Some time ago I noticed a Philips G7400 on eBay Austria, entitled as “Philips- DIK, Videopac + G7400″. That was strange, because DIK were my initials before CCC, I used them for example on arcade highscore lists in the 1980s. I clicked on the auction picture and suddenly I knew it – this must be MY Videopac console!

My dad once had a Samsonite briefcase with those stickers to put initials on the case. He gave me the stickers and I put them on my G7400 more than 25 years ago. I had completely forgotten about that, but when I saw the photo in the auction, the memories came back immediately.

I sold my G7400 in my hometown in 1985 to raise money for my new home computer, an Atari 130 XE. In the early 1990s my girlfriend wanted to buy the console back for me, but we noticed that it was the wrong one. The kid I had sold my G7400 to had apparently two of them. Later the traces disappeared. Now, two and a half decades later, the console resurfaced, 130 kilometers from my hometown.

Fortunately I could win the auction, however not very cheap because the seller mentioned the DIK in the auction title, so people thought it could be something special. I was excited when I opened the parcel. I still had the warranty card from 1983, so I just had to compare the serial numbers on the card and on the console. Match! It was really MY G7400!

The seller had bought the console only a few weeks earlier with other flea market stuff in the town where I live now. So he picked the console up here, drove 130 kilometers home, put it on ebay and, as I won it, shipped it back to the town where he picked it up. Anyway: my G7400 is back home and this time I will not sell it to raise money for my next home computer …

Videopac collector Alex Lehman from Switzerland saw a Philips G7000 with four games for sale in an advertisement some time ago. One of the games attracted his attention, as it was titled as “demo cartridge No. 14″. So he bought the lot and indeed there was an official demonstration cartridge of the Videopac game Gunfighter included. Alex was so kind to send us some photos.

The cartridge was probably used at Videopac demo stations in stores. The text on the demo label is in German, French, Italian and English, so those carts could have been used in other countries as well. Would be interesting if someone else also found similar demo carts. Maybe this demo label style was used for other Videopac games as well?

With the development of the Odyssey3, Magnavox also developed some games to show the power of the new console at fairs like the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Most of the games were titles we know from the Odyssey2 or Videopac G7000, but with additional background graphics. Those have been released for the European Philips G7400 later, like Stone Sling, Freedom Fighters, Attack Of The Timelord (Terrahawks) or Killer Bees. There was also Flash Point which was never released by Philips for the G7400, so I made a limited edition of 100 copies available on cart in 2004.

But there was another Odyssey3 prototype game: Baseball! Magnavox showed the well known Odyssey2 game with additional background graphics for the Odyssey3 – which made sense, because America was, and still is, crazy about Baseball. However, Philips did not take over the prototype for the European G7400, simply because that sport was never really popular in the old world.

So I decided to make a run of 100 carts of Baseball+. René van den Enden patched the game so it will run also on PAL consoles – including the nice background graphics for the G7400 and compatibles of course.

Find all info on my Videopac page!

In 2007 Richard Page of videopac.org released the first version of Route 66, a homebrew racing game by Rafael A. Cardoso da Silva and René van den Enden, as Videopac 66. Unfortunately Richard disappeared from the scene shortly after, so only very few copies of the game were really shipped.

In the following two years, Rafael and René improved the game and added high resolution background graphics for the Videopac Plus machines. Now the new version of the game is again available on cart, and this time 100 copies have been made, so that every Videopac/Odyssey2 collector can get one. It was the wish of the authors to make the game available in both Videopac and Odyssey2 styles, so every copy of the game will be shipped with label, manual and inlay/index card in both styles.

The Plus version of Route 66 was released at Eurocon/Retrobörse on 24th October 2009 in Vienna and is available via mail order since 8th November 2009. I hope you all like this improved version by Rafael A. Cardoso da Silva and René van den Enden. More info on my Videopac page.

The Videopac prototype Martian Threat from the early 1980s has been released on cart by me as Videopac 67 at Eurocon/Retrobörse on 11th October 2008 in Karlsruhe. From today on, the game is also available via mail order. 100 copies have been made, with original style label, original style English manual and original style inlay for a Videopac+ box.

This is my fourth release of a former prototype and I hope you like it as much as you did the previous releases. As not many prototypes are left for a cartridge release, I will have to start developing my own Videopac games very soon it seems ;-)

Martian Threat is an enjoyable action game for the Videopac system with a few unique features like two different ending sequences! You can find more info and order the cart in the Videopac section.