Oddysey I questions

[Querjek]

I recently found n Oddysey (I) at a flea market sort of thing. I don't know muc habout the system, though. It came with 2 controllers, the TV switch, and a cart-looking thing with a "1" on it. Can someone give me details on this please? I Haven't tested it yet and am wondering what the "1" means.

[Algol]

The card with the "1" on it is most likely one of the game cards that came with the system.

[IcewynG]

It is definitly gamecart #1 (Table Tennis). did you find the system loose or were you able to get the TV overlays and white carrying case as well? Been a while since I have traded my Odyssey 1...

[y-bot]

everything you could ever want to know is here:

http://www.pong-story.com/odyssey.htm

y-bot

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

Did the card look like one of these?

http://www.thelogbook.com/odyssey/legacy/o1/cards.jpg

[sniperCCJVQ]

Odyssey 1 !? :)

Great find, they are truly rare now.

[Querjek]

It came just as a loose system with the cart. Did Table Tennis come with any "accessories?" And does anyone have any games they're like to trade to me :) ?

BTW, thanks for the responses... this looks very interesting to me. And I think I did well at paying $10 for it.

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

If you've got the controllers, AC adapter (by the way, check the battery compartment and make sure there aren't any old leaky batteries in there eating away at the poor thing's guts) and RF box for it, and card #1, that's a steal.

Now, as for what else came with it...LOTS, not even counting the basic system connections and cabling the six included game cards. If you follow y-bot's link to Pong-Story, I think David has a photo on there of what all comes with it. There is also a picture in this previous thread (http://www.digitpress.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11902) which, while it doesn't show all the stuff (cards, dice, poker chips, cards, overlays, etc.), gives you a good idea of how much stuff we're talking about from the sheer size of the box.

Minor historical note: Ralph Baer has said in past interviews that he never intended for Magnavox to pile all of the additional pieces onto the Odyssey - if he'd had his way, the Odyssey would've sold for $20, not somewhere upward of $100. If Ralph had gotten his way, who knows what kind of market penetration video games could've achieved early on?

Getting back to your point though...in September '03 when I had the Odyssey hooked up for live play at OKGE, I wound up displaying it just with card #1, no overlays, and none of the extra pieces. So long as you have the controllers and the means to hook the console up, and at least one game card (you'll find, by the way, that removing the card powers the machine down, as the electrical circuit is completed by the cards!)...you have the meat of the system right there, it's playable and displayable.

And it doesn't play like anything you've ever seen, trust me on this one. LOL Nice score, Querjek!

[Querjek]

If you've got the controllers, AC adapter (by the way, check the battery compartment and make sure there aren't any old leaky batteries in there eating away at the poor thing's guts) and RF box for it, and card #1, that's a steal.

Well, as it turns out, I don't have the AC adapter--I assumed that I could just run the thing off of batteries.

So, I opened up the battery compartment to see 6 batteries, 1 Radio Shack brand, that looked like it was from 1978 or something.

I removed the batteries to find that one of the contacts had some rust on it :(

When I plugged it into my TV, it didn't work... damn... I'm still working on it though. Does anyone have any suggestions on what to do about the rust?

And thanks, PDF. I found an Odyssey 300 (Pong unit), boxed/complete, at a thrift a few months back, but the end of the TV connector was cracked and a piece was missing... maybe I'm just not meant to play an Odyssey? Let's hope not :)

EDIT: Also, what's the voltage for an AC adapter? I have one by Magnavox, and the end of it fits, but I don't want to break the system.

[boatofcar]

I removed the batteries to find that one of the contacts had some rust on it :(

When I plugged it into my TV, it didn't work... damn... I'm still working on it though. Does anyone have any suggestions on what to do about the rust?


Club Soda. Seriously.

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

And thanks, PDF. I found an Odyssey 300 (Pong unit), boxed/complete, at a thrift a few months back, but the end of the TV connector was cracked and a piece was missing... maybe I'm just not meant to play an Odyssey? Let's hope not :)

EDIT: Also, what's the voltage for an AC adapter? I have one by Magnavox, and the end of it fits, but I don't want to break the system.
If that Ody 300 had an AC adapter, that too will power the Odyssey 1. Now we've just gotta find you an RF box.

[Querjek]

And thanks, PDF. I found an Odyssey 300 (Pong unit), boxed/complete, at a thrift a few months back, but the end of the TV connector was cracked and a piece was missing... maybe I'm just not meant to play an Odyssey? Let's hope not :)

EDIT: Also, what's the voltage for an AC adapter? I have one by Magnavox, and the end of it fits, but I don't want to break the system.
If that Ody 300 had an AC adapter, that too will power the Odyssey 1. Now we've just gotta find you an RF box.
Well, I hve that... but it still doesn't work. I've narrowed it down to the following possibilities:
1. The corroded battery compartment
2. The worn-down, old RF switch (There's a coax. cable stuck to it that I'm going to replace)
3. The system itself has some sort of internal problem preventing power from getting to something

I'll look into it more today.

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

Actually, the cable that runs from the unit to the RF switch isn't hardwired to either end, but the only drawback is that both ends have that unique, strange Euro-type connector.