jlew715 Posted November 24, 2018 Share Posted November 24, 2018 Hey all, As we know, when the Intellivision II was designed, Mattel implemented the stricter copyright routine so third-party games, namely Coleco, (and Mattel's own Word Fun) wouldn't work on the new console. It seems like everyone eventually figured out how to get around this, by many already-released games were incompatible. As far as I'm aware, Coleco never re-released their games in the US market with updated code to get around the Inty II copyright check. However, I've read that some versions of the European CBS Electronics release of Coleco's games have updated code and (in theory) should run on an Inty II. The real question is - would you want to? Coleco is somewhat notorious for intentionally gimping their Inty ports to make the ColecoVision look better. In my case, however, Venture is one of my favorite Intellivision games after the AD&Ds! So I decided to order a CBS copy of Venture and got it working. It could just be my imagination, but the CBS version seems to run noticeably smoother than the US-market Coleco version (on the Inty I of course). How-To: Pictures 1 & 2 - Obtain the "Green Dragon w/ White Lines" box version of Venture. The are at least two other CBS box versions; I'm not sure if they all contain Intellivision II compatible code. Pictures 3 & 4 - Great! You have a Venture cartridge that has the right code to work in an Inty II. Only one problem - the cartridge doesn't fit in the console! There are three "chines" above the PCB contacts which prevent insertion into the US-market Intellivision II. Unscrew the two screws on the back of the cart. Picture 5 - The other half of the cart is normal and should fit in any Intellivision. No work needed here. Picture 6 - Break off (ouch! sorry) the three chines with some needle-nose pliers (etc) and sand/file down the remaining nubs. Picture 7 - Reassemble the cartridge (was it really that easy?). Picture 8 - Not quite! Now that you've filed down the chines, the cartridge actually goes too far into the Intellivision II. So when you insert it, insert it about 5mm short of the hard stop. Do that, and you're playing Venture on an Intellivision II! 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+JasonlikesINTV Posted November 25, 2018 Share Posted November 25, 2018 Neat! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blainelocklair Posted November 25, 2018 Share Posted November 25, 2018 Nice work. Glad to know it can be done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wolfy62 Posted November 25, 2018 Share Posted November 25, 2018 That is cool,thanks for sharing this info! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MauAnouk2012 Posted November 25, 2018 Share Posted November 25, 2018 (edited) Hi Great.... Thank you so much for this information. As soon as I read your post, I took cartridge and made the change on my ZAXXON CBS (photo). All perfect. As you wrote, one must not only insert it all the way. Ciao Edited November 25, 2018 by MauAnouk2012 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Intymike Posted November 25, 2018 Share Posted November 25, 2018 I see the price for the CBS games rising. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MauAnouk2012 Posted November 25, 2018 Share Posted November 25, 2018 I see the price for the CBS games rising. .. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlew715 Posted November 25, 2018 Author Share Posted November 25, 2018 As soon as I read your post, I took cartridge and made the change on my ZAXXON CBS (photo). All perfect. As you wrote, one must not only insert it all the way. I’m thinking of cutting some adhesive rubber feet to put next to the middle chine to function as a “bumper” so it will stop when properly inserted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arcade124 Posted November 28, 2018 Share Posted November 28, 2018 Now, we should start testing if other CBS box variations work and if they run any smoother. I may order some myself to test this. Has anyone else tested this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m-crew Posted November 29, 2018 Share Posted November 29, 2018 I see the price for the CBS games rising. lmao !!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr_intv Posted November 30, 2018 Share Posted November 30, 2018 Thanks for sharing this. Works like a charm on my cbs Venture. Now I need more cbs variants.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DZ-Jay Posted December 1, 2018 Share Posted December 1, 2018 I don't quite understand this hack ... Is it that the Intellivision cartridge which fits on the console has code that does not work on the Intellivision II; and that there is another cartridge which does not fit, but with code that actually does work on an Intellivision II? I don't understand -- why would Coleco release a cartridge for Intellivision that does not fit in the console? Or is it a cartridge for some other console which happens to also run on the Intellivision II??? -dZ. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr_me Posted December 1, 2018 Share Posted December 1, 2018 (edited) CBS manufactured coleco cartridges for europe where there was no intellivision II. Venture was one of the coleco cartridges that fails to start on an intellivision ii. The cbs version of the cartridge seems to have an updated rom. Not sure if the rom change made it into any coleco versions of venture. Is there a similarly updated cartridge for Donkey Kong, Carnival, Mouse Trap. Edited December 1, 2018 by mr_me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlew715 Posted December 1, 2018 Author Share Posted December 1, 2018 I don't quite understand this hack ... Is it that the Intellivision cartridge which fits on the console has code that does not work on the Intellivision II; and that there is another cartridge which does not fit, but with code that actually does work on an Intellivision II? I don't understand -- why would Coleco release a cartridge for Intellivision that does not fit in the console? Or is it a cartridge for some other console which happens to also run on the Intellivision II??? -dZ. The cartridge that fits on the console (Coleco North America release) has code that does not work on Intellivision II. The cartridge that does not fit on the console (CBS Europe release) has code that does work on Intellivision II. I don’t understand why they bothered updating the code to the Europe release, since Europe only had Intellivision I, where the original code worked anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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