Philips VideoPac+ G7400
The VideoPac+ G7400 was a game console released exclusively, in a limited quantity, in Europe in 1983. An American version was planned for the system but was never released.
Philips VideoPac+ G7400
The VideoPac+ G7400 was a game console released exclusively, in a limited quantity, in Europe in 1983. An American version was planned for the system but was never released.
The G7400 was the successor to the VideoPac G7000, the European variant to the American-made Magnavox Odyssey 2. In 1974, Philips bought Magnavox, which resulted in Magnavox becoming a subsidiary of Philips North America. Many earlier Odyssey consoles were released, under the Philips moniker, in Europe between 1976 and 1983.
The plans to release the G7400 in North America, unfortunately, did not go through. The 'Odyssey 3 Command Center' was never saw a commercial release, mainly due to the fact that many company executives came to the conclusion that the system was not technologically advanced enough to compete on the console market. The video game crash of 1983 was the final nail in the coffin and brought a definitive end to those plans. The system was merely demonstrated in North American and some prototypes of American origin have been found.
The Odyssey 3 would have a mechanical keyboard, instead of a membrane keyboard (found on the G7000, the Odyssey 2 and, ultimately, the G7400). The Odyssey 3 would also have a built-in joystick holder for games that would have supported the use of multiple joysticks. Prototypes for a modem and a speech synthesizer have been made and even a laserdisc interface has been known to be on Philips' and Magnavox's agenda. None of these ever saw production.
The G7400 was fully compatible with all VideoPac G7000 games. The G7400 also had its own unique game library with different cartridges, as opposed to the regular VideoPac games. These 'VideoPac+' games were specifically designed for the G7400 and had better graphics than the earlier games. These games also had a higher resolution and had more advanced graphics in both the foreground and background. Some of these games were playable on the G7000, though some games had, due to the graphical difference, objects that were only visible on the G7400. Some games worked exclusively on the G7400 and were not compatible with the earlier models. There were, at least, fifteen games made for the VideoPac+ format and these games are very rare.
