By Maddox Brown
Salutations,
I believe that it’s true when I say that most of us, including myself, have had gaming consoles before, whether it was an Xbox 360, a Playstation 2, an NES, etc. We enjoy playing on our consoles and are always excited for the new version to come out. But have you ever researched the history of consoles to discover what was the first game console, and which company was the first to make them? Off the top of your head, you may suspect that companies like Nintendo or Microsoft developed the very first consoles but no, they did not. Read on through the rest of the article as I will be explaining all about Magnavox, the company that developed the first set of gaming consoles.
Humble Beginnings
Before we get to the consoles they produced, we first have to know what the company behind them was all about. Previous to Magnavox’s rebranding, whereupon they adopted a more concise and memorable name, it was first called the Commercial Wireless and Development company. It was founded by Peter L. Jensen and Edwin Pridham in 1911, starting as a small shop located in Napa, California. The two founders started developing their first ever invention in 1915. It was a loudspeaker which they called, “Magnavox”, which was Latin for ‘Great Voice.’ About a year after the loudspeaker’s creation, the company invented another machine, the first all-electric tone arm and pick-up. For those of you who don’t know what the tone arm is, it is basically something that is used to support the needle cartridge in the correct position over the record. It basically allows the record to produce music.
1917 was a pivotal moment for the two founders and their company. The Sonora Phonograph Distributor Company had agreed to merge with them, thus the company Magnavox, was born. Due to high demand for their products, Magnavox had no choice but to move to San Francisco in 1918 where they had a much bigger space to work in, and an entirely new and bigger workforce. With this upgrade, they invented an Anti-Noise Communication System. After its completion, it was shipped off to the American Army and was used by their pilots and ship workers. In the end, Magnavox’s latest invention proved to have played a pivotal part in World War 1. The company then went on to invent the world’s first single-dial radio in 1923.
Sadly, the partnership between Peter and Edwin didn’t last as long as expected. Peter seized an opportunity to expand his radio manufacturing company, thus leaving Edwin to stay at Magnavox, and ending their partnership. In 1931, Magnavox was on the move again, this time to Fort. Wayne, Indiana. The reason given was to make the factory more central to their markets, and to be located at the center of the country’s copper wire production. This experienced and rising corporation decided to merge with another company once more, called Electro Acoustics Products. This consolidation was nothing but a benefit for Magnavox! After this merger, they were able to develop a filmstrip projector named Illustravox.
Now that we have learned about the history of Magnavox, let’s talk about the Odyssey—the first ever video game console.
The Magnavox Odyssey
In September 1972, the Odyssey was invented. At the time, it was only released in North America. The United Kingdom would get its share of joy from the Odyssey at a later date, more like a year later, and a year after that for Europe. It was marketed at around $100 dollars per unit, which in today’s money would probably equal between $610-$620 dollars or so… pretty expensive. As you can see from the picture, it is a peculiar looking console. The main part of the console is a white, black and brown box that can connect to a television set. It is equipped with two controllers that are attached by wires, and a light gun. For those of you who are confused on why the console came with a light gun, it was for various games they had stored in the console. For example, Shooting Gallery. The premise of this game was to attempt to shoot a computer-controlled dot with the gun in an overlay containing rows of shooting gallery targets. Other games that used the light gun feature were Shootout!, Dogfight!, and Prehistoric Safari.
Other games the Odyssey had pre-installed were, Table Tennis, Ski, Simon Says, Tennis, Analogic, Hockey, Football, Cat and Mouse, Haunted House, Submarine, Roulette, and States. All are pretty much considered classics today. Various other games like, Fun Zoo, Baseball, Invasion, etc, were sold separately, meaning that you had to buy them on your own instead of having them come with the console. Let’s jump back to Table Tennis for a minute. Table Tennis was directly inspired by the famous game Pong, by Atari. Atari, however, didn’t think of it as “inspiration”, but more like theft. This led to a lawsuit that began in 1974 between the two corporate giants which ultimately led to Magnavox coming out on top in 1977. But by that time, Atari had already licensed the patent for $700,000.
In its first year out, the Odyssey sold over 69,000 units. Ultimately, cumulative sales of the Odyssey rose to a total of 350,000 units by 1975–the year the console was discontinued. There were many speculations as to why it was discontinued but the most credible reason concerns the inflation that occurred. Inflation raised the manufacturing cost of the console, and Magnavox was unable to raise its retail price to match. Due to this, three successors took the place of the original Odyssey: first the Magnavox Odyssey 100, then the Magnavox Odyssey 200, and finally the Magnavox Odyssey 2.
The Magnavox Odyssey 100 was released three years earlier than Odyssey 2. The Odysseys 100 and 200 were limited versions of the original Odyssey in terms of the games and components they contained because of the use of cheaper alternatives. The Odysseys 100 and 200 were inferior versions of the original, as the Odyssey 100 was only able to play the ping pong and hockey games while the Odyssey 200 also added the handball game and a basic scoring system. If you want to find relics from this stage of video gaming, or possibly even the consoles themselves, take a crack at it by going on Ebay or even Amazon and finding one for yourself.
Where is the company now?
Don’t worry, the company is still running. It hasn’t moved on or crashed. They’ve created their own website where they sell recent televisions, portable speakers, headphones, blu-ray/dvd players, antennas, boomboxes, etc. One of it’s most recent creations was a TV they made in partnership with a company called Roku. They named it the Magnavox Roku TV. Judging by the components and design of not just the aforementioned TV, but of all the recent products they’ve released, I’d say the company is doing fairly well today. Sadly, to my knowledge, they have not made a new gaming console since the Odyssey 2.
Magnavox was a pioneer of its age. It created inventions that never existed before, including machines capable of aiding the American army during World War 1, and starting a new trend in video game consoles. The company was a formidable force in the marketplace and the products they developed almost always generated avid consumer interest. They grew reasonably fast, and are still growing to this day.