The Ultimate Guide to Classic Game Consoles. Kevin Baker
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200 that was released a year earlier in the USA.
The games were as basic as you could get and what you were really getting were three different Pong clones. The games that the Philips Odyssey 200 offered gamers were Tennis, Hockey and a game called Smash. One really cool feature was that the game had a score board on the TV screen. Granted, all it really was was a little white square that would move up when someone scored a point, but it was still a pretty cool feature for a console to have. It was also the first console to offer multi-player gaming that enabled two or four-player action.
As far as the aesthetics of the console go, it has a white plastic box with the standard dials that are used to control the action on the screen. It has a black strip down the middle where you can select the game and it also has a score dial if you are not into the on-screen scoring system. Like most consoles of this era the Philips Odyssey 200 can be either powered with a power cable or batteries.
Philips Odyssey 2001 – 1977
The Philips Odyssey 2001 is very similar to the Magnavox Odyssey 4000. However the Philips Odyssey 2001 does not play the same games as the Magnavox model.
The Philips Odyssey 2001 was quite a high end video game console for its time. The usual suspects are here: Tennis, Hockey and Squash and they are all displayed in glorious colour. One feature that is really interesting is that the games did feature sound, but what made this so special was that the sound came from the TV and not the console itself.
The console has a somewhat futuristic look to it. It's the sort of thing that you would expect to see Kirk and Spock playing on the Enterprise. It has a grey plastic casing along with two detachable paddle controllers. There were no buttons on the actual console to change the games as this was all done on the controller. Also, controller one had blue decoration around the buttons and paddle and controller two had green decoration. This was kind of cool, as instead of just being player one and two you could opt to be in either the blue or green team.
Philips Odyssey 2100 – 1978
The Philips Odyssey 2100 was released hot on the heels of the 2001 model.
The Philips Odyssey 2100 at a glance may look just like the 2001, but with a black casing. However, this model contains an amazing six different games that like the 2001 are all in colour. The games are Tennis, Hockey, Football, Handball, Flipper and Wipe Out. If that was not enough each game had a variety of different options where you could tweak the game settings slightly. So in all, if you count each variation as a different game, the Philips Odyssey 2100 offers a phenomenal 23 games. Just imagine how huge this was back in 1978 to get a console that could let you play 23 games!
The look of the console is exactly the same as the Philips Odyssey 2001, but this time it is in black. The controllers had the same blue and green detailing on them.
11 – Radio Shack TV Scoreboard
Low Resolution Radio Shack Commercial Image – Used solely for review purposes
Developer: Radio Shack
Release Date: 1976
Origin: U.S.A.
Initial Price: $29.95 - $39.95 USD
CPU: General Instruments AY-3-8500
Built-In Games: 4 (6 in the shooter version)
The Radio Shack TV Scoreboard was one of the more popular Pong clone consoles of the 1970s and early 80s. Once you see the above picture of this system I am sure that you will recognise this handheld console if you were around at the time. The Radio Shack TV Scoreboard was released many times over its lifetime. Really with the changes mostly being in the colour of the console itself.
Radio Shack TV Scoreboard - 1976 (4 game version)
While the Radio Shack logo is all over the packaging and the actual console it was actually developed by electronics manufacturer Tandy. The Radio Shack TV Scoreboard looks radically different from the other Pong systems of this era. Many people are probably wondering where the console is. Well that is one of the main interesting things about this system; the console is in the controller. There is also a 2nd paddle controller that is attached to it, but it can be detached and does have a small cord.
It is not really the most attractive looking thing in the world. It looks like it would be more at home taking radiation readings or mixing some late 70s disco song. As well as the actual paddle controllers there are also various switches that are used to change up the various settings of the games. Like the majority of Pong systems, the Radio Shack TV Scoreboard could be powered by both batteries and an AC adapter.
The Radio Shack TV Scoreboard came with four Pong clone games. The games that were on offer were Tennis, Squash, Football and Practice. It was a pretty standard set of games for the time. This four game version of the Radio Shack TV Scoreboard seems to be harder to find in boxed form for collecting than the shooter version reviewed below.
Radio Shack TV Scoreboard - 1976 (shooter version)
The Radio Shack TV Scoreboard may, on the inside, seem like a basic Pong clone system, but people really bought into it. Part of the reason for its success was because it did not require a console and people could just put the Radio Shack TV Scoreboard in a drawer or wherever once they had finished using it.
There was a more popular version of this console that on the surface looked exactly the same. It had the same look and it also had the same four games that were on the aforementioned version. However, this version of the Radio Shack TV Scoreboard had one big difference, and that was that it came with a really cool looking light gun.
You know what is so great about the light guns of this era? It is just how close to a real gun they look. Microsoft, Nintendo or Sony would never in a million years be allowed to put out a light gun that looks like a real weapon these days.
Anyway, along with the cool looking light gun came two extra games that were not in the other version. Skeet and Target shooting were added to the mix. This is the most popular version of the Radio Shack TV Scoreboard.
12 – Nintendo Color TV Range
Color TV Game Block Breaker CC Image – Wikipedia – Evan-Amos
Developer: Nintendo
Release Date: 1977 - 1980
Original Price: Around 15,000 yen
CPU: a /N CPU
Origin: Japan
Built-Games: 6 (variations of 1 game)
Ah now here we have something very special for you guys. The very first home console from a little video game company called Nintendo. Yep that’s right, before they gave us the Nintendo Entertainment System or even before they gave the good people of Japan the Famicom there was the Color TV game. Today we are going to have a look at the first two consoles that were released under the Color TV brand.
Nintendo Color TV Game 6 – 1977 - Japan Only
It may sound like a odd name, but the reason for this is because it was the first home console to offer gaming in colour. At this point in time Pong clones were not really flying off the shelves in Japan. A man at Nintendo called Hiroshi Yamauchi thought the main reason for this was because they were so expensive. So he wanted a games console that was affordable. The console was a huge hit selling well over a quarter of a million units
The aesthetics of the console really just look like any other Pong clone on the market. It has a blinding orange colour scheme that could cause someone to have a migraine. In fact, the colour is so striking that it almost slaps you in the face when you look at it. On each side