Wishing for a New Intellivision Book

[First Spear]

It would be pretty cool to have some kind of authoritative Intellivision book, with authoritative history of the console, and real hardware/software development info. Maybe something in the same relative size of the gate-fold boxes so it would properly fit on CMart's shelf.

 

I imagine that a "coffee table" book might do well for our favorite console. For one thing, it could ride the popularity and advertising of the Flashback, so it could get lots of web/search visibility. For another thing, there isn't one yet, so a quality title that is first-to-market would be a good sell, even to those outside of our rabid AA community.

 

Unlike a web site, a book becomes an immediate moment in time, a product of its publication date and does not have to overdo things by trying to represent a future that no one really knows. A book is easy to pick up, show off, and show interest. A book doesn't become a victim of 404's.

 

Hmm.. Maybe a coffee table book with a 1979-era plastic cartridge holder inside, empty, for anyone to put their favorite flash cart in it to hold games for all time.

 

I am pretty deep in the the Classic Apple ][ community, and that platform has seen a book on history, tech, or history+tech every year for the last few years (images are a small sample), and they all tend to sell well.

[+JasonlikesINTV]

I would definitely buy something like this.

[freewheel]

I'd like to see our equivalent of "Racing the Beam" - nerdy and techie to its core, and yet written in such a way to be interesting to the not-so-technical. Or at least the not-hardcore programmers. While the 2600 gets all the credit for being such a beast to program for, the INTV had its own technical nuances that are rather interesting in the context of the era. And it pioneered a lot of ideas that became industry standards for close to 20 years after its birth.

 

We certainly have the knowledge and expertise in this community; it's a matter of finding someone with an engaging writing style and the drive to see something like this through. Sadly I have neither.

Edited December 18, 2014 by freeweed

[IntellivisionDude]

I just bought a similar style book for the Sega Genesis. It's filled with the story of the Genesis, tons of artwork and fold out posters and interviews with programmers. Something like that really should be made for the Intellivision.

 

[First Spear]

There was a book called Defying Gravity about the original Newton OS team at Apple, also one by Andy Hertzfeld on making the original Mac (not a Steve Jobs book but from an engineer's point of view how to make a next-level piece of technology), I would love to see that kind of insider info in an Intellivision book also. Keith Robinson obviously knows a lot of info, but not everything, it would be cool to learn about design decisions and hacks and etc. The Intellivisionaries podcast does a great job of getting into the heads of original game programmers during their interviews, it would be cool to get their words on paper and also info from the hardware guys who actually made those controllers and laid out the console. Developer info would be a nice byproduct of what they provide.

 

I'd like to see our equivalent of "Racing the Beam" - nerdy and techie to its core, and yet written in such a way to be interesting to the not-so-technical. Or at least the not-hardcore programmers. While the 2600 gets all the credit for being such a beast to program for, the INTV had its own technical nuances that are rather interesting in the context of the era. And it pioneered a lot of ideas that became industry standards for close to 20 years after its birth.

 

We certainly have the knowledge and expertise in this community; it's a matter of finding someone with an engaging writing style and the drive to see something like this through. Sadly I have neither.

[freewheel]

The Intellivisionaries podcast does a great job of getting into the heads of original game programmers during their interviews, it would be cool to get their words on paper and also info from the hardware guys who actually made those controllers and laid out the console. Developer info would be a nice byproduct of what they provide.

 

For sure. Not to be all "demandy" or anything, but I'd LOVE to see the Intellivisionaries guys get a hold of some hardware designers. The programmers have cool stories and the interviews are very well done (especially considering this is just a hobbiest thing, although I suspect at least one of the guys must have professional experience doing this) - I drool about listening to hardware geeks go nuts about the origins and decisions made back when.

[+Lathe26]

The only Intellivision book I know of (from back in the day) is "The Family Playbook for Intellivision Games".

 

While interesting to read, it is not the kind of coffee table book being discussed. A new Intellivision book sounds interesting.

[Bill Loguidice]

The Intellivision was one of the subjects (along with the ColecoVision) I was considering tackling after I finished my other books (which have since been released), but Marty Goldberg already "claimed" it, so there was no reason for me to go for a redundant effort. Same thing with the ColecoVision book. Since someone else is already working on it, there's no reason to do it as well.

 

With that said, there might certainly be a place for a divergent effort on the subject, perhaps something like the visual books out for platforms like the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Amiga, etc., that primarily consist of high quality screenshots and mini-developer commentaries.

[fabulous_Muller]

I'd like to see our equivalent of "Racing the Beam" - nerdy and techie to its core, and yet written in such a way to be interesting to the not-so-technical. Or at least the not-hardcore programmers. While the 2600 gets all the credit for being such a beast to program for, the INTV had its own technical nuances that are rather interesting in the context of the era. And it pioneered a lot of ideas that became industry standards for close to 20 years after its birth.

 

We certainly have the knowledge and expertise in this community; it's a matter of finding someone with an engaging writing style and the drive to see something like this through. Sadly I have neither.

Hy folks , I wrote a letter to Keith Robinson begging him to do that. That was last year, still waiting for a response. Racing the beam is a platform study series from MIT and I wrote one of the authors, Ian bogost asking for an intellivision book too. He said that he would like a lot but would have to have some help. I was hoping Mr.Robinson could indicate someone or take the place. The series is intend to be used by MIT students so it's a very good soil to plant. Intellivision is cited sometimes in Racing the beam , but the comparisons are completly misundestood , like the 2600 has a "superior graphics" due to its biggest 128 colour pallete and things like that. That's why we deserver a intv book for this series, to teach things right from the first time....

[IntellivisionDude]

Kickstarter is a great way to do this. That Sega Genesis book i mentioned above was done through Kickstarter. They got enough money to not only make the book but to make it a very huge book with a ton of pages and even fancy fold out pages.

 

I was also recently invloved with another Kicktarter to get another book done for the game Earthbound. They raised enough money and then some.

 

Seems to be the way to go these days. I bet enough Intellivision fans would donate to something like this.

[Retro Rogue]

The Intellivision was one of the subjects (along with the ColecoVision) I was considering tackling after I finished my other books (which have since been released), but Marty Goldberg already "claimed" it, so there was no reason for me to go for a redundant effort. Same thing with the ColecoVision book. Since someone else is already working on it, there's no reason to do it as well.

 

With that said, there might certainly be a place for a divergent effort on the subject, perhaps something like the visual books out for platforms like the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Amiga, etc., that primarily consist of high quality screenshots and mini-developer commentaries.

 

The book I'm working on is on Mattel Electronics itself, which will include the Intellivision for a major portion of it of course. It will be covering the entire history of that division though, from the handhelds to board games to the Intellivision in the same manner as Atari Inc. - Business Is Fun. There's certainly room for a Racing the Beam style book specific to the Intellivision and the development of it's games, or a coffee table "visual book" like you're talking about, I wouldn't see that as competition to this. Just some overlap.

 

As for Fabulous_muller's request to Keith, if it were specifically about coding on the Intellivision and the development of it's games (like Racing The Beam) I could see Keith for it. If it's more about the platform's creation and the hardware, I'm not sure Keith would be the right person beyond just supporting such a book. He came there later in the system's life and as a game developer. You'd need one of the original hardware developers involved. Racing the Beam is only part of the MIT platform series btw, there's also The Future Was Here on the Amiga and Joe Decuir's forthcoming book on the development of the Atari PCS.

 

My book schedule is pretty full as well right now, besides the Mattel Electronics book I have the second edition of Business Is Fun, plus there's Atari Corp. - Business Is War for next year and I'm also working on a book on the Alamogordo burial (a direct account of the actual burial and specifics surrounding it, as well as tracking it's rise in pop culture along the many legends and myths that sprung up around it and concluding with the dig). I'm looking to have the Mattel Electronics book done for early 2016.

Edited December 24, 2014 by Retro Rogue

[First Spear]

How is this looking? I'm ready to buy!

 

 

 

[snip] I'm looking to have the Mattel Electronics book done for early 2016.

[First Spear]

Oh no! The Atari boys have beat us to it. Maybe Keith Robinson should get on this?

 

 

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/art-of-atari-limited-deluxe-edition-tim-lapetino/1124402726?ean=9781524102111&st=PLA&sid=BNB_DRS_Core+Shopping+Books_00000000&2sid=Google_&sourceId=PLGoP62464

 

 

[+DZ-Jay]

Oh no! The Atari boys have beat us to it. Maybe Keith Robinson should get on this?

 

 

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/art-of-atari-limited-deluxe-edition-tim-lapetino/1124402726?ean=9781524102111&st=PLA&sid=BNB_DRS_Core+Shopping+Books_00000000&2sid=Google_&sourceId=PLGoP62464

 

 

 

Yeah, I saw that book showcased a couple of years ago in one of the issues of "RETRO" magazine when it first came out -- back when even an article about artwork contained very few images (my complaints against that magazine are a topic for another day).

 

I think it's a great idea and I think there should be one made for the Intellivision as well. 1970s and 1980s video game artwork is frozen time in a way that old magazine advertisements for products from the 1950s are; and they should be appreciated and celebrated in the same way.

 

-dZ.

Edited November 3, 2016 by DZ-Jay

[First Spear]

Aaaarrrggghhh! It looks like the Atari kids have a poster book out now as well.

Keith Robinson, help!

https://www.amazon.com/Atari-Poster-Book-None/dp/1524103020//ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=atariage&linkId=a9799ef8e1c594794c7899eb440cea41

[Games For Your Intellivision]

Not that I'm seeking 'glory' (For all of the 'glory' that is Intellivision history).....I really don't care too much... I'm not fishing for recognition, but I think that the 'official' Intellivision history as presented by Intellivision Productions, always glosses over what happened between INTV Corp. going out of business, and Intellivision Productions, Inc. starting up. They don't even mention it really if at all.

 

There is the little matter of fan based reverse engineering and emulator development. The reason we have an Intellivision homebrew scene today is because of that effort. I was playing Intellivision baseball with real hand controllers on a 486 PC before Intellivision Productions was even a company back in the mid 90s. (When everyone said that an Intellivision emulator 'didn't exist)

 

It was an exciting time and there is an interesting story that I think should be covered. I've kind of wanted to do my own 'panel' at one of these retro game shows with a few of the key people to tell the story. However, I've never had the cachet that the 'Blue Sky Rangers' do, so I never ever bothered trying to set it up. However, if a book is done, I hope that it includes the story.

[+DZ-Jay]

Personally, I find the history of the original platform and its development a much more compelling story than the later story of building an emulation and the home-brew movement. Perhaps its because the home-brew community is still here and fairly new.

 

That's not to say that reverse-engineering and re-discovering old concepts is not interesting, I find discussions on the subject fascinating. However, notice that the focus of those discussions is in understanding what made the old system tick, and not the reverse-engineering effort itself.

 

I guess that if you think you have an interesting enough story you could try writing your own history book. I agree with you, though, that a panel of Joe Z. and Carl Mueller, as interesting as it may be, may not be as big of a draw as one with Keith Robinson and Don Daglow.

 

-dZ.

[Games For Your Intellivision]

I expected that you'd be the first to chime in. I can always count on you to marginalize whatever efforts we put in to create the Intellivision home-brew community back 20 years ago. Yes, the community is 'still here', but If 20 years ago is 'fairly new', you certainly have a strange concept of 'fairly new'.

 

If you knew anything about the scene 20 years ago, you'd know that there WAS no understanding of 'what made the old system tick'. There was simply no available information online. Nothing. Nada. No 'Papa Intellivision' site. No development kit. Just someone who claimed he had two Intellivision roms on eprom from a Tcard.

 

It was like a brick wall that we had to keep chipping away at. All of these companies like Imagic and Activision hired reverse engineering firms. We had no such help. I think it is an interesting story (your mileage may vary) to hear how we got to the point where we now know all that we know about the system.

 

The efforts included researching GI chips and building new hardware and software. This included a cartridge dumper and the software to drive it and also eventually, a hand controller interface. Finding key people like Dave Rolfe and Ron Carlson who eventually supplied tech information, when the web was only 5 years old and google didn't exist..... to key people like Joe Zbiciak and Frank Palozzolo finding us is an interesting story.

 

Carl built all the tools with next to nothing in information..... A disassembler, and assembler..... he reverse engineered prototype games found on eproms,......then Scott Nudds and I dumped the GROM and Executive ROM and all the games with hardware we had to build...then the technical challenges of securing the ECS Exec......learning about what made the Intellivoice tick and dumping its rom.......Carl .disassembling and documenting the executive.....figuring out how to connect Intellivision controllers to a running emulator before USB existed... Reverse engineering a Keyboard Component and dumping all of its roms....dumping all of the Keyboard program data on 4 track cassettes. (This is just FINALLY being brought to MAME this month btw)

 

All of this eventually leading to Keith Robinson creating Intellivision Productions and buying the emulator to release Intellivision Lives! and the background on all of that....and finding of all of these prototype games.

 

To eventually leading to a development kit and creation of a new cartridge and eventually the Intellicart.

 

There's a reason I'm in the credits of the Intellicart.

 

But, No, nothing to see here.......may as well write your own book.

[BillLoguidice]

I would expect a good Intellivision history book to cover everything, although with an obvious bias towards the primary commercial years, since that's where you'd expect the primary audience interest. Something to effect of maybe 60% or so of the book focused on the time period up to about 1984, and then individual chapters or two on the remaining years up to the present day.

[+DZ-Jay]

Double-post

[+DZ-Jay]

I expected that you'd be the first to chime in. I can always count on you to marginalize whatever efforts we put in to create the Intellivision home-brew community back 20 years ago. Yes, the community is 'still here', but If 20 years ago is 'fairly new', you certainly have a strange concept of 'fairly new'.

 

<Snipped rant.>

 

Jeesh, way to take it personally.

 

You are still missing the point. Nobody is clamoring for a book about Keith Robinson's antics during the past 15 years and how they used an emulator, but on what happened during the Mattel days.

 

Like I said, you can go write your own book. I'm sure there will be people interested on it.

[BillLoguidice]

Like I said, you can go write your own book. I'm sure there will be people interested on it.

 

I bet the MIT Studies group might be interested in a "Racing the Beam" equivalent for the Intellivision. I know they've been considering some far more obscure platforms for that series.