First Home Video Game Console: Magnavox Odyssey (1972)

The first commercially available home video game console was the Magnavox Odyssey, released in September 1972 (US).

• Inventor: Ralph H. Baer ("Father of Video Games"). Led team at Sanders Associates (1966-1968 "Brown Box" Prototype)
• Manufacturer: Magnavox (North American Philips)
• Technology: Discrete Transistor-Transistor Logic (TTL). No Microprocessor. No Cartridges (initially)
• Games: 12 "Game Cards" (Jumper boards altering logic) + Screen Overlays (Static Graphics for TV). Titles: Table Tennis, Ski, Hockey, Tennis, Simon Says, Analogic, etc.
• Controllers: 2 Hardwired Boxes: 3 Knobs (Horizontal, Vertical, English) + Reset Button
• Sales: ~350,000 units. Discontinued 1975

Predecessors (Not Commercial Consoles)

• 1958: Tennis for Two (William Higinbotham, Oscilloscope, Brookhaven Lab)
• 1962: Spacewar! (MIT PDP-1, Mainframe)
• 1966-68: Brown Box (Baer Prototype → Odyssey)