Merrick Bill

Has anyone put together a comprehensive package as a zip file or an ISO that includes all the available games with all the correct settings? I'd love to get one where someone else did all the work and I can just sit around playing classic games like the lazy slob that I am. Bill

When I unlocked the Freeway commercial (30 points on Level 1) I saw that the star of the commercial was a friend of mine, David Landsburg. He was my boss on Herman's Head. I need to call him now and see if he has any stories about the shoot. Bill

And they work great. But they don't work on the new slim PSTwo. It's unfortunate because they're so cheap. So now I use a regular Sony card on the PSTwo and then use the original PS2 to transfer the game save to the Intec memory cards for storage. Not as convenient, but still cheap. Bill

Yes. I could send you a bad one. Bill

Intvgene, Thanks for the tip. I may try that on my non working controller. But I still think there is a market for brand new inserts. Bill

anyone around here have any manufacturing experience? I think there'd be a demand for these Intellivision Controller repair kits. Bill

I guess we screwed up. I'll be sure to mention that in the commentary for the Drawn Together DVD. Bill

I used a generic bridge for my Xbox. I needed to use my laptop to set it up. I suspect (but don't have first hand experience to back this up) that the game specific bridges can be configured using the game console itself (with software that runs on the console) instead of needing a computer to configure the hardware. Just a theory about the difference between game specific and generic hardware. Bill

That's one way to go, but 99% of the time it's just the insert that goes bad. The rest of the controller is still good. And I bet the inserts could be made and resold for a lot less than 20 bucks a pop. I mean, if you could sell a pair for under 10 or 15 bucks think of all the bad Intellivision consoles that would once again be usable. And every one of your replacement controllers could be restored to working order. I'd love to manufacture a batch of them but I don't have the electronic/manufacturing background. If there's somone out there who does, maybe we can figure something out. Bill

I'm not talking about the game overlays. I'm talking about the piece that goes inside each controller. They tend to go bad over time, making the controller useless. I thought if they were re-manufactured a lot of intellivisions would be good working games again. Bill

Does anyone know where to get replacement controller inserts for the Intellivision? No one seems to have them anymore. Is this an item that would be worth remanufacturing? Bill

That's kind of what I figured. The weird thing is that they also make memory cards that don't require piggybacking. Bill

And still no theories about why they require a Sony card in order to initialize? Bill

I tried a different Toys 'R Us today and they had one 16 meg card for 7 bucks (not as good as your deal but still pretty good). I may go back to the Toys 'R Us that was selling them for 15 and see if they'll price match their other store. Now I need to buy a game or two so I have somthing to save on the memory card. Bill

After playing with them for a while I went back and picked up two more. So far they work pretty well and you can't beat that price. If you have an original Sony card, I'd recommend heading over to Toys 'R Us and checking these silly things out. Now I wish the 16 meg ones will drop from 15 bucks to under 10. Bill

Is anyone familiar with the PS2 Memory Expansion Pak by Intec? It's an 8 Meg memory card for the PS2 but it requires an original Sony 8 Meg card to work. You plug the Sony card into the Intec card and then plug the Intec card into the PS2. Then you can press a button on the Intec card to switch back and forth between the two. Toys 'R Us is selling these cards for $2.98 each so I bought a couple. I found that once the card is inserted into the PS2 (with the Sony piggybacked in it) the Sony card can be removed and the Intec will continue to work until the PS2 is powered off or reset. Then you can piggyback the same Sony card into another Intec card and put it in slot 2 and do the same thing. I Also tried daisychaining the Intec cards with the Sony at the end and they worked that way as well. Intec also makes a 16 meg card that you plug an 8 meg Sony card into for a total of 32 meg but Toys 'R Us was selling those for $14.98 which seemed a little too expensive for experimenting. It's a little inconvenient to have to use the Sony card to make the other card work but the price was right. Sony 8 Meg cards cost over twenty bucks a piece and these were three bucks each. My question is, why do you think Intec would design a product like this? Do you think they were trying to get around a patent and avoid paying a royalty? (They also make "regular" PS2 memory cards that don't need to be piggybacked). Do you think it was a way to have more memory plugged into the game at one time. It just seems like a very odd product but worth three bucks I guess. Bill

I don't have a kroc cart, but I have run across something similar. When you copy files from a CD rom to a hard drive windows XP automatically removes the read only attribute, Windows 98 and ME do not. In the older operating systems the attribute must be changed manually. Try that and see if it helps. Bill

Peronally, I'd love it if they added some of the old Halo maps via XBL. A lot of my friends still play Halo via system link and would love to be able to play those same maps via XBL. And it wouldn't effect non XBL people because you wouldn't need these maps if you didnt' have XBL since you could just play the first halo. Bill

I have a couple of CC2 related questions for you guys. First, has anyone put together a master zip file containing everything that can be put on the MM2 card for a cuttle cart 2? I'm looking for nice collection of all the games available, without duplicates and with the proper bank switching already set in the menu fine? Something that could be downloaded, unzipped and then easily transferred to my mm2 card. Second, what are CC2s selling for now that there are none left? Bill

I still think there might be a market for brand new ones (if they can be made cheaply enough). Bill

Does anyone have any experience with electronics manufacturing? It seems to me that the bigest problem with old intellivisions is that the plasitc insert for the controller goes bad. I wonder how difficult it would be to mass produce a batch and sell them. it would put a lot of old intellivisions back into circulation that have nothing wrong with them except for one or two bad controllers. Someone is doing a similar thing with the replacement NES 72 pin connectors why not for intellivision? Bill

Qix was one of my favorite arcade games. It should have been a very easy conversion to a home console except for one thing -- the game play requires 2 buttons (one for slow draw one for fast draw). The Atari port just has one button so it's always fast draw mode unless you press the button for slow draw. The rpoblem with this is that you can easily start drawing when you didn't mean to and then get killed by the sparx or stix. Oh, well. Maybe some day I'll buy a cheap arcade console. Bill

The problem with my Xbox is that the power light comes on but nothing happens. If you press the eject button the light flashes green but still nothing happens. For a while, if I kept pressing the power button on and off I could get it to eventually come to life. But those days are gone. Now it's just a doorstop. Bill

Right now I'm leaning toward a used Xbox but if I go with the Halo SE I'll let you know if I want to sell the controller. Bill

I wish the Halo Special Edition came with a full sized controller. I don't care for the smaller one. My old Xbox crapped out and I need to replace it, but I'd like to get a full sized controller with the replacement system. I'll probably end up buying a regular xbox used.