Magnavox Odyssey

The Magnavox Odyssey — 1972

The very first home video game console. Before Atari, before joysticks, before cartridges that filled a desk — there was the Odyssey: a handful of white squares, two dials, and a blue TV screen. You had to imagine the rest.

The games didn't even live inside the machine. What you see here is a whole screen's worth of shapes — Football, Basketball, Smithereens! and the rest — made of light on a 1972 television. Put a plastic overlay on the set if you wanted the field lines. Everything else was imagination.

Football put two paddles on a field, Basketball needed you to park under the rim and judge the lob, and Smithereens! was a mortar duel with the rival fortress across the screen. Same spirit, three buttons below. Go play a round.