The 1972 Magnavox Odyssey was first shown to the public on May 24, 1972 and sold in September of that year at a price of US$ 99.99. The system was an evolution of Ralph Baer's "Brown Box" prototype designed in 1968. At the time of release, the system was already 4 years old and the video game market had already spawned more advanced technologies.

​

The Odyssey system was battery operated and had no audio capability. It came with 2 controllers, 6 C batteries, 6 game cards that could play 11 games and 22 overlays. The 11 games that shipped with this console were:
- Analogics
- Cat&Mouse
- Football
- Haunted House
- Hockey
- Roulette
- Simon Says
- Ski
- States
- Submarines
- Tennis.
The console also came with dice, scorecards, play money, casino chips, and playing cards for each game.

​

The 1972 Magnavox Odyssey used a removable circuit board that inserted into a slot on the front of the system. There was no power button for the console. The circuit board cards contained no components but had jumpers that enabled onboard programming to play specific games. Additional games could be purchased individually or in 6-packs. Some of these didn't feature a game map, just new overlays and instructions that could be used with one of the base ship maps.

​

The system came with overlays that were placed on the television screen to simulate graphics that the system could not produce. The overlays only supported two different TV sizes. The system also came with dice, casino chips, scoresheets and playing cards to allow for better variety of gameplay.

​

The 1972 Magnavox Odyssey was the first console to support a commercial video game lightgun called "The Shooting Gallery". The lightgun was sold separately and the Odyssey system had a dedicated connector for it. Purchasing the Light Gun peripheral allowed players to play four additional games.

​

The Magnavox Odyssey was not a huge success, selling only around 330,000 consoles worldwide in its four-year production run. Sales were impacted by poor marketing and seller misinformation, as many consumers believed the system would only work on a Magnavox TV. Magnavox restricted sales of the console to their own dealerships, limiting the potential sales base. Magnavox also had difficulty selling the additional game packs and system add-ons due to the lack of knowledge of the sales staff. Production of The Odyssey ceased in 1975 after 11 decks were released, with the ability to play a total of 28 decks.