Page 39 - OSG Presents Classic Gamer Magazine #5

Many Changes In Fortune screen, then change its position to the games. "The front screen of Killer Bees
The dictionary describes an Odyssey, bottom so it would appear twice. This used the same kind of thing, changing the
whether it's Homer's or Magnavox's, as "a was pretty hard to do successfully, for a background color in a rainbow pattern.
long voyage marked by many changes in number of reasons. First, the 8048 was That was just an experiment to see if we
fortune." It's an apt description for the pretty slow; second, the processor clock could do anything useful like that. The
underdog in the console race of the early and video clock didn't have an integral answer was generally 'no,' but that effect
eighties. "The programming was difficult, relationship, and only returned to the was attractive enough to put in the car-
mainly because the processor in the Od- same phase relationship every four pic- tridge."
yssey 2 was a poor choice for a game tures. Harris drives the final nail in the coffin
system," Harris recalls. "I also experimented with using, say, 6 of the Odyssey's under-powered proces-
To illustrate this point, one has to ex- objects to make 7, by choosing one not to sor: "Which reminds me, the 8048 only
amine the innards of the machine. Ac- display on each frame. I think you saw a had something like 64 bytes of RAM, and
cording to Harris, the Odyssey 2 was built lot of flickery things in other games where that was it! And then ColecoVision came
around Intel's 8048 chip and a custom they'd use one object to make two on out with the Z80 and a nice video chip.
video chip, which Intel created specifically alternating frames. That didn't look good, What's sad is that the same video chip
for Magnavox's machine. "Contrast this but an object missing only one out of had been in the TI Home Computer, intro-
with the Atari 2600, which had a 6502," every 6 frames didn't look too bad. It al- duced circa 1980. Other people could
Harris says. [The 6502 is the same chip most looked like it had an energy pulse. have made the Coleco system earlier -
that former Atari employees Steve Jobs In Killer Bees I was trying to use this to just no one did."
and Steve Wozniak used as the central make more robots, but it ended up that I
processor of the Apple II computer.] ran out of other resources first." Voice Enhanced Bees!
"Compounding the problem was that our 1982 saw the most significant - well,
8048 was only able to execute about 15 truthfully, the only - attempt to enhance
instructions during one video line, the technology of the Odyssey 2. Pro-
whereas the 6502 was executing about moted heavily on TV and in print adver-
twice that many. Further, the 2600's tisements, the Voice of Odyssey 2 prom-
video chip was simpler and more control- ised to enhance Odyssey games with
lable. This initial batch of 2600 games helpful, human-sounding synthesized
Atari sent out was pretty simple, mostly speech. What would have been helpful
Pong-like with a few simple elements on to the programming group in Knoxville
a black background. The Activision peo- was some idea of how many of the shiny
ple started doing a lot more with that ma- add-on modules had been sold.
chine by changing graphical elements "The problem with the voice thing
during the video line - doing things that was that you couldn't use it as an inte-
the chip designer never imagined." gral part of play, since most people did-
But couldn’t the Odyssey 2 compete n't have one. And it was difficult to get
graphically? After all, Atari's games were an accurate reading of whether the thing
plagued by a flicker caused by too many was out there or not. So for the most
sprites (animated characters) on the part, I think we all considered it a nui-
screen at the same time. The Odyssey 2 sance," Harris remembers. But ironi-
rarely, if ever, displayed such problems cally, one of the first games to which the
with its graphics. Voice was essential landed in his lap -
"The Odyssey 2 had a more complex as Harris's first assignment as a full-time
graphics chip. The chip did more for you, member of the game design team.
but it could only do those things it was "Nimble Numbers NED was my first
designed for, and nothing more," Harris game for Odyssey, and they wanted an
points out. The payoff for the chip’s educational line for the Voice," Harris
power came in the form of the Odyssey's says of the simple game, which suppos-
infamous fixed characters set - alphanu- edly helped to teach math skills. "I was
meric characters, planets, and even men Harris recalls that the struggle to cre- never very pleased with this game. I
looked identical in the vast majority of ate characters other than the presets built wanted to title it 'Math Potatoes,' but mar-
games. "From memory, the chip had into the video chip resulted in shame- keting wanted to have NED and SID form
character patterns stored in ROM, for, lessly exploiting bugs. "There was a flaw an educational line. SID was 'SID the
must've been 48 or 64 8x8 character pat- in the video chip that allowed you to use Spellbinder,' by Sam Overton, which was
terns. You had 26 uppercase, 10 digits, any bottom segment of any of the charac- a much better game than NED by far."
two patterns each of a man walking left ters. Thus, the Killer Bees robots used Harris also pushed the envelope of the
and right; that would be forty. I forget the the legs from the walking figures, and Odyssey 2's processor once again by
others. It also had 12 objects that would half-8's for the helmets. I made a little creating an innovation for Type & Tell, a
display any of those characters, posi- demo cartridge that allowed you to play cartridge which was included with every
tioned independently, and in any of 16 around with those to see what the combi- Voice module. Acting as something of a
different colors," Harris recalls, though he nations would look like. The bug zapper glorified Speak & Spell - in a robotic voice
also admits that the machine may have in Killer Bees was done, if I remember which one of the video game magazines
been limited to 8 colors. "There were four correctly, by changing the background of the time described as "Darth Vader on
8x8 single color sprites, grid segments for color part way down the screen, then quaaludes" - Type & Tell presented users
making mazes, and a background color." changing it back 10 lines later. I think I with a blank grid. Using the Odyssey's
Harris remembers that the Odyssey 2 placed some objects over the left and keyboard, users could tell the Voice of
design team began a quest almost imme- right ends to hide some glitches that went Odyssey 2 what to say…and occasion-
diately to find different ways to use these along with that." ally, the machine got it right (though pho-
limited capabilities. And, taking a cue Harris's Killer Bees also included a netic spelling quickly became necessary
from Activision, they searched for solu- unique and colorful title screen, which for most applications). "I am a baby
tions that no one had thought of. "You was atypical compared to the bland doggy," for example, would be mangled
could try to reuse objects on different "Select Game" screen that greeted the into "I am a babby dodgey" unless it was
lines - use an object near the top of the players of most of the Odyssey 2's misspelled in just the right way. But don't

Classic Gamer Magazine December 2000 39