Intellivision controller repair and sadist engineers

freewheel · December 12, 2014

Over the years I've found the INTV to be one of the more reliable consoles (or just been lucky with the few I've owned), so I've never really had to do much work fixing them. But with a large batch obtained this fall, I'm selling some off. And it turns out that several have flaky controllers. Not just sorta bad, but unplayable bad - they need to be repaired/replaced. So I'm involved in repairing these things for the first time. Fortunately the latest batch came with several replacement circuit matrices. Obviously whoever owned these was a collector who planned on fixing them, but never got around to it. It even had a photocopied (not printed, PHOTOCOPIED) repair instruction sheet. Maybe that was sent when they were ordered back whenever (can you still find these new?).

Annnnnnnnd - holy crap Mattel, do you ever suck. There are many consoles with attached controllers. They are all more or less repairable. These puppies? I have never messed with a more annoying design. Getting the damn circuit to stay down, with the keypad overlay, and the action buttons (ok, these mostly stay in place), plus the disc and loose spring - oh and don't forget the plastic washer - my word, but that was the most frustrating thing I've ever done with electronics. I was sure that it wasn't gonna work because it just felt like I was cramming the top on and praying things held together - but the first one, worked perfectly. I haven't used such a nice controller since the 80s (and of course the Flashback). The second? Try as I might I just couldn't get it working for a couple of directions. I'll mess with it later; I had to stop as I was ready to start breaking things.

I just felt like whining, because for an otherwise solid console - this thing has the best RF signal of any console, hands down, and the cartridges almost never need cleaning/adjustment - what a pain in the ass. I also ran into one of the power switches acting up; it's nowhere near as bad as the Colecovision can be so hopefully it's an easy fix. Oh and one seems to boot with STIC problems - it's almost all black and white on the Mattel copyright screen. I may see if I can repair this guy because it's a unit that the previous owner modded with DB9 connectors - so I could use FB controllers along with nurmix's cables.

As I see more and more controller problems (out of the 10 consoles I own I think only 50% are currently usable) I suspect we'll see a large demand for modding INTV 1s to take FB controllers. Otherwise these things will be junked. Here's hoping AtGames starts selling the controllers separately.

Edited December 12, 2014 by freeweed

Keatah · December 12, 2014

I believe (and someone correct me if I'm wrong) the intellivision controllers were an experiment in low cost layer assembly of electronics. An upscaled version of pocket calculator assembly. Easily assembled by stamping-style machinery.

freewheel · December 12, 2014

I believe (and someone correct me if I'm wrong) the intellivision controllers were an experiment in low cost layer assembly of electronics. An upscaled version of pocket calculator assembly. Easily assembled by stamping-style machinery.

I'd be curious how the hell that worked, because getting the plastic to sit there while the top goes on is an exercise in frustration. Perhaps machines can do it better than me, but I don't know how. You have to bend the thing several different ways, all while aligning it to very small plastic posts. Maybe the plastic was easier to work with 30 years ago...

Muzz73 · December 12, 2014

Ugh... I remember repairing INTV controllers when I was in high school. Your posts are giving me flashbacks and I'm sure I'll have nightmares later on...