The Magnavox Odyssey is the first commercial home video game console. It consists of a white, black, and brown box that connects to a television set, and two controllers attached by wires. It can display three square dots and one line on the screen in monochrome black and white; players place plastic overlays on the screen to display additional visual elements. Ralph H. Baer conceived the console in August 1966 and his team at Sanders Associates developed it. Magnavox agreed to produce it in January 1971 and released it in September 1972, selling 69,000 units in its first calendar year and 350,000 by its discontinuation in 1975. A series of lawsuits spanning 20 years, based on patents for the system and its games by Baer and the other developers, earned Sanders and Magnavox over US$100 million. Its release marked the beginning of the first generation of video game consoles and spawned the Odyssey series, which includes a set of dedicated consoles and the 1978 Magnavox Odyssey 2.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnavox_Odyssey
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1942:
World War II: The Imperial Japanese Army began the Battle of Edson's Ridge in an effort to retake Henderson Field on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands from the Allies. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Edson%27s_Ridge
1962:
In a speech at Rice Stadium in Houston, U.S. president John F. Kennedy reiterated an aspiration to land a man on the Moon before 1970. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_choose_to_go_to_the_Moon
1977:
South African anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko died after being beaten in police custody in Port Elizabeth. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Biko
2003:
Typhoon Maemi, the strongest recorded typhoon to strike South Korea, made landfall near Busan. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoon_Maemi
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
to a hair: To a high degree of precision; with the utmost exactness; to a nicety. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/to_a_hair
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
Man does not create gods, in spite of appearances. The times, the age, impose them on him. Man can serve his age or rebel against it, but the target of his cooperation or rebellion comes to him from outside. --Stanisław Lem https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stanis%C5%82aw_Lem