Intellivision
| Intellivision | |||
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| Manufacturer | Mattel | ||
| Type | stationary game console | ||
| generation | second generation of consoles | ||
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| Main processor | General Instrument CP1610 | ||
| Storage media | Modules | ||
| Controller | 2 controllers permanently connected to the console | ||
| Online service | PlayCable | ||
| Units sold | at least 3,000,000 | ||
| Most successful game | Las Vegas Poker & Blackjack | ||
| predecessor | Mattel Electronics LCD Game Series | ||
| successor | HyperScan | ||
| info | First 16-bit game console | ||
The Intellivision is a game console released by Mattel in America in 1979 . Development of the console began in 1978, less than a year after the competitor's Atari 2600 console was released .
history
The Intellivision was developed by the Mattel Electronics division , which was founded to develop electronic games. In 1979 the device and four associated games were launched in Fresno to test its marketability. In 1980, the system was finally released across the United States for $ 299 with the game Las Vegas Blackjack . While Mattel was n't the first to compete with Atari ( Fairchild Semiconductor , Bally, and Magnavox had already launched competing consoles), the Intellivision was the first serious threat to Atari's dominance in the video game market. In a series of commercials starring George Plimpton , Mattel mercilessly portrayed the Atari 2600's technical inferiority to the Intellivision.
In its first year, Mattel sold 175,000 Intellivision consoles and expanded the game selection to 19 titles. At that time, all games were developed by an external company. In order to increase profits with its own software, Mattel founded an in-house game development department. To prevent competitor Atari from poaching the programmers, their identity and place of work were kept strictly secret. In public, these programmers were mostly referred to as Blue Sky Rangers .
In 1982, console sales hit a new high. Over two million Intellivision consoles were sold by the end of the year, bringing Mattel profits of approximately $ 100 million. Atari's third party developers Activision , Coleco, and Imagic began releasing games for the Intellivision. The most popular titles have each sold over a million copies. In response to the success, Mattel introduced a new peripheral , the Intellivoice . This device was used to output speech in connection with certain games.
Mattel caused a stir with the announcement of a computer keyboard . This computer upgrade turned out to be expensive and laborious to manufacture, and eventually Mattel was fined $ 10,000 by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which was due on a daily basis until Mattel released the promised upgrade. Finally, the keyboard was available through a written order. 4000 units were sold, many of which were brought back when Mattel called them back in 1983. The reason for this was that the developers had come up with a more efficient manufacturing method. A new computer upgrade, the Entertainment Computer System (ECS), was significantly smaller and easier to produce than the original keyboard. The two devices were incompatible, but owners of the old version could swap their keyboard for the new model.
At the same time as the ECS, the Intellivision II with removable gamepads and a new design was released in 1983 , as well as the system changer for playing Atari 2600 games with the Intellivision and a keyboard extension for the ECS. However, with the release of these devices, Mattel also faced new problems: with new game consoles ( ColecoVision [1982], Atari 5200 [1983] and Vectrex [1983]) competing manufacturers gained market share, and the video game crash of 1983 closed the entire industry create. In August, Mattel production was cut back and the price of the Intellivision II dropped from $ 150 to $ 69. Mattel Electronics posted a loss of $ 300 million. Early next year, the department was shut down as one of the first major victims of the crash.
A group of employees bought the console and software rights as well as the remaining inventory and sold them under the name of the new company INTV Corp. via mail order. After all Intellivision II copies were sold out, a new console was released, the INTV III . It was a variant of the Intellivision in a new design, which was later renamed the Super Pro System . In addition to manufacturing new consoles, INTV Corp. also new games. Eventually, however, sales died down and INTV was dissolved in 1991.
statistics
- The Intellivision was the first 16-bit game console, although it is also often mistakenly referred to as the 10-bit system.
- The Intellivision was the first system with broadband support . In 1981 General Instrument published the Play Cable together with Mattel , with which games could be received via a cable connection.
- More than 3 million Intellivision consoles were sold during its twelve year sales.
- A total of 125 games appeared for the Intellivision.
See also Category: Intellivision Game .
Technical specifications
- General Instrument CP1610 16-bit microprocessor CPU with 894.886 kHz
- 371 bytes of RAM
- 160 × 196 pixels
- 16 (simultaneously displayable) colors (color processor AY-3-8915)
- 8 sprites
- Three- channel sound ( sound chip : GI AY-3-8914 )
Controller information
- Gamepad with twelve buttons
- four side "Action Buttons"
- "Directional Disk" for entering 16 directions
Web links
- Intellivision Retrogaming site operated by the Blue Sky Rangers
- INTV Funhouse Extensive site with additional images, Easter eggs and other links
- Angry Video Game Nerd humorous review
- A History of Gaming Platforms: Mattel Intellivision - Article on Gamasutra.com (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Intellivision Gaming Network ( Memento from October 16, 2018 in the Internet Archive )