However, fifty years have passed: on this day, the first gaming console was introduced, the “primitive” machine – the predecessor of today’s games [videos]

Fifty years ago today, an episode of the BBC’s World of Tomorrow programme. Magnavox introduced the Odyssey, the world’s first home video game console.

It was a simplistic but visionary plan that led to today’s thriving multi-billion dollar industry.

“This is a brand new idea from the US that turns your TV into a game that two people can play,” says the show’s presenter, Raymond Baxter, as he shows the British audience a device that will launch a multi-billion-dollar industry.

The invention was the brainchild of Ralph Baer, ​​a German-American engineer who had been working on the idea of ​​interactive video games since the 1960s.

With a small team, he developed multiple console prototypes, before introducing the Odyssey to an unsuspecting American public in 1972, a year before the BBC broadcast.

be seen here BBC show

The console consists of a long, narrow box that can be attached to a TV. It is connected to two rectangular controllers that players can operate to control the game.

By today’s gaming standards, Odyssey was a very simplistic game. It had no audio capability, was battery-powered, and the machine could not retain actual scores, leaving it up to the players themselves to remember how they were doing.

Watch the game trailer on UK TV:

Back to the future

The graphics were also primitive. It can only produce a selection of white squares and lines on an all-black background. So the company developed a series of plastic covers that could be attached to the front of a television screen via static electricity in order to create colorful images of the game.

They also developed a light gun, which Baxter, the BBC presenter, carried in a slightly menacing manner to target moving dots on the screen, in a game called Shooting Gallery.

Although it may seem primitive now, the technology – and the idea of ​​bringing video games directly into people’s homes – was revolutionary.

Its simplistic design and simple graphics proved to be an asset. Because it was easy to understand and operate, this meant that almost anyone could use it. Gamers have been fascinated by the novelty of being able to control a game on their televisions.

With Odyssey, Ralph Baer pioneered the entirely new concept of home video gaming, laying the foundation for the cultural phenomenon that has since exploded.

It has shaped the course of the entire industry.

The game of tennis that Raymond Baxter can be seen playing was the inspiration for her great success Atari In 1972 Pong Arcade The game, which was so widely imitated that Magnavox sued Atari and other major arcade companies for designing and programming the games.

Odyssey controllers introduced the idea of ​​headsets for gamers, while TV screen overlays arguably foreshadowed the concept of augmented reality that would dominate games like Pokemon Go.

Even the influence of his games remains. Echoes of games based on sports such as football can be seen in games like FIFA 23 The concept of shooting game in today’s games like Call of duty.

Despite its early innovation, the Magnavox Odyssey was quickly overshadowed by the rapid pace of the market it created.

Atari, which moved away from arcade games to enter the console market a few years later, quickly overtook Magnavox in sales, followed by pioneering Nintendo.

But while Odyssey may seem a far cry from today’s modern consoles, the ideas behind it sparked the imagination of those who followed and fueled the growth of a global industry valued today at $384.90 billion.

With information from BBC

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