• Registered: 2015-12-11
  • Posts: 18

Topic: Philips Videopac/Magnavox Odyssey2... is it possible?

Hello 1-bit music wizards!
I was playing with my Videopac C52 (G7000) recently and became very curious whether this ancient machine could produce any decent 1-bit sounds...
Hardware-wise it's literally primitive, based on a Intel P8048 microcontroller (not even a "proper" CPU) and as sustain for producing video and sound it has the Intel P8244 (for NTSC Odyssey2 systems) or P8245 (for PAL/SECAM european Videopac systems and their variants)...
The RAM available to the user is 64 bytes inside the 8048 and another 256 bytes as external memory...
Do you know anything about this system?
Has anybody tried it yet or 1-bit sounds are for some reason impossible on this platform?
Cheers!!!

  • Shiru
  • 1-bit Wizard
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  • From: Russia, Moscow
  • Registered: 2015-07-01
  • Posts: 514

Re: Philips Videopac/Magnavox Odyssey2... is it possible?

I'm sure it is possible to squeeze out some beeps out of it.

Actually, Odyssey 2/Videopac is my personal childhood dream. It was like the first 'home computer' (complete with keyboard) I ever seen in a German catalog, and I never seen one in real life, so I was puzzling what can it do and what games it could play, looking to the pictures in the catalog. Still thinking to get one and try to program something for it, a crude tracker/music editor perhaps. But it is quite expensive to get one here, so it always gets postponed. Maybe someday.

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  • utz
  • utz
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  • Registered: 2015-06-28
  • Posts: 1,022

Re: Philips Videopac/Magnavox Odyssey2... is it possible?

Plogue has support for P824x sound, but it only supports the default stuff. And of course Plogue is closed source so it's not that useful. David was kind enough to publish some info, though: https://ploguechipsounds.blogspot.nl/20 … p824x.html
Think I have to pass on this one for the time being, even though I'd be very interested to code on the 8048. But I've got too many hobbies already at the moment yikes

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  • Registered: 2015-12-11
  • Posts: 18

Re: Philips Videopac/Magnavox Odyssey2... is it possible?

Thank you both for the answers, gentlemen!
I hope we'll see something on this machine too, in the future! I count on you! smile

@Shiru:
The Videopac in the EU and the Odyssey2 in the US are usually dirt-cheap... and they are NOT heavy, even though they seem to be!! wink

  • Shiru
  • 1-bit Wizard
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  • From: Russia, Moscow
  • Registered: 2015-07-01
  • Posts: 514

Re: Philips Videopac/Magnavox Odyssey2... is it possible?

I don't really have time to play the auction games, and the buy now prices is not that dirt cheap - it is a price of an used PS4/XBO here, and I don't even know how much the delivery would be, because almost no one sends to Russia. Likely as much, judging by past experiences. And the local prices is downright crazy, $500-1000. I can't afford any of it.

website - 1bit music - other music - youtube - bandcamp - patreon - twitter (latest news there)

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  • Registered: 2015-12-11
  • Posts: 18

Re: Philips Videopac/Magnavox Odyssey2... is it possible?

Holy smoke, and I thought that retro-collecting was a pain in the arse only here in Greece...
hmm