[ GEN 2 · Magnavox (NA) / Philips (Europe and Japan, as the Videopac G7000) ]
Magnavox Odyssey² / Philips Videopac G7000
Specifications
- Manufacturer
- Magnavox (NA) / Philips (Europe and Japan, as the Videopac G7000)
- CPU
- Intel 8048 @ 1.79 MHz (with 64 bytes of on-die CPU RAM)
- GPU
- Intel 8244 (NTSC) / 8245 (PAL)
- RAM
- 64 bytes (CPU internal) + 128 bytes (external)
- Resolution
- 160 × 200
- Palette
- 8 simultaneous colors
- Audio
- Single-channel via the 8244/8245
- Media
- ROM cartridge
- Keyboard
- **Built-in 49-key membrane keyboard** — a console first
Release dates
- North America
- 1978-09-01
- Europe
- 1978-12-01
Lifetime sales
- Official figures
- ~2 million worldwide (1978–1984)
- Community consensus
- European Videopac outsold the North American Odyssey²; Philips launched the upgraded Videopac+ G7400 in Brazil in 1983
Magnavox / Philips 1984 exit cumulative figures
Hardware variants
Magnavox Odyssey² (North American release)
1978 NAOriginal North American release
Released by Magnavox in North America in September 1978 at $179 — Intel 8048 microcontroller, Intel 8244 graphics chip, 49-key membrane keyboard, and dual eight-direction joysticks. **The first home console with a built-in keyboard**, positioned as an "education plus games" hybrid. But Atari 2600 had already had a one-year head start since 1977 with a stronger software lineup. Total Odyssey² lifetime sales were around 2 million units worldwide, far short of the 2600's 30 million.
Philips Videopac G7000 (European release)
1978-1983 EUEuropean rebranding
Parent company Phillips released the system across Europe as the **Videopac G7000** — Germany, France, the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, and Italy each got their own local SKU. The European unit had a black-gray case (vs. North America's all-black) and tweaked button layout. **Europe was the Odyssey²'s real stronghold** — roughly 1 million units sold across 1978-1984 actually exceeded the North American take. In British and German console history, the G7000 looms larger than the Atari 2600.
Philips Videopac+ G7400 (enhanced version)
1983 EUEuropean enhanced revision
Phillips released **Videopac+ G7400** in 1983 — adding a background layer (separating foreground and background rendering), higher resolution, and backward-compatibility with G7000 cartridges. Originally planned for North America as the Magnavox Odyssey³ Command Center, but **Magnavox cancelled the North American release** when the 1983 Atari crash hit. G7400 was sold only in Europe and Brazil (where Brazilian licensee Mister X carried the line into the 1990s). A rare case of European and North American console fates diverging within the same generation.
The Voice speech synthesis module (C7010)
1982Speech synthesis expansion
**The Voice** ($60, 1982) was a speech synthesis module that plugged into the cartridge slot, built around the Texas Instruments TMS5200 speech chip (the same one used in Speak & Spell). Compatible games (K.C.'s Krazy Chase!, Smithereens!, Sid the Spellbinder) responded with synthesized voice. **The first mass-produced voice expansion accessory in home console history**, arriving roughly simultaneously with Mattel's Intellivoice and emerging from the early-1980s race to make home consoles "talk."
Magnavox Odyssey³ Command Center (cancelled)
1983 (cancelled)Cancelled successor model
Magnavox demonstrated the **Odyssey³ Command Center** at CES 1983 — the rebadged North American version of the Videopac+ G7400, with enhanced graphics, backward compatibility, and a new keyboard. Set for a 1983 launch, but **the Atari crash hit the same year** (the North American console market collapsed from $3.2B to $100M by 1985), and Magnavox concluded the market was dead and cancelled the launch. Phillips Electronics later sold its consumer-electronics division back to its Dutch parent in the late 1980s, **ending the Odyssey lineage altogether** — eleven years after pioneering the home console market in 1972.
The Magnavox Odyssey² (sold in Europe and Japan by Philips as the Videopac G7000) was Magnavox’s true second generation, six years after the 1972 original Odyssey. It launched in North America in September 1978 at $179. Technically it was a proper cartridge-based home console — Intel 8048 CPU, ROM cartridges, a library of more than a hundred titles. But the most distinctive feature was the built-in 49-key membrane keyboard — making the Odyssey² the first home console in history with an integrated physical keyboard. Magnavox used the keyboard to position the system as an “education-plus-games” hybrid, hoping to attract households that wanted both computing and entertainment.
The strategy did not work. Mainstream games barely used the keyboard at all — the industry was still figuring out how to design around joysticks, and nobody was ready to ship console games that required typing. Magnavox’s own “educational” software lineup was thin. The keyboard ended up as a net liability — adding $30 to the manufacturing cost, making the chassis bulky, and confusing the product’s positioning.
But the Odyssey² did contribute another major industry-defining legal precedent. In 1981, Magnavox shipped K.C. Munchkin!, a Pac-Man-esque maze game whose resemblance to the Atari arcade hit was undeniable. Atari immediately sued Magnavox for copying game design. In September 1982, the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Atari’s favor — establishing the first successful “game design is protected by copyright” verdict in home-console industry history. The ruling established the principle that game play itself (not just the code) was legally protectable IP, and shaped every subsequent gameplay-cloning case for the next forty years (Nintendo v. Galoob, Sega v. Accolade, and onward).
Europe and Japan got the same hardware sold by Philips as the Videopac G7000, and it actually outsold the North American Odyssey² — Philips’s brand authority in European consumer electronics simply exceeded Magnavox’s in North America. In 1983 Philips launched the upgraded Videopac+ G7400 in Europe and Brazil (with more colors and more RAM), extending the product life through 1986.
Lifetime sales totaled around 2 million units worldwide — far below the Atari 2600’s 30 million, but well above Magnavox’s first Odyssey’s 350,000. The 1983 video-game crash hit Magnavox along with everyone else; Magnavox exited the North American console business in 1984. The Magnavox console story ended here — the company that founded the home video game industry could not survive the industry’s first near-extinction.
Notable titles
- K.C. Munchkin! (Magnavox, 1981 — Atari sued Magnavox over Pac-Man similarity and won)
- Quest for the Rings (Magnavox, 1981 — board game / video game hybrid)
- Pick Axe Pete (Magnavox, 1982)
- UFO! (Magnavox, 1981)
- The Voice (speech synthesis add-on, 1982)