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Magnavox Odyssey Multicard - call for orders!


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*UPDATED 22nd of February 2022*

 

February 2022 update: Sold out! If you are interested in a 2nd run for a unit (or more) please let me know in the thread! I'll consider doing another run in the future perhaps later in 2022!

 

Please PM/DM me if you want to make an order and get quantity confirmed before making a payment! I cannot guarantee now that your order will be fulfilled without confirmation first!

 

I have also removed the list of users who have bought them, but I will keep that list privately.

 

Important notice on what happens after these are sold: I think one of two things can happen if I sell out - both involve a waiting list - the waiting list will likely be years. In one solution I price up a smaller order at a higher cost and bulk buy again - the other solution is we get a set number of buyers who commit to paying me before I place the order. I prefer to do the first but its a numbers game. If I could have I'd have had a 100 produced instead of 50! but I never thought we'd get as far as this. I think it would be fair to say a second order would not total more than 50 again. If I sell out I'll ask the company who produced this batch for a new quote and go from there.

 

Current Timescale and process:

 

1) I have uploaded a video showing usage, shipping costs are now outlined below.

2) I will post within 1-3 days and give you confirmation of it leaving with an image through PM.

3) We all get to enjoy our multicards! 

 

We seem to have had quite the surge in Magnavox Odyssey interest in recent weeks!

 

For a long time I have wanted to get a hold of one of Boojakascha's Magnavox Odyssey Multicard .

 

You can see more about his projects for the Magnavox Odyssey here on his website: http://www.boojakascha.ch/index.php?page=magnavox_projects

 

And also his Youtube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRNVSMZe1V3yUmIA9NGB3kg Where he reviews light guns and light gun games.

 

And also here where he shows off the multicard: 

 

 

 

 

My reasons for this project are simple:

 

a) its the closest thing to a "romcart" you can get for the system.

b) Boojakascha has provided files for its reproduction, and naturally has had it working on the system.

c) Games for the Odyssey is really really rare. I've only seen a handful of games go on ebay since I've got the system myself, and I've failed in all attempts to win any of them. While the base games are ok, a lot of the extra features is unique to the other game cards. This search becomes harder if you are outside the United States.

d) If I go ahead with my RPG homebrew, I want everyone to be able to play on the same level without having to hunt for game cards, and also make it an enjoyable experience. If I could include the multicard with it, it would also allow those users the opportunity to enjoy all the features of the original Odyssey, without relying on fighting for ebay rarities.

 

Production of these things is always cheaper in bulk, so what I want to do is to take the cost of buying a big order of them, and then pass on the savings to everyone else.

 

I've been in contact with Boojakascha to ensure that what I get is going to be working as designed before I make the order, but I'm now looking for who might be interested in purchasing one (or more) of these so I can get a good sense of how many I should order. I will be getting at least 20, but the more I can get the cheaper it will be. I've already got quotations from several companies who will be ready to go with the order as soon as I finalise it, so they could be ready to go as early as the end of June.

 

How much will it cost?

 

I'm currently setting the cost per unit at £20/€23/$25 USD/$35 AUS, this includes VAT for production at 20% and delivery to me, and this will not include postage and shipping to you. See below for Shipping Costs.

 

Delivery costs and time?

 

Now we seem to be at the tail end of the pandemic, delivery times and exchange rates seem to be stabilising, I'll now upgrade everyone to "international Standard" for the same price*

Both tracked and untracked times is listed as 6-7 working days for anywhere outside of Europe. People in the UK and Europe should receive it in 3-5 working days.

To save costs, I'll be using pre used packaging where possible.

 

Based on quantities of 1:

 

United Kingdom: £3 for Royal Mail 1st Class signed for, or £5 for 24 hour Tracked and signed. (Total: £23 or £25)

Europe: €3.50 for regular mail, or tracked and signed for €10. (Total: €26.50 or €33)

Australia (mainland): $AUS 7.50 for regular mail, or tracked and signed for $AUS 18.  (Total: $AUS 42.50 or $AUS 53)

United States (mainland): $5 for regular mail, or tracked and signed for $13.  (Total: $30 or $38)

 

* For those interested, during the pandemic they split untracked to two standards, really slow and faster. Price changes means I can now offer the faster rate at the same price I charge.

 

Quantities of 2 or more:

 

If you are from United States, 2 multicards will now cost $63 for tracking - this has gone back down by $2 because of recent currency exchange changes.

 

Where would payment be expected?

 

Send money via paypal to acebloke@gmail.com, under friends/family if you can - as you are all my friends, and you are getting this as close to cost as I can afford to. Please state your name and address in the note - and your username so I can tick you off! Don't worry about the amount I receive, I have rounded up costs slightly to compensate for this.

 

If you are unable to use paypal let me know what other potential options you would like to try to pay in.

 

What if I want more than one?

 

Let me know where in the world you live, and I'll give you an updated shipping price.

 

Will this work with the Rifle games?

 

Yes, this was one of Boojakascha's original purposes for making it, I can confirm it works with my rifle set too.

 

What games does it play?

 

You are able to play all the original game card variants for the original Magnavox Odyssey system, and many of the homebrew that has been produced since. Note that some homebrew have custom hardware and one or two have custom game cards; these will NOT likely to be replicated with this multicard without modification (but does appear to be possible). The switches may also help to produce unique effects of merging features of gamecards.

 

When is the earliest this could be ready?

 

I have all the units, but I will individually test them before sending them out for verification. I will send a PM with an image of your package on the day it leaves my house. Dispatch is usually within 48 hours of payment.

 

Have you done anything like this before?

 

Nope! But I always deliver on everything else I've done before, and I'm not going to disappear anytime soon. By taking the hit of the immediate cost myself I'm hoping we can all benefit.

 

Who will receive it first?

 

Not applicable now, I still have some left. If I do run out, I'll consider costing for more units.

 

How will I be able to pay?

 

Paypal is widely used and has always worked for me, but let me know if this is not possible. You can pay by paypal without having an account and using your regular bank details.

 

I will update status for these users as orders is payed/shipped

Edited by Mikebloke
Sold out!
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I actually have one of the few Multicards that he made, but never got around to making a custom box for it as I'd planned. I had some idea that it might not be too difficult to slap some stickers onto a cardboard keyboard box and use an anti-static bag to protect the card itself (which it currently is in). Are there any plans for this run of Multicards to include a custom box the same size as the normal Odyssey boxes?

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Ha, another idea that I had a while back (I have PM's as proof!), but never got around to implementing. Put me down for one. 

 

So glad that there are some people out there getting around to all these projects that have lived in my head for five years. 

 

Now if someone implements my Odyssey portable idea (codenamed: Iliad) that would be something. ?

 

EDIT: I've obviously been resting on my laurels too much. New games and hardware have been released that I haven't even heard about. I never heard about the previous multicard that lead to this reproduction. Looks like the Odyssey homebrew page needs some updating and consolidation, and I need to do searches for who's working on what more often. 

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At $25 each, i'll take 2! :)

 

I have almost wrote to Boojakascha back then when he announced his Odyssey multicart, but with time i forgot

(my mind is not what it used to be...sigh!). This is super to replace/missing/don't have any cartridge from #01 to

#12 and the only cart i don't have is #12 in my collection (i'm not counting #11 as it's the same as cart #8 with

a thinner wall).

 

But there is already two new game carts released that Boojakascha's multicart doesn't replace: Vibrant Media Labs #13

and the "ZO" cartridge from ManCaveArcade Zombie Outbreak (i dubbed it "ZO" (for Zombie Outbreak) as MCA didn't gave

any number on this one (yet)). And also, Vibrant Media Labs has cartridge #14 to 16 already developed.

 

VML cart#13 can't be done with the multicart has it's needs a switch to activate the wall full or half-long, you can still solder

a mini-switch beside the multicart so it can do the same as cart#13. As for the rest of their carts, let's wait and see. ;)

 

Maybe you should put x4 (or more) extra micro-switch with unsoldered holes so some people could solder the necessary

jumpers for future cartridges once release ? Just an idea..

 

And i still want two multicart no matter what. :)

 

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I'll take one, too!  We considered producing this in the past, but once you have a full set of game cards, it's a lot faster and easier to swap them out than to decipher and switch DIP switches to create the correct pattern.  That's the reason that Magnavox engineers created the card system in the first place.  The prototype Brown Box had all of the switches available on the console, so you could program it for a particular game.  The Magnavox multiple card system was a huge advance.

 

However, I highly recommend this to anyone who does not have a full set of cards, as it will allow you to fill in any of the missing ones (assuming that you have the other game elements), and perhaps even better, will allow you to experiment with other possibilities.

 

Slydc's idea of adding extra headers to potentially solder on components later is a good one, and would theoretically allow someone to modify this to act as OdysseyNow Card 13.

 

Even folks who already have the original cards might want one just for the fun of it.  That includes myself!

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Thanks everyone for replying! I will try to answer the questions as well...

 

First off, it looks like I've easily fulfilled a full order for 20! I will likely step up to the next quantity which reduces the unit price. I'm now seeking a final quote to see how much it will cost to also assemble it too. This will mean it will all be professionally done, and you don't have to look at any newbie soldering mistakes I'm likely to make! I'm hoping to get this by the end of the week, which means I might be able to place the order as early as next week. So it might remain around the £20/$25 range, but does mean I can immediately start taking payment once the order arrives to me and I've tested it. I'll upload a video showing it working as well once I receive the order, and I'll start looking now at what shipping costs might be so we all have an idea what final cost might be.

 

Quote

Are there any plans for this run of Multicards to include a custom box the same size as the normal Odyssey boxes?

 

Not currently, my intentions is to make this as cheap as possible to ship out. I imagine most of the buyers will be in the United States, so box production and shipping will significantly increase the price. Everyone is free to make their own however, there is a number of people on AA who have produced boxes before, and they are very welcome to chip into this thread and offer those services for a box. I think it would bloat the price for me to do it, hope everyone understands.

 

Quote

Maybe you should put x4 (or more) extra micro-switch with unsoldered holes so some people could solder the necessary

jumpers for future cartridges once release ? Just an idea..

Sounds like a great idea! I've been very reliant on Boojakascha's help and advice to ensure this can go into mass production, he'd be the one to ask whether this could be possible in the future! For now, I'd like to keep to the original gamecard support, it also means those that have made the time to produce new gamecards and homebrew continue to have some exclusivity for some time, they deserve it for their efforts! Perhaps a 50th anniversary project in 2022...

 

I will keep you all informed once the order goes through and confirm final costings. Thanks everyone :D

 

 

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Hi everyone, just another quick update:

 

Production of this order is starting next Monday 18th of May!

I will update with shipping estimates in the near future: If you wish for shipping to somewhere not in the UK or US can you let me know now so I can give you an estimate, and also if you would like any form of special delivery such as tracking/signing. If you don't live in the UK, it is likely that may come as standard anyway! Also please let me know if there is any courier/postal service you'd like me to avoid however please note I might not be able to control it when it reaches your home country.

 

I will likely keep to paypal for taking payment, as you can also use card details normally to send money via it. If there is anyone who cannot pay via paypal for whatever reason, please give me a PM and we will work out an alternative form of payment.

 

I don't require any personal details just yet, but I imagine most of that can be dealt with in paypal anyway, for anyone else we will PM details as required once I have tested the units myself.

 

Good day everyone, keep safe!

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10 hours ago, Mikebloke said:

Hi everyone, just another quick update:

 

Production of this order is starting next Monday 18th of May!

I will update with shipping estimates in the near future: If you wish for shipping to somewhere not in the UK or US can you let me know now so I can give you an estimate, and also if you would like any form of special delivery such as tracking/signing. If you don't live in the UK, it is likely that may come as standard anyway! Also please let me know if there is any courier/postal service you'd like me to avoid however please note I might not be able to control it when it reaches your home country.

 

I will likely keep to paypal for taking payment, as you can also use card details normally to send money via it. If there is anyone who cannot pay via paypal for whatever reason, please give me a PM and we will work out an alternative form of payment.

 

I don't require any personal details just yet, but I imagine most of that can be dealt with in paypal anyway, for anyone else we will PM details as required once I have tested the units myself.

 

Good day everyone, keep safe!

Are there reservations on any of these? It looks like you don't want Paypal yet as you would need to calculate shipping for everyone. I'm not sure if my posting saying that I wanted one was enough to get one reserved or how that side is going to work. 

 

Just noticed that Boojakascha is working on a project Ulysses. Yet another pun that I dreamed up a while back that someone else is developing with the exact same name that I had come up with for the project. Still, it's wonderful to see all these people jumping into the Oydssey game these days! Still no project "Iliad" or "Aenid" yet though. 

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1 hour ago, Dastari Creel said:

Are there reservations on any of these? It looks like you don't want Paypal yet as you would need to calculate shipping for everyone. I'm not sure if my posting saying that I wanted one was enough to get one reserved or how that side is going to work. 

It was for initial numbers for ordering in bulk. By aiming to bulk buy a lot more than anyone originally perceived, I was able to get them cheaper than they normally would be. This in return allows more people to be in a position to afford one, or more in some people's case. Rather than only getting 20 produced and charging $40 each for example, I've got considerably more and charge $25 each instead for the same product. 

 

I've ordered double what has already been reserved, so there is plenty more available if anyone is late to the thread. My long term plan was if someone was discover this is 2 or 3 years time and ask "any left?!" I would be able to oblige with the same price, as it would have already been produced and I would have recouped most of the intial cost. While I've got a list of users and quantities, there is no danger of anyone missing out. I will also make sure everyone who has asked for some so far definitely have it reserved until they pay or tell me otherwise. 

 

If someone wanted a set of ten+ now though, I would have to go increase the production order (which would be simple enough given it hasn't started yet). 

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