Magnavox launched the Magnavox Odyssey, the first commercially available home video game console, in 1972.
The Odyssey was designed by Ralph H. Baer and his colleagues at Sanders Associates before Magnavox licensed and marketed the system. It connected to a television and used removable game cards, but the cards mainly changed the console’s internal game circuitry rather than containing software in the modern sense.
The system’s games included table-tennis-style play, which later became especially associated with Atari’s Pong. That similarity contributed to a major patent dispute: Magnavox successfully argued that Baer’s earlier work covered aspects of electronic table tennis.
The Odyssey was more limited than later consoles. It displayed simple light patterns, and some games supplied transparent screen overlays to add color and visual detail. Nevertheless, its 1972 release established the home console market before Atari, Nintendo, and Sega became household names.