I'm Back, With Pictures

I have returned! My job has had me completely tied up lately (at one point last month, I worked 26 days in a row), but now my huge work project is basically complete and I actually have time and energy for other things. Like this web site, for example!

To that end, I've started off by redesigning the Games Database. The differences aren't tremendous, but I've snazzed it up a little and updated some of the information it contains.

And to go with that, I've been going through the many Odyssey scans and photos I've been saving up, looking for suitable additions. Unbelievably, I had over 1,000 pictures accumulated on my hard drive – some I've used already, and others aren't really worth using – but still, that's a lotta stuff to look at! One of the better things I found was a group of box scans Marcello Iannuzzi sent me a while back that I had misfiled, so I've been busy adding them to the Database. Here's what I've added so far:

• American Football
• Baseball
• Blackjack
• Chinese Logic
• Computer Programmer
• Demon Attack
• Frogger
• Golf
• Interpol
• Mathematician/Echo
• Space Monster (G7400-style box)
• Munchkin (G7400-style box)
• Newscaster
• Nightmare
• Popeye
• Q*bert
• Race/Spinout/Cryptogram
• Super Cobra
• Take the Money and Run
• Ten Pin Bowling/Basketball

Stay tuned – I'll have a couple of very interesting additions in my next update!

Rise of the Robots

Where have I gone lately? Sadly, the workaday world has claimed another victim. I'm a software engineer in real life, and right now I'm involved with a Very Important Project at work. After staring at a computer screen for eight hours a day, five days a week (sometimes more), I haven't had much energy to work on this web site lately. Sorry about that.

But I do have some good news! In spite of my busy work schedule, I made it the Classic Gaming Expo this year, where I saw the NEW Odyssey² homebrew: Mr. Roboto!. I'm not exaggerating when I call this the best Odyssey² homebrew game yet! It's from Ted Szczypiorski, the fellow who created Planet Lander! -- and if you've played that game then you know that Ted has some real O2 programming skills. Mr. Roboto! is even better -- a cross between Archon and Tron Deadly Discs, if you can picture it. It even supports one or two players! The CGE version seemed very close to done; I think Ted is just waiting to get a few final tweaks in before release. A cartridge version should be available through Packrat Video Games eventually. I can't wait!

I have an article online about CGE2K5, if you're interested. There's not any O2 news to report other than Mr. Roboto!, but really, that alone was exciting enough. And even though work's got me down at the moment, I've do have a few site updates nearly ready to go. I've also received a few interesting tidbits through email lately that I need to publish. If you've emailed me lately and I haven't answered yet, bear with me. I'll get back to you soon!

New Design Brings Families Together!

As you can see, and as the happy Odyssey²-playing folks in the upper right corner can attest, it's time for a new site design! Actually little has changed in terms of presentation, but behind the scenes things are very different. Originally this was to be a tableless, CSS-only design, but the ad code that's inserted on every page (don't complain too loudly -- it pays for the site!) causes pure CSS to break, so what you see here is a hybrid of sorts. Most of the design is pure CSS, but there are a few tables in key places to maintain cross-browser compatibility. Also, all of the subpages are being driven off of an ASP template that centralizes most of the page designs. So what's new?

• For one, those happy Odyssey² folks up there in the top right corner! Refresh this page a couple times to see different families (and the Wizard of Odyssey) enjoying everybody's favorite game system. If you've ever leafed through an O2 catalog, you'll probably recognize the photos.
• Common footers used on all pages.
• "Classic Video Game Syndicate" banner redesigned to take up less real estate.
• Submit News link added. Send me Odyssey² news stories through a convenient form.
• Lots of small cosmetic changes and CSS fixes.
• The front page looks just a bit better if you have the Odyssey2 font installed (available on the Downloads page) -- but it'll look fine if you don't.
• Site tested in latest versions of IE, Firefox, Safari, and Opera. There are minor differences between browsers (due to the aforementioned ad code breakage), but it should look fine in all browsers.
• Main Game Reviews page is database-driven now.
• So far, only the main page, the News Archive, the Cheats section, the Articles section, and the main Game Reviews page are using the new template, but that will change as I have time.

While developing this new design, I started working six-day weeks at my job, so finishing it was slow going. I'm glad it's finally online. Hopefully my overtime will be cut back soon so I have more time to devote to the site. I feel pretty bad for neglecting it lately. Real life gets in the way sometimes.

Brazilian Exclusive ROM Available!

In September 2004, Odyssey 2000 reported the discovery of a previously unknown Brazilian cartridge containing two games: Missão Impossível ("Impossible Mission") and Viagem Programada ("Programmed Trip"). Now, that site has released the ROM image for use with O2EM! Both games are strategy/puzzle titles that don't seem to correspond to anything released in America or Europe, making this cart native to Brazil – a rare item, indeed. In addition to the ROM, Odyssey 2000 has created a mock box cover for the game. Here is a direct link to the page containing the ROM and box mock-up. Enjoy!

Revenge of the Timelord

After a lenghty search, Doug, the champion of O2 remakes, found one -- a Windows recreation of Attack of the Timelord! developed by [ICON Software] and titled Revenge of the Timelord. Neat, huh? Unfortunately, as Doug puts it, the game has "nice graphics and sounds, but it loses the two best qualities of Attack of the Timelord, the fast gameplay and the voice synthesis." I agree; Revenge just doesn't have the energy of the original, although it's stylistically faithful enough. It's worth checking out as a novelty, at least. The download link at ICON Software is broken more often than not, but a download is now available on the Downloads page. Thanks to Doug for finding this!

I'm Back, etc.

After several weeks of being surrounded by cardboard boxes and having no reliable Internet access at home, I've finally finished moving into a new apartment (It's a very nice place, thanks for asking). So hopefully, semi-regular site updates will resume soon. Some things in the works... I've been playing around with CSS-compliant site designs on and off for the last couple months and I hope to push them online before too long. I also acquired a new scanner recently and plan to start scanning things in earnest for the Games Database, in addition to various informational updates. There's always plenty left to do!

In the meantime, head on over to Odyssey 2000 for a new version of O2EM Launcher. This one's the result of a lot of tweak work done by Marcelo Ribeiro and Jean-François. Thanks to Marcelo for the news, and the hard work!

Kornalijnslijper's Kollection

I thought this was worth a mention on the front page... Dutch collector Bas Kornalijnslijper has put up a web site that shows off his Videopac and other collections. Bas is perhaps best known as the owner of the Spider-Man prototype, but his collection goes well beyond that. He has some amazing Odyssey and Videopac items from all over the world that you'll definitely be interested in if you're a collector. Check it out!

O2EM Ported to Xbox!

Looks like this happened a while ago, but I wasn't aware of it until just the other day when I received an e-mail about it from Dwaine Garden (thanks Dwaine!). XPort has ported O2EM to Xbox under the name OdysseyX. Here's a list of features excepted from its readme file:

• ZIP support
• Cheat system - Search/Create your own cheat codes
• Favorites list
• Save states
• 480p, 720p, 1080i support
• Skin-able
• Netplay
• ISO9660 support
• Play MP3 or M3U playlists in the background

Sounds impressive, and according to Dwaine, it works great! I don't own an Xbox myself, but if any of you Xbox owners try OdysseyX, please tell me what you think of it.

O2EM v1.16 Released

O2EM v1.15, which came out just over a week ago, introduced some important new features but also a few bugs. O2EM v1.16, programmed by André de la Rocha and Arlindo de Oliveira and beta-tested by Marcelo Ribeiro, fixes these bugs while maintaining the new features introduced in 1.15. Click on over to the O2EM site to check it out! Thanks to Marcelo for the news.

It's An O2 Kind Of Christmas!

Packrat Video Games has launched the "Best O2 Christmas Ever," and the name's justified! Just look at all these Odyssey² goodies they're offering:

• A new cartridge version of Pong for Videopac and Odyssey², René van den Enden's homebrew game, complete with new gameplay variations as well as an authentic manual!
• The Odyssey² DVD, an incredible collection of Odyssey-related video clips remastered for DVD!
• A 13" x 19" Odyssey² Poster featuring artwork from Odyssey Adventure magazine's premiere issue!
• A 2005 Odyssey² Calendar featuring artwork from 12 original O2 games and significant dates from Odyssey² history. I helped with the research on this one.
• A mousepad splayed across its entire surface with exciting Odyssey² artwork!
• Three different Odyssey² Key Chains featuring different catalog covers!

All in all, an amazing collection no Odyssey collector will want to miss! If you want to receive your O2 goodies by Christmas Eve, be sure to place your order by noon on Tuesday, December 21. Contact customerservice@packratvg.com with any questions.

Request a Remake

This news is a few days old, but hey, it's never too late to support the Odyssey²! It's no secret that programmers have long been coding remakes of classic console games. Nevertheless, an observant fellow called Doug0909 noticed that there are really no O2 remakes out there, so he started a thread on the Retro Remakes web site about it. The idea hasn't garnered a very warm reception yet, but if more people post, who knows? Maybe some aspiring coder will be inspired. Can't hurt to try!

O2EM v1.15 Released!

André Rodrigues de la Rocha has announced the release of O2EM v1.15, which features support for 12K and 16K games. This means that Trans American Rally is now playable! Some bugs have been fixed, leading to better support for Flash Point, Cosmic Conflict!, and Le Trésor Englouti +. While you're at the O2EM site, be sure to download O2EMLauncher v0.53, a new version of the O2EM frontend that now allows you to flag your favorite games. (Thanks to Odyssey 2000 for providing a list of all the new features.)

André has done an excellent job with O2EM since taking it over from Dan Boris. However, he has announced that v1.15 will be the last release he will provide – he just doesn't have time for it any more. If you're a programmer and are interested in taking over O2EM development, please contact me and I'll put you in contact with André.

The Best Christmas Ever?

Packrat Video Games, publisher of recent Odyssey² homebrews Kill the Attacking Aliens and Planet Lander!, has announced that this will be "The Best O2 Christmas Ever!" A number of Odyssey² goodies are planned. So far, Packrat has announced a full-size poster featuring the classic artwork found on some Odyssey² catalogs and on the cover of Odyssey Adventure's premier issue. A photo of the poster is available at the Digital Press Retrogaming Roundtable.

Videopac 38 T-Shirts Available!

Videopac.net is producing a limited run of 38 premium quality t-shirts featuring the cartridge label artwork from Videopac #38: Munchkin. The cost is 12.75 Euro, which is about 16.80 U.S. Dollars (this price does not include shipping). Details and ordering information can be found right here. Looks like Santa remembered us O2 fans this year!

Odyssey³ Flash Point Available!

It may be Election Day in the United States, but the really exciting news is coming out of Austria, where Classic Consoles Center has announced the release of the Odyssey³ Command Center prototype Flash Point! This Robotron-style game was completed back in the early 1980s, but was canceled along with the Command Center itself. However, prototypes survived, and as it turns out, the ROMs run on European G7400 machines after some tweaking. Dieter König secured permission from the game's programmer, Rex Battenberg, to release the game, René van den Enden did the necessary ROM work, and now Flash Point is available for download and in cartridge form! Head on over to the Classic Consoles Center for all the details. Big thanks to Dieter, Rex and René for all their hard work!

If you're in the U.S. and are considering buying a Flash Point cartridge, keep in mind that it won't work on regular Odyssey² consoles. You'll need to import a Philips G7400 machine. Just read the G7400 Import Guide before you do. If you'd like to read about the discovery of the prototype that led to this release, look here.

Database Cleanup

After much time and tinkering, the Games Database has been treated to a few renovations:

• First, The "Other Regions" section is no more. In its place are new, more accurate sections for games released in Canada and Japan. Several Japanese games have been added, and all are listed by phonetic titles where possible. Kosopiyuutaa Gorufu sounds more Japanese than Computer Golf (Japan), don't you think?
• Homebrews and Reproductions have been given their own Database section. I feel this works better than having them clutter up the regular-release pages as they had been. It also lets me list original prototypes separately from modern reproductions -- as in the case of games like Interpol.
• The Date column has been taken off the game listings to make room for a cartridge photo column. Release dates are still available on the individual game listing pages.
• I recoded the ASP script that powers the listing pages to work better (I wrote it when I was first learning ASP, so it wasn't very good). It should be faster and more reliable now. I still need to recode the script for the individual game pages, though.
• I polished the listing introductions, adding Javascript to make them collapsible, which brings the game listings "above the fold" and makes each page look cleaner overall. While I was there, I added navigational breadcrumbs and redid the splash graphics atop each listing page. They look less "muddy" now.
• This has been in place for a while now, but I never bothered to announce it: I cleaned up (nearly) all the cart photos, so they all now appear against a uniform black background. Photo credits have been stripped out of all photos in the Database and are generated dynamically.
• In other news: I started experimenting with tableless CSS layouts for the site, something I probably should have done a long time ago. Nifty stuff, but nothing's ready yet.

These changes are important, because one of my next tasks is to flesh out the Database with all the photos and information I've accumulated over the years. As it grows, it's important that it not become ugly or unmanageable, like my hair after I forget to use conditioner – or like that metaphor. If you ever contributed something to the site and wonder why I never published it, don't worry; I save every submission and plan to publish most of them eventually. I just wanted to get some of this cleanup work out of the way first.

Tutankham Exhumed!

Dieter König of Classic Consoles Center has brought the recently-discovered Tutankham prototype to light in a big way! Mount an expedition to the CCC site to discover a review of the game (Dieter feels it is the best Videopac game yet), a map of all 100(1) screens, and some game instructions formatted like they might have appeared if the game had actually come out in the early 1980s. Oh yes... the ROM is available there too! I've tried it briefly, and I can already say that this IS a remarkable game. Fast action, impossibly deep gameplay (for the system, that is), and graphics that are leaps and bounds better than your average Videopac title. It's a great shame that this game was a casualty of the collapsing video game market of the early '80s.

New Games Surface in Brazil!

Well, good news is just pouring out of our good friends from South America these days! Odyssey 2000 has discovered yet another formerly unknown cartridge from the '80s, this one containing two games: Missão Impossível ("Impossible Mission") and Viagem Programada ("Programmed Trip"). What's more, this cartridge comes not from Philips but from an unknown company, Ectron Eletrônica Ltda. of São Paulo. The cartridge is in a uniquely-shaped gray case, with a very cheaply-made paper label. The look of the cartridge suggests it's a pirate, but since the label credits the Odyssey copyright to Magnavox, and since the games don't seem to be clones of any known Odyssey or Videopac games, perhaps it's legitimate. Either way, the games are new discoveries!

Missão Impossível is a grid-based strategy contest (the screenshot looks somewhat similar to the Videopac game Depth Charge) and Viagem Programada is some kind of puzzle game. Head on over to Odyssey 2000's "Archaeology" page (here is a translated version) for pictures and screenshots!

Tutankham Unearthed!

It took a long time, but a prototype of the heavily-rumored Odyssey²/Videopac game Tutankham has been found! Tutankham, a 1982 Stern/Konami arcade game, was one of several coin-op titles Parker Bros. licensed and developed for home consoles such as the Atari 2600 and Intellivision. A Videopac G7000 version of the game was advertised in German gaming magazines, but was never released. For years, it was rumored that a fully developed version of the game existed at one time. This was confirmed in an interview Maurice "BuckyB" Simon conducted with Gil Williamson of The Amazon Systems, a company that developed many games for Parker Bros.

Now, BuckyB has obtained an EPROM copy of Tutankham from a former Philips employee, and has released one screenshot through the Brazilian Odyssey 2000 site. Here is a translated version of the page. According to BuckyB, the G7000 edition of the game is even better than the 2600 version, with more levels and challenges. No word yet on whether a ROM will be released, but I'll keep you posted!

Also of note on the Odyssey 2000 page, Videopac.net has apparently discovered the history behind the Brazilian game Comando Noturno!. This game only came out in Brazil, and it seemed strange that no European prototype existed, since every other Brazilian game had at least been developed in Europe first. Videopac.net recently found a European prototype of the game labeled "Nacht Vlucht" ("Night Flight"). So apparently Comando Notruno! was developed in Europe, just never came out there. Another mystery solved!

Classic Gaming Expo Exposed

I recently returned from a much-needed vacation in San Jose, where I attended Classic Gaming Expo 2004. What a blast -- what better vacation spot could there be than a place with coin-ops and home consoles on free play, speeches by videogame industry veterans, and tons of rare games on sale? I took along my low-budget digicam and snapped a few photos, then threw them online along with some commentary. Here it is.

I didn't really have a lot of money to burn, but I did get to see a lot of Odyssey² rarities at the show. Tops on the list was an Odyssey² trackball in the box -- bringing the total count of confirmed O2 trackballs to three. One vendor had a vintage ROM cart -- a Las Vegas Blackjack! cart modified to play loose ROMs -- and a stack of chips. The chips were regular production ROMs; if they'd been EPROMs I'd have bought the set. A boxed Power Lords was on sale (and expensive!) at another booth, and although I didn't see these personally, the vendor told me he had sold an O2 WICO joystick adapter and countertop Odyssey² display (it sounded kind of like this one but not quite). All in all, lots of goodies were ripe for the buying if you had the money. Too bad I didn't. :)

Now that I'm back, I'm hoping to get back to work on the site. I've know I've been neglecting it pretty bad lately... just bear with me!