The Magnavox Odyssey 2, my first 2nd gen system. Short reviews too, esp. feat. UFO!

[TrekkiesUnite118]

Early model Odyssey2's came with a proprietary cable that hooked into a Switch box like this:



That box would hook into your VHF leads on your TV and the cable would hook into the round RCA-like jack on the box. That's how my Odyssey2 hooks up as well as every single one I've seen in the wild.

[A Black Falcon]

Early model Odyssey2's came with a proprietary cable that hooked into a Switch box like this:



That box would hook into your VHF leads on your TV and the cable would hook into the round RCA-like jack on the box. That's how my Odyssey2 hooks up as well as every single one I've seen in the wild.

Yeah, that's what I mentioned -- I have that, except my system came with a VHF to normal F-connection adapter attached to the end of the VHF leads. I think I have a slightly different model of the RF box from that one, but it's the same basic design.

[TrekkiesUnite118]

Ah ok, from what you posted it sounded like yours just had VHF leads coming out of it.

[A Black Falcon]

No, I said that there was a normal cable lead attached to the thing you hook up to the TV (that is, in that picutre the VHF cable coming out of the side has an adapter on the end to hook it up to a normal F-connecter cable line), but the TV-in VHF connectors on top of the box don't have one, so I couldn't use it as a passthrough device for other RFUs or television or something unless I bought one to hook up there. Obviously at some point someone attached that thing on to the VHF lead so that they could use it with modern televisions, but wasn't using it as a passthrough.

[Thierry Henry]

So I was able to find a European version (Philips Videopac G7000) of the Odyssey² system.

It looks almost exactly the same as my US console. Interestingly though, there's no power button on this Euro version.
I have to admit, I don't think I've previously encountered a console that didn't have at least some semblance of an on-switch - this had me baffled for a while. lol
So it's a case of you just plug the thing in and off you go.

Also, this console came with detachable silver joysticks. My other Odyssey²'s black joysticks are hardwired.

Aside from one of the covers on one of the joysticks action/fire buttons which is missing, the thing still looks in great shape.

Out of curiosity I'll test the "Voice" module and all the US version Odyssey² games I own to see if they work on this console as well. I reckon they should. Don't think these systems had any form of region locking?

[old man]

My granddad found an odyssey 2 at a yard sale once. I played the crap out of that thing, especially pickaxe pete. We also had the three in one cart (I think it might have come with the system), and crazy chase. You should definitely get crazy chase. I also have a complete copy of Quest for the Rings if anyone is interested. All the tokens are still in their plastic baggies and everything.

[NeoZeedeater]

Don't think these systems had any form of region locking?

There's no region locking but there are a few PAL releases that won't work properly on an NTSC TV (similar to the Master System's situation). I don't know if the reverse is true.

[A Black Falcon]

I do know that The Voice was never released in Europe, probably because of language issues (how many versions of it would they have to make, can't be just English...), but it probably should work on a PAL system anyway... though none of the PAL games support it, except for some homebrew stuff (lots of the homebrew games support both the Videopac+ and The Voice, not a combination any official game supported of course).

[MrSega]

First played Oddessey 2 in 1997 over my stepdad friend's house. Not too shabby. The graphics are a step ahead of the 2600 & a bit behind Intellivision but the Atari clones themselves are pretty damn fun.

Overall, it was a pretty well designed system for the late 70s.