey system HELP NEEDED

[Garylee1348]

Hello all,

 

I've just created this account as I've just recently purchased a Magnavox Odyssey, this one in particular was manufactured in October 1972, making it a very early example of the system. I plugged everything up and ran it to my 1989 Panasonic color television. Upon powering up the system I've discovered that regardless of what game card I plug into the slot, the system will not boot up a game properly. Attached is pictures and a video of the system operating. The static/lines on the screen change slightly depending on how I turn the knobs on the controllers. The point of this post is to inquire with you all as to whether you all believe this could be potentially caused by dried out capacitors? I've just ordered an entire new set of cylinder type Nichicon caps for the system. I'd love to hear what y'all think. 

 

Feel free to give me any input.

 

Thanks so much, Gary.

[Mikebloke]

If you haven't already, make sure you push in all the circuit boards, as they never really had any system for keeping them locked in. My one has an odd issue of the ball slowing down on the right hand side and eventually stopping, but fiddling with the boards fixes the issue. 

 

You can know for sure that something is changing by removing a card, it should not be powered when empty as the first part of each card completes the circuit for power. Take advantage of the line move knob on the console to ensure you are getting a clear picture too, as it should move the centre line horizontally on the game cards that have that feature. 

 

Good luck! 

 

My first thought was that maybe it wasn't fully tuned properly. I discovered my (PAL) TV didn't take rf ntsc signals the hard way, but does take ntsc standards for every other connection mode. A USB rf tuner into a pc is what I use now and it gives the correct signal I can use in OBS to capture or display.