Magnavox Odyssey2 Programming?

[segaloco]

So a friend of mine who is moving fished a Magnavox Odyssey2 out of their various belongings and tossed it my way. After doing a bit of research, it looks like the cartridge "Computer Intro!" was the canonical programming cartridge shipped by Magnavox for the thing, so I plan on ordering one (he had the manual for that in the box but hasn't found the cart...). It's an 8048 up under the hood, it sounds like Computer Intro! gives you some assembler programming mechanisms but the system appears to be pretty limited on RAM, so it probably can't host a whole lot on-line. I'm wondering if anyone has any experience here with more formalized development for this platform, how folks went about it back when, perhaps development flows involving a 8048 cross-assembler and then mechanisms to run the code on native hardware. Any suggestions? It sounds like the RAM limitations preclude any sort of on-line BASIC, even using the assembler monitor may be a stretch. Needless to say the potential applications are also probably pretty limited given the stark RAM available, coupled with a general lack of peripheral interfacing. It has two D9 ports on the back for controllers, maybe like other systems those can be reassigned for anything that'll use the pins right, but I haven't really dove into all of those details yet.

Thanks for any info!

 

[Eudimorphodon]

There's a forum dedicated to the machine that has an active programming/homebrew section, that's probably where to look for help on this one:

Videopac / Odyssey2 forum - Index

Videopac / Odyssey2 forum - Index

www.videopac.nl

Here is a doc that talks in detail about the hardware of the system; the TL;DR here is that this is a *very* primitive system about on par with an Atari 2600... but actually almost nothing like it in detail. (The video chip is entirely different; it's technically more sophisticated, but it's more "static"; by "racing the beam" it's possible to do things with the TIA in the 2600 that the Odyssey2 couldn't even dream of.)

FWIW, the "programming cartridge" for the thing hasn't anything to do with the real assembly language of the hardware, it implements a synthetic "virtual machine" that only has enough memory for programs a dozen or so steps long, similar to the "BASIC Programming" cartridge for the 2600.