If someone asked you to name the very first video game console, what would you say? The Nintendo Entertainment System? No, that launched in 1983, well into the game industry’s life. The Atari 2600? That might’ve been the first true multi-cart system, but that launched in 1977. Atari’s first “Pong” console? Close, but the real progenitor of home gaming actually managed to beat out the 1972 release of “Pong” by just a few months: the Magnavox Odyssey.
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Originally released in the summer of 1972, the Magnavox Odyssey is generally recognized as the very first home gaming console, connecting to televisions and allowing kids and adults to experience an entirely new kind of entertainment experience. Compared to today’s gaming hardware, the Odyssey is downright primitive, but in a time where a “game” was something you only played outside or on a kitchen table, it was the first step into a brave new world — not to mention what would one day become a billion-dollar industry.
