It adds nothing to the Odyssey 2000’s “four action-packed video games,” but the Odyssey 3000 is a quantum leap in the design aesthetic of the console itself. Finally breaking away from the basic casing design that had been in place since the Odyssey 100, Odyssey 3000 packs four games (well, really just three plus a Tennis “practice mode”) into a sleek, futuristic-looking black wedge with highlights that almost anticipate – believe it or not – the look of the computer screens in Star Trek: The Next Generation (though to be more realistic, it may have been influenced by the design line of Atari’s Fuji logo). The controllers are detachable but hardwired, and nestle snugly into the console itself.
Under the hood, the Odyssey 3000 once again used the General Instruments AY-3-8500 “Pong on a chip” as its guts; with this particular Odyssey iteration, the games themselves weren’t the innovation, but the console design itself – which finally allowed players to sit where they wanted instead of right on top of the machine – was a marked improvement.
Easily the design highlight of the Odyssey dedicated machines, Odyssey 3000 could teach some modern-day games a thing or two about looking extremely cool, whether in use or not.
