Intellivision 3?

[jaybird3rd]

The photo mockup of the Intellivision II styled International IntelliVoice module was reportedly a painted block of wood. I don't know if the Intellivision IV mockup was also, but given how little actual work was done on the system, I doubt that Mattel would have spent the money to tool a plastic case for it.

[thetick1]

....

 

joystick-Intellivision3.JPG

 

Even if the above unit isn't a functioning unit (i.e. a dummy box), I'm surprised it has never surfaced after all these years. I mean something existed, didn't it? I would assume that's where the promo pic came from. Unless it is just an artist pic, but it doesn't look like that to me. I can't believe someone would have just thrown it out.

 

When everyone is being laid off the last thing on everyone's mind is preserving capital or properity.

[jaybird3rd]

Wow, it's a blast from the past! I wonder if this thread predated the Intellivision/Aquarius subforum, since it was created here in "Classic Gaming General" instead (edit: I moved it).

 

Sadly, I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of rare stuff did indeed get thrown out when Mattel closed its Mattel Electronics division. I remember a CGE presentation by Mike Rounds, former Entex exec, who talked about the AdventureVision and some other rare projects that Entex was working on shortly before it closed its doors in 1984. He said that the company had a cage where its prototypes and other one-of-a-kind products were stored, and that all of it probably went straight into the dumpsters when the owners decided to close the company. I'm sure that almost nobody at the time would have imagined that any of that stuff would ever be of historical interest to anyone, and storing it all would have cost money. Fortunately, in certain cases, there have been preservationists who have literally rescued these artifacts from the garbage; Curt Vendel raiding Atari's dumpsters in 1996 is one example that comes to mind.

[jaybird3rd]

Seeing my old posts about INTV's Intellivision III reminds me of something. I have since acquired an Intellivision III of my own, and while performing some minor repairs, I noticed something interesting about it: the mainboard inside was an original Intellivision Master Component board that appeared to have been serviced by Mattel's spare parts department. If I remember correctly, INTV's stated reason for taking the Intellivision III back to the original Master Component design had to do with expensive proprietary chips in the Intellivision II, but I wonder if it was simply because they happened to get Mattel's original Master Component injection molds and spare parts, and could build enough "new" Intellivision systems from this existing stock to meet ongoing demand. Of course, we know from the TutorVision project that they (and World Book Encyclopedia) later invested in new hardware development, but I'm sure that INTV saved themselves a lot of money by recycling the old Master Component parts, if indeed that happened.

[mr_me]

The custom IC they are talking about is the one labelled Mattel LAC at U9 in the Intellivision II. Their hong kong manufacturer should have had the molds for the Intellivision II, but making more of the Mattel LAC chip seems to have been an issue. You might be right that they had more spare parts ie. PCBs available from the original. The new chip for the Tutorvision was a reconfiguration of old ICs from General Instrument (Microchip Technology as of 1987). The INTV Corp guys who included ex Mattel programmers like Bill Fisher might also have had a strong opposition to Intellivision II controllers.

 

Edit:

Again the INTV System III made by INTV Corp from 1985 to 1989/90 is not the Intellivision III cancelled by Mattel Electronics in 1983 that was never released.

 

Not sure who exactly at INTV Corp was making the decisions regarding hardware. Initially Bill Fisher was their consultant and then Dave Warhol, both are primarily software guys.

Edited January 5, 2018 by mr_me

[jaybird3rd]

I had the impression that Quicksilver Software (Bill Fisher's company) was involved with INTV early on, but that most of INTV's new development was done by Realtime Associates (Dave Warhol's company). I know that Realtime used subcontractors to do at least some hardware design—they built their own PC-based Intellivision development systems—and that they were also involved with the new TutorVision titles as well as the modified TutorVision EXEC, so I assume that the hardware development was done by them or their subcontractors.

 

EDIT: Here is a short July 2003 news item from Intellivision Productions (scroll down about halfway) which provides more details about the TutorVision.

[willbilly]

 

When everyone is being laid off the last thing on everyone's mind is preserving capital or properity.

 

In my experience when that happens people tend to take whatever isn't nailed down.