Bill thanks for explaining that, it really is a barebones system.

Matt thanks for the compliment and for indirectly bringing up a good point: I've never actually "introduced" the Odyssey and all of it's capabilities per se, so it's likely you're not the only one going "wait a minute, are we just talking about moving two little squares on the screen?" That's more or less true for many of the games. Some carts set the collision detection so that it turns off one of the squares if it touches the other square, other carts have a square (what I've been calling the PlayerSpot) turn off if the BallSpot hits it. You know how PONG segments the paddles so that the ball's trajectory and speed may change depending on where it collides with the paddle? Well, the Odyssey does the exact opposite of that in that it doesn't do anything at all like that. All the paddle (PlayerSpot) does is reverse the X direction of the BallSpot. The Y direction is controlled by another knob on the controller called the english. Technically we're talking about three knobs and a reset button on the controllers. The two big knobs on either side move the appropriate PlayerSpot either left or right and either up or down. A third knob in the center of the left knob (a knob within a knob) controls the english of the BallSpot as it travels left or right. The controller with that power is the control controlling the PlayerSpot that touched the BallSpot most recently.

I can see I need to write a real intro to this old beast, but can't right now. Gotta run.