1974 MAGNAVOX ODYSSEY LICENSE
1974 MAGNAVOX ODYSSEY SERIES
1974 MAGNAVOX ODYSSEY TV

Bill Harrison worked closely with George Kent and a team of engineers, while Ralph Baer worked with Bob Fritsche a program operator for the Magnavox Odyssey. Ralph Baer and Bill Harrison playing Pongīill Harrison and Ralph Baer made trips to Fort Wayne over the development of the Odyssey to help with the technical and marketing decisions. They started working on the prototype for what was to become the first Magnavox Odyssey. They signed a preliminary agreement between Sanders Associates and Magnavox which allowed them to turn over the Brown Box and all data involved to the engineers of Magnavox in Fort Wayne. The process took nine months to convince them, but the Brown Box finally got the green light to become a fully fledged console.

1974 MAGNAVOX ODYSSEY TV

While they had Gerry's backing their was still the issue of convincing the Magnavox corporate management to support his decision to go with building games in their TV manufacturing plant. He saw promise in the Brown Box and one sentence he uttered changed everything for Ralph and the Brown Box. At first, nobody in the room showed any enthusiasm for the Brown Box except for one man, Gerry Martin. The demonstration didn't start until Gerry Martin, the VP of marketing for the television set division of Magnavox entered the room.

Magnavox allowed them use of a boardroom and 19-inch TV sets and an audience started to form. Later that month Ralph Baer and Lou Etlinger, a Sanders Associates' Corporate Director of Patients, got an official invitation to demonstrate the game console in Fort Wayne. He went back to the Magnavox management located, in Fort Wayne, Indiana, to take a look at the potential of the Brown Box. Enders went back to the offices to get another demonstration, in July 1968, and was all the more impressed with the Brown Box. Being interested in what he saw in from the Brown Box before he left Sanders.

A worker from Sanders Associates RCA team named Bill Enders left and ended up going to Magnavox in their New York sales offices.

1974 MAGNAVOX ODYSSEY LICENSE

Once they got the Brown Box finished they started contacting cable TV systems operators and TV manufactures to find their first license for their new prototype. Along with the overlays, some games would be played with the very first light gun in gaming and a dynamic ball action chassis for more advanced features. The Brown Box was able to play twelve games with the use of mylar overlays you would place on your TVs. You may think that name is weird and if a console with a name like this came out today you bet it would be the joke of the gaming world, but it was called this because of its simulated woodgrain self-adhesive covering. After two years of working ended with the prototype unit, they named the Brown Box. It all started with the with a man named Ralph Baer working at Sanders Associates along with Bill Harrison and Bill Rush. The very first home gaming console The Odyssey I will be releasing these at least once a week and I hope you enjoy this look back on video game history as much as I enjoyed researching it.

1974 MAGNAVOX ODYSSEY SERIES

This will be the first in series as a look back on all the major video game consoles ever made. I'll be going through the background on the events that lead to the making of this historic console and the impact it had afterward and how the console met its demise. Well, I can tell you that there was a console that came before that called the Magnavox Odyssey. Most people mistake the first video game console as the Atari 2600.

1974 magnavox odyssey