The Odyssey2 DVD
In the interests of full disclosure, this may not be fair game for a review because I had a lot to do with the making of this DVD. Released by Packrat Video Games just in time for Christmas 2004, the Odyssey2 DVD compiles quite a bit of rare footage related to that underdog home video game system of the late 70s and early 80s in one place for your viewing pleasure.
The picture quality on much of the commercial material isn’t in the best shape, but bearing in mind that original master tapes of those commercials weren’t available to work from, it could’ve been worse. (Making-of note: originally, it was a lot worse, with color, clarity and contrast being of the quality you’d expect from multiple-generation VHS copies; skin tones were sickly green in places.) The commercials include the TV spot voiced by Star Trek’s Leonard Nimoy, and several with the system’s better-known spokesperson, the “Wizard of Odyssey,” and were gathered by Odyssey2 Homepage webmaster William Cassidy.
A second segment shows off the ultimate Odyssey rarity, the Odyssey3 game console, only 13 working prototypes of which are known to exist in the hands of collectors. The source material is from a nicely shot and edited amateur video created by collector Jayson Hill, owner of the specimen on display. Even more 
mouthwatering is the actual video of several of the existing prototype games in action, including the Robotron-like Flashpoint. There’s also a Magnavox sales video touting Odyssey3 as the system of the future. (On another making-of note, this Magnavox sales material was in ghastly shape, requiring major color correction; it hadn’t been copied as often but the source material was seriously off-color. I also had to substitute a piece of my own music here to cover some copyrighted music that was on the original Jayson Hill video.)
Finally, there’s the video of the Second City Players’ series of comedy sketches performed for the Odyssey sales force and invited guests at the 1983 CES in Chicago. Much has been written about Magnavox hiring 
Second City for this event, but now you can actually see it for yourself. Whether or not that’s a good thing depends on your taste in comedy - the Second City sketches are steeped in cheese and sometimes stay on the stage long enough to be tiring. Mercifully, this portion of the disc is broken up into chapters, one per sketch, so you don’t have to go through it all in one sitting. The Second City portion of the DVD is very much like having a tape of the 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special - it’s a great, rare thing, it’s nice to have it preserved…and you’ll probably only watch it once.
It’s all put together with a nifty menu (which I can’t claim credit for, I’m afraid) that blasts music at you that’s 50% louder than any of the other audio on the disc (which I’m afraid I can take credit for - sorry!). I submitted several cuts of original music mixed with Voice of Odyssey2 samples, though in the end what was needed was a thirty-second loop. Presented here for the first time, however, are the other candidates for the menu music, in all of their surreal glory - including the Voice of Odyssey singing (okay, admittedly I had to tweak the samples to achieve that) and saying some stuff that’s beyond bizarre.
Odyssey2 Blues:
Odyssey2 UFO Monster Turkey Mix:
It’s a dandy package, produced on fairly meager resources, that should provide a nostalgia power-up for fans of Magnavox’s infamously underpowered (but overloaded with fun) early game system. The video and sound quality isn’t up to the level of a commercial release, but the payoff of that is that it’s only through a labor of love that this material was preserved and presented in digital form at all. For the general public, this will probably pass under the radar, but it’s a neat archive focused on a single subject with enormous appeal for fans of the game machine in question.