On Saturday, I aquired something I’ve wanted for many years: an Odyssey 2 video game system, circa 1982 or so. My cousin and I used to play this, along with his Colecovision (which had an Atari 2600 add-on) all day long, day after day, in-between riding bikes, playing guns, (pow pow!), jumping on the trampoline, and watching R movies like Predator, Robocop, and Aliens. This program upgraded in 1986 when the original Nintendo came along. Good times.

These Odyssey 2 game consoles are all over eBay, but I could never justify the purchase and was uneasy with purchasing this kind of thing from there, as to whether it would work or not, etc.

After several dud garage sales this Saturday, Dad and I hit another bad one… except I saw this, in a good-condition box, too! The price was a bit lower than eBay, and the people selling it were, to my judgement, very reputable and honest. The machine itself is very clean, but I need to decide how I’m going to hook it up to my modern television, and I have ordered a newer power adapter instead of the aftermarket, multiple-voltage one that came with it. Just to be safe.

I’m going to go through a VCR, which has what is needed built-in into its antennae input. I’m not sure of the specific terms, but after several YouTube videos, this is the cost-effective way to go instead of specific adapters I’d have to buy. Once I get this sorted out, I can go ahead and shop around for the classic titles we played back in the day. This unit came with seven, but only two were familiar to me, and none of them were our really big favorites.

In any case, if I hadn’t picked this up, I’d be kicking myself forever because it is such a nostalgic blast from the past, and the games we played are going to be fun to go through again, after all these years. It isn’t enough of a priority to spend big money on, but it is something I can’t pass up if the opportunity presents itself like this.

Last year, I compiled lists of the games we played on all three systems (Odyssey 2, Colecovision, and Atari 2600) so that if I ever ran across them (They are usually dirt-cheap when found in person), I’d be ready to select the right games.

I’m pretty happy about this find. We almost didn’t go to that sale!