A big device quite similar to the chess expansion would sit on the back of the system with a cable attached to a special cartridge that would slide in the normal cartridge slot. A tape drive and printer was to be attached to it. For me - way back - it actually was to be my first computer but we ended up getting a C64 instead as the computer expansion for the G7400 was nowhere to be found in the shops as the crash of 1983 put a stop to that.
Unlike the BASIC on cartridge for the Atari 2600 VCS that used the keypad controllers, the BASIC for the Odyssey2 was actually very robust and obviously had the advantage of the system having a real keyboard by default. Obviously the biggest failing was the inability to save anything. If they added a cassette port on the cartridge (a la the Bally Astrocade's second BASIC cartridge) or some other manner (though many Odyssey2's lacked even external joystick ports), they might have had something very interesting and relatively low cost.
I'd love to get a hold of the G7400, but as you say, it was difficult then and it's very, very, very (very) difficult now.
A big device quite similar to the chess expansion would sit on the back of the system with a cable attached to a special cartridge that would slide in the normal cartridge slot. A tape drive and printer was to be attached to it. For me - way back - it actually was to be my first computer but we ended up getting a C64 instead as the computer expansion for the G7400 was nowhere to be found in the shops as the crash of 1983 put a stop to that.
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Armchair arcade Editor | Pixellator | www.markvergeer.nl
Unlike the BASIC on cartridge for the Atari 2600 VCS that used the keypad controllers, the BASIC for the Odyssey2 was actually very robust and obviously had the advantage of the system having a real keyboard by default. Obviously the biggest failing was the inability to save anything. If they added a cassette port on the cartridge (a la the Bally Astrocade's second BASIC cartridge) or some other manner (though many Odyssey2's lacked even external joystick ports), they might have had something very interesting and relatively low cost.
I'd love to get a hold of the G7400, but as you say, it was difficult then and it's very, very, very (very) difficult now.
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Bill Loguidice, Managing Director | Armchair Arcade, Inc.
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Bill Loguidice, Managing Director
Armchair Arcade, Inc.