First impressions of a grail.

I’ve just finished having a minor spiritual experience.
My Odyssey, with all the goodies, overlays, light gun, game cards, accessories, etc., arrived at work tonight. It was all I could do not to ditch my duties and open the box right then and there. Ever since I got my first cartridge-based machine, the Odyssey 2, I always wondered what the original Odyssey was like. I’d read lots of stuff about how it came to be (vis a vis Ralph Baer and the Brown Box), how well it sold, what came with it, and so on.
But what was it like? That’s what I always wondered. What was it like to play it?
About a month ago, I saw an eBay auction for which I put up a fierce fight and paid pretty dearly after getting the wife’s somewhat puzzled and reluctant blessing on the whole thing, and so here it is. (I made an agreement with the seller that it might take me a week or two to gather the necessary dough, which was OK with him because he wasn’t sure how to ship it and would need time to figure that out – very classy guy.)
So here it is. I’m going to plug it in and play it some tomorrow (well, okay, later today since it’s well after midnight), and before I do that I’m setting up a camcorder on a tripod to record the “magic moment.” But for tonight, I just opened the box, very slowly, very carefully, like the lid was hinged. I think I heard Raiders Of The Lost Ark music in the background somewhere. I held my breath.
Othello's Odyssey
Even Othello looks up to it in awe. (As security chief of my house, Othello gets first dibs on inspecting anything of mine that comes in the door. If you’ve ever sent me a game, just know that he’s checked it out before I’ve ever gotten anywhere near a console or an RF adapter with it.)
First impressions?

  • It’s smaller than I thought it would be. For some reason, from the pictures, I’d always envisioned the Odyssey console as a damn great brick of a machine. Compared to some of its successors (i.e. the Odyssey 100-4000 series consoles), it’s positively petite.
  • This machine has been kept in outstanding condition. I’m guessing it probably went back to its box the same year it originally came out of it. This machine may have been boxed since the day I was born.
  • My God, all the little bits and pieces to keep track of. And I thought Quest For The Rings was nutty in that regard.
  • The controller cables are HUGE! And the connectors! Wow! Even HUGER!

I know there are 99,999 other Odysseys out there, and some of ’em even work, so this isn’t really that much of a grail, but to me, it’s a personal grail. I’ve made the journey back to where it all began. And now I can tell the story going forward, not backward.

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