The inventor of video games Ralph Baer offers his 70-years of advice to indie developers about protecting their ideas and fending off future lawsuits.
"If that “something” you have come up with is original and potentially useful to the company or for licensing to others, then support that idea with impeccable record keeping," Baer advises.
The Magnavox Odyssey was showcased on the BBC 's Tomorrow 's World 50 years ago today. It was a basic but visionary design, and led to today's multi-billion-pound industry.
"video game console" is a very loose term to describe this thing. It played pong, albeit poorly, and then a bunch of other games that required the use of overlays on the TV to give the appearance of different games.
Let’s see
Uses a cartridge…..check
Hooks to tv……check
Controllers…..check
Doesn’t play anything but games…..check
Sounds like all the ingredients of a console….check
Actually the Fairchild Channel F is the first home video game console to include interchangeable cartridges.
I remember watching Tomorrow's world every week, i loved it. especially when they did the world reveal of the "compact disc" lol
Looking back at the history of Magnavox Odyssey by delving deep into every Magnavox console released, including ones you didn't know existed.
I didn’t realize how many consoles they developed. I always thought ( even as a kid) their controllers were weird and looked complicated. I wonder what they would cost in todays dollars cost.
According to Wikipedia, the first Magnavox Odyssey could cost up to 700 US Dollars today.
Thanks for the lookup. I remember when the 3do launched and it was at that price point. Crazy to think of how much power we get now for much less.
Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh re-engineer the Magnavox Odyssey, adding new games and creating a new gaming device: the OdysseyNow
What is the point of this? I mean it is cool and all but it is just a lawsuit waiting to happen.
