First impressions of a grail

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

I've just finished having a minor spiritual experience.

My Odyssey, with all the goodies, overlays, light gun, game cards, accessories, etc., arrived at work tonight. It was all I could do not to ditch my duties and open the box right then and there. Ever since I got my first cartridge-based machine, the Odyssey 2, I always wondered what the original Odyssey was like. I'd read lots of stuff about how it came to be (vis a vis Ralph Baer and the Brown Box), how well it sold, what came with it, and so on.

But what was it like? That's what I always wondered. What was it like to play it?

About a month ago, I saw an eBay auction I posted about here in this thread (http://www.digitpress.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10280). I paid pretty dearly for it after getting the wife's somewhat puzzled and reluctant blessing on the whole thing, and so here it is. (I made an agreement with the seller that it might take me a week or two to gather the necessary dough, which was OK with him because he wasn't sure how to ship it and would need time to figure that out - very classy guy.)

So here it is. I'm going to plug it in and play it some tomorrow (well, okay, later today since it's well after midnight), and before I do that I'm setting up a camcorder on a tripod to record the "magic moment." But for tonight, I just opened the box, very slowly, very carefully, like the lid was hinged. I think I heard Raiders Of The Lost Ark music in the background somewhere. I held my breath.

http://www.thelogbook.com/phosphor/about/room/odyssey.jpg
Even Othello looks up to it in awe. (As security chief of my house, Othello gets first dibs on inspecting anything of mine that comes in the door. If you've ever sent me a game, just know that he's checked it out before I've ever gotten anywhere near a console or an RF adapter with it.)

First impressions?



It's smaller than I thought it would be. For some reason, from the pictures, I'd always envisioned the Odyssey console as a damn great brick of a machine. Compared to some of its successors (i.e. the Odyssey 100-4000 series consoles), it's positively petite.

This machine has been kept in outstanding condition. I'm guessing it probably went back to its box the same year it originally came out of it. This machine may have been boxed since the day I was born.

My God, all the little bits and pieces to keep track of. And I thought Quest For The Rings was nutty in that regard.

The controller cables are HUGE! And the connectors! Wow! Even HUGER!


So have you ever been surprised by a grail find? Quadrun not as much fun as you thought it was? Bummed that the prototype you were after was never truly finished?

I know there are 99,999 other Odysseys out there, so this isn't really that much of a grail, but to me, it's a personal grail. I've made the journey back to where it all began. And now I can tell the story going forward, not backward.

Wow.

[Dahne]

Congrats!

And your cat's adorable. :)

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

And your cat's adorable. :)

You should see the white one. He plays Asteroids. But that's a story for another time. :-D

[mezrabad]

I know what you mean about the Odyssey, (especially the connector cables, I mean they seem to actually use cables for them, cables you could hang a cable car on.) The whole system has an innocence about it, everything from the overlays to the the way the instructions are written. After all, they were making these things for a population that had never seen anything like it before. (I hook it up to my TV? Won't that be bad for it? I have to use these dots to represent a submarine? a football player?) I also like the satisfying way the carts go in actually turn the machine on by completeing the circuit.

Of course, when I got this grail, I decided I had to get the next grail for the system: Interplanetary Voyage. I bid an insane amount for a brand new unopened gamepac #2 (fortunately I had just sold my house so I had some cash) but I still got sniped. :( I think I'll get the lightgun system next since that is in much more plentiful supply.

My son and I had a pretty good time playing the Haunted House game. My Odyssey is in storage back in the states, I'm looking forward to playing it when we get back.

anyway, congratulations

[Rolland]

What a cool cat. he looks to be carefully respecting the video games. He looks light on his feet too.

[Felixthegamer]

Congrats! Hope you have fun with it

[Captain Wrong]

We had an Odyssey back in the day and I remember the play money and poker chips being in my toy box long after the thing had kicked the bucket. In fact, I don't ever remember actually playing with the thing as intended but I do remember finding a million and one uses for everything else that came as part of the package.

Nice score...enjoy it!

[dreamcaster]

THIS is what us collectors are all about. Getting that 'find' and the reactions drawn from the experience of playing it for the first time.

I know exactly how you feel. I felt the same way about my second SNES I got. It was yellowed, the box was a bit rough and it was kind of dirty. It didn't matter, there was a SNES in my home again. Almost as good an experience as opening my first SNES for the first time...

*Dreamcaster remembers September 9th 1995*

*Sniff* :(

[digitalpress]

My first impression of the Odyssey was "WHOA! I CAN PLAY GAMES ON THE TV?!". My second impression was "WHOA! TV OVERLAYS!". My third impression was "WHERE'S MY ROCK EM SOCK EM ROBOTS?".

It was 1972. What did I know?

Years later I tried it out again, to see if I had missed something. No offense to the brilliant Ralph Baer, but this thing has not aged well in my opinion. Where systems like the Atari 2600 improve with age in their retro-goodness, the Odyssey really seems like an experiment. It's kind of interesting at first, things move around on the screen much differently than any other game console (it's really quite smooooooth), but the games themselves are really boring and a little too much effort to set up unless you're doing a "show and tell" session :)

So as a game system, meh. As a conversation piece, wow!

Enjoy it! And most importantly, take good care of it. It's a fascinating piece of history.

Now then. WHERE'S MY ROCK EM SOCK EM ROBOTS?

[Queen Of The Felines]

I grew up with one of those too. In fact, my mom swears it's still somewhere in the house, or possibly the garage. (Guess I have something to do this weekend now :D ) We also had the light gun accessory, and after hearing about how all these new gun controllers were just too darn "realistic" for some parents' tastes, I just think "But I grew up with a way-cool woodgrain SHOTGUN, fer cryin' out loud!"

Gah, I miss that thing...

Kristine

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

Thanks to all for the congrats. Gee, I was really trying to start a "grail anticipation fulfillment" thread, not just brag. :D

Plugged everything in today. Clumsily played the basic Table Tennis game against myself and let out a big whoop for the neighbors' benefit (I had the windows open today) so everyone on the block knows the thing works. Actually, it works better than some of my Odyssey 100-4000 series consoles!

Haven't tried anything else yet, game-wise, but I did open up the second box with the light rifle and the additional games. Again, this seller was a class act, put all of the overlays in their own box, where they've been laying FLAT for years. This guy is my freakin' hero right about now. I don't think he's a game collector, just getting rid of some stuff from the attic, but by God we should be happy if we could get one more person like this, taking care of his games like that, in the game-collecting/trading community.

Also got a TI 99/4A in the mail today (BIG thank you to video_game_addict), so this is turning into the night of a thousand new consoles to test out. So many games, so little time. Too bad I'm stuck at work right now. :/

And thanks to everyone who commented on the black cat worshipping the Odyssey box (actually, he's smelling it to see if he can figure out where it came from, and if its previous owners had cats). He is usually very careful around my collection. Dangle a loose joystick cord in front of him, however, and you're just begging for trouble...

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

A couple of years ago I posted this thread about a personal grail acquisition; and rather than starting a new thread, this seemed like a good place to post my latest personal grail impressions.

The machine in question can be seen in a place of honor atop the shelf in this picture:
http://www.thelogbook.com/earl/hizzouse/thumb-18/vectrex.jpg
Yep - the mighty Vectrex graces my game collection at last, after about 23 years of having heard so much - and having seen so little. To put things in perspective, aside from magazine articles, photos and other second-hand accounts, the first time I ever saw a real live Vectrex in the flesh was at CGE in 2003 - and even then I didn't get to see it in action up close. The first time I played one was at OKGE 2004, thanks to Brad Prillwitz, and I was hooked. Man, I wanted one so bad - it's just such a cool little setup!

A recent fortuitous eBay auction landed me not just a Vectrex, but a boxed Vectrex, complete with five carts (Scramble - loose, Hyperchase - boxed but no overlay, Star Trek - complete, Vix - complete, Omega Chase Deluxe - complete). And, of course, Minestorm built into the machine. All at a fairly reasonable price, I thought, and the machine arrived today in fantastic shape. Othello gave it the once-over and rubbed his face on the top of the machine to give it his approval (and to claim it too) while it was sitting on the floor, and then I decided to perch it on the shelf unit next to my Kick machine, where it can be played at standing height - seems appropriate, somehow. The triangular shelf was a perfect fit, too - it contains the machine without it "hanging off" at any point, and makes for very easy stowing/unstowing of the controller. Here, it stays.

First impressions:

I love the vector graphics. Emulation simply doesn't do them justice, can't even begin to. This is the real deal, and it's great. My one problem is that, for the games that have no overlay, I literally have to wear my sunglasses or I'll wind up with a headache after two minutes of play. Yow! Especially when everyone knows how dark I like to keep my game room:
http://www.thelogbook.com/earl/hizzouse/thumb-18/vecdark.jpg
This, of course, will actually require me to wear my sunglasses at night. Cue the music.

The controller is nice - it's instantly become one of my favorite 80s controllers, hands down. Very comfortable to hold, responsive buttons, very smooth joystick action. I like how Hyperchase requires some very, very subtle joystick movement.

I love the games, each and every one of them. I don't normally go on "acquisition binges" for a specific system, but for the Vectrex I may well make an exception. I want to see more of what this machine can do. Christopher Tumber has a gift for making some damn fine homebrews for this system; I recently have read that he's disappeared, and I hope he's not dropping out of the scene. To be exposed to the machine's first-party and homebrew games side-by-side on the same day is a bit strange, but I could detect no difference in quality between the two.

I love the thick plastic overlays. No doubt about these staying in place whatsoever. Odyssey, eat your heart out.

Once again, I'm very pleased with my new adoptee. I've picked up several new - well, old as dirt but new to me - consoles from the 70s and 80s recently, but out of all of them, the Vectrex has impressed me the most.
http://www.thelogbook.com/earl/hizzouse/thumb-18/vecbrite.jpg

[NESaholic]

Good stuff man,congrats,the pics looks great!

[Lothars]

Awesome, that looks great

It makes it cool, great thread by the way.

I really like it, I have to say.

[digitalpress]

Excellent score, Earl! Enjoy your new toy.

PS you can dim the vectors by twisting the recessed knob in the back of the unit. Might protect you from your headaches - or do what I do and use any other overlay that doesn't have a busy design. You won't even notice it's there.

[Dangerboy]

I always wanted an O, (not O2 :) ) just to gawk at it.

Personal Grail Impressions:

1. Complete Stack Up
Wow I can't wait to try this out...and...um...I need HOW many batteries for my R.O.B.? Wow can't wait to mount this above the fire place.

Still haven't played it to this day.

2. Dragonball GT USA Bandai
HOT DAMN, didn't pay *too* much for it, let's see how bad this really is...(insert 5 minutes of game play)....wow, I've never wanted to slice my wrists with a cd disc before...

3. Magical Chase
Hey, this is pretty fun...(one level later)...and yeah I think I'll go back to Dracula X.

4. Laseractive System
"Christ on a cracker that's huge."

4a. Blue Chicago Blues, LaserActive
"Hey, we Windy City folk don't talk like that!" LOL

5. Spyro Collection Pack PSX (Last Game I needed to have the whole US Set)
http://www.game-rave.com/comic_pages/comic_65/index.htm

6. Neo Geo MVS Phantom Convertor
"So baby, I got the fire going, brought you your favorite type of games, dimmed the lights, even bought you a new controller. How about you and me get personal, awww yeah...." 8-)

Nice finds, PDF.

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

PS you can dim the vectors by twisting the recessed knob in the back of the unit. Might protect you from your headaches - or do what I do and use any other overlay that doesn't have a busy design. You won't even notice it's there.
Bless you sir. That, and for the moment just leaving the Star Trek overlay on the screen (just blue with a yellow square in the middle, for those not familiar with it), worked a treat. Don't wanna crank it down too much though. There's something about those bright points at the end of every line segment on the screen that just screams VECTOR at you.

So here's the next big question: I really dig the Star Trek game, as bits of it remind me just a little bit of Atari's Star Wars arcade game. But is there anything, homebrew or otherwise, that's even more Star Wars-y than that? Because if there's a system that was born to play it, this would be the one.

[Cauterize]

Wow! I really want a Vectrex and your Pink tube lights are hypnotising me to get one...

My local gamestation has 2 in, priced at £70 and i was thinking of doin my usual "Trade in Crap for loads of Cash" to get it...

The pink lights are speakin to me!

The game you have pictured with the ships is on there... i was watchin it in the shop, how the ship flys in 3d-ish on the intro... it made me realise how ahead of its day it really was!
(Despite i was born after the Vectrex and didnt knwo of it till later on in life)


Thanks for sharing your Grail with us! Im gonna return to mine... Megaman Wily Wars & Alien Soldier!

[Mr.FoodMonster]

Nice write ups on both of those. I've been on and off thinking about getting a vectrex, because it does seem like a REALLY cool machine, and the 'stand-alone' play of it really appeals to me. Perhaps someday...

[o2william]

First impressions of a grail? Well, when I found mine, I remember it was cup-shaped, and it had miraculous food-producing qualities. I couldn't find it listed in the DP Guide though, so I just left it at the flea market.


But is there anything, homebrew or otherwise, that's even more Star Wars-y than that?
Hmm... John Dondzila was working on a clone called, appropriately enough, The Star Wars Clone (http://www.vgmuseum.com/images/vectrex/64.html), but I don't think he finished it. It may have been renamed "Star Siege."

As a proud Vectrex owner, you need to go pick up Cosmic Chasm, IMO the best original release game for the system after Minestorm. Homebrew-wise, Patriots is a blast, and Protector really impressed me when I played it at CGE last year.

[oesiii]

Congrats, keep an eye out for Sean Kelly's Multicart which he releases in batches every few months on eBay. Well worth the price to have all those games on the Veccy.

Protector is a great homebrew that you can grab here for cheap:

http://www.vectrexcarts.com/

And John D's great website has his games and the spiffy Genesis pad that is converted to a Vectrex controller, can't beat it for $20:

http://www.classicgamecreations.com/

You probably know all this info but all new Vectrex folks should also know :)