Intellivision Entertainment launching a NEW Intellivision console

[+intvsteve]

My initial guess is:

USB Keyboard -- there's a USB port on the unit, after all.

 

If someone builds a cartridge adapter, will it also need a USB port then? Or... would a *second* USB port be more appropriate on the console itself?

 

That said, if the controllers have a large and versatile enough touchscreen, perhaps they could support a virtual keyboard?

[+nurmix]

If ECS games are included, how will the new console play them? I realize JZINTV with a keyboard can mimic the ECS keyboard but I was just curious how if at all the ECS games would work could we possibly plug in a USB keyboard to play these games on the console? Also, im not sure if much or any work was ever done on this but would it be possible to revive the majority of keyboard component software and have that be emulated as well? I cannot wait to try out the new games as well as the classics via HDMI.

 

The plan is ECS support via the emulator (JzIntv) and using a USB keyboard.

[+nurmix]

My initial guess is:

USB Keyboard -- there's a USB port on the unit, after all.

 

If someone builds a cartridge adapter, will it also need a USB port then? Or... would a *second* USB port be more appropriate on the console itself?

 

That said, if the controllers have a large and versatile enough touchscreen, perhaps they could support a virtual keyboard?

 

The design will have at least 2 USB ports.

 

I suppose that's a possibility regarding the touchscreens, if it doesn't require a great deal of time to implement. Too early to say at this point.

 

[Jeffrey Bouchard]

Just wondering your thoughts on the possibility of including original keyboard component software? I realize I wrote it in my post about the ECS I was just curious if it had gotten lost in the shuffle so to speak.

[+Lathe26]

How about Tutorvision games? Seems like support for those would be easy to add.

 

That said, I have some concerns about adding more games with the word 'fun' in the title.

[mr_me]

Tutorvision would be awesome. Who can resist titles like "Nounsense" and "Write it Right".

 

edit:

There is some licensing to figure out with whoever owns world book.

Edited July 11, 2018 by mr_me

[+nurmix]

Having the Keyboard Component stuff on there would be awesome, but that comes down to guys like Frank Palazzolo getting emulation of the more complex titles working. I don't think IE will be devoting any time / resources into that aspect of the console - at least not at this point. Check out episode 83 of the Floppy Days Podcast where I'm a guest host and we talk to Dave Rolfe and Frank Palazzolo about the Keyboard Component.

 

Tutorvision? Quite possibly. Dave Warhol is doing some stuff with IE too.

[Jeffrey Bouchard]

Glad to hear about the possibility of Tutorvision more games the better and that is only the legacy side.

[freewheel]

I can't stop wondering why nurmix is so high on Internet Explorer.

[MrBeefy]

I can't stop wondering why nurmix is so high on Internet Explorer.

Nice

[+Lathe26]

I can't stop wondering why nurmix is so high on Internet Explorer.

 

Especially since he uses a Mac; Internet Explorer ended on that platform with version 5!

[+nurmix]

Hardy har har!

 

I'm in IT, which means I avoid Internet Explorer - although my clients who continue to use it and have problems with it do make me money.

 

And while we have a MacBook in the house, and I have some Mac clients in my business, I'm a PC guy.

 

And since FreeWheel and Lathe26 seem to be struggling with acronyms today... "IT" is not the book / movie by Stephen King, and "PC" is not Politically Correct.

[emoji12]

 

 

 

Sent from my Keyboard Component using Jack's Conversational Intelli-talk cassette

[carlsson]

Though wouldn't it be interesting to market the Intellivision Entertainment console as being (the first?) politically correct video games console, perhaps even sustainable, CSR certified...

[m-crew]

Well then it would be the helicopter parent console version

 

Do we really want or need more of that in our world ?

[MrBeefy]

Well then it would be the helicopter parent console version

 

Do we really want or need more of that in our world ?

Lol yes. I work in education and more helicoptering should be done.

[Denicio]

Not sure if this has been discussed yet. But in the Podcast about this new console there was some hints about Baseball being reworked to play the same but look more modern. Thats the impression i got.

THIS got my mind to reeling.

 

IS this a possibility of all the games? Imagine Demon Attack with original play but better graphics (more than they already are).

 

But the ONE thing that really jumped out at me was all these games that were 'slighted' due to limited memory on the cartridges. For instance, imagine a REAL ending to the game of Swords and Serpents! A REAL pay off when beating the dragon!!

 

I know there are few real facts and a ton of speculation...but this is where my mind went.

 

A boy can dream, right?

[Denicio]

Also....and my mind is dreaming of the possibilities...but a Bluetooth controller (as planned) but maybe something like an Iphone glass screen. That way when you pull up the game, the overlay for that game appears on the glass screen. Sure you'd sacrifice the bubble buttons but i'd sacrifice the bubble if i never had to hunt down and cram an overlay in the controller again.

 

Just dreaming.....

[mr_me]

Remaking the old games and re-releasing the old games are possible for games they have rights to. They own the rights to all the Mattel and INTV games, although some of these have additional properties belonging to others e.g. Disney's Tron. They would have to secure rights to the games from Imagic, Activision, etc. Although making modern versions of Imagic titles might not need any.

 

It's already been said the controller will have a touchscreen. I wouldn't want to play Intellivision Baseball with it if it didn't have some sort of tactile button layer.

Edited July 19, 2018 by mr_me

[Denicio]

Remaking the old games and re-releasing the old games are possible for games they have rights to. They own the rights to all the Mattel and INTV games, although some of these have additional properties belonging to others e.g. Disney's Tron. They would have to secure rights to the games from Imagic, Activision, etc. Although making modern versions of Imagic titles might not need any.

 

It's already been said the controller will have a touchscreen. I wouldn't want to pay Intellivision Baseball with it if it didn't have some sort of tactile button layer.

 

Good to hear about touch screen. Does that mean it WILL have a digital way to display the overlays?

[+intvsteve]

 

Good to hear about touch screen. Does that mean it WILL have a digital way to display the overlays?

 

Yes. Pretty sure nurmix has directly said that, but I haven't hunted down the quote.

[First Spear]

Wow, I have been away for a while. Spent a lot of time chasing down the jokers at Intv Prime to make headway on their game*. Anyway, the last time I saw this thread, I was on page 7... There were lots of opinions on this posted, some of them were even good. Here's my $.02:

 

This forum, God bless it, is The Intellivision Echo Chamber. Of course people here want a cartridge slot. Of course people here want the full classic Intellivision experience from the 80's/90's.

 

From what I gather from the livestreams and media postings, this console isn't about "us" on this forum. "Us" are probably going to buy anything with The Running Man on it, we'd buy a dog turd if it had Running Man Frosting on it. I think the idea is to fill a niche in gaming, going back to when video games were marketed and advertised (2 different things) to people that were not gamerz. Microsoft and Sony and Nintendo want the mega-bucks games with big productions, games that create recurring revenue streams. I'm not sure if they can make any money at all if they go low on pricing and availability, they are locked into competing at the high end. For every family affluent enough to have an Xbox One X, there are 50 that don't in my estimation. Those 50 families probably have a mix of Android tablets of phones for games, and tablet-controlled games are just not that great. Also, the high-end games take a lot of learning, the "pick up and play" aspect is just about dead. There are rare exceptions on the high end - I found Overcooked on the Xbox to be a great 4-player local co-op family fun game, my family of 4 understood and played after 10 minutes. Anyway, there are probably millions of worldwide units that could be sold to people that can't shell out a ton of $ for a console plus games plus BS like Fortnite Skins, people that want to play something fun, fast.

 

Borrowing from the Intellivision library looks like it fits the bill for modern games. A fully updated Utopia with 21st Century graphics and sound and internet play and algorithms/heuristics that don't have to fit into 4k is a great idea. A 21st Century version of Tron Maze-a-Tron (with none of the quirks and tons of space for programming logic, hey make it where people can learn inadvertently) would be good. 21st Century versions of Sea Battle, Shark Shark, Microsurgeon, Burgertime, Dracula, all awesome. So a company that wants to do that basically has to buy/license the whole Intellivision catalog, there's no reason to license and not take the Intellivision name as well...

 

For the classic Inty, maybe it will work like the Mega II chip inside the Apple IIGS, where an entire IIe was fitted to a chip placed on the motherboard, and when classic mode was needed, the chip went "live" but otherwise the IIGS electronics ruled. An adapter for a cartridge slot would be necessary for carts, but really I doubt they would sell more than 5,000 of them (being liberal).

 

Also on the classic side, I would like to see a download mechanism for the classic side to give independent/homebrew publishers a way to sell more of their stuff. Take awesome titles like Christmas Carol, Sydney Hunter, Boulderdash, etc etc etc that are stuck with us in Intyland and sell 200-400 copies - I would love to see the developers get more exposure (and sales) on a console with millions of new potential distribution points. And if it's download-only then the publishers would be protected from piracy.

 

One thing the console will need is marketing and advertising. I think Tommy Tallarico knows how to bring that kind of heat. If he doesn't then the system will fail. But if he reaches the customers where they are, with the right message (fast playability, low cost, fun exclusives, family friendly), they will sell, regardless of what we The Intellivision Faithful will do.

 

And hey, our hardware is not going to last forever. Our stuff was built tough, but like my Newton and Apple II stuff, parts and things get more and more scarce. Having access to affordable ways to play the games I want gets more important with every disc press+roll. I am still waiting to offer something inappropriate for someone to get my Intellivision reliably and simply connected to my modern TV, converters to do the HDMI work are $200 by themselves. A console under $200 that lets me play Dungeons & Dragons on my flat screen HDMI TV with no BS? Sold!

 

 

 

 

 

* For those that eventually play The Minstrel's Legend, get used to the scene attached to this post - TPK.

 

[MrBeefy]

Wow, I have been away for a while. Spent a lot of time chasing down the jokers at Intv Prime to make headway on their game*. Anyway, the last time I saw this thread, I was on page 7... There were lots of opinions on this posted, some of them were even good. Here's my $.02:

 

This forum, God bless it, is The Intellivision Echo Chamber. Of course people here want a cartridge slot. Of course people here want the full classic Intellivision experience from the 80's/90's.

 

From what I gather from the livestreams and media postings, this console isn't about "us" on this forum. "Us" are probably going to buy anything with The Running Man on it, we'd buy a dog turd if it had Running Man Frosting on it. I think the idea is to fill a niche in gaming, going back to when video games were marketed and advertised (2 different things) to people that were not gamerz. Microsoft and Sony and Nintendo want the mega-bucks games with big productions, games that create recurring revenue streams. I'm not sure if they can make any money at all if they go low on pricing and availability, they are locked into competing at the high end. For every family affluent enough to have an Xbox One X, there are 50 that don't in my estimation. Those 50 families probably have a mix of Android tablets of phones for games, and tablet-controlled games are just not that great. Also, the high-end games take a lot of learning, the "pick up and play" aspect is just about dead. There are rare exceptions on the high end - I found Overcooked on the Xbox to be a great 4-player local co-op family fun game, my family of 4 understood and played after 10 minutes. Anyway, there are probably millions of worldwide units that could be sold to people that can't shell out a ton of $ for a console plus games plus BS like Fortnite Skins, people that want to play something fun, fast.

 

Borrowing from the Intellivision library looks like it fits the bill for modern games. A fully updated Utopia with 21st Century graphics and sound and internet play and algorithms/heuristics that don't have to fit into 4k is a great idea. A 21st Century version of Tron Maze-a-Tron (with none of the quirks and tons of space for programming logic, hey make it where people can learn inadvertently) would be good. 21st Century versions of Sea Battle, Shark Shark, Microsurgeon, Burgertime, Dracula, all awesome. So a company that wants to do that basically has to buy/license the whole Intellivision catalog, there's no reason to license and not take the Intellivision name as well...

 

For the classic Inty, maybe it will work like the Mega II chip inside the Apple IIGS, where an entire IIe was fitted to a chip placed on the motherboard, and when classic mode was needed, the chip went "live" but otherwise the IIGS electronics ruled. An adapter for a cartridge slot would be necessary for carts, but really I doubt they would sell more than 5,000 of them (being liberal).

 

Also on the classic side, I would like to see a download mechanism for the classic side to give independent/homebrew publishers a way to sell more of their stuff. Take awesome titles like Christmas Carol, Sydney Hunter, Boulderdash, etc etc etc that are stuck with us in Intyland and sell 200-400 copies - I would love to see the developers get more exposure (and sales) on a console with millions of new potential distribution points. And if it's download-only then the publishers would be protected from piracy.

 

One thing the console will need is marketing and advertising. I think Tommy Tallarico knows how to bring that kind of heat. If he doesn't then the system will fail. But if he reaches the customers where they are, with the right message (fast playability, low cost, fun exclusives, family friendly), they will sell, regardless of what we The Intellivision Faithful will do.

 

And hey, our hardware is not going to last forever. Our stuff was built tough, but like my Newton and Apple II stuff, parts and things get more and more scarce. Having access to affordable ways to play the games I want gets more important with every disc press+roll. I am still waiting to offer something inappropriate for someone to get my Intellivision reliably and simply connected to my modern TV, converters to do the HDMI work are $200 by themselves. A console under $200 that lets me play Dungeons & Dragons on my flat screen HDMI TV with no BS? Sold!

 

 

 

 

 

* For those that eventually play The Minstrel's Legend, get used to the scene attached to this post - TPK.

tpk.JPG

 

I can't claim to be the INTV faithful. I have a tiny collection and have not played as much INTV as I would have liked. However, I am a bigger Atari guy and I could only wish that the new Atari was going the direction that INTV is going.

 

I like cartridges, and I hate how my Xbox has to download everything. But that is maibly due to price point of if I pay $60 my disc should have the game on it...

 

This however is way cheaper. For $1-$5 for an original INTV game is an easy purchase and personally I wouldn't bat an eye at that price point to easily play them on a mew system and tv.

 

From what I cam tell the INTV crew seem to still have the heart of who they are. This cannot be said of a company like Atari.

 

Working in education and getting closer to being a first time dad has made me look at some of my nerd hobbies. I do mot want my kid growing up with a system like an Xbox or PS4. I want to play fun games with zero trolls or volatile people online. I find it funny how I feel sometimes in this new generation of consoles that I am a well rounded and non-drugged up individual compared with everyone else I am playing with. I DO NOT want my kid to grow up with that.

 

Nintendo is really the only company still sort of holding onto playing with the family. But think about how this system could be. Is it the system you grew up with? No. But could it be something you see yourself sitting down with your kid or grandkid and having good clean fun? A good fun that, while the system and games arent yours or what you grew up with, is similar and reminiscent of that same fun you grew up with.

 

I know I am young in terms of being an Atari fan but I did grow up on it first before being a huge NES kid. I have seen the difference in kids like myself and kids that think ps2 and xbox are old. I played a ton of Atari, NES, and SNES when growing up and managed to maintain my life amd excel in school. Times have changed.

 

I do not know if this will be successful. I do not know if the new games will be any good. But I do applaud them for trying something...different. It may seem 'new' to today's standards. But really the Atari, CV, & INTV systems are as family friendly you can get.

 

That spirit in gaming has slowly eroded around the SNES era. I want it back. Not for me but for my kid.

 

Long rant. I apologize. Had a few drinks when gaming tonight and been thinking of being a father soon. Also played some modern games in which people are immature and hostile. Think I might go to my INTV and pop in AD&D...

[Denicio]

 

 

Borrowing from the Intellivision library looks like it fits the bill for modern games. A fully updated Utopia with 21st Century graphics and sound and internet play and algorithms/heuristics that don't have to fit into 4k is a great idea. A 21st Century version of Tron Maze-a-Tron (with none of the quirks and tons of space for programming logic, hey make it where people can learn inadvertently) would be good. 21st Century versions of Sea Battle, Shark Shark, Microsurgeon, Burgertime, Dracula, all awesome. So a company that wants to do that basically has to buy/license the whole Intellivision catalog, there's no reason to license and not take the Intellivision name as well...

 

 

 

 

 

 

My mind explodes at the thought of a modern version of Advanced D&D Cloudy Mountain (probably my favorite game to play of all time) and just think how bad arse The Dreadnaught Factor would look with modern graphics but similar game play....ERMAGERD!

Tackling classics like Astrosmash would be welcome in my world and possibly tweaking B17 so it makes better sense and has better overall gameplay.

 

As you said, the Tron's could all use a modern twist too.

 

Space Battle and Space Spartans with better graphics (better looking enemy ships) would be nice. And this may ruffle some feathers...but take Space Hawk and give it better/clearer purpose and gameplay.

 

My mind spins at the possibilities of taking what we have and improving it. The ONLY request i would have of the Intelly Gods is that we have an option for each game to play the Classic Version or the NEW version. To me, that seems like must have.

[Hwlngmad]

Personally I think this console has a chance, especially when you are talking about something that will be in the $150 to $175 range that will come preloaded with (mostly) old and (some) new games with the new games being $7 or thereabouts. Honestly, if "budget" titles are considered to be around $30 or so, it makes buy games for less than $10 a no brainer. Hopefully this console comes out sooner rather than (much) later.

[blaidan]

 

My mind spins at the possibilities of taking what we have and improving it. The ONLY request i would have of the Intelly Gods is that we have an option for each game to play the Classic Version or the NEW version. To me, that seems like must have.

^^ This! I totally agree that this would be an awesome feature to be able to choose from playing the "classic" version or the "new" version at a whim. Great thought here and I hope this can be implemented in some fashion.