Magnavox Odyssey
It's from 1972, before you were born.
- Maker
- Magnavox
- Type
- Home video game console
- Debuted
- 1972
- Note
- No sound, no color — you taped plastic overlays to the TV
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About
As of 2026, it's 54 years old.
The Odyssey got there first, beating Atari's Pong to living rooms and quietly inventing the entire home-console industry in the process. It had no processor, no sound, and no color — just a few movable dots and a stack of translucent screen overlays you literally stuck to your television.
Designed by Ralph Baer, the 'Father of Video Games,' it shipped with dice, poker chips, and play money like a board game that wandered into the wrong aisle. Atari's Pong, conveniently, was 'inspired' by an Odyssey table-tennis demo — a lawsuit happily settled that argument.
Three white dots and a roll of stickers, and somehow it started everything.
Magnavox Odyssey through the years
The 'Brown Box'
Ralph Baer prototypes the idea that becomes the Odyssey.
Launch
First home console hits stores, overlays and all.
Pong settlement
Magnavox's patents win out against Atari and others.
