Make-It-Yourself projects

TV Tag (Popular Electronics, November 1972)

This article is the earliest video game construction project known so far. It allows building a nearly identical remake of the first video game ever built in 1966 by Ralph Baer: the Chase Game.



It is supposed that the author built TV Tag after playing with the Magnavox Odyssey console, which featured the same game. The Magnavox Odyssey was the first home video game console. It was first announced in May 1972 and the first units were delivered in August. This article was published only three months later and seems to be a reduced version of the Odyssey, even if the circuits took advantage of integrated circuits. The strange side of this project is that it does not allow playing the Tennis game. A possible reason is that the author wanted to publish an easy project explaining how to build a very simple video game. The Magnavox licence was not required here as the game itself was not available in kit form or ready made.

