Destined to toss the Odyssey (People's Posts and Telecommunications newspaper column "Happy Travels" 39)

As a review of the game industry for many years of Idlers, when the "father of video games" Lalf Bell died, I first felt surprised, not feeling extremely. To tell you the truth, I didn't really know about this person before. Before, I always thought that Atari (the upside-down order of "pear big" more smooth) is the first home video game machine.

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Zhang Shule

Published in the "People's Post and telecommunications" application version of the Travel News column, December 26

To my surprise, the first game console was named Odyssey (Odyssey), which gave me a hint of foreboding. Although transliteration is close to the problem, it is always reminiscent of the classic Homer epic "Odyssey" (Odysseia) constantly tossing the protagonist. Say a digression, because of the failure and almost "hang off" of the Apollo 13th command module, the film "Lost War" in the falling spacecraft, incredibly also called Odyssey.

I carefully consulted the Odyssey game console history, sure enough, is "tossing". In 1966, Bell "Tinker" with the first prototype "Brown box". It is said that the birth of the "Brown Box" was at that time a symbol of being a goof. In the 60 's, the computer was almost exclusively for the military, Bell as a military enterprise service equipment design chief engineer, but through the company's equipment, secretly pulled a few "small partners" began to research and development and the company's products of civilian equipment irrelevant. More "Wonderful" is, the company's high-level in the display of his active "Brown box", unexpectedly on the two small light points of the game is chasing each other "cold", immediately to the $2500 research and development funds, the money at that time enough to buy a new car. Bell did not live up to expectations, and constantly upgrade the "brown box", it is said that by February 1967, the Stereotypes of the box a total of 7 generations, in the process, Bell was criticized by many people as "boring."

The problem is finally coming. Seeing the product forming, the enterprise has retreated. Bell had to go home to find GE and other companies, after all, in that era, "brown box" too trendy, no one can touch how the market will react. For the enterprise, the conservative choice is very correct, rather than take risks with their own, rather than see how others progress, the market is good to enter, and often can be issued first.

After Bell's many "home delivery" rejections, a company named Magnavox decided to "first eat crabs", but it was 1971 years until the company finally decided to mass-produce "brown boxes". Everything that has happened since then seems to be going well. In September 1972, the "Brown Box" Odyssey game console officially entered the market at a price of $100, becoming the first home-based video game machine to sell 130,000 units on Christmas Day. The story seems to be complete, but the historical data show that by 1975, when the Odyssey was discontinued, only 330,000 units were sold, that is to say, after the short-term sales peak, there are not many markets for the Odyssey.

In this regard, the mainstream view that the Odyssey was defeated by the arcade. November 1972, Noland Bushnell founded shortly Atari Company launched the street game Machine Pong, its main game is table tennis, the street game machine quickly swept the world, directly pressed the momentum of the Odyssey. As a businessman and engineer, Bushnell is more commercially minded than the purely engineer bell. He gave his console a simpler trait--no brains, no fun.

In any case, the entertainment feast of video games, in this special year of 1972, opened its "Odyssey Tour" worth billions of dollars.

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Destined to toss the Odyssey (People's Posts and Telecommunications newspaper column "Happy Travels" 39)