101: Welcome Home, Odyssey2

1 min read

Premiere Episode! In which I recount how I came to be the owner of a shiny new Odyssey2 from the future, what this had to do with booze and college football mascots, wax rhapsodic about Odyssey2 cartridge packaging, and proceed to review Speedway! / Spin-Out! / Crypto-Logic!. (31:18)

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102: America’s Pastime

1 min read

Exciting Second Episode! There’s more to life (and the Odyssey2) than racing cars and scrambling words. Listener mail is read, Moonbase Alpha is visited, and Baseball! and Computer Golf! are played. (35:01)

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103: UFO Monster Attack!

1 min read

Thrilling Third Episode! In this jumbo-sized, spaced-out, and ever-so-slightly self-indulgent episode, your host mulls over a future that never was, running from space crabs as a family pastime, plays a duet between two numbered game consoles, and makes an announcement at the end. Also, somewhere in here, Alien Invaders – Plus! and UFO! are played. (49:34)

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104: Ah, Edutainment!

1 min read

Fantastic[ally late] Fourth Episode! Let’s get some educational games out of the way, shall we? Except that one of them is a bit more advanced than I remembered, and one of them played a part in changing the course of my adult life…and still another is sort of an accidental tribute to the late, great Ralph Baer. Every game counts as we play Math-A-Magic! / Echo!, I’ve Got Your Number!, and the very hard-to-describe Keyboard Creations! Supplemental media for the latter is included below. (42:58)

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105: Mano A Mano

1 min read

Furious Fightin’ Fifth Episode! “They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country. But in modern war there is nothing sweet nor fitting in your dying. You will die like a dog for no good reason.” And so will we! Little E joins the show as Select Game’s first Player 2, as we play Showdown In 2100 A.D.! and War Of Nerves! It’s just possible that this installment is less informative than usual, but the gameplay segments…are what playing games is all about. Let us know what you think. The first rule of Fight Club is…nobody hits “reset” early. (35:05)

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106: Quest For The Rings

1 min read

Sword-‘n’-Spell-Slingin’ Sixth Episode! There’s a thin line between setting out on a grand quest to restore peace and order to the kingdom, and “Dad, why do we have to get all these rings?” And in this episode we cross that line! E and I swash our buckles, and fail a saving throw against playing the board game precisely the wrong way. The edited-down game play segment in this almost painfully focused, detailed episode is nearly 15 minutes long; an extended cut with the full half-hour game play segment (!!) will be released at a later date. Either way, this episode requires a much bigger box than usual. (58:20)

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106X: Quest For The Rings (Extended)

1 min read

Sword-‘n’-Spell-Slingin’ Super-Sized Sixth Episode! There’s a thin line between setting out on a grand quest to restore peace and order to the kingdom, and “Dad, why do we have to get all these rings?” And in this episode we cross that line! E and I swash our buckles, and fail a saving throw against playing the board game precisely the wrong way. This is the extended, almost-unedited cut of the episode, with the full half-hour (!!) gameplay segment that was edited down for the initial version of the podcast. What does it contain more of? Us getting killed. Very, very killed, lots of times. (1:12:02)

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107: Loving The Aliens!

1 min read

Spaced-Out Seventh Episode! A much-longer-than-usual episode starts off with discussion of absent friends and sound quality, what the most disappointing thing about Cosmic Conflict! was (it’s not what you think), why the Invaders From Hyperspace have got your number, and what one of these games owes to a certain George Lucas movie. Little E once again appears as Player 2, and Little C finishes on a song! (1:08:49)

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110: Cometh the Hour, Cometh the Munchkin

1 min read

Exciting Season Finale! He came to gobble dots and munch on munchers. He brought rave reviews to the Odyssey2. And litigation hell came walking in five steps behind him. Hear the story of K.C. Munchkin! from his conception to his downfall, find out if the game was ever really “rare”, and much more! (1:04:30)

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There are quite a few long pauses in this installment, usually where I was having to hydrate – I’ve been sick, and may have recorded this before I was really ready to talk Odyssey2 for an hour solid!

11X: Christmas Special!

1 min read

Deck the Halls! It’s the story of a serious sunburn, rainbow trout, a game room serviced by a single distributor, an attempt to will Odyssey2 ports of arcade games into existence, and a lifelong obsession that culminated in…a marquee. And this podcast. (1:05:53)

This podcast is dedicated to the memory of player two, Alison Green (1942-1987).

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204: Amok Downtime!

1 min read

Strange Brew! What has kept the Odyssey2 alive into the 21st century? Not me talking about it, that’s for sure – it’s the homebrew programmers and their sometimes brilliant, sometimes frustrating additions to the Odyssey2 and Videopac libraries. This month’s show examines a cross-section of homebrew titles, from the very first to the fairly recent. (35:55)

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206: K.C.’s Krazy Sequels!

1 min read

Much More Munching! Previously on Buffy Select Game, the courts took K.C. Munchkin! off the shelves. But did the Odyssey2’s cute blue muncher stay out of the limelight? Awww hell no – K.C. is still in circulation today. As in, literally, today. (31:20)

This episode was intended to drop before PRGE, but real life intervened, as it is wont to do.

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303: Who Killed The Odyssey3?

1 min read

A Deep Dive Into The Vaporware Realm! Who killed the Odyssey3? Was it a machine with underwhelming capabilities that would’ve been DOA? Or was it killed by its own heir apparent, the Odyssey4? Forget everything you thought you knew about the end of the Odyssey consoles. (53:53)

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The rockin’ new theme song for Select Game is “Fat Cat Wants Tasty Fish” by Teleidofusion, via the Free Music Archive.

304: The Balloon’s Going Up

1 min read

Poppin’ Fresh D’OH!! Some podcasts should be heard and not seen, but now Select Game offers you the chance to do both! In this edition, we play P.T. Barnum’s Acrobats! and the Videopac-only Loony Balloon, we ask why the Jopac had to have square balloons in the former, and we trace both games to their arcade roots, complete with hilarious early voice synthesis…and balloons. So. many. balloons. (53:35)

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The rockin’ new theme song for Select Game is “Fat Cat Wants Tasty Fish” by Teleidofusion, via the Free Music Archive.

401: Plus!

Exterminate!! Some podcasts should be heard and not seen, but now Select Game offers you the chance to do both! Well, due to an unidentified microphone-and/or/-software issue, that might be a stretch, as your host sounds a bit Dalek-ish for the first several minutes of the show. In this edition, more listener letters, game names that might have been (but weren’t), and playing the graphics-enhanced Videopac+ versions of Pick Axe Pete, Cosmic Conflict, and Attack Of The Ti — uh, I mean, Terrhawks. Because obviously, Terrahawks, right? Do the graphical enhancements improve the game? Also, how about that Flashpoint? (55:11)

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The theme song for Select Game is “Fat Cat Wants Tasty Fish” by Teleidofusion, via the Free Music Archive.

402: The Pinball Wizard Of Odyssey2!

1 min read

Back In Action! Now with 100% less Dalek vocalization. Is the Odyssey2 up to the task of simulating the physics of pinball? And if it falls short…well, little multicolored dudes cracking electrical whips will do just fine, right? Sure they well! Also, we get to test-drive PackratVG.com’s amazing C7061 multicart to play Thunderball!, Pachinko!, and Ralph Baer’s Pinball prototype, while also checking out some of the multicart’s other features (such as its onscreen menu of 200+ games). Also: homebrew previews (Cold Case, Dungeon of Eternity, The Empire Strikes Back), the unveiling of the statue of Ralph Baer at Baer Square, and a little bit of cat scratch fever. (54:48)

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The theme song for Select Game is “Fat Cat Wants Tasty Fish” by Teleidofusion, via the Free Music Archive.

403: The Top 5 Odyssey2 Characters!

1 min read

Back In Action? Yes, Select Game is still here…and yes, Select Game still covers the Odyssey2. A bite-sized edition of the internet’s only podcast with sync-sound action is here to let Odyssey2 and Videopac (and Jopac and Radiola Jet…) fans know that there’s more to come. (10:21)

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No YouTube video for this one. If you’re interested in the Don’t Give This Tape To Earl podcast that explains more about what 2019 and 2020 have been like at Select Game headquarters, you can hear it here.

The theme song for Select Game is “Fat Cat Wants Tasty Fish” by Teleidofusion, via the Free Music Archive.

Select Game will return in The Living Daylights.

404: Third Party Invitation!

1 min read

Anyone wanna make games for this machine? Third-party games were – and remain – a real rarity for the Odyssey2 and Videopac. But who, aside from Parker Brothers and Imagic, should’ve stepped up to the plate? Another bite-sized edition of the internet’s only podcast with sync-sound action ponders who might have dared to create more games for the Odyssey2. (10:43)

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No YouTube video for this one. Hopefully the video component of the show can make a comeback in 2021.

Visit: theLogBook.com | theLogBook’s Patreon or Ko-Fi or Amazon Wishlist | theLogBook’s Redbubble Store

The theme song for Select Game is “Fat Cat Wants Tasty Fish” by Teleidofusion, via the Free Music Archive. Other music by Kasatochi.

Select Game, much like that train going through Dyer, will return.