Goin' kinda digital with the Magnavox Odyssey

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

Remember on MST3K when Dr. Forrester said "Somebody had to be the first to do this, and it might as well be me!" before unleashing some largely useless invention upon the world? Well, you might as well call my game room "Deep 13." And here's why:

http://www.thelogbook.com/earl/hizzouse/thumb-6/ody-lcd.jpg

I may be the first person on the planet to send the direct output of the original Magnavox Odyssey to an LCD screen. LOL LOL Actually, the output of every system I have can be sent to that screen, but it just seemed amusingly incongruous to pump this poor old analog system's signal through a display more accustomed to digital input.

Hey, somebody had to be the first to do this. ;)

[omnedon]

Hmmm.

The original Odyssey had no chips, and was all hard wired if memory serves. Therefore VERY analog LOL .

What are you seeing on the screen? Jumbled text? I wonder if that output would be helpful to emulator programmers?

Cool nevertheless, just for geek factor alone.

*claps*

:D

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

What are you seeing on the screen? Jumbled text? I wonder if that output would be helpful to emulator programmers?
LOL A-hem! That's a text editor where I was editing something for my website, actually. Jumbled text indeed... :P

[gamergary]

Very cool. Does the picture come out better or worse on the LCD screen?

[rbudrick]

Lol,

Just last night I hooked up my Odyssey for the first time...just got it in the mail. I was told I NEEDED the RF switch, bit it turns out, I can mickey mouse the proprietary connecto to the RF switch and hook it to any old RF switch.

Nice job on the LCD thing. What was your method of connecting it?

-Rob

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

Nice job on the LCD thing. What was your method of connecting it?
This way (http://www.thelogbook.com/phosphor/about/tips.htm) - it's running through a VCR, then through my AV amp, which sends its signal to another VCR which feeds both the LCD and a broadcast-grade rack-mountable 13" video monitor.

The picture's actually better on the LCD for some reason. I can't really explain why, either - I just do the Rube Goldberg wiring setup, make sure I have sound and picture, and sit back and play. ;)

[rbudrick]

Right, I was wondering about your Rube Goldberg job, cuz I had to make one too! AFAIK, it's a proprietary connector (if someone could tell me otherwise, it would be much appreciated) on the data line.

-ROb

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

Actually, I'm driving the signal through a spare Odyssey2-style RF switch (the Odyssey 100-4000 RF switches also work for the O2 and the original Odyssey), so no splicing and dicing here - all of the cables are perfectly intact with their original connectors.