Magnavody (tuxdb.com)

Update notes for 24 January 2025

Hi everyone, The Odyssey doesn't have game cartridges but it does have something that looks similar, cards (sometimes called carts). One of the first "head-trips" when encountering the console is that these cards are not games but rather pluggable circuit boards that change the behaviour of the console and controllers. There are about 12 cards for the system and all the games use them. Today's update brings Card 6 emulation to Magnavody. During development I uncovered a whole aspect to the console that I had not been aware of. The RESET button on each controller has TWO states: Pressed down and released. Up until Card 6 I was treating the RESET button as a single event, "pressed". That worked pretty well for the other cards and the games I knew about but for Card 6, holding down the RESET button is an important element of gameplay. It hides the player's spot. How cool is that? I'm aware of X-Men, the 1993 MegaDrive game that required players to press the reset button, but I'm not really aware of any of games and consoles where it was so happily integrated into the system. Card 6 is used by classic games "Roulette" and "States". It is a pretty unique card. It hides the Player 1 spot, the wall and the ball. Only the Player 2 spot is on the screen. Holding RESET button hides the spot. Releasing the RESET button will "snap" the spot from off screen to the on screen location. That's not the only update. The settings menu has been reworked to add more UI options, settings are now saved and there's some other small quality of life improvements. Thanks for supporting Magnavody. Regards, Luke Miller Changelog

NEW CARD: Card 6 - No ball, no wall, no Player 1. Player 2 spot hides when reset button is held down and snaps when released.
Add support for holding down reset button on controllers
Add support for hiding player spots.
Add support for snapping player spots from off-screen to their current location.
Add new options in settings for hiding different on screen UI elements
Update to Godot 4.3.x
Change minimum ball speed to 0.01 (allowing it to be set to zero made the ball not move which might confuse newbies)

[ 2025-01-24 06:10:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

Magnavody

Classyk Games Developer

Classyk Games Publisher

2023-12-05 Release

Action Indie Strategy Casual RPG Adventure Simulation F2P Sports MMO Racing Singleplayer Multiplayer Coop EA Tags

Game News Posts: 4

🎹🖱️Keyboard + Mouse
🕹️ Partial Controller Support
🎮 Full Controller Support

2 user reviews (2 reviews)

Steam Store

Public Linux Depots:

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The Magnavox Odyssey was the world’s first video game console. It was released in 1972 and by the time production stopped several years later it had sold over 350,000 units. In total 28 games were made for the Odyssey. The most famous game from the platform is "Table Tennis" which served as the direct inspiration for Atari's "Pong".

Not only was it the first console but the Odyssey is also a unique piece of hardware. There is no CPU or memory to emulate. Instead the Odyssey is a collection of circuit boards, each controlling a key element of the system such as the ball, the wall and each player's dot. It is a very misunderstood system!

Now you can experience the wonder and strangeness of the Odyssey with Magnavody!

Magnavody is an open source simulator of the Magnavox Odyssey with a focus on accuracy, historical authenticity and fun. Magnavody is a homage to the games on the system in a modern package designed to be played on modern hardware. Your Steam purchase supports future development.

Magnavody has the following features:

Emulates the system design of the Magnavox Odyssey (1972) - the unit controllers, cards, spot generators, gate matrix and flip-flops
Magnavody Table Tennis - A homage to the original 1972 table tennis game
Controller support designed to best simulate the strange and awkward dial controllers of the original
Authentic 4:3 mode (see the games as they were originally presented)
Optional enhanced widescreen (16:9) mode (see the games fill the screen as they were originally designed to do)
Optional CRT overlays (add static, waves and other retro effects)
Toggle on screen elements to choose your own level of immersion
Two player support
Some quality of life improvements such as "quick load" and "reset controllers" to make it easier to use.

Take a trip back in time and live the experience of the very first home video games. Our team includes an historian and great effort has been taken to not just recreate the design but also how it must have felt to be there. Here is just one example; In 1972 a full screen TV was in the aspect 4:3. Technical accuracy requires Magnavody to supply games in 4:3 aspect however we also have crafted a 16:9 aspect mode so modern players can recreate the "full screen" feel of playing the Odyssey. It's these thoughtful design decisions we hope we really transport people back in time to gain a genuine feel for this fascinating console.

With your support the intention is to progressively add more games to Magnavody (however your purchase is for Magnavody as is, there is no guarantee of future releases).

Magnvody is part game/part historical research project. Games for the Odyssey show a glimpse of a different type of console gaming experience, a world where video games mix with table top games, where the action is not just on the screen but in the room with the players. If you are a serious gamer or a game historian or a game developer, this project has a lot to offer.

MINIMAL SETUPOS: Ubuntu 20.04 (or similar dist)
Processor: A recent processor from the last 8 yearsMemory: 4 GB RAM
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Graphics: A decent GPU from the last 8 years

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