On Wed, 20 Aug 1997, Doug Spence wrote:
> On Tue, 19 Aug 1997, Sam Ismail wrote:
>
> [re: Magnavox Odyssey]
>
> > Oooh, track that sucker down. Mine unfortunately does not have the
> > overlays but the guy who sold it to me is still looking. I picked mine
> > up for $20. It's in OK shape. The original batteries were still in it
My Odyssey had original (or at least old) red Eveready transistor
batteries in it, as well. Oddly enough, they still held a charge - around
1.1 volts each with no load. The internal resistance is quite high,
though, so they're not good for much current.
Any interested dry cell collectors out there? :)
Opening up the Odyssey and taking a look inside is on my (ever-expanding)
list of things to do. From what I have read, the Odyssey was designed
several years before it was manufactured (1969?). At the time, even SSI
TTL ICs were impractically expensive for use in a home game system;
accordingly, the Odyssey is implemented in DTL using discrete
transistors and diodes.
Regarding the Odyssey cartridges/wafers: My brother-in-law remembers
having a book many years ago on designing homebrew Odyssey games. Given
the simplicity of the hardware (the wafers are apparently just connection
patterns on a PC board, with the occasional resistor or diode), it
shouldn't be too difficult to do. Desiging screen overlays and
interesting new games that can be played on the Odyssey hardware may be
more of a challenge.
I've thought about sending in the "free game" card as well, just to see
what would happen. Probably the same thing that happened when I sent in
the "free program" card that came with my 3b1 - nothing. Of course, I
don't imagine that the extra wafer is actually already there in /etc/fixes/
on the Odyssey. :)
If anyone is interested in scans of the original overlays, let me know
and I'll give scanning them a try.
--
Scott Ware s-ware_at_nwu.edu
Received on Wed Aug 20 1997 - 12:34:08 BST