1970's - Magnavox Odyssey

I used to say and believe that Atari had the first video-game system.  For many years, the Atari was the one-sided marketplace of video-games, the one political party, the one monopoly.  It took until 1984 for Nintendo to become the One Video-Game System.  From 1984 to 1990, most adults were under the impression that "Nintendo games" and "video-games" were synonymous phrases.  Before 1984, though, the same was true of the Atari.

Enter the Odyssey.

Sears had an exclusive deal with the Odyssey, where the only place to buy the system was at Sears.  Thus, Sears was the only place in which to buy video-games.

Eventually, Sears inspired Wal-Mart, which inspired Target.  Both stores continue to maintain SOME exclusive deals even to this day.  However, Sears is no longer a store in which video-games are bought or sold.  In the 2010's, one cannot imagine Sears as having any impressive selection of games - let alone the whole entire marketplace.  However, that's how it worked.

The Odyssey can be considered to be one of literature's first works of fiction, after the Iliad, and so it makes some sense that the first major famous video-game console would be called the Odyssey.

Here's a quick breakdown of all the Odyssey games ever made.