Demonstration - Magnavox Odyssey 100
5Here is a demonstration of one of the most important "Pong consoles", the Magnavox Odyssey 100. The 1975 Odyssey 100 followed the original Magnavox Odyssey but put the consoles and the controls into a single blood-red orange unit, removed the interchangeable game cards, ditched the board game stuff and just played two variations of a ball and paddle game, Tennis and Hockey. All graphical elements were in black and white and score was kept manually by a pair of sliders on the console unit.
I am recording the Odyssey 100 via the same method as I recorded Pong as it also has a speaker built into the unit and only outputs RF-modulated video. You can hear background noise, including me manipulating the console. Unlike Pong, which has a pair of dials, a reset button and an on/off switch accessible without opening the machine, the Odyssey 100 has three control knobs for each player, an on/off switch, a game select switch, a ball speed dial and center/left line position dial. Opening up the bottom of the unit, which is necessary to add batteries, allows you access to the channel select switch, the speaker on/off switch, and seven more dials to control the video signal.
The Odyssey 100 is like the original Odyssey's tennis game in that it allows each player to control the paddle horizontally and vertically. You can put each the paddle anywhere on the screen. Each player also has a "spin" or "English" control that allows them to control the trajectory of the ball after they hit it. Only the player who hit the ball last will be able to affect the ball's path via the spin control. This control scheme is inherited from the Odyssey and would be eventually phased out of the line.
There are a few differences from the original Odyssey. The paddles are more rectangular and the ball is served not by pressing a reset button but by the player who lost the serve touching the center line with his paddle. The ball will rebound off the top and bottom of the screen instead of disappearing as with the Odyssey and needing to be reset. The original Odyssey was silent but 100 allows a single chirp when it strikes a paddle.
The Odyssey 100 also has another functional improvement over the original Odyssey. The game select switch, when changed from Game A to Game B, allows for something like a Hockey game. Here instead of a single net there are two walls and the ball will bounce off of them. A player who has had the ball go through his "goal" in this variation touches a wall to have the ball served. As the scoring opening is much smaller than in tennis, the ball speed dial can increase the speed if the ball to increase the challenge. The center control knob is necessary to be used to adjust the position of the left wall and would also need to be adjusted to recenter the net when going back to Game A. The original Odyssey could only indicate scoring by the TV screen overlay.
I am trying to play against myself, but it is much more difficult to do with the Odyssey 100 than Pong due to the three dials and the fact that the position of the vertical and the spin controls are swapped in position for player 1 versus player 2. I try to show everything the console can do, how it can change the movement of the ball, how serving works, how the ball speed can change, and the transition from Game A to Game B.