On Christmas morning in 1981 I was unpleasantly surprised when the Atari VCS I had asked for turned out to be an Odyssey 2. I’ve written about that several times in this blog but needless to say my disappointment that morning was somehow both intense and well-hidden.
It might have been lessened if the pack in game, Speedway/Spin-Out/Crypto-Logic was good, or if the Space Invader clone, Alien Invaders-Plus was playable past a score of 10. But there I was on Christmas morning with no Asteroids or Missile Command, much less Atari’s great licensed Space Invaders.
I began immediate research on what was available for the system soon after, with Dad taking me to our small town Magnavox dealership (shoutout to Ron's Magnavox) to get a third game a few weeks later in January. Not only was this pre-internet, it was pre-Electronic Games magazine, so I was in the dark regarding what the system had.
I was determined to get a better space-themed game, and not knowing any better picked up Cosmic Conflict. It helped Dad that the game was on sale for twenty dollars. While better than Alien Invaders-Plus, it was still pretty limited in replayabilty. There is a strict time limit and it was not too hard to press the score toward that limit by getting good. While the game was another dud for me, it was still an additional box on the shelf, bringing my budding software library to three.
Dad was feeling more generous soon after and I, now better informed thanks to the second issue of Electronic Games magazine, finally scored K.C. Munchkin. My Atari-owning friends took notice, having no home Pac-Man clone and seeing the clear replay value in a game that not only comes with a handful of mazes, but also allowed the player to program in their own levels.
And so it went with each major Odyssey 2 release up until the Great Videogame Crash of 1983. Odyssey 2 hung on long enough to get Killer Bees and Demon Attack out the door, and I scooped them up at release. I picked up Volleyball for $6 in late 1984 but until I began retro-collecting in the early 1990s I did not actively seek any additional games for the system.
Today I have the entire North American library for the Odyssey 2, and a few amazing "homebrews" that came in the 2000s. Forty years ago I was a kid with no money and a strong desire to develop a great software library for the console I was stuck with. Now I have all those games and struggle to find the time to play and appreciate them.
Let's wrap up the 40th Anniversary of my acquisition of the Odyssey 2 with images of past Christmasses playing Alien-Invaders-Plus.
1981:
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