Games For Your Intellivision Posted December 13, 2016 Share Posted December 13, 2016 Back in the late 1990s after Intellivision emulation was perfected, we set our sights on Keyboard Component emulation. I sourced a keyboard but of course the tape drive was non functional and it suffered from a faulty CRT chip (Mystery chip) that would overheat and garble the display. I took the Keyboard to Detroit, MI to the home of Frank Palazzolo. Roms were dumped, reverse engineering was done, keyboards were repaired and data on tapes dumped..... Fast forward to 2016.....Frank is back on the project trying to complete the emulation of the Keyboard Component! A number of years ago, Frank gave a talk about how the emulation came about. He knew it had been recorded, but it has only recently (finally!) been uploaded to YouTube. Check it out! I've included a few pictures of Frank, Myself (William Moeller) and Carl Mueller posing with my Keyboard and the Apple II monitor working on the Keyboard as well as a couple of other pictures. 12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+KylJoy Posted December 13, 2016 Share Posted December 13, 2016 Awesome! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rev Posted December 13, 2016 Share Posted December 13, 2016 Was any game roms dumped? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr_me Posted December 13, 2016 Share Posted December 13, 2016 (edited) Was any game roms dumped? Technically they would be tape image files. A listing of the BASIC games/software in text file format would be good too. If anyone wants to see the Keyboard Component working in emulation, you can see Frank's work in MAME. I don't see support for tape images yet, but the BASIC cartridge might work. edit: the BASIC cartridge would be a ROM dump. Does anyone have the rom file? Edited December 13, 2016 by mr_me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mthompson Posted December 13, 2016 Share Posted December 13, 2016 Cool stuff. One of the reasons I bought my Intellivision in 1980 was to upgrade it to a computer later on (as the box's info encouraged me to do). Maybe soon I'll be able to run a keyboard component emulator on my actual computer and finally get Jack LaLanne to whip me into shape. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m-crew Posted December 13, 2016 Share Posted December 13, 2016 Cool stuff. One of the reasons I bought my Intellivision in 1980 was to upgrade it to a computer later on (as the box's info encouraged me to do). Oh the time I spent looking at the picture !!!! And just thinking so cool!!!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+BBWW Posted December 14, 2016 Share Posted December 14, 2016 Nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Games For Your Intellivision Posted December 14, 2016 Author Share Posted December 14, 2016 Was any game roms dumped? Basic was dumped.... Also, the tapes were all dumped as well. (Detailed in the video)....however, only Family Budgeting (BASIC) was prepared to work with the emulator. The two Machine code programs, Jack Lalane and Conversational French were never set up to work with the emulator. That is what Frank is working on, as well as the other Basic programs, at the moment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Games For Your Intellivision Posted December 14, 2016 Author Share Posted December 14, 2016 The cool thing (in my opinion) is that this project could lead to something like an 'ultimate Keyboard Component Cartridge' that could have an LTO Flash! married to a Keyboard Component work alike with USB ports for a keyboard and microphone 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr_me Posted December 14, 2016 Share Posted December 14, 2016 Wasn't there an unreleased "Super Football" for the keyboard component. It's code may have been repurposed to Super NFL for ecs or not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1980gamer Posted December 15, 2016 Share Posted December 15, 2016 Does anyone have a programming manual for this computer? Could you peek and poke? Did it have sprites etc. I did a bit of C=64 programming way back when. That was a 6510, similar to the 6502. I'd like to see the Tutorvision emulated as well. This would make for a good flashback 2. ( no tutorvision references of course ) I am suggesting about 10 new "Super Graphic" games added to the lineup. With the higher resolution, it would make many more games doable. Yet maintain the intellivision feel and half the blockyness! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr_me Posted December 15, 2016 Share Posted December 15, 2016 There's a copy of the Keyboard Component BASIC Introduction guide here. http://www.beeslife.com/intvlibrary The KC basic has no peek/poke and no way to program Intellivision graphics other than the preset KC character graphics. The character set has some graphic characters that break a character into six blocks. So it effectively turns the 39x24 hi res monochrome character display into a 78x72 block display. There's a BASIC comparison here. http://www.pagetable.com/?p=46 My understanding is that they were planning a second version of BASIC that would allow people to program Intellivision graphics. But there is no improvement to Intellivision graphic resolution in the Keyboard Component or the Tutorvision other than the hi res monochrome text the Keyboard Component adds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted December 15, 2016 Share Posted December 15, 2016 I didn't know there were intellivision guys here in the Detroit area. I never seem to bump into any classic gaming people around here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Games For Your Intellivision Posted December 15, 2016 Author Share Posted December 15, 2016 Wasn't there an unreleased "Super Football" for the keyboard component. It's code may have been repurposed to Super NFL for ecs or not. I recall seeing a picture of that, but I don't think any prototype has been found. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DZ-Jay Posted December 15, 2016 Share Posted December 15, 2016 Back in the late 1990s after Intellivision emulation was perfected, we set our sights on Keyboard Component emulation. I sourced a keyboard but of course the tape drive was non functional and it suffered from a faulty CRT chip (Mystery chip) that would overheat and garble the display. I took the Keyboard to Detroit, MI to the home of Frank Palazzolo. Roms were dumped, reverse engineering was done, keyboards were repaired and data on tapes dumped..... Fast forward to 2016.....Frank is back on the project trying to complete the emulation of the Keyboard Component! A number of years ago, Frank gave a talk about how the emulation came about. He knew it had been recorded, but it has only recently (finally!) been uploaded to YouTube. Check it out! I've included a few pictures of Frank, Myself (William Moeller) and Carl Mueller posing with my Keyboard and the Apple II monitor working on the Keyboard as well as a couple of other pictures. For those of us who've never met the whole team, can someone point out who's who in that picture? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DZ-Jay Posted December 15, 2016 Share Posted December 15, 2016 Hey, William, I saw Frank's video and his face looks familiar. Was he at CGE2012 when we released Carol and D2K? I seem to remember him hanging around the booth, but I can't be sure. -dZ. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Games For Your Intellivision Posted December 15, 2016 Author Share Posted December 15, 2016 The picture above is in Frank Palazzolo's living room in Detroit. On the Left is myself (William Moeller) Center (Frank Palazzolo) and on the Right (Carl Mueller Jr.) I was delivering the Keyboard Component and Carl lived in St. Clair Shores which was close, so we met up in person. I also met up with Carl a couple of times when I was in Japan...in Yokohama and Tokyo. I don't have pictures of other people mentioned in the video. Dan Blitz I've met (He is a funny guy) but I don't have a picture of him. Of course, there are a lot of pictures of Joe around. Frank hung out in the LTO/Elektronite booth at CGE 2012, so you've probably met him. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Games For Your Intellivision Posted December 15, 2016 Author Share Posted December 15, 2016 Hey, William, I saw Frank's video and his face looks familiar. Was he at CGE2012 when we released Carol and D2K? I seem to remember him hanging around the booth, but I can't be sure. -dZ. Posted at the same time. Yes, you've met him :-) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr_me Posted December 15, 2016 Share Posted December 15, 2016 I recall seeing a picture of that, but I don't think any prototype has been found. There's a photo of a cassette tape labelled Super Football here. I dont think anyone knows what's on that tape.http://www.gamescollection.it/?collections=138&pag=11 I think the screen shot picture we remember, with the diamonds in the endzone, might be an artist mockup. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Games For Your Intellivision Posted December 15, 2016 Author Share Posted December 15, 2016 Get that Super Football to Frank ASAP!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+intellivotion Posted December 15, 2016 Share Posted December 15, 2016 There's a photo of a cassette tape labelled Super Football here. I dont think anyone knows what's on that tape. http://www.gamescollection.it/?collections=138&pag=11 I think the screen shot picture we remember, with the diamonds in the endzone, might be an artist mockup. those are pics of Alex Pace's super-incredible collection Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mthompson Posted December 15, 2016 Share Posted December 15, 2016 (edited) Can someone who has the contacts ask Alex if he'd send Super Football to Frank so it can be part of this great project??? That page mentions that he's friends with Dan Blitz, so possibly he'd be willing to let Frank work his magic on that part of the collection. I was only kidding about the Jack LaLanne program, of course. It would be a real shame if all the known software ended up emulated except Super Football, which might end up having the most appeal. Edited December 15, 2016 by mthompson Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Games For Your Intellivision Posted December 16, 2016 Author Share Posted December 16, 2016 Frank has one of those 4 track Cassette Recorder/Players.....not a common item for sure. He's taken good care of all of this rare stuff in the past, and I'm sure that he'd make sure that Super Football was well taken care of as well. Not to mention get the data into a PC readable form. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr_me Posted December 16, 2016 Share Posted December 16, 2016 Alex also has a couple of tapes marked demonstration, a couple of unmarked tapes, and one that says 'dont record 1'. They could be blank, or they could have the disco dancing tutorial software. : ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DZ-Jay Posted December 16, 2016 Share Posted December 16, 2016 Frank has one of those 4 track Cassette Recorder/Players.....not a common item for sure. He's taken good care of all of this rare stuff in the past, and I'm sure that he'd make sure that Super Football was well taken care of as well. Not to mention get the data into a PC readable form. A 4-track cassette recorder? Like this? Those are available all over the place. I had one of those Mini-Studios a long time ago, back in my DJ days. They were very popular among musicians and DJs, and they were very rugged (designed to work on the road), so they are still around. -dZ. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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