Mattel Intellivision FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Version 7.0

Maintained by David Harley
http://beeslife.com/faq.htm

Table of Contents

1.0 - General Information.. 3

1.1 - Brief History of the Mattel Intellivision.. 3

1.2 - Timeline. 4

2.0) Technical Information.. 5

2.1 - General Hardware Specs. 5

2.2 - Processor Specs. 5

2.3 -Graphics Specs. 8

2.4 -Operating System Specs. 9

3.0) Hardware Descriptions.. 10

3.1 - Intellivision Master Component.. 10

3.2 - GTE / Sylvania Intellivision.. 10

3.3 - Radio Shack Tandyvision I 10

3.4 - INTV System III 10

3.5 - Sears Super Video Arcade. 10

3.6 - Intellivision II 11

3.7 – Keyboard Component / Computer Adaptor.. 12

3.8 - Intellivoice Voice Synthesis Module. 12

3.9 - Entertainment Computer System... 12

3.10 - Music Synthesizer.. 13

3.11 - System Changer.. 13

3.12 - Joystick Substitutes. 14

3.13 - Compro Electronics Videoplexer.. 14

3.14 - PlayCable. 15

3.15 - Intellivision Tester (MTE-100) 17

4.0) Cartridge Listing.. 17

4.1 - Released Titles. 17

4.2 -Unreleased (or rumored) titles for the Intellivision.. 20

4.3 –Unreleased / Announced titles for the ECS. 21

4.4 -Software announced for the Keyboard Component/Computer Adaptor.. 22

4.5 -Easter Eggs, Cheats and Tips. 22

4.8 -Information regarding Unreleased Titles & Hardware. 52

4.9 -Information regarding Label & Box Variations. 54

5.0) Vaporware, Trivia, and Miscellaneous.. 56

5.1 - Intellivision III 56

5.2 - Intellivision IV.. 57

5.3 - World Book Tutorvision.. 57

5.4 - Bandai Intellivision Japan.. 58

5.5 - Digiplay Intellivision South America.. 61

5.6 - INTV Corp. Games. 62

5.7 - Trivia and Fun Facts. 62

5.7 - Competition Cartridges. 65

6.0) Electronic Resources.. 65

6.1 -Internet Resources. 65

7.0) Repair Tips and Information.. 67

7.1 - Hand Controllers. 67

7.2 - Cartridge Problems. 68

7.3 - Console Disassembly.. 68

7.4 - General Troubleshooting.. 69

7.5 - Pinouts for INTV Controller.. 70

7.6 -Fixing INTV II Controllers. 72

7.7 - Intellivision 2 Controller Modification.. 73

7.8 -You've really messed up and are wondering what to do... 73

7.9 -Hooking your Intellivision to a Modern TV.. 74

8.0) Programmer Interviews.. 74

8.1 - Daniel Bass. 74

8.2 - Ray Kaestner.. 76

8.3 - Patrick Jost.. 78

9.0) Intellivision Emulators.. 80

9.1 - Commercial Emulators. 80

9.2 - Non-Commercial Emulators. 81

10.0) Credits.. 81

1.0 - General Information

1.1 - Brief History of the Mattel Intellivision

At the end of 1979, Mattel Electronics (a division of Mattel Toys) released a video game system known as Intellivision along with 12 video game cartridges. Poised as a competitor to the then king of the hill Atari 2600, Mattel Electronics called their new product "Intelligent Television", stemming largely from their marketing plans to release a compatible computer keyboard for their video games console. Mattel's marketing was anything *but* intelligent and almost destroyed the company by 1984. In one sense the system was very successful, with over 3 million units sold and 125 games released before the system was discontinued by INTV Corp. in 1990.

The original Master Component was test marketed in Fresno, California in late 1979. The response was excellent, and Mattel went national with their new game system in late 1980. The first year's production run of 200,000 units was completely sold out! To help enhance its marketability, Mattel also marketed the system in Sears stores as the Super Video Arcade, and at Radio Shack as the Tandyvision One in the early 1980's.

1980 was a turbulent year for the Intellivision. Mattel announced that an "inexpensive" keyboard expansion would be available in 1981 for the master component to be dropped into. This was to turn the system into a powerful 64K home computer that could do everything from play games to balance your checkbook. There was a great deal of marketing money and press coverage devoted to this unit; a third of the box for the GTE/Sylvania Intellivision describes the features of this proposed expansion. Many people bought an Intellivision with plans to turn it into a computer when the expansion module was released. Months, then years passed. The original expansion keyboard was released only in a few test areas in late 1981. With the price too high and the initial reaction poor, the product was scrapped in 1982 before being released nationwide.

1982 saw many changes in both the videogame industry and the Intellivision product line. A voice-synthesis module called Intellivoice made sound and speech and integral part of game play, through the use of special voice-enhanced cartridges. The Intellivision II was also released this year, which one company spokesperson described as "smaller and lighter that the original, yet with the same powerful 16-bit microprocessor". The new console was more compact than the first, and its grayish body made it look more like a sophisticated electronic device than the original design.

1983 brought more promises from the folks at Mattel, the most significant of which being the Intellivision III. This was shown off at the January 1983 CES show, and lauded in the videogame magazines for many months afterwards. In June of 1983 at the Summer CES show, Mattel announced it was killing the Intellivision III and including most of its high-profile features into their long-awaited computer expansion, the Entertainment Computer System.

Probably the most ambitious effort the Intellivision team had undertaken, the Entertainment Computer System was comprised of a computer keyboard add-on, a 49-key music synthesizer, ram expansion for the keyboard add-on to expand it to a full 64K RAM and 24K ROM, a data recorder to store programs, a 40-column thermal printer, and an adapter which would allow you to play Atari 2600 games on your Intellivision. The RAM expansion modules never saw the light of day. The data recorder, and thermal printer were released as components for the Aquarius computer. The music synthesizer had but one software title to take advantage of its capabilities. While the 2600 adapter greatly expanded the library of available games, much of the steam this generated had already been stolen by Coleco's own expansion module.

1984 would spell the end of the original Intellivision as the world knew it. Terry E. Valeski, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Sales at Mattel Electronics, along with a group of investors, purchased the assets, trademarks, patents, and right to the Intellivision in January of 1984 for $16.5 million dollars. The purchase was backed by financing from Tangible Industries, a division of Revco Drug Stores, The newly formed company was originally called Intellivision, Inc., and later renamed INTV, Inc., after Valeski negotiated all rights from Revco in November of 1984. During the next two years, the new company would lie dormant while plans were being made for a re-emergence.

In the fall of 1985, the INTV System III (also called the Super Pro System) appeared at Toys 'R Us, Kiddie City, and in a mail order catalog sent to owners of the original Intellivision direct from INTV. The new console was of the same general design as the original master component, except it sported a fresh black plastic shell with brushed aluminum trim. Several new games accompanied the release of the new system, and 1985 would register over $6 million dollars in sales worldwide, indicating that INTV Corp. had indeed revived the Intellivision. INTV continued to market games and repair services through the mail with great success. Between 1985 and 1990 over 35 new games were released, bringing the Intellivision's game library to a total of 125 titles.

Many more changes were to come during the final six years of Intellivision's life. In 1987, an improved master component called the INTV System IV was shown at the January CES, which sported detachable controllers and a timing device. Unfortunately, this never saw the light of day either. In the fall of 1988, INTV re-introduced the computer keyboard adapter through their mail order catalog on a limited quantity basis. In 1990, INTV discontinued retail sales of their games and equipment and sold them only through the mail channels.

The change in marketing was due to agreements with Nintendo and Sega to become a software vendor for the NES, Game Boy and Genesis. In 1991, INTV sold out its stock of Intellivision games and consoles, and the company, along with the Intellivision, gradually faded away.

1.2 - Timeline

1979 - Intellivision is test marketed

1980 - Mattel Intellivision released nationally, Computer Expansion announced

1982 - Computer Expansion Module scrapped due to high cost and poor response

1982 - Intellivoice released

1983 - Intellivision II released

1983 - Entertainment Computer System released many peripherals. Announced

1983 - 2600 System Changer released

1983 - Intellivision III announced

1983 - The videogame market begins to crash

1983 - Intellivision III dropped

1984 - The videogame market bottoms out

1984 - Mattel sells the Intellivision rights to VP Marketing T.E. Valeski and investors, forming INTV Corp.

1985 - INTV III released, along with new Intellivision titles. Aggressive marketing adds $6 million sales

1987 - INTV IV announced, to be scrapped later

1990 - INTV Corp. discontinues retail sales, markets through mail only

1991 - INTV Corp. sells off its remaining Intellivision stock

2.0) Technical Information

2.1 - General Hardware Specs

Intellivision Master Component (these apply to the clones as well)

CPU: GI 16 bit microprocessor

Memory: 7K internal ROM, RAM and I/O structures, remaining 64k address space for external programs.

Controls: 12 button numeric key pad, four action keys, and 16 direction disc

Sound: Sound generator capable of 3 part harmony with programmable ASDR envelopes.

Color: 16 colors

Resolution: 192v x 160h pixels

2.2 - Processor Specs

GI 1600, running at 894,886.25 Hz (NTSC) and 1MHz (PAL/SECAM). Processor has 16 bit registers, uses 16 bit RAM, and has 10 bit instructions. Intellivision cartridges contain ROMs that are 10 bits wide. Ten bits are called a decle.

The CPU was strange. For example, if you did two ROTATE LEFT instructions, followed by a ROTATE RIGHT BY 2 (rotates could be by one or two), you did not end up with the original word. The top two bits were swapped!

Ken Kirkby also has this to add: "The GI CP1600 was developed as a joint venture in the early seventies between GI and Honeywell. One of the first commercial uses of the CP1600 was its incorporation into Honeywell's TDC2000, the first distributed control system, and prototypes existed in late '74 I think. Honeywell's then Test Instrument Division also incorporated into a Cardiac Catheterization system called MEDDARS which was released for sale about 1979. The CP1600 was definitely a 16 bit chip."

John Dullea dug this information up during a stroll at his local library:

“In the Penn State Library I found a book called "An Introduction to Microcomputers, Vol. 2: Some Real Microprocessors", By Adam Osborne, Osborne & Associates, Inc., 1978. ISBN: 0-931998-15-2. Library of Congress catalogue card #: 76-374891.

It has lots of info on the CP1600/1610 CPU in the Intellivision. Chapter 16 has the pinouts of the CPU:

The logic board in the Intellivision unit (original model 2609) reveals a number of (important) chips:

Sound AY-3-8914 40-pin

ROM RO-3-9503-003 40-pin

ROM RO-3-9502-011 40-pin

Color AY-3-8915 18-pin

And there is the cartridge ROM:

ROM AY-3-9504-021 28-pin

In addition, there are three 40-pin chips that have heat sinks with epoxy on top. Now, you may try this, but be EXTREMELY careful (or just listen to what I found): I carefully removed the three heat-sunk chips and looked at them; they have designations on the bottom!

STIC AY-3-8900-1 40-pin

RAM RA-3-9600 40-pin

CPU CP-1610 40-pin *

Having the CPU location and pin outs, one can use an ohmmeter to map the pins to the cartridge pins:

Looking AT the cartridge, not the Intellivision unit: you probably should double-check this, but I obviously can't accept any responsibility for any damage to your Master Component. (I'm not 100% sure about the assignments for VCC and GND)

All *x pins are connected; cartridges have a loop on the top row connecting them, and the connector in the Intellivision unit connects the top row *x pins to those on the bottom row. Internally, *x pins are connected as follows:

*1 STIC pin 7

*2 STIC pin 6

*3 STIC pin 8

There may be other connections to them as well; I don't know why they connect to the ROM pins. However, considering the system changer's ability to route in external video, having pins going to the STIC seems to make some sense. I suspect that they may switch the ROM from address write mode to data read mode (like the three bus control lines on the CPU, maybe).

Mapping this to the ROM pinouts, you get:

Please note that the chapter mentioned above has all opcode and register info, as well as timing information for the CP1600/1600A/1610 CPUs.

2.3 -Graphics Specs

160x92 pixels, 16 colors, 8 sprites (they were called "moving objects" rather than sprites) 8x8 in size. Sprites could be linearly doubled.

Graphics is character based. The screen is twelve rows of twenty characters. Characters either come from Graphics ROM (GROM), which contains the usual alphanumeric symbols and a bunch of other things meant to be useful in drawing backgrounds (256 characters in all), or Graphics RAM (GRAM), which the program can use to build pictures needed that aren't in GROM (like sprite images). GRAM can hold 64. The pre-designed sprites located in ROM were a big help in speeding up game play. Eight of the colors are designated as the primary colors. The other eight are called the pastel colors.

There were two graphics modes: Foreground/Background, and Color Stack. In F/B mode, you specify the colors for both the on and off pixels of each card ("card" is the term for a 8x8 block on the screen). One of these (the on pixels, I think) could use any color, but the other could only use the primary colors.

In CS mode, you can give the chip a circular list of four colors (pastels and primaries are both allowed). For each card, you specify the ON bits color from any of the 16 colors, and the OFF bits color comes from the next color on the circular list. You can also tell if the list is to advance or not. Thus, in CS mode, you only get four colors for the OFF bits, and they have to be used in a predetermined order, but you get to use the pastels. Most games used CS mode.

A sprite could be designated as either being in front of or behind the background, which determined priority when it overlapped the ON pixels of a background image.

You could tell the graphics chip to black out the top row or the first column (or both) of cards. You could also tell it to delay the display by up to the time of seven scan lines, or to delay the pixels on each scan line by up to seven pixel times. Using these two features together allows for smooth scrolling.

For example, a game that is going to scroll a lot sideways could black out the first row. Now, to scroll the background to the right by one pixel, you just have to delay by one pixel time. This moves everything over. The black part is NOT delayed --that is always displayed in the first 8 screen pixel locations. The net result is that you now see one pixel that was previously hidden under the black strip, and one pixel on the other side has fallen of the edge, and everything appears to have moved over. Thus, to scroll, you only have to move the screen memory every eighth time, when things need to be shifted a full card. There is no need for a bitblt-type operation.

The hardware detected collisions between sprites and other sprites or the background.

GRAM and screen memory could only be manipulated during vertical retrace. At the end of vertical retrace, you had to tell the chip if it should display or not. If you weren't done, you could keep manipulating by not telling it to display, but then you end up with a flicker which was unacceptable.

2.4 -Operating System Specs

The operating system did several things:

It allowed the program to specify a velocity for each sprite. The OS would deal with adjusting the sprite position registers for you and cycling through your animation sequence.

For each pair of sprites you could specify a routine to be called when that pair of sprites collided. For each sprite, you could specify a routine to be called when that sprite hit the background or the edge of the screen.

It maintained timers, and allowed you to specify routines to be called periodically.

It dealt with the controls. You could specify routines to be called when the control disc was pressed or released, or when buttons were pressed or released. It provided functions to read numbers from the keypad. The calling sequences for these were a bit strange. When you called these, they saved the return address, and then did a return. You had to call them with nothing after your return address on the stack, and they return to your caller. When the number is ready, they return to after where you called them, but as an interrupt. In generic assembly, it would be like this (I've long since forgotten 1600!):

jsr        foo

bar

:..

....

foo:      ;do some setup or whatever

jsr        GetNumberFromKeypad

spam:  ...

GetNumberFromKeypad returns to bar immediately. When the number is read, spam will be called from an interrupt handler. If you didn't know that a routine did this, reading code could get rather confusing!

3.0) Hardware Descriptions

3.1 - Intellivision Master Component

The original, the one the started it all. It has a brown molded plastic case with gold trim on the top. Two controller wells are recessed in the top for housing the two hard-wired controllers. The controllers are also brown molded plastic, with a 12-key numeric keypad, two fire buttons located on each side, and a gold disk centered in the bottom third of the controller which is used to control your on-screen persona. The power and reset switches are located on the top of the unit, in the lower right hand corner.

3.2 - GTE / Sylvania Intellivision

This console is identical to the original Intellivision except for the brand name. The box has a very detailed description of the Keyboard Component/Computer Adapter that was never released... Rumor has it that these were given away for free with the purchase of a Sylvania television.

3.3 - Radio Shack Tandyvision I

This console has faux wood-grain paneling in the place of the INTV I's gold panels. Otherwise, this unit is totally identical to the INTV I.

3.4 - INTV System III

In 1984, the vice president of marketing for Mattel Electronics bought the rights to the Intellivision and formed a company called INTV Corp. The result of this venture was the release of the INTV III, or Super Pro System. This redesigned unit is physically identical to the original INTV I, except that it has a black plastic case with silver plates, and also has a Power LED indicator between the Power and Reset switches. The controllers are black with silver discs, and the keypads were either silver with black lettering or black with silver lettering.

3.5 - Sears Super Video Arcade

Up until recently, if you wanted to market your product through Sears, it had to have their name on it. Much like Atari with the Tele-Games Video Arcade, Mattel created a clone that was similar yet different to the INTV I. Functionally identical, this unit has a cream-colored case with a wood-grain front, and removable controllers that rest in the center of the console. The power and reset switches are circular in shape and about an inch in diameter:

3.6 - Intellivision II

In 1982, Mattel decided that they needed to spice up the design of the Intellivision, as well as attempt to shave some costs; the Intellivision II was the result. Some key differences include:

- A much smaller footprint

- Grey plastic case with a thin red stripe circling the unit

- External power supply (not standard by any means)

- Detachable controllers

- Combination Power/Reset switch (you have to hold the switch for 5 seconds in order to turn the unit off)

- Power LED Indicator

This unit contained a revised ROM which was necessary for the System Changer (more on that later), but also caused incompatibilities with certain Coleco games (Donkey Kong, Mouse Trap, and Carnival) and some Mattel games (Word Fun, Shark Shark).

This unit also used a non-standard AC Adapter, making it near impossible to find a replacement at your local Radio Shack. For those who are handy enough to construct their own, here are the specs:

Input: 120V 60Hz 25 Watts

Output: 16.7V AC 1.0A

The INTV II Power supply can also be substituted by the following power supplies: Atari 1050 disk drive, Genesis I, Atari Jaguar. Use at own risk!

3.7 – Keyboard Component / Computer Adaptor

This unit only saw a limited test marketing run of less than one thousand units in late 1981. It was color-keyed to match the INTV I, and the entire game console fit into the top of the unit. It sported a full-stroke 60-key keyboard, built in cassette recorder, and brought the total memory capacity of the Intellivision to 64K. A modem expansion module was also planned. Due to its high street price (around $700, versus an announced price of $150), the plans to market this unit nationally were shelved.

3.8 - Intellivoice Voice Synthesis Module

This module attaches to the cartridge port of your Intellivision, and through the use of special voice-enhanced games, your INTV could talk. There were 5 games released to take advantage of the unit's capabilities (Space Spartans, B-17 Bomber, Tron Solar Sailor, Bomb Squad, and World Series Major League Baseball (also requires the ECS) ). The module has a dial on the front to control the voice's volume. Voice games will work without the adapter, but since the voice was made to be an integral portion of the game, they're extremely difficult to play.

Underneath the plastic Mattel Electronics logo on the top is an expansion connector.

3.9 - Entertainment Computer System

Spurred on by the increasingly popular home computer market and lawsuits, Mattel introduced the Entertainment Computer System along with the INTV II in 1983. This unit plugs into the cartridge port of the INTV II, and has its own cartridge slot, two additional controller ports, a cassette interface, and a balance dial for controlling the output level of the ECS's three additional voices.

The unit requires an additional power supply. Here again, Mattel used something completely different from the rest of the industry:

Output: 10.0 VAC, 1.0 A

The ECS came packaged with a 49-key chiclet-style keyboard, power supply, and a well-written manual describing INTV BASIC. Upon returning your registration card, you would receive "The Step-By-Step Guide To Home Computing", which included a very detailed BASIC Tutorial, and some more in-depth study of the ECS's abilities. The unit sported an additional voice chip (bringing the grand total to 6), 10K of ROM and 2K of RAM for programming purposes.

This unit comes in two flavors, the grey mentioned above, and also a dark brown color (sold in the European market) keyed to the original Intellivision. Functionally, the units are identical except for the 220 volt power supply. The dark brown variety is extremely difficult to find. Expansions announced for this unit includes a 16K RAM, 8K ROM expansion, a 32KRAM, 12K ROM expansion. None of these peripherals ever made it to market.

3.10 - Music Synthesizer

This was an add-on for the ECS, a full 49 key piano style keyboard. It has 6 note polyphony (for you non-musicians, can play 6 notes at once), and plugs into the controller ports on the ECS via a dual 9 pin connector. Melody Blaster was the only program released by Mattel to specifically take advantage of this component. This unit also came molded either in light gray or dark brown plastic (European market). Although they are both pretty tough to find, the brown variety is extremely rare.

3.11 - System Changer

The Atari 2600 had the biggest library of games at the time, and Mattel added the capability of playing 2600 carts to the INTV II with this module. This unit also interfaces with the INTV II via the cartridge port. It has a 2600 cartridge port on the top of the module, Game Select and Reset keys flanking the two difficulty and color/BW switch. The controller ports are located on the front of the module, and any of your favorite 2600 compatible controllers work just fine. If you don't happen to have Atari controllers lying around, you can use the disc controller attached to the INTV II in lieu of them. If you happened to own an original Intellivision, sending in your Master Component and $19.95 would get you a main board modification that was required for this unit to work with the older equipment.

3.12 - Joystick Substitutes

For the masses that couldn't stand to use the Intellivision's awful disc controllers, there were a couple solutions:

- INTV Corp. released a set of clip-on Joysticks which snapped onto the lower half of your controller, these are of questionable quality and value:

- A couple of other companies released sticks that either glued onto the existing discs, or replaced the disc entirely, with a shaft that screwed into a hole drilled into the center of the replacement disc. One of these add-ons also came with oversized fire buttons that clipped over the existing buttons.

3.13 - Compro Electronics Videoplexer

Tired of switching between your 8 favorite games? Get a Videoplexer! Similar to the RomScanner for the Atari 2600, this unit would store 8 Intellivision games and allow you to switch them on the fly via a touch panel on the front of the unit. The unit plugs into the cartridge port of the base system, and on top there are slots for up to eight cartridges. At the base of the Videoplexer, there are 8 buttons for switching between the cartridges.

3.14 - PlayCable

The idea of beaming videogames through Cable TV is not new; a company called PlayCable created an adapter for the Intellivision that plugged in to the cartridge port, and the service had a selection of 20 of the most popular games available every month.

Steven Roode and his brother were fortunate enough to have this service, and what follows is his description of the hardware and the service provided:

“When you signed up for PlayCable, you were given a box which would plug into the Intellivision's (INTV's) cartridge port. The box had the same color scheme as an INTV I, and its dimensions were the same height and depth of the INTV I, with the length of an INTV II. It had a power cord coming out of it. Additionally, you were given a RF box which had a coaxial in, a coaxial out, and two RCA outs. One RCA out was connected to the INTV, and one was connected to the PlayCable unit.

For about $4.95 a month, the cable company would transmit 20 games (Although for the first few months, there were only 15 games). When you turned on the INTV, a sort of 'boot screen' would come up and you would hear a sound that sort of sounded like a clock ticking. After a couple of seconds, you would hear 4 long beeps and the PlayCable title screen would pop up. There would be one of four different songs in the background (I know that one was the victory song in checkers, one was The Entertainer, one was Music Box Dancer, and I forget the other one). Each screen listed 5 games (I think, it may have been 4), and you could cycle through the games lists by pressing the disc. When you found the game that you wanted, you would press the number next to it, and press enter. A title screen of the game would pop up, and again you would hear ticking. After a couple of seconds, you would hear the same 4 long beeps and the game would be ready to play”

The following are excerpts from a PlayCable-specific game manual describing the game loading process:

HOW TO SELECT YOUR FAVORITE GAME FROM PLAYCABLE:

- Set the PlayCable TV/Game switch to GAME.

- Turn on your television and turn to Channel 3 or 4. (The same setting as the switch on the bottom of the Mattel Electronics Master Component.)

- Turn on the Master Component; push the RESET button.

- The screen will read, "PLAYCABLE CATALOG." The screen will then change to: "PLAYCABLE PRESENTS INTELLIVISION. PUSH DISC."

- Push the directional disc (the big, round button on either hand control) to see each page of the catalog. The series will start again automatically as you keep pushing the disc.

- To call up a game, find the page on which the game appears. Press the number of the game on your keypad, and then press ENTER. Wait about 10 seconds. When the four rectangles in the upper left hand corner of your screen turn white, your game is ready.

- Push the disc again and the game will appear.

- To select a new game, push RESET. The catalog will re-appear.

One of the neater aspects of PlayCable was that they would rotate out about half of the games every month. When they did, you would get instruction books and overlays for each new game in the mail (and all of the overlays were attached with perforations; so you would have to sort of tear them apart).

PlayCable tended to have some pretty decent games on it. You would always have a couple of the 'classics' every month (i.e., I don't think Baseball and Astrosmash ever came off!), and you would get some pretty recent games as well. Once in a while they were slow in changing the games. They were supposed to be rotated out on the 1st of each month. Believe me, my brother and I would fake sick to stay home from school sometimes on the 1st! If by noon they weren't changed, we would call the cable company and by the end of the day they were updated (One other neat little side note: When they changed the games out, the system would still be up. First, all game choices would disappear. Then, two by two, new games would pop up. You could actually see them appear!)

We had PlayCable for about two years (I think 81-82), and our cable company was big into promoting it. They had INTV playathons at some of the local malls, giving away free INTVs to high scorers in certain games. During one promotional weekend, the cable company showed nothing but people playing INTV and the announcers commenting on how realistic the game play was. I think we even have one PlayCable T-shirt lying around somewhere!

Finally though, our cable company stopped carrying PlayCable, and unfortunately, we had to surrender the box. I would like to have kept it to see how it worked. All in all, our family has a lot of fond memories of PlayCable... I think it helped to enhance the uniqueness and mystery of the Intellivision.

3.15 - Intellivision Tester (MTE-100)

This is a large metal briefcase that appears to be a portable diagnostic unit for testing Intellivision cartridges and the removable chips from malfunctioning systems. It consists of two controllers mounted onto the top of the unit, zero insertion force (ZIF) sockets for testing chips, and various other controls to test the chips under different operating conditions. To run the diagnostics, the system uses an integrated MTE-201 test cartridge. Internally, the system appears to be a modified 2609 motherboard along with an alternative power supply circuit. It is interesting to note that the controllers mounted on the top of the unit match the layout in the controller test section of the MTE-201 tests, which means they are reversed -i.e. the left controller is mounted on the right. This unit was not sold to the public, and it is unknown if more were produced. At the time of this writing, the history of this unit remains shrouded in mystery.

(Thanks to Steve Orth for the info)

4.0) Cartridge Listing

4.1 - Released Titles

Overlay Key:

Yes = has overlays

No = No overlays

L/R = has different overlays for the left and right controllers

Notes: Any interesting tidbits, such as additional hardware required, release notes, and compatibility.