Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Elsewhere: Odyssey2 - Pick Axe Pete!

I had forgotten that the Wizard of Odyssey appeared on TV commercials as well as in print ads.  Here he is in his fortress of crystalline tubes, waggling his bushy eyebrows and playing Magnavox's popular climbing game, Pick Axe Pete!  It's one of the few Odyssey2 games that didn't use the console's standard character graphics -- Pete and his Pick Axe are a new sprite design, still not very detailed, but a change from the generic figures that dominate the system's library.



This must have come toward the end of Magnavox's struggle to keep the system viable in the face of stiff competition from Atari and Mattel, given the free software bundle promotion at the end of the spot.

And somehow they managed to keep the title's pronunciation clear and consistent, so there are no "Pick Ass Pete" comments for me to poke fun at.

Though "up to my eyeballs" wasn't the best phrasing choice possible.

Especially when followed with a reference to "mine shaft."

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