Magnavox Odyssey 2 Console & Video Games Review and History – The Irate Gamer

I would like to see you review Acclaim South Park trilogy, all three of them. I grew up with two of them while I played Chef's Luv Shack later in life. Not to mention, the variety of directions you can go within that episode too. South Park show airing new episodes as well as recently gotten a new South Park game. To me, South Park Rally hands down the worst. They saved the worst for last, you wish you can forget this!!!

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I wish I still had mine.

So much missing content…and context

Gracias gringuito por tu buena honda… Saludos Arauco Chile

I like this one. I saw the original Odyssey on another channel and–all of its simplest games were played like Pong–and its more complex games were played like board games! However, this next console was a great 2nd attempt at a viable console. If I was 6 in 78(like I was in 85 with the NES) I could definitely see myself being happy with having this over the A2600.

What are these worth got one brand new in the box

My dad did the advertising for a Magnavox dealer. This was around 1982 so I already had 2600 and Intellivision. The guy told me to take it home, so of course he took the cash out of my dad's money. I didn't like the system at all.

When I was a kid, I was the only one in my peer group without a gaming console at home. Everyone else had the Atari 2600 with dozens of games, so naturally, I went after my Dad to get me an Atari for Christmas. He refused the first few times, as I KNEW he would, but he eventually offered me a deal. My Dad worked for GTE, which had bought out Sylvania a few years prior. GTE had a company store that offered Sylvania electronics at a discount price. One day, Dad brought home the Sylvania Christmas Catalogue and told me that he’d be willing to get me the Odyssey for my 1 and only Christmas present, if that’s what I wanted. I told him that I wanted an Atari instead, and he retorted with “Well, if there’s an Atari offered in the catalogue, I’ll order it for you, otherwise, you’ll just have to settle for the Odyssey”. I should’ve handed the catalogue back and said “forget it”, but like a putz, I told him to order the Odyssey… (and the ONLY reason he agreed to order the Odyssey was because they’d break up the payments over 12 months so he didn’t have to cough up one lump sum for it, even though the Atari 2600 would’ve only cost him an additional $25 dollars if he had bought it outright)… but, I digress.

GTE, being the half-ass company it was at the time, delivered the console almost 3 months after Christmas, AND the box was damaged upon arrival. Mine, like this one, came with the same 3 game cartridge and it played fine, but after about a month, that one cartridge got stale to the point of me not wanting to even touch it after awhile. Unfortunately, Odyssey wasn’t a popular platform at all, unlike the Atari which had a wide selection of games at just about every department store in the country. The closest place to buy Odyssey games was 40 miles away at 1 one store in the mall. What was equally as frustrating was the fact that we only went to the mall when we had other business in that town, so no quick trips unless it was accompanied by official business that justified the gas and time it took to go there and get back. Add to that the 1 store that DID sell the games had a selection of only 3 or 4 different titles at any given time AND the individual games were almost $10 more expensive than the 50 or so odd titles available for the Atari. The absolute WORST part was finding out that almost none of the anemic selection of Odyssey games they had would work on my unit because mine was a first generation unit and was being discontinued, as EVERYTHING ELSE was in the GTE company catalogue.

After about a year, I gave up on it and ended up selling it to a buddy who had about 10 first generation games so he’d have a console to play them on after his unit took a dump. Even after selling it for about 1/2 of what it cost brand new and explaining the deal to my Dad, he STILL refused to meet me halfway so I could get an Atari. So basically, from about ‘81-‘84, I had no gaming system except a ragged-out Pong platform that I inherited from my uncle that I only used once before boxing it up and throwing it in the basement to rot.

By ‘84, the hottest thing on the market was the Commodore 64. Once again, they were everywhere, most of my buddies had them and I started dropping hints and leaving brochures around the house where I knew my Dad would see them and hopefully take the bait. Sure enough, he went back to the GTE company catalogue which I promptly threw into the trash as soon as he handed it to me. About a month later, he came to me with an offer to buy me the cheaper and useless Commodore Vic-20. I promptly shut that down before he decided to act on his own and buy one for me as a surprise and then get mad when I’d never use it.

It was another 6 months, or so, when he mentioned that we were going to the mall and wondered if I was still interested in getting a Commodore? I told him “Only if it’s the 64 and NOT the Vic-20”. He hemmed and hawed before telling me that he had been talking with one of the young guys at work and that he was told that the Commodore 64 was the way to go and that he’d be willing to get me one for my birthday, IF I promised to play with it and not just let it collect dust on a shelf. I agreed and we ended up getting one that same day. A couple months later, Dad started to ask me if I was interested in getting a 1541 Disc Drive for my 64 and I couldn’t believe my ears. That, plus Escape From Wolfenstein was my sole Christmas present that year. I was in 7th Heaven over his newfound generosity and the fact that I actually had a state-of-the-art gaming console/computer that I actually used daily.

One day, a few months after I got the disc drive, Dad asked me to give him my Wolfenstein game for a couple of days. I thought it was odd, so I asked him why and he told me that the guy at work who convinced him to buy the 64 and the disc drive wanted to borrow my Wolfenstein game, copy it for his own use and in exchange, he was going to copy ALL of the games he had for his 64 and put them on disc for me, because he apparently had 2 1541 disc drives. About a week later, Dad showed up with my Wolfenstein game, an additional dozen discs with ALL SORTS of awesome games on them, photocopied loading and game instructions and a “thank you” note from the guy who did all of the work. Once again, I was a pig in slop and spent the next year playing those games with my friends and having a ball.

I kept that Commodore system and continued to thoroughly enjoy it until it gave up the ghost in the early 90s. Even though Super Nintendo was the console to have by then, there was still something special about the old-school Commodore that just wouldn’t allow me to completely abandon it for the younger chic at the dance.🥲

Chris NEO is the voice actor of Puppet Steve

Change My Mind

OMG, for years I couldn't remember the name of this oddball console! My parents got me the Odyssey 2 in the mid-late 80's from some trading post on the way back from a vacation. The console was crap lol and I only ever had that one cart with the 3 games on it as shown in the video. It wasn't long after that I got an NES for my birthday. I believe the Odyssey 2 was given to one of my cousins or nephews, I'm not entirely sure. Kind of wish I still had it for nastalgic purposes.

Cool.