Magnavox Odyssey² / Philips Videopac G7000

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.