As a child in the 1970s, he suffered from the “envy of Atari.”
About 75% of my training years were spent betting video games in my basement or in my friends’ basements, so I don’t have ethical authority to criticize the senseless amount of screen time my kids record today. All my friends had the Atari 2600 game system. My brother Kevin and I had the Magnavox Odyssey 2, which was sold on Garnick’s TV, our father’s music and television store.
I think the Odyssey’s controls were more agile than the atari controllers and I think the graphics and quality of the game are quite similar. However, from Darren’s point of view, 10, the Odyssey is a generic supermarket soft drink for Atari’s Coca-Cola, Pepsi and RC Cola. Due to increased marketing and distribution, Atari had more partnerships with game developers and more licensing agreements. They had all the titles of success.
When Atari received a Donkey Kong license from Nintendo, Odyssey dated Pete Axe Pick! – a gold miner who climbed stairs and jumped rocks from climbing stairs and jumping barrels. When Atari received a Pac-Man license from Namco, Odyssey responded with Krazy Chase! – a munchkin that travels through a maze to cut segments of a dot caterpillar.
Odyssey games have never been turned into Saturday morning cartoons. I didn’t even know anyone who knew I had an Odyssey 2 formula at home. So, years later, I’m not surprised that the popular game site IGN places it 21st on its ’25 best video game consoles of all time’.
I happen to be a self-contained child. Even though I wasn’t a stylish kid and had tantrums, I enjoyed my father’s gifts and actually enjoyed the countless hours of betting those games. As an adult, I was really excited to be informed that the Odyssey was invented in New Hampshire. Better yet, he came here not only before Atari, but was the ancestor of all video games, period.
Toy engineer and inventor Ralph H. Baer, immortalized with a bronze statue overlooking the Merrimack River in Manchester’s Arms Park, has a remarkable life story that justice cannot be done in this space. Born in Germany, he fled to the United States as a teenager in 1938 with his Jewish circle of relatives to escape the Nazis, fighting them five years later in a U.S. Army intelligence unit. He then worked at Sanders Associates in Nashua (now BAE Systems) from 1956 to 1987, overseeing about 500 engineers who emerged in army technologies and applications. It was at Sanders that he developed the “Brown Box” prototype that became the Odyssey. The Manchester resident spent his “retirement” years inventing electronic toys in his home lab on Mayflower Drive, which was transferred to the Smithsonian’s National Hitale Museum after his death at age 92.
He received more than 150 U.S. and foreign patents, and his most well-known invention probably Simon, a game of electronic reminiscences that challenged players to memorize long patterns of flashing lights and sounds.
The first time I learned of Baer’s contribution to my training years was local journalist David Brooks, a clinical columnist (Nashua Telegraph, Concord Monitor) who helped popularize his legacy beyond the island’s video game community. In the early 2000s, I had the concept of taking out my Mothball Odyssey and challenging Baer to a match. I never went on.
Perhaps the most productive thing to do next would be those retroactive excuses: I’m sorry I thought Atari was the first, Ralph. I’m proud that you called New Hampshire home and thank you for entertaining me, I’m 10 years old!