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The Pump Unit
Way back we looked back at the Magnavox Odyssey, a system I claimed was the first home console ever made. Could the Pump Unit throw my claim out the window? Yes, but also no. Let's take a look back to 1967 and meet the so called father of video games Ralph Baer.
In 1967 Ralph Baer was working on the Pump Unit after he played a game of table tennis. He realised while playing this game that he had a product and knew in order for it to sell it had to be fun. He began to workon the TV Game Unit #2 which mainly focused on target shooting and chase games. Some games also utilised a wooden handle on the side of the console which could move up and down. Baer then christened this console the Pump Unit. In 1967 Baer and his team presented the console to Sanders senior management on June 15. Sanders senior management loved the idea of the console and tasked Baer and his team to make the product more commercially viable. His team developed the what is now known as the Brown Box.
Sanders presented the prototype named the TV Game Unit #7 which became known as Brown Box due to it's wooden casing. This was set to be the first multiplayer console to hit the market. The system worked by the player programming the console and pressing switches to play from a variety of games included in the system. Program cards were included with the system to teach players how to set the system to play the different games. The system also had peripherals such as a lightgun bundled with the system. This was made in 1967 which meant it appeared on the market 5 years before the Magnavox Odyssey!
Was I wrong about the Magnavox Odyssey then? In a way yes but there's still more to this story to take a look at. Sanders liscensed the idea of the Brown Box to Magnavox who began to work in the late 1960s and from this liscensing agreement the Magnavox Odyssey hit the home console market in 1972. Technically the Brown Box came before that (as the Pump Unit was a prototype it doesn't really count) but from the Brown Box came the Magnavox Odyssey. Ralph Baer, in essence, created a form of prototype for the Magnavox Odyssey. Because of this, in a way, the Pump Unit and the Brown Box are the makings of the Magnavox Odyssey meaning it still was the first home console or at least the first major home console.
