The world’s first video game console was made in East Tennessee

JEFFERSON CITY, Tennessee — Before Nintendo and Atari, before pixels danced across screens in arcades and bedrooms, before gaming became a multi-billion-dollar industry, it began in silence. No sound effects. No color. No memory. Just a white blip on a screen, a plastic overlay, and imagination. But this was not simplicity. This was a revolution.

The video game revolution began with the Magnavox Odyssey. Its quiet creation forever altered how the world plays and it was manufactured in East Tennessee.

In 1968, Ralph Baer, an engineer at Sanders Associates in New Hampshire, developed what he called the “Brown Box,” a primitive prototype of a home video game system.

“Ralph Baer is the inventor,” said Brad Hartz, a Magnavox historian. “He found a way to make these fun games on an oscilloscope. So later, the Brown Box became that platform.”

Keith Stevens, a manager at Play 2 Win Games in Tennessee, has worked on countless consoles, but Odyssey’s origin remains a fascination. 

“It got the name Brown Box because around that time everything was wood grain,” he said. “If it wasn’t wood grain, it wasn’t high quality. I don’t know why that is. I don’t think anyone does.”

Baer shopped around his Brown Box to multiple television manufacturers and was turned away each time. Eventually, he brought his creation to Magnavox. Initially uninterested, their interest was piqued with a ping-pong style game the system had. They decided to pick up Baer’s Brown Box as a way to sell more televisions.

“Magnavox got into looking at how to use TVs besides just looking at it,” said George Collins, president of the Magnavox Historical Preservation Association. “You could watch your TV. You could listen to your TV. Lo and behold, you could play games on your TV.”

Odyssey components were built in several East Tennessee cities, including Morristown and Jefferson City, where the system went into full production in August 1972.

The Odyssey didn’t operate like today’s consoles. There was no sound, no scorekeeping, and certainly no color. Players would simply control white squares, with the graphics coming from transparent overlays on the TV screen.

“You could go skiing, you could play football… submarine hunt,” Stevens said. “Now all of this is if you have a very active imagination back then.”

Even calling them cartridges was generous. 

“Each cartridge… has 44 pins… depending on which pins are jumped… that activates which part of the game,” Stevens explained.

The Odyssey also introduced the first-ever video game peripheral: a light rifle, made by Nintendo.

Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell saw an Odyssey demo and shortly after released Pong.

“Magnavox said, ‘Hey, what’s going on here?’” Hartz recalled.

Magnavox sued Atari and others in 1974, and by 1976, they reached a cross-licensing agreement.

“Every time that a manufacturer would come out with a game console, they were paying royalties to Magnavox,” said Hartz.

The Odyssey officially ceased production in 1975, selling 350,000 units. Its legacy continued through the Odyssey 100, 200, and multiple other consoles. By 1981, the Odyssey line had sold more than 1.7 million units, generating over $71 million.

In 1982, Magnavox’s newest console, the Odyssey², took center stage at the Knoxville World’s Fair.

“I was actually doing some research on the World’s Fair… and found graphics of the Odyssey being the official video game,” said Aaron Ishmael, owner of Vintage Geek. “It just feels so 1982.”

That year, Magnavox hosted a national competition for the Odyssey game ‘Pickaxe Pete’, awarding a pound of gold to the winner.

The prize went to 10-year-old Tony Scardigno from New Jersey. 

“All there is to do is get on to the left side of the screen on top and just get the key and go into the door,” he told a reporter after his win.

Shortly after, Jefferson City commemorated the system’s legacy by naming a road near the plant that the system was manufactured at “Odyssey Road.”

The Odyssey²’s best-selling title, K.C. Munchkin, also became highly controversial. Often compared to Pac-Man, the game drew legal action from Bally Manufacturing.

In 1982, a U.S. Appeals Court ruled the game was too similar to Pac-Man. The decision set a precedent in copyright law, stating that gameplay elements, regardless of code, could be protected intellectual property.

As a result, K.C. Munchkin was pulled from shelves.

Philips/Magnavox later developed the CD-i console in the 1990s, but the system never found widespread success. When it was discontinued in 1999, it marked the end of the Magnavox video game legacy.

“There are dozens and dozens of books that talk about the history of joysticks, the history of video games, video game consoles, and often the first thing I do is I look at the first chapter and I want to see if they even mention the Odyssey,” Hartz said.

Ralph Baer’s contributions were eventually recognized. His workshop is on display at the National Museum of American History, and in 2021, a $1 coin honored him and the Brown Box in the American Innovation series.

“They honor Ralph Baer, and on the back, there’s a little square and it represents table tennis,” said Hartz. “To me that’s a big honor.”

Though modern gamers may not know its name, the Magnavox Odyssey set the stage for every console, every game, and every digital world that followed.

“The Odyssey was really the first to encapsulate the idea of multiple game selection for your home entertainment needs,” said Ishmael. “The Odyssey as well as a few other pioneers in the video game space really made modern gaming possible.”