Image: Wikimedia Commons

Odyssey

First commercial home video game console

Productproduct modelQ744987

Also known as Odyssee · Magnavox Odyssey

Manufacturer: Magnavox
Released: September 1972
, 1973
, 1974
+1 more
Subclass of: home video game console
, video game console

Overview

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · Read full article · Text CC BY-SA 4.0

The Magnavox Odyssey is the first commercial home video game console. The hardware was designed by a small team led by Ralph H. Baer at Sanders Associates, while Magnavox completed development and released it in the United States in September 1972, in the United Kingdom in 1973, and in other European countries in 1974. The Odyssey consists of a black, white, and brown oblong box that connects to a television set, and two rectangular controllers attached by wires. It is capable of displaying three square dots and one line of varying height on the screen in monochrome black and white, with differing behavior for the dots depending on the game played. Players place plastic overlays on the screen to display additional visual elements for each game, and one or two players for each game control their dots with the knobs and buttons on the controller by the rules given for the game. The console cannot generate audio or track scores. The Odyssey came packaged with dice, paper money, and other board game paraphernalia to accompany the games, while a light-gun peripheral was sold separately.

Overview

All data

47 statements · 4% with external sources · numbers in brackets are citations

Part of: Odyssey series
first generation of video game consoles
Designed by: Ralph H. Baer
Units sold: 350,000
1
Sources
1.Stated in Ralph Baer: An interactive life
View statement on Wikidata ↗
Input device: light gun
Has part(s) of the class: video game quantity: 22
Part of the series: Odyssey series
Title: Magnavox Odyssey
Followed by: Odyssey 100
Country of origin: United States
Announcement date: May 22, 1972 place of publication: Tavern on the Green
Uses: diode–transistor logic
Operating system: none
CPU: none
Follows: Brown Box
Developer: Magnavox
Language: English

On other databases

18 identifiers linking Odyssey across the web's reference databases

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statements

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Source last edited September 30, 2026. AIDb refreshes this page daily.

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AIDb. (2026). Odyssey (Q744987). Retrieved from https://aidb.si/e/odyssey-Q744987