Generation 1: Odyssey into the new frontier (warning: graphic content)
I could think of no better place to start a blog about video game graphics than at the very beginning of home video gaming with the first video game console: the Magnavox Odyssey. First released in 1972, the Odyssey was contemporary to Pong.
The original Odyssey didn’t even have its own CPU – the console itself had some hardwired logic, and the game cards were contained traces that configured the Odyssey’s logic in a specific way. The console wasn’t capable of color or sound, and it could only draw lines and rectangles – sprite-based graphics wouldn’t be invented for another few years. The game paddles and balls thus looked very simplistic.
Figure 1. Odyssey, with no overlay. (gameboy3800, 2011, 4:19)
The Odyssey was so graphically and computationally primitive that Magnavox gave it some help. They included overlays for the different games, and gave some of the games scorecards or other pieces like cards, chips, and dice that assisted gameplay in some of the games; the Odyssey couldn’t enforce the rules for any of the games, after all, partially since some of the game cards were used in several games. Some of the games had more to look at off the screen than on it!
Figure 2. Odyssey Tennis, with the included overlay. (gameboy3800, 2011, 4:19)
Considering the console itself could only draw white rectangles, the games written for the Odyssey were often really ambitious, even though they required the players to keep score and enforce the rules. Many of the Odyssey games would feel like board games with a video element today, but back in the early 70s, this was the extent of the home console market. There would be a number of later “dedicated” consoles with no interchangeable media in the same generation, some of which had color capabilities, but they still looked quite primitive, with no sprites yet.
Figure 3. Screenshot of a game from the Nintendo Color TV Game 6.
If you want to try out the Odyssey yourself in all of its blocky glory, the best option I’ve seen is Sly DC’s Odysim over at http://odysim.blogspot.com/ . It goes a bit above and beyond what the Odyssey itself did by optionally putting the overlays over the game for you and simulating the originally-included game pieces.
All in all, this first generation of video game consoles are not much to look at, graphically speaking - understandable, given the technological limits. There's a lot more to see in the next generation - the first with microprocessors and sprites!
References
Waddell, A, and Winter, D. (n.d). “Magnavox Odyssey.” OLD-COMPUTERS.COM : The Museum, www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=883
gameboy3800. (2011, 24 January). Magnavox Odyssey review [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uY6OaEmVuP8
[Screenshot of a game from the Nintendo Color TV Game 6]. Retrieved September 27, 2017 from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nintendo_Color_TV_Game_6_Screenshot.png
(V.I.)
ReplyDeleteNice touch including references to emulators. Keep doing that whenever possible. You may want to add additional formatting to the main paragraphs, perhaps increase the font size or the margins. Otherwise, it's written fine and provides everything you need to know.
(Ray)
ReplyDeleteI like your use of screenshots of some of the Odyssey's games; it helps convey the extent of the console's capabilities, especially since you said you'd be focusing on visuals.