Mark Plays Videopac / Odyssey 2 part 02 of 02

Part 02 of 02 (final)

The Philips Videopac+ G7400 console was a rare beast, it was released in very limited quantities in 1983 but only in Europa. An American release was planned named the Odyssey³ Command Center but it never so the light of day.

The G7400 console could play all Videopac / Odyssey2 games out there. Three types of games exist. The original G7000 videogames, the plus versions sporting an additional high-resolution background which would only be visible on the G7400. And finally the special G7400 only games with high-resolution graphics very reminiscent of Teletext, BBC Micro or ZX Spectum.

Here I am playing the rare G7400 through my video-grabber with some of my favourite games whilst I comment on the gameplay etc.

- KC Crazy Chase
- Killer Bees
- Neutron Star
- Norseman
- Pick Axe Pete
- Super Bee

http://www.videopac.org/

for the an emulator of this old system
http://o2em.sourceforge.net/

Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• Mark plays
• armchairarcade
• review
• videoreview
• odyssey2
• odyssey3
• magnavox
• philips
• videopac
• g7000
• g7400

[RetroArcadia]

apparently those red and blue headed guys are bears. who knew??. good video

[markvergeer]

@RetroArcadia Wow that's something. I thought they were just call 'Invaders from anaother world' in the manual. Cool call.

[MrSatanica]

I used to play Norseman (the one before PickAxe Pete) for hours and hours. Was so much fun to trap the monsters and make them commit suicide. :)

[markvergeer]

@MrSatanica Cool I played that game a lot as well. I am getting a multicart for the old Odyssey2/Videopac G7400 it should be arriving any day.

Still the original carts are of course the best. Love the sturdy packaging of the PAL releases. The US releases came in carton boxes but had great 50'ish covers.

[dallase1]

Why do you like the non plus version of Pick Axe Pete? Aren't the Plus versions just the same games with enhanced backgrounds?

[markvergeer]

Well the plus games do have nice backgrounds and such and some of them work really well - for example on the Attack of the Timelord / Terrahawks / Videopac 51 cartridge the enhanced background works really well but with Pick Axe Pete it distracts too much and it makes the simple game sprites less visible.

But then again it's all about personal preference ;)

Thanks for your response.

[atombat]

I won a copy of Crazy Chase and a boxed G7000 today :D, your video makes the game look fun. The graphics on the Bee game look great, big sprites. I have fond memories of the artwork for the Terrahawks game advert, which was in one of my Spiderman comics when I was young.

[markvergeer]

I am actually not sure you were supposed to do that with the G7000 - pulling out the cart with the device powered on. We had it on a extension-brick with its own on/off switch and we (almost) always turned it off - if you did pull out a cart hot it would make the console display flashing rubbish and psychedelic color flashing.

[aquafresh69]

Drat I ran out of letters LOL

Thx for the greeting in Danish :o)

I better not try my luck in Dutch :D

Anyhow I noticed the US box has a ON/OFF switch, and I allways wondered if it was bad for the ROM to just pull it out while power on the box. As a kid I had fun pulling the ROM while program ran and sometimes the game was still sorta playable after putting back.

Recently I got me a Wii so my limited geek time goes on that and rest on There. com that is a cool virtual world.

Aqua

[aquafresh69]

Hi Markvergeer, after looking at sewerel vids here on youtube of the G7000 LOL is like a rush LOL I must say I like the G7000 the most. You mention it too in ya video that some of the games you like better in std. version. I think the extra overlay of graphics makes it difficult to see some of the action. I will try see if I can find an cartridge of the PacMan clone :o) Oh and the gunfight one looks fun too allways wanted that but I guess I forgot all about it due to the PC aera LOL

Aqua