Magnavox Odyssey 100

The Magnavox Odyssey 100 game console released in 1975 at the price of $99.95. Magnavox was aggressively trying to gain market share and dropped the price to $80 in june of the following year, and by Christmas of 1976, one could pick up one of these games for the low price of $39.95

The Odyssey 100 uses discrete components for its game logic. The company was already working on a single integrated circuit to be used in its consoles, but they wanted this machine ready to market in case the new integrated circuit would not be able to have the IC ready in time.

Texas Instruments provided the four designated ICs for the Odyssey 100. These four chips ultimately were also the basis for the single chip Texas Instruments was working on.

The Odyssey 100 has two games, tennis (or pong) and Soccer (or hockey). There was no on-screen score, so players were forced to keep their own score using the sliders on the machine, or by using pen and paper. The game did have crude sounds using a simple buzzer. Six C-type batteries or a 9V wall adapter powered the machine. Controls were awkward, with three knobs. These controlled the horizontal, the vertical movement, and the third knob could adjust the ball trajectory.