Top 15 Best Games of 1972. reviews: Tennis, Analogic, Hockey, Football

Top 12-15 Games

List of the Top 37 Games.

Here, you will find games from a highly unconventional console. The very first gaming console in history. After all, it had almost no graphics of its own, consisting of just a few pixels. The primary graphics were on a plastic overlay with an image that you attached to the screen and kept in place using the static electricity of old televisions. 

Those old TVs used cathode-ray tubes, not liquid crystal displays like today. The package also included a paper instruction manual, chips, cards, dice, and so on, depending on the game.

Tennis (Odyssey).

The game is quite simple, especially when compared to some others on this platform. Each player occupies their half and tries to keep the ball (pixel) from going out of their part of the field. To win a game, you need to win four times on your serve with a minimum of a two-point difference. Players play a minimum of 6 games (if it's 6-0) and a maximum of 13 games (in case of 7-6). In other words, it follows the classic rules of tennis.

Analogic (Odyssey).

It's an arithmetic space race through a numerical maze of the computer galaxy map - how's that for a brief game description? Here, you start at opposite diagonal corners of the map, and your goal is to reach the opponent's starting position. One player starts with an odd number, and the other with an even number. 

The opponent's last number plus your adjacent cell must sum up to either an even or an odd number, depending on your starting point. So if you began with an odd number, the sum must always be odd. For example, if you started the game with 4, your goal is even sums. If your opponent had moved to 7, your goal would be to find another odd number nearby so that the sum remains even.

Hockey (Odyssey).

The game lasts three periods, with 20 turns in each. After a goal or at the start of the game, it begins from the center of the field. To score a goal, you need to be on the opponent's half. If the ball goes out of bounds and doesn't immediately return, a disputed ball is played at the nearest red point with a pair of players drawn on it. If a player enters their color-coded net area, they must use only one hand on the controller for the next two moves.

Football (Odyssey).

This game is considered one of the most challenging for this console, as you'll even see from this description. The game consists of a tabletop part, and some gameplay takes place on the screen. The tabletop part includes a cardboard football field, tables, various cards, a cardboard scoreboard, dice, if I didn't forget anything. The game has different decks of cards: pass - 20 cards, run - 20, discard - 10, PUNT - 10, two decks of three cards each: pass, run, PUNT. 

The game even accounts for the wind's impact on the ball's movement as a bonus or penalty depending on its direction. And to be honest, I'm too lazy to describe all of this in detail because I'm a European and not a big fan of American football, so I'll show you a document with the rules, and if you're that rare individual who might find it interesting, you can read it during the pauses.