G7400

Videopac G7400 - 01
	   
Around 1983, the videogame market began to contract, which would end in the
infamous videogame 'crash' of 1984.
In this time period Philips saw the O˛ lose its remaining market share.
Many home videogame companies folded entierly, or went into serious debt.
In order to compete, North American Philips/Magnavox developed their own
next generation 8 bit system, code named the Odysseył.
Later press releases termed it the Odyssey Command Center.
The Odysseył Command Center was to have 16k ROM, 16k RAM, and a capacity
for detailed background and foreground graphics.
The keyboard was redesigned to have more keys, and a real computer keyboard
was added in place of the Odyssey˛'s flat plastic membrane.
There was a built in joystick holder, so that one person could use both
joysticks at once, for arcade style games.
The unit also had a number of planned accessories: Prototypes of a voice
synthesizer and a 300 baud modem were created.
Further, Philips planned to develop an interface to connect the Oł to
Philips laserdisc players, which would allow the machine to play extremely
sophisticated games.
The Odysseył Command Center was hyped to the US press, and previewed at the
1983 Consumer Electronics show.

It never was released. Leonard Herman's "Phoenix: The Fall and Rise of Home
Videogames" states:

Things looked hopeful for Odyssey when the year (1983) began, although it
abandoned its plans to market the Odysseył.
This had been done because excecutives at the company felt that the Oł
didn't advance enough technologically to compete against the inexpensive
computers that were on the market.
Instead... Odyssey turned to a new direction.
(They soon announced the creation of) Probe 2000, a new line of software
for competing videogame and computer systems.
The first title that Odyssey announced was Pursuit of the Pink Panther.
By October Odyssey released one Colecovision-compatible game called War Room.
Unfortunately, it was to be the only game that would be released under
the Probe 2000 banner.
A severe chip shortage caused the company to scrap all of its other titles
since it couldn't hope to get them out in time for the critical Christmas
season.
Following this disaster, (the American branch of) Odyssey decided to abandon
the industry that it created altogether. 

For years, American classic videogame collectors searched for prototypes
of the Odysseył Command Center.
In time, it became a holy grail of classic videogame collecting among those
collectors who knew that a few prototypes existed.


The Holy Grail Discovered! - The G7400:  

In 1995 I became one of the very few American game collectors to discover
that Philips had indeed released the Odysseył, and was the first to publicise
this information on the Internet.
As I found out, the Odysseył was indeed sold in 1983 and 1984.
It was sold only in Europe, and was dubbed the Philips Videopac + G7400.
The Videopac + console had almost exactly the same internal hardware as
the American Odysseył prototype, but externally it was very different.
The keyboard did indeed have more keys than the Odyssey˛/Philips G7000,
but they were still made from a flat plastic membrane keyboard, instead of
from physically clickable keys.
Unlike the American prototype, there was no built-in joystick holder.

The Philips Videopac + G7400 could play four types of cartridges.

All the standard Odyssey˛/Philips G7000 cartridges.
The backward compatibility would ensure that many Odyssey owners would
upgrade to this system and still be able to use all their old games.

A series of remakes, in which popular Odyssey˛/Philips G7000 games were
re-released with high resolution, beautifully rendered background graphics,
similar in quality to what one would see on a Colecovision.
If these game were played on a regular Odyssey˛/ Philips G7000 the game would
play just like the classic version, but the high-res background graphics
would not be visible.

A series of totally new Odyssey games.
These had standard Odyssey foreground graphics but also had high resolution
background graphics.
If these game were played on a regular Odyssey˛/Philips G7000 the game would
play correctly, but the high-res background graphics would not be visible.

A series of totally new Odysseył/Philips G7400 only games that could only
be played on the Odysseył or G7400.
These games not only had hi-res background graphics, but they had hi-res
foreground graphics, scrolling screens, multiple screens and the ability
for more complex gameplay.
Only four such games were ever made: Norseman, Helicopter Rescue,
Trans-American Ralley and the Home Computer Module. 
	   
www.thepong.com
	   

Manufacturer Philips Name G7400
Type Console Origine ???
Introduction Date 1983 End of production ???
Built in Language ??? Keyboard ???
CPU Intel 8048 Speed 1 Mhz
Coprocessor ??? Amount of Ram 16 Kb
Vram ??? Rom 16 Kb
Text Modes ??? Graphic Modes 256x192
Colors 16 Sound 1 channel, 8 sounds
Size / Weight ??? Built in Media Cartridges
I/O Ports RF modulator, joystick port(s), cartridge port OS -
Power Supply ??? Introduction Price ???
Sold ??? Serial Number ???
Other Extras 20 games Bought Where Brugge
Bought When September 11, 2002 Condition Good
Price Paid 30 € Specs of my Model -
Setup Today -

The C7420 in action … euh … and indeed (see G7000_04) it only works with the G7400

	   
	   
G7400-01:

Bought In Brugge on 11/09/02 for 30€ (auction site)
From the same guy I bought the intellivision_02

It came with 20 games

On ??? I bought Videopac 28, 36, 21 & 16 on ebay ( ??? €)
On ??? I bought Videopac 3 & 10 on ebay (??? €), bad deal, they came
unboxed and nr.10 is damaged.
On ??? I bought Videopac 26 & 10 on ebay (??? €).