vprette Posted October 6, 2018 Share Posted October 6, 2018 (edited) ok, I know this is not going to be easy, but let's give a try... I will call this game "the jumping man" I have a vivid memory of an intellivision game shown in an advertisement on TV, but I've never seen it in any cartridge.I brought this memory with me for years, hoping to find information in some prototypes discover but it's time to make a desperate attempt. the problem is in fact twofold: the game I talk about appeared on TV in '83 or '84 (I received my console at Christmas 82 so these are the only candidate years) and we talk about an advertisement on Italian TV, so it is very difficult that the same spot has been seen in other countries. The game appeared for a few seconds in a sequence of more (known) games in an advertisement that spoke of intellivision generically. I saw this thing only twice, the advertising was then broadcasted for a very short time on TV ( I mean like 2-3 weeks and thats it). being an advertisement of the console, and therefore of Mattel, I assume that the prototype was a in house game. how the game appeared: on a black background there were some flying objects that moved horizontally (100% sure) and vertically (if I recall correctly), at the bottom of the screen a little man, who clearly remembered to look like the classic blue running man, with the difference, however, of being animated in a much more complex way: in fact, after a little run from left to right, he made a jump with a somersault to overcome one of these (I presume) flying bombs. if anyone recall space hawk, I assure it was not that game: the bombs were small, the little man did not fly but ran and jumped with a somersault ... it is rather (remotely) similar to mission impossible but without platforms. My doubt has always been that it was something created with the ecs reusing sprite of some other game, only it seems very unlikely that the mattel has hired someone to program something unpublished on the computer only to put it as an animation of 3-4 seconds within an advertisement ... no other ideas come to me. I hope someone here has an inspiration or maybe he saw the same thing on TV in those years ... Edited October 6, 2018 by vprette Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+JasonlikesINTV Posted October 6, 2018 Share Posted October 6, 2018 Maybe it was all a dream Just kidding. Has anyone ever attempted to assemble all of the Intellivision commercials into a single website or YouTube channel? That would make this easier. You could also try the subreddit /r/tipofmyjoystick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vprette Posted October 6, 2018 Author Share Posted October 6, 2018 (edited) the commercials look to be different for each country... in italy it was rare to have a commercial on tv for videogames at that time... we had atari of corse (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsR1lVEK1G8 "atari magari" (I would like Atari) and "c'erano i fantasmini che mi inseguivano" (little ghosts followed me) were common expressions within all teenagers at that time) but very rare intellivision and pirate c64 cassettes Edited October 6, 2018 by vprette Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Lathe26 Posted October 6, 2018 Share Posted October 6, 2018 What were the other games shown in the advertisement? That might narrow it down to a specific publishers/manufacturer (Mattel, Parker Brothers, Atarisoft, etc). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vprette Posted October 6, 2018 Author Share Posted October 6, 2018 (edited) What were the other games shown in the advertisement? That might narrow it down to a specific publishers/manufacturer (Mattel, Parker Brothers, Atarisoft, etc). I can remember only Buzz bomber, Im sure nothing from atarisoft because that brand was not available/distributed in italy until 1987 Edited October 6, 2018 by vprette Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Black_Tiger Posted October 7, 2018 Share Posted October 7, 2018 Maybe it was a prototype of what was later changed to Power of He-Man? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CharonPDX Posted October 7, 2018 Share Posted October 7, 2018 Could it be Dragonfire's first screen you're remembering? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vprette Posted October 7, 2018 Author Share Posted October 7, 2018 (edited) Could it be Dragonfire's first screen you're remembering? no no the screen was total black with many little objects, no platforms, no structures, the jumping man was going to the right side also I knew dragonfire game already at that time, thanks for suggestion Edited October 7, 2018 by vprette Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HunterZero Posted October 8, 2018 Share Posted October 8, 2018 Closest Intellivision game that I can think of that resembles the description is Masters of the Universe: Power of He-Man... - J Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr_me Posted October 8, 2018 Share Posted October 8, 2018 I can't think of any existing cartridge with a running man doing a somersault, or any unfinished Mattel game it could possibly be. A penguin in thin ice does somersaults. With the ECS you could copy an existing sprite from a cartridge but you can't edit the graphics in any way. It could have been a programmers demo project, very strange to end up in a commercial. If it's a Mattel commercial, it couldn't have been after 1983. It couldn't be a third party if it had buzz bombers. Could it have been a local store/distributor commercial. In Canada it seemed like intellivisiin commercials became very rare or non existent in 1983. I remember seeing a commercial previewing world series baseball as vaporware and then nothing. I don't think the burgertime commercials intellivisionlives talks about aired in canada. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vprette Posted October 8, 2018 Author Share Posted October 8, 2018 Closest Intellivision game that I can think of that resembles the description is Masters of the Universe: Power of He-Man... - J Im watching a walktrough of heman in youtube but this game is very different, anyway it is the closest thing I looked at so far.... the doubt originate from the fact that all other games in the commercial were known, meaning you can buy in store in italy.. while heman was not yet available, at least in my city it never showed up, you had to go to Milan to find it.. so heman could have been something new at my eyes.... the issue is that I clearly remember the running man making a jump with nice animation, it was something I discussed with a friend when seen on tv Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vprette Posted October 8, 2018 Author Share Posted October 8, 2018 (edited) I can't think of any existing cartridge with a running man doing a somersault, or any unfinished Mattel game it could possibly be. A penguin in thin ice does somersaults. With the ECS you could copy an existing sprite from a cartridge but you can't edit the graphics in any way. It could have been a programmers demo project, very strange to end up in a commercial. If it's a Mattel commercial, it couldn't have been after 1983. It couldn't be a third party if it had buzz bombers. Could it have been a local store/distributor commercial. In Canada it seemed like intellivisiin commercials became very rare or non existent in 1983. I remember seeing a commercial previewing world series baseball as vaporware and then nothing. I don't think the burgertime commercials intellivisionlives talks about aired in canada. oh.. so if you say ECS can only take existing sprites but not allow to add additional jumping animation based on pressing one button.... my only reasonable guess disappear... The commercial is probalby from Mattel because I remember it was showing games to say buy intellivision, not telling to buy this game or this other... it was not a local store because at the time we had very few TV channels in italy, that one was aired in Mediaset network, national. And, yes I believe it was aired in 83. 84 is also possible but commercials were already focusing to c64 in that year... Edited October 8, 2018 by vprette Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr_me Posted October 8, 2018 Share Posted October 8, 2018 It could be Game Factory. It lets you define your own sprite graphics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catsfolly Posted October 16, 2018 Share Posted October 16, 2018 Sounds like the intellivision version of the Atari 2600 "Adventures of Tron" game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vprette Posted October 16, 2018 Author Share Posted October 16, 2018 Sounds like the intellivision version of the Atari 2600 "Adventures of Tron" game. I check the video, but the runningman is not jumping with somersault, and too many graphic around.... in my memories the games look really more like an uncomplete proto.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catsfolly Posted October 16, 2018 Share Posted October 16, 2018 I vaguely remember Adventures of Tron having somersaults. Either they were taken out, or I'm remembering it wrong... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted October 16, 2018 Share Posted October 16, 2018 Was it common to include footage of prototype or unfinished games in TV commercials? Honest question, I've never considered either way. Most customers won't know for sure what they saw or didn't see. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catsfolly Posted October 16, 2018 Share Posted October 16, 2018 In 1983 in America, the Atari 5200 and Colecovision were released to challenge Intellivision's status as the high-end system. So Mattel made some commercials showing in-development projects like World Series baseball and the system changer, since they had no new system to show. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr_me Posted October 16, 2018 Share Posted October 16, 2018 (edited) I remember that World Series Baseball commercial; it got me excited. Looks like it was out during Christmas 1982, well before World Series was finished. The commercial also says "simulated gameplay of new cartridge". They also advertised the keyboard component in 1980/81. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yfgZGHAg-M Edited October 16, 2018 by mr_me 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catsfolly Posted October 16, 2018 Share Posted October 16, 2018 Thanks, m"r_me, that was exactly the kind of commmerical I was talking about. It brings back memories.... (In case someone doesn't know, the code name for the ECS keyboard was LUCKI (Low Cost Keyboard for Intellivision) pronounced "lucky". The commercial is making an inside joke about this when it says that "Intellivision owners won't believe their LUCK!") Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+intvsteve Posted October 16, 2018 Share Posted October 16, 2018 I remember that commercial pretty vividly, and being super-stoked, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vprette Posted October 16, 2018 Author Share Posted October 16, 2018 (edited) commercials in italy were at same time very rare to see on tv and very different each time, meaning that mattel made many different commercials, it was like every week the commercial you see was new: burgertime, ad&d, sport etc etc.... add to this that most of them were aired in local tv, probably because less expensive and there is not a database somewhere.. we rely on people who for some accident recorded on VHS tape the commercial, maybe during a soccer match or similar..... so even if you can find a bunch on internet... some of them are lost... take this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ck0BcFHvaL4 to understand how the italian commercials were a bit confused and messy: a commercial for ad&d where the speaker says it's a new game and an the end of video you read "treasure of tarmin" while the game was not at all new but already in shops since a while and the gameplay is from ad&d... it looks like they mounted the puppet part from a treasure of tarmin spot made who know in which country, adding the ad&d gameplay video.... I believe there was a marketing team in italy making up new commercials every months for a while Edited October 16, 2018 by vprette Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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