PHILIPS G7400

• 16Kb Ram16Kb Rom
• 256x192 Resolution On Screen
• 16 Colours
• 1 Audio Channel
• G7000 Compatible

VALUE G7400
UNBOXED £30-£40
BOXED £120-£150 depending on condition

European Release 1983, I don't believe this was ever released In the UK, but slight modification to the French system allows it to work in the UK. there was a design to release the guts of the machine in the
 states under the Magnavox label as the Odyssey 3, which had he same basic hardware but with a cosmetically different exterior, although the prototypes were shown it is not believed this machine went on general release, however some people have one or two of the less than a dozen are rumoured to exist.
Further down you will find instructions for the modification and the steps needed to be taken to repair the very fallible power Switch

The 7400 was the next generation console for Philips which was intended to see them trough till around 1985/6 with plans for another fifty plus Videopac cartridges, however the fable computer crash of 1984 meant development cutbacks and so this promising console never took a great hold on the market. and the fifty cartridges quickly became two.

The first Videopac game to take advantage of the enhanced capabilities of the 7400 was Terrahawks, Videopac 51, thus making the further cartridges from that point on Videopac Plus enhanced, they also released new versions of some of the older previously available cartridges such as Race, Stonesling, Satellite Attack, Freedom fighters, & Pickaxe Pete.

The majority of cases, for purely commercial reasons, most were made backwards compatible with the old G7000 and as such in the limited space available on the carts they could do little more with the enhancements than add colourful backgrounds. With three exceptions and theses three exceptions consistently will reach the highest values when sold due to their scarceness, that would be Helicopter Rescue, Norseman and Trans American Rally, Helicopter rescue Videopac 59 is not to be confused with the Magnavox re-release of the same name (which is very common and not very valuable.) 59 & 60 both written specifically for the 7400 and were compatible with the JOPAC model, these games left the two dimensional world of the G7000 far behind and were amongst the first High resolution three dimensional playing fields available for a home console. There is a forth Exception to the list, however I don't class it as a videopac cartridge as its the Microsoft Basic Expansion Module, Which is Only compatible with the G7400 and possibly the JO-7400, though I have yet to confirm this is the case.

Since then a flashpoint ROM was discovered, Flashpoint was to be the release game for the American version of the G7400 called the Odyssey3. This has been released by enthusiast Dieter Konig of Classic Consoles Centre as Videopac 63, for which he also supplies a wooden joystick holder as flashpoint was intended for the O3 which had built in controller securing it was intended to be played by one player with tow controllers simultaneously

TRANS AMERICAN RALLY SCREEN

Comparison Between G7000 and G7400

Here we see Killer Bee's snapshot as played on a Philips G7000

So clearly not all cartridges benefited from the enhanced capabilities of the 7400 only the VIDEOPAC+ Modules and the even rarer Jopac cartridges are fully compatible with this system,. however a standard Videopac cartridge plugged into one of these works just like it did on the G7000, I suspect as always this is a major flaw, I have never been one for backward compatibility, I know to the manufacturers this looks like opening a platform with a wider upgrade market, but in my humble opinion, other than the single success story of IBM compatibles, no other backward compatible system has ever succeeded, and I believe that the IBM is the only one, because business are not keen on major change so a PC compatible market was fine, but for the home user and console market, I firmly believe a user will stay loyal to his breed of machine and will jump ship to a newer more ultimate breed of the same beast.

Unless the manufacturers are the driving force behind a consoles software the third party games developers want as big a market base as possible and will initially only develop software that works on both machines until the more powerful machine takes off, but it wont take off unless the games are available, its a vicious circle, one that springs to mind that did however break the circle of backward compatibility was the PS2, however that was a dramatic improvement on the PS1 which had billions of loyal customers waiting for the next generation of console, and I don't think the backward compatibility to the PS1 was ever much of a deciding factor in this purchase.

Anyway back to compatibility, likewise of you being able to play standard carts on the 7400 you were also able to play most 7400 (or Videopac +_ carts on your older G7000 model machine with out the as seen above graphical improvements (forward compatibility now that is unheard of).

The picture left shows the inside motherboard of the 7400 System.

There was also a change made to the keyboard layout of the 7400 from the G7000, a slightly smaller layout with more keys, however these still were never used, and so the two Keyboard overlays had to be reworked for the newer model, Quest for the Rings & Musician.
 

I have created a Musician keyboard overlay as this is a UK based site, and since the 7400 never got an official launch over here it was not given as standard in the Videopac 31 release as it was in other european copies. the overlay can be downloaded and printed for the G7400. Available by clicking on the picture below. its in PDF format so you may need acrobat reader to view, however this is a free download available from www.adobe.com.

Much Like The Philips G7400 Other variations Of the console exist such as the Schneider G74+ and the Radiola Jet 741. the boxed G7400 usually gathers quite a bit of interest, with prices ranging from £65-£150 depending on the condition of the box/instructions. yet again in 3 years of monitoring I have yet to see a boxed G74 or Jet741. one can therefore only speculate the value, which baring in mind these are much rarer versions of this already unusual console, I would imagine the price of a boxed edition going upwards of £150-£250. with I suspect the higher value going towards the Schneider since its is less common even than the Radiola Jet.

Philips G7400 Manual