Fatso! is a new Odyssey² and Videopac game being developed by Chris Read. Based on the semi-classic Atari 2600 title Fast Food, Fatso! puts you in control of a pair of ravenous lips chomping down pretzels, cookies and other fattening delicacies in a quest to consume as many calories as possible. But look out for the deadly red pickle – eat one and your snacking days are over.
Fatso! will release with a limited edition of 25 cartridge copies. Ordering information and screenshots can be found on Chris Read's Fatso! page. To promote the release, Chris is holding a label design contest. For details and crucial specifications, head on over to the Videopac / Odyssey2 Forum.
It's a great time to be an O2 fan right now, as recent months have brought us several new game releases. And if you still crave more, Chris is working on another homebrew game called Ants!.
The parade of new releases from Revival Studios continues with ColorClash, a puzzle/shooting game based on one of Revival's original Vectrex games. Here are the details from the release announcement:
In Colorclash, the player has to shoot the various colored gems that are falling down from the top of the screen. The gems are marked with symbols and the player has to match up the symbol on his ship with the symbol on the gems. The speed of the game will gradually increase, but by strategically shooting the right gems the player can have 4 of the same gems on screen at once.
Upon shooting 4 similar gems in a row, the speed of the game will decrease and the player will be rewarded extra points.
Game features:
- Playable on Videopac and Odyssey² consoles
- High resolution background on Videopac+ consoles
- Digitized speech using The voice add-on
- Internet highscore uploading
- Online rewards system
ColorClash is available for 39 Euros plus shipping. For more information about the game, including how to order a cartridge, go to the ColorClash page at revival-studios.com.
Acting on some reader requests, I have totally revamped the Videos section. Now you can stream the videos directly through your modern browser – no downloads required. I've also added a number of new clips and re-edited the ones that were already there. Now most of them are larger, with better color and audio.
New clips include an early Magnavox commercial featuring Football, two European Videopac commercials, a shot from the Odyssey booth at the 1983 CES, even a clip from the classic '80s cartoon Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends that features Odyssey² sound effects. Of course, old favorites like the Wizard of Odyssey commercials and 1983 Odyssey3 Command Center promo video are still available for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy!
Hot on the heels of Astro Dodge, Revival Studios has announced another new homebrew game for Odyssey² and Videopac consoles: Mayhem. In this reflex game, which ever-so-slightly resembles the arcade classic Food Fight, you control Wizzy, son of the famed Wizard of Odyssey. The young mage-in-training must dodge a dizzying array of enchanted, rotating sticks while on a quest to grab spinning coins. Here is more detail from the official release announcement:
Now Wizzy, the little wizard, is in trouble! He attempted a spell to produce fire, but the sticks he wished to see burn now fly all around him. You must help Wizzy to collect the coins while avoiding the bewitched wood!
Check out the game trailer here.
Game features:
- Playable on Videopac and Odyssey² consoles
- High resolution background on Videopac+ consoles
- Digitized speech using The voice add-on
- Multicolor sprite animation
- Internet highscore uploading
- Online rewards system
- Hidden gameplay mode
Mayhem is available for 39 Euros plus shipping. For more information about the game, including how to order a cartridge, go to the Mayhem page at revival-studios.com.
Some time ago, I posted the true name of the man who inspired K.C. Munchkin's name: the late Kenneth C. Meinken Jr., one-time president of Magnavox. At the time of my post, I had learned that his last name was actually "Meinken" – not "Mencken" as had previously been reported online – but I wasn't able to discover his middle name. However, last week I was contacted by Mr. Meinken's grandson, who informed me that Meinken's middle name was Charles. So now we finally know our favorite's munchkin's "real" name! I've updated the Odyssey² Essentials FAQ with this information.
According to his grandson, Meinken was a self-made man who started off selling transformers in Chicago and worked his way up to become president of Magnavox and vice president of North American Philips. All in all, he sounds like a worthy namesake for our hardworking munchkin.
Revival Studios has announced an ambitious new game for Odyssey² and Videopac consoles: Astro Dodge. In this reflex game, you dodge a relentless barrage of asteroids that threaten your spaceship. This may sound like fairly standard fare for a classic console game, but Astro Dodge features some truly 21st-century elements: online leaderboards and achievements. Details from the official release announcement:
In this game you are controlling a nice multicolored spaceship, having to dodge the hordes of asteroids coming towards you.
The game is playable on all Videopac, Videopac+ and Magnavox Odyssey² systems, but also includes additional support for high resolution backgrounds on Videopac+ systems, and digitized speech through The Voice module.
More than that, players could also submit their high scores and achievements online through the use of a code, something has not been seen in any videopac/Odyssey² game before.
Check out the trailer here.
Game features:
- Playable on Videopac and Odyssey² consoles
- High resolution background on Videopac+ consoles
- Digitized speech using The Voice add-on
- Animated multicolor sprites
- Internet high score uploading
- Online rewards system
- Hidden gameplay mode
Astro Dodge is available for 39 Euros plus shipping. For more information about the game, including how to order a cartridge, go to the Astro Dodge page at revival-studios.com.
See the picture on the right? Imagine driving along next to a fenced-in construction site and seeing this hanging on the side! It could've happened if you were in Eindhoven, Netherlands – the Philips Museum there is undergoing renovation and (as of July) had this picture of a G7200 console on the construction fence. Pretty cool, huh?
Thanks to alert Videopac.nl forum member blanka, who found this photo on Noud!'s flickr stream, for pointing it out.
The latest addition to the Library is an oddity: excerpts from the Fall 1981 issue of Video Action, an early '80s publication dedicated to all forms of video entertainment. The cover story is "Pac-Man Takes Over," but that's not why it's in the Library. It's there because this issue contains reviews of Casino Slot Machine and Showdown in 2011 A.D. (both games generally met with approval). There's also an article about videotaping your console gaming sessions to improve your strategy, which I've included not because it deals with Odyssey² games specifically, but because it uses graphics from Alien Invaders—Plus in the title.
This is a rather interesting relic of an era when serious home video was available only to hardcore enthusiasts, a fact which leads to some odd juxtapositions. Such as? The Showdown review appears next to a (thankfully text-only) ad for XXX male video. Enjoy!
In case you haven't heard, the folks behind Classic Gaming Expo have opened a Kickstarter project to fund a proposed Video Game Museum. If funded, the project would produce an actual, physical museum dedicated to video game history and showcasing a huge collection of gaming artifacts.
The Videogame History Museum is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit charity dedicated to preserving, archiving, and documenting the history of the videogame industry. Our Board of Advisors is comprised of some of the biggest names in the history of gaming! More information on our goals and vision can be found at the Videogame History Museum website. All contributions are tax-deductible and an acknowledgement letter of your donation will be provided upon request. If you would like to donate after the kickstarter project is complete, you may do so by going directly to the donations page on our web-site.
This is a worthy project, and is sorely needed. But time is running out! There are only 19 days left to donate, and the project is still quite a bit short of its goal. If you wish to donate, you'll need to hurry.
I am pleased to open up a new section of this web site: the Odyssey² Library, where (eventually) I hope to archive any and every Odyssey²-related document for your reading pleasure. Game manuals, magazines, catalogs – every page of every printed document pertaining to the Odyssey² can have a home in the Library. Using some open-source JavaScript libraries, I've written a viewer application that allows you to "turn" the pages of Library documents, enabling you to view them with their original layout. The application requires you only to have a modern browser with JavaScript enabled. It works best on desktops with a vertical resolution of 1080 pixels or higher. I've also tested it (briefly) on tablets, and most documents seem readable. I may look into optimizing the Library for tablets eventually, but first I have to concentrate on adding more content.
Over the years, I've amassed quite a collection of Odyssey² related items, including page after page of printed material. A lot of these items have been lumped into the Collectibles area of the web site, but they really cried out for their own section. I've experimented with the Library concept in the past, but without the "page turning" capability, it never looked right. Luckily, modern Internet tools really let you do some cool things! I'm very interested in document preservation, so I really like what the Library allows me to do. For example, I've translated the first issue of Odyssey Aventura into English, preserving the original magazine layout, using online translation software. Now us non-Portuguese speakers can finally read Marcello Zanchetta's tips for scoring high in K.C.'s Krazy Chase (or Eat-Eat, as it was known in Brazil). That's important history right there!
Not many documents are in the Library yet, but more will be added as I have time to scan them. For now, please enjoy the full manual to Power Lords, an article from the March 1982 issue of Friends: The Chevy Owner's Magazine that features an Odyssey² on its cover, and the full grandeur of the cheap black-and-white Japanese Baseball manual. Happy reading!
This is amazing news: Robbert, the owner of Videopac.nl, has obtained a number of prototypes from a developer in the UK who worked for Philips in the early 1980s. In addition to several prototypes of released games, Robbert discovered four games that have never been seen before – and one that is unknown except to all but the most advanced prototype collectors. The latter proto is a sound tool used by developers to help create game audio. The other four are totally new games! They seem to be in various states of completion. They are Himalaya, a game whose goal is unclear but seems to involve flying to Kathmandu; Bastion, which allows you to lay seige to a tower; Catburglar which is a Videopac clone of the Crazy Climber arcade game(!); and a game called "Terrahawks" that is completely different from the Terrahawks that was actually released. Videos of all five prototypes can be found on the Videopac.nl Forum. Another, non-working prototype (labeled "A4800") was also found; attempts are being made to get it functioning.
No announcements regarding ROM or cartridge releases have been made yet, but judging from the forum comments, one or both will probably happen. Robbert has already promised to release Catburglar. Videopac and Odyssey² collectors will be anxiously awaiting – I know I will!
Some of the most infamous unreleased games of the classic era were those that starred the neon-hued, animated feline known as the Pink Panther. An Odyssey² release was planned, as were versions for Atari and Coleco machines. None made it to market, but a number of artifacts from the planned games survive, as do at least three prototypes for Atari systems. I have written an article which attempts to collect all that is publicly known about the pink cat's unplayed games.
This article has been mostly finished for a while; I just kept neglecting to finish it. I hope you find it interesting! Thanks to 2600 Connection and AtariProtos.com for screenshots used in the article. If anybody has any new information regarding the Pink Panther prototypes, please contact me.
Bas Kornalijnslijper, who is well-known for his Videopac prototype reproductions, is offering something new and rather unusual. It's the Videopac Service Test Cartridge, a utility cart that can be used to diagnose problems with PAL Videopac machines. Unfortunately, this cartridge does not work on American NTSC consoles. Nevertheless, it's still an interesting piece for collectors. The release is limited to 50 pieces, and comes with a cover insert, index label, and nice spiral-bound instruction manual. The cost is 45 Euros plus shipping.
Thanks to one of my readers named Brian Gotsch, I just added something unique to the Flyers area of the Collectibles section. It's a letter from Imagic's Consumer Affairs division about Atlantis and Demon Attack. Brian purchased it, along with some other Odyssey² merchandise, from an antique store. The letter's original owner received it in 1983 in response to a request for information about Imagic's Odyssey² games. Apparently you could buy cartridges directly from Imagic in those days, by mail order. The letter is a most interesting and uncommon document. Thanks, Brian!
I haven't been updating the site much lately, but it's not for lack of things to add. I've been collecting new information and pictures for a long time, but honestly I've done a really poor job of keeping it organized. So when I find time to update the site, I have a hard time figuring out what to do next. I've been trying to organize everything, but that project has pretty much gone nowhere. There's just too much!
I finally just decided to dive into my pile of data and post whatever I noticed first. And first on my list are some Power Lords photos from a past prototype auction. A screenshot and cartridge scan has been added to the Atari 2600 Power Lords entry in the Games Database. Also added is this photo of Power Lords dealer advertisements, which applied to the Odyssey² version of game, as well as the unreleased Atari and Coleco versions. Take a look, and watch for more updates to come!
What do you know? I found time to update the site!
One of the rarest, commercially-produced items for the Odyssey² is the WICO Joystick Adapter – a small box that allows you to use Atari 2600-compatible controllers on your detachable-joystick model Odyssey² console. This thing is so uncommon that I've never even seen one before, yet somehow a reader named Brandon Opdahl managed to score TWO of them. What's more, his two adapters have differing part numbers and identifying stickers. He was kind enough to send me several photos, which I've added to a new page in the Collectibles section. Thanks Brandon!
I actually have a lot of cool things like this that I need to add to the site, but I've done a very poor job of keeping track of it, so I'm not sure exactly what I have. My next project is to organize all the contributions I've received recently and begin adding them. Stay tuned!
Over the course of the past few site updates and server changes, a few of the Game Reviews had become lost. I still had copies of the review text, but never got around to re-posting them. But over the past few days, I finally took care of it. The old reviews are back, and I also posted a few new ones that I had written earlier but hadn't yet published.
While doing this, I also restored the three In-Depth Reviews, which had been offline for a while. Now you can enjoy reading about the fantastic depths of Quest for the Rings, the ultra-violence of Showdown in 2100 A.D., and the brain-busting grade-school challenge of I've Got Your Number. I even re-coded the I've Got Your IQ Number Intelligence Test, which is good for a chuckle if you haven't taken it before.
I must say, while re-coding the IQ test, I realized how just old this site is. The IQ test is something I wrote to help teach myself JavaScript back in 1998. It required frames, which I don't want to use anymore, so I rewrote it using the awesome jQuery library. Before that, I hadn't touched that code in probably 10 years. It's hard to believe the site has been around that long!
In 2007, programmers Rafael A. Cardoso da Silva and René van den Enden produced a homebrew racing game called Route 66. An extremely limited cartridge run was produced, and unfortunately not all collectors who wanted the game were able to obtain it.
Now, Classic Consoles Center has teamed with Rafael and René to rectify this situation by producing a new 100-cartridge run of the game. The latest version, dubbed Route 66+ features enhanced background graphics when played on Videopac G7400-compatible machines (the game will still work on normal Videopac and Odyssey² machines as well, only without the fancy backgrounds). Route 66+ also features support for The Voice module.
Route 66+ comes with both Videopac- and Odyssey²-style labels and box inserts, so you can make it look appropriate for your part of the world. The game costs 29 Euros plus shipping. Motor on down to the Classic Consoles Center web site to place your order today!
Plogue.com's chipsounds is a software synthesizer that emulates a number of 8-bit-era sound chips, including the Odyssey²'s (the P824X). This chipsounds blog post describes the hardware analysis of the P824X that led to its inclusion in the synthesizer. The post is highly technical, but it may be useful to anyone interested in Odyssey² sound architecture or chiptunes in general. I added a link to it in the Off-Site section of the Articles page. Thanks to Justin for the heads-up!
After sending that link, Justin pointed out that the information on the Emulation Resources page was really out-of-date. Sorry about that. It has now been updated. Thanks again Justin!
Bas Kornalijnslijper of the Netherlands, who was responsible for the recent prototype reproductions of Spider-Man and Melrep, has struck again! The newest cartridge release is Play Tag, a Videopac prototype that is finally seeing the light of day after a surprisingly long history. Longtime classic game collectors might remember a game that was sometimes listed in rarity guides as "Plantage." I'm fairly certain that Play Tag is that game. It was discovered at a Dutch flea market way back in November 1996 and soon found its way into the hands of a Videopac collector. Other than the fact that it was a "catch" game, little information surfaced about the prototype. Eventually, a screenshot or two and even a short video clip appeared on some European web sites, but those sites eventually went offline the game all but fell off the radar screen. Now, thanks to Bas, this rather obscure (and, from the looks of the screenshots, fairly primitive) Videopac prototype is getting a proper release, complete with Videopac-style cartridge label and custom, oddly streetwise box art.
Play Tag is being released as Videopac #69, and will be limited to a 69-copy run. The cost is 25 Euros (about $37 US) plus shipping. Order your copy at the official web site.
