Odyssey Portable?

[Nick]

I was wondering if it was possible to make a portable out of the Magnavox Odyssey. I heard that it only runs on Magnavox TVs, but I was wondering if you could hack it to make it run on other screens, say, the PSone screen.

[Sparkfist]

It would require a custom circuit to convert the output which is I believe its RF. After that its a possiblity. But seriously you should just make a custom board to resoder all the parts on, that way to reduce the size.

[Nick]

That's a good idea. I really didn't plan on making the odyssey as my first portable. What would be the easiest thing to hack?

[bicostp]

I heard that it only runs on Magnavox TVs

That was actually a lie to make people who wanted to buy an Odyssey buy a new TV too. It just makes standard RF signals.

If you're able to track down some Odyssey schematics, or if you can figure it out by copying the boards, you could theoreticaly make your own Odyssey board. Since the entire system is capacitors, resistors, potrntiometers, and a few transistors (there's no digital parts inside), all you would have to do is load up a PC board from Radio Shack with all the parts.

However, the Odyssey is not just a self-contained unit. Some of the games require additional parts, such as screen overlays, game boards, and poker chips. You'd have to haul around a bunch of stuff, and make your own overlays, just to play any games properly besides Volleyball and Table Tennis.

Since this is the case, check out <a href="http://www.myatari.net/issues/apr2002/retro.htm">this page</a>. It has links to a site that sells "Classic TV Game" PONG kits that already come with AV outputs. You could just buy one of those, remake the baord onto one that's even smaller, and add a Hip Gear screen. This kit already runs off of batteries, and even comes with a batery clip.

But if you don't mind hauling around extra parts and making screen overlays, you can recreate the Odyssey games easily. They're just sets of jumper wires, and there's sites all over the place that tell you how to remake them. You could probably use a bunch of jumper wires, or you could make custom carts; something along those lines.

I think a portable Odyssey would be more trouble than it's worth, between the parts required and trying to get a modern signal out of it. But it certainly would be unique!

[cowsgoquack101]

Bicostp is right it does work on other TV's. I tried I tried it the other day on my Toshiba. I just wished that my 2nd controller would work. I need to tinker!

[Nick]

Where can you buy that Make your own Games Machine thing? I live in the US.

[bicostp]

http://www.velleman.be/ot/en/product/view/?id=344971

Here's the link to the product page, just order it from their website.

[marshallh]

Hey! I bought that kit 3 years ago, it's even on my website!

Unlike Bic said, you can't get it straight off Velleman's website.
However, I got mine from a place called QKits in Canada... www.qkits.com Search for MK121 and make sure to get NTSC assuming you live in the US. It ran me about $30 all told... It was worth it! It's basically a custom-programmed PIC16C505 with some simple DAC circuitry and some pullup resistors etc.
I'm reverse-engineering the schematic (you should be able to get a 14-pin PIC and program it with your own code to get your own game.) However, this requires precise timings with ASM code - you have to build the NTSC signal on-the-fly.
Anyway, that's enough rambling, go and get it!

[MM007]

I built one of those in Electronics class. Pong Kit.

It's small, has AV out, mono sound, and 4 modes of computer play, as well as 2 player. I thought about making a poertable out of it, because it is even smaller than a PS1 LCD, but haven't decided. It runs, if I remember right, on 3 AAs.

[Nick]

Would that be and easy first portable?

[S q u e e !]

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[marshallh]

Yes, that would be a good way to get some soldering practice, and it also runs from 3-6v. (It's only limited by the PIC's operating voltage)
However, you would get bored of it after a while.