Stickers On Boxes

[m-crew]

I just was taking a look at one of the two boxed intellivision I have

I noticed one is wider and longer and has this sticker on it.

 

I wonder if it was on early in the production run of these paticular boxes.

Edited August 24, 2016 by m-crew

[+intvsteve]

cmart probably has all 18,349 variations of this mapped out.

 

But with a certainty, Mattel produced numerous variations of the Master Component boxes. I suspect the stickers came along later as more / different production facilities were entering / leaving the process.

 

You could get 100,000 boxes printed up and then after having used half, need to change the info. Rather than trash all that material, print some stickers and cover up the old info. Or, maybe it was blank and the only way to meet labeling requirements was to put on the sticker.

 

As to size changes, there are likely several factors:

Cost reduction in materials and shipping

Smaller retail store footprint -> More units on shelves in the same space

and so forth

 

Wasn't Radofin brought in relatively late? Or more to address markets in Asia / Australia? Or did they take over manufacturing completely at some point? Surely some others here have tracked all that down.

[+cmart604]

Can you take pics of the rest of the box, front and back? Generally the larger boxes were the early release ones but I'm not sure I've seen that Radofin sticker on hardware. I'm away from my 100+ Intellivisions though so I'll have to check when I get home. Lol!

[m-crew]

cmart probably has all 18,349 variations of this mapped out.

 

But with a certainty, Mattel produced numerous variations of the Master Component boxes. I suspect the stickers came along later as more / different production facilities were entering / leaving the process.

 

You could get 100,000 boxes printed up and then after having used half, need to change the info. Rather than trash all that material, print some stickers and cover up the old info. Or, maybe it was blank and the only way to meet labeling requirements was to put on the sticker.

 

As to size changes, there are likely several factors:

Cost reduction in materials and shipping

Smaller retail store footprint -> More units on shelves in the same space

and so forth

 

Wasn't Radofin brought in relatively late? Or more to address markets in Asia / Australia? Or did they take over manufacturing completely at some point? Surely some others here have tracked all that down.

That about sums it up in short, stickers save companies money that's for sure.

[m-crew]

Can you take pics of the rest of the box, front and back? Generally the larger boxes were the early release ones but I'm not sure I've seen that Radofin sticker on hardware. I'm away from my 100+ Intellivisions though so I'll have to check when I get home. Lol!

Sure Ill dig it up again..

[m-crew]

Here are a couple , box has been through hell and back but it's still hanging tough.

Lol

[+intvsteve]

That's a relatively old box. We got that one when we had to replace our first one. We had let the smoke out of that one.

 

I wonder what that blue sticker covers up on the front. It does seem strange that it's got a Radofin sticker on it.

[m-crew]

Here's the other one I have

 

There's a sticker on that too , on back

[m-crew]

That's a relatively old box. We got that one when we had to replace our first one. We had let the smoke out of that one.

 

I wonder what that blue sticker covers up on the front. It does seem strange that it's got a Radofin sticker on it.

Don't think I want to try to peel that sticker off.. lol what happened to your first one..

[m-crew]

Take a look at the white sticker on back left bottom corner of the 2nd box,

[m-crew]

Here is the back of the intellivision that belongs to that firts box.

[+intvsteve]

Yeah, that first one is one of the older ones - a 2609 listed at 15W. The 2609A was listed at 18W. I've never dug into the guts enough to learn why the power requirements were changed.

[m-crew]

Yeah, that first one is one of the older ones - a 2609 listed at 15W. The 2609A was listed at 18W. I've never dug into the guts enough to learn why the power requirements were changed.

Interesting, Thanks intvsteve

[+cmart604]

Hmmmm. Struggling a bit to see these pics on my phone. I think it's safest if you just send them to me for proper inspection.

[intvnut]

Wasn't Radofin brought in relatively late? Or more to address markets in Asia / Australia? Or did they take over manufacturing completely at some point? Surely some others here have tracked all that down.

 

Is 1978 late? http://papaintellivision.com/pdfs/CCF10232011_00005.pdf

 

Granted, it appears Radofin was mainly brought in for the PAL unit development. Domestic US development seems to have been mostly with GI and Sylvania.

Edited August 25, 2016 by intvnut

[+cmart604]

 

Is 1978 late? http://papaintellivision.com/pdfs/CCF10232011_00005.pdf

 

Granted, it appears Radofin was mainly brought in for the PAL unit development. Domestic US development seems to have been mostly with GI and Sylvania.

Man that site is so full of interesting tidbits. On page 15 you can see the software list where they refer to Space Battle as "Galactica".

[intvnut]

Man that site is so full of interesting tidbits. On page 15 you can see the software list where they refer to Space Battle as "Galactica".

 

Also there are slides regarding a mysterious "H.E.C." and what it would take to rework Mattel's EXEC and games into GPL and GROM. A different document mentions Milton Bradley.

 

I have a pretty big hunch all of those are references to the Texas Instruments chipset / Home Computer / etc. The Home Computer was programmed in a language called GPL (Games Programming Language / Graphics Programming Language, depending on who you ask). GPL was stored in a TI-specific serial ROM called—you guessed it—GROM. Milton Bradley was one of the early 3rd party engagements with TI.

 

I wonder if "H.E.C." stood for "Home Educational Computer" or "Home Entertainment Computer" or something like that? In any case, those slides suggest Mattel was looking at what it'd take to retool on the TI infrastructure, while still delivering on their ideas for the Keyboard Component, etc.

 

(And yet another document there indicates the Keyboard Component originally had a second CP-1610, not a 6502....)

 

Anyway... totally off-topic for this thread. I'll stop threadjacking and get back to work.

[+DZ-Jay]

 

Also there are slides regarding a mysterious "H.E.C." and what it would take to rework Mattel's EXEC and games into GPL and GROM. A different document mentions Milton Bradley.

 

I have a pretty big hunch all of those are references to the Texas Instruments chipset / Home Computer / etc. The Home Computer was programmed in a language called GPL (Games Programming Language / Graphics Programming Language, depending on who you ask). GPL was stored in a TI-specific serial ROM called—you guessed it—GROM. Milton Bradley was one of the early 3rd party engagements with TI.

 

I wonder if "H.E.C." stood for "Home Educational Computer" or "Home Entertainment Computer" or something like that? In any case, those slides suggest Mattel was looking at what it'd take to retool on the TI infrastructure, while still delivering on their ideas for the Keyboard Component, etc.

 

(And yet another document there indicates the Keyboard Component originally had a second CP-1610, not a 6502....)

 

Anyway... totally off-topic for this thread. I'll stop threadjacking and get back to work.

 

Interesting stuff! Ah, to be able to go back in time and be a fly on the wall for those design sessions...

[mr_me]

I just was taking a look at one of the two boxed intellivision I have

I noticed one is wider and longer and has this sticker on it.

 

I wonder if it was on early in the production run of these paticular boxes.

The first one is a Canadian CSA Intellivision. It's a fairly early serial number for Canadian Intellivisions. I think Canadian Intellivisions made in Hong Kong serial numbers start after RH1million. Its box is likely before they made the light blue bilingual box for Canada. I think its from when they first transitioned manufacturing to Hong Kong. As Sylvania was used to start manufacturing for Mattel in the USA, Radofin (Far East) was used to start manufacturing for Mattel in Hong Kong. The Canadian bilingual box has the same text about being manufactured by Radofin Electronics (Far East). The box may have been from leftovers when they transitioned manufacturing from the USA to Hong Kong before they went to smaller boxes. Smaller boxes saved shipping costs from Hong Kong. Are you the original owner, when was it originally purchased?

 

That's a relatively old box. We got that one when we had to replace our first one. We had let the smoke out of that one.

 

I wonder what that blue sticker covers up on the front. It does seem strange that it's got a Radofin sticker on it.

What did your first box look like? Do you still have that first Intellivision? Wondering if it was made in the USA.

The same box here doesn't have anything where the blue sticker is on the front. I'm guessing the made in Hong Kong Radofin sticker covers up made in USA text, someone should have that box without the Radofin sticker.

 

edit: that blue sticker on the front covers text that reads "For use in the United States only".

 

Yeah, that first one is one of the older ones - a 2609 listed at 15W. The 2609A was listed at 18W. I've never dug into the guts enough to learn why the power requirements were changed.

The early Intellivisions made in the USA (2609) were 15W, when they switched to Hong Kong they (2609A) became 18W. The Canadian Intellivisions (2609 serial-RH) remained at 15W even though they were made at the same time as the 2609A. Maybe they all have the same power requirements, or maybe they used less efficient parts in Hong Kong (someone test these things). Canada must have tougher standards (probably not).

 

 

Also there are slides regarding a mysterious "H.E.C." and what it would take to rework Mattel's EXEC and games into GPL and GROM. A different document mentions Milton Bradley.

 

I have a pretty big hunch all of those are references to the Texas Instruments chipset / Home Computer / etc. The Home Computer was programmed in a language called GPL (Games Programming Language / Graphics Programming Language, depending on who you ask). GPL was stored in a TI-specific serial ROM called—you guessed it—GROM. Milton Bradley was one of the early 3rd party engagements with TI.

 

I wonder if "H.E.C." stood for "Home Educational Computer" or "Home Entertainment Computer" or something like that? In any case, those slides suggest Mattel was looking at what it'd take to retool on the TI infrastructure, while still delivering on their ideas for the Keyboard Component, etc.

 

(And yet another document there indicates the Keyboard Component originally had a second CP-1610, not a 6502....)

 

Anyway... totally off-topic for this thread. I'll stop threadjacking and get back to work.

The 'history and philosophy' document talks about the chipset offer from TI in fall 1978. And that Milton Bradley was developing a game system based on the same chipset as the TI 99/4 computer. And that standardization with TI, Milton Bradley was "strongly considered". Imagine if software was compatible between the systems from those three companies; but Mattel's idea of a computer was different than TI. When I read emulation, I first thought software emulation on a larger computer, but they are talking about a big box of wires and chips. GI has this chip set for sale in their catalog but they (STIC, RAM, colour) didn't quite exist yet.

Edited August 25, 2016 by mr_me

[Intymike]

Can you take pics of the rest of the box, front and back? Generally the larger boxes were the early release ones but I'm not sure I've seen that Radofin sticker on hardware. I'm away from my 100+ Intellivisions though so I'll have to check when I get home. Lol!

 

 

I have a UK big box. It seems that the brits got the Intellivision quite early (no wonder there were many red Space Battles and Space Armadas). Maybe the first PAL Intellivisions that were released.

[m-crew]

I purchased this from the original owners , two brothers and they told me they purchased it in the late 70's. Couldn't remember exact date or what store.. But they did have it stored in the basement in a 50s looking dressers... lol

 

They found it when there mother had to sell there house do to she was in her 90s and was going into a nursing home.

 

Lots of great things in that old house...

[intvnut]

I purchased this from the original owners , two brothers and they told me they purchased it in the late 70's. Couldn't remember exact date or what store.. But they did have it stored in the basement in a 50s looking dressers... lol

 

They found it when there mother had to sell there house do to she was in her 90s and was going into a nursing home.

 

Lots of great things in that old house...

 

Years ago, my dad and his twin brother were in the comics collecting trade, and they'd go looking for all sorts of neat estate finds. Back then, it was neat finding 30+ year old rare comics in near mint, sometimes hiding in attics or old furniture. Now, it's finding 30+ year old unique Intellivisions (and other classic games) in near mint.

 

 

When I read emulation, I first thought software emulation on a larger computer, but they are talking about a big box of wires and chips. GI has this chip set for sale in their catalog but they (STIC, RAM, colour) didn't quite exist yet.

 

In the chip-making industry, emulation still means a big box of wires and chips. Only, instead of looking like this:

 

 

they look like this:

 

 

That second one is the size of multiple refrigerators. I've had the good fortune to play with a few over the years.

 

When I first started in the industry, I wondered why they called JTAG functionality "in circuit emulation." Turns out, it comes from its heritage within these big boxes-o-wires. With a true old-school box-o-chips-and-wires emulator box, you could look at register values and other internal state by physically connecting a logic analyzer or the like to the actual register, because it was actually a discrete chip (or chips) you could point to. "In-circuit Emulation" meant "we can give you the same visibility of those big boxes o' wires, with the actual chip." In the early days, they'd often make two versions of the chip, one with emulator functionality and one without. Later, transistors got cheap enough—and chips got complex enough—that they just make one version now.

 

I have a UK big box. It seems that the brits got the Intellivision quite early (no wonder there were many red Space Battles and Space Armadas). Maybe the first PAL Intellivisions that were released.

 

Quite possibly. It'd be able to reuse the existing English documentation. Even if the UK got versions of the docs w/ Americanisms changed, that's still a shorter path than translating into other languages. I wonder how the regulatory paths differ in the different countries, and if the units vary much among Europe. (I know France is special, with their SECAM. )

Edited August 26, 2016 by intvnut

[Rev]

Hmmmm. Struggling a bit to see these pics on my phone. I think it's safest if you just send them to me for proper inspection.

Hey old geezer. Time to get some bifocals.

[+cmart604]

Lol

[intvnut]

Hey old geezer. Time to get some bifocals.

 

Needs a pair of these.

 

 

 

(From here: https://youtu.be/fAkXoCAIA3w?t=33 )

Edited August 26, 2016 by intvnut