ebenezer
09-28-2009, 01:46 AM
Just came back from the "GameOn" display at the science museum in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. They had a lot of nice retro arcade machines and early game systems to try including the Odyssey. They also had the Brown Box, which is the prototype for the Odyseey. How many Brown Boxes were made? Just wondering if the one on display was a reproduction or the real thing. I'll post a picture if anyone wants to see it.
Phosphor Dot Fossils
09-28-2009, 02:22 AM
Ralph Baer donated the original Brown Box hardware, the other TV Game prototypes, and all of his extensive documentation of the development of his games to the Smithsonian, but there are a few reproduction versions* of it in existence, including the one that was in the CGE museum in 2007. Any Brown Box you see on display "on the road" is one of the repros, and I believe they are at the very least authorized by Mr. Baer, if not necessarily made by him (I think David Winter may be behind the repro models). I don't know if the repros are working models or not.
I do know that Michael Thomasson over at Good Deal Games borrowed one of the repros for a class he was teaching a while back, so he may have more details.
* not that I wouldn't be happy to have one of the repros in my booth at OVGE in about a month, mind you.