jaybird3rd

Curt Vendel's CX-55 page has a good write-up about the reasons why it won't work with most four-port models. I recently acquired a compatible four-port 5200 console (the "asterisk version"). I really don't plan on using the CX-55 adapter with it, since I already own several 2600s, but I do like having four controller ports. If you think about it, there aren't very many classic systems that you could connect four joysticks/trackballs to, and I'm interested in classic-style games that more than two people can play together. The funky RF/power connector isn't much of an issue nowadays, especially with the easy video upgrade and power mods that have been developed.

It's a good baseball game, but it's also a much later (and much larger) game than the original Major League Baseball. A better comparison would be to World Series Baseball, which used the Intellivision's ECS Computer Adaptor and Intellivoice speech synthesizer. That game was years ahead of its time.

I remember playing a lot of 2600 Pac-Man without having even seen the arcade game, so the differences certainly didn't bother me. I think a lot of the complaining about 2600 Pac-Man is just piling on after the fact. Judging from how many copies are still floating around out there, and judging from the fact that 2600 Pac-Man sound effects are still turning up as "recognizable video game sounds" in movies and on TV all these years later, it couldn't have been as universally disliked as the modern-day critics would lead you to believe.

The last first-party games made for both systems, "Klax" on the 2600 and "Deep Pockets: Super Pro Pool & Billiards" on the Intellivision, carry 1990 copyright dates. Both systems had an impressive lifespan, when you think about it: both debuted in the late 1970s, and both were sold and supported for three consecutive decades. I'd love to know if that was true of any other game systems, but offhand, I can't think of any. As I've said elsewhere, they're very different systems, and I find that if you come from an Atari background, you have to overcome what you might be familiar with in order to really appreciate the Intellivision:

Good thing the Jaguar doesn't have a chess game. Put the two together and it'd probably start World War III. But seriously ... of all the 8-bit implementations of Chess that are out there, how many are using the same AI? If we're going to be comparing different Chess games, it might help to eliminate duplication if we can weed out those that are (in effect) running the same software. One "factoid" I discovered while researching Aquarius Chess, for example, is that it uses AI technology that was licensed from Heuristic Software, which was apparently used by many other electronic and computer Chess games of that era (including, if I'm right, the Intellivision version). Here is an interesting LinkedIn page for Craig Barnes, the lead programmer at Heuristic; from the sound of it, if you've played any computer chess at all, you've probably used his software.

In the past, I've actually suggested an interface to a modern USB CD/DVD drive as a replacement for rare CD-ROM addons, such as the Jaguar CD. Using modern technology, you could probably fit the interface and a reproduction of the Jaguar Memory Track into a single cartridge. It seems that this idea would be easier than porting the CD games to run from an SD card. To implement either solution, you'd have to translate the original CD I/O calls to the equivalent calls for the new device, but if you make the device an interface to a new optical drive, you'd only have to do this once, and you could play all the original games.

I think I paid about $35 for my loose copy. I've had people tell me that it isn't rare at all, but I hardly ever see it on eBay or from the vendors who carry Intellivision product, so I jumped on it while I could. I think the last few CIB copies I saw went for over $100. The guides might be good for determining the rarity (the ones I checked list Melody Blaster as "rare" or "extremely rare"), but I wouldn't trust their prices; I find them to be either out of date or unrealistic.

I think the 2660 "mascot" is a square (or rectangular) block. In one form or another, he shows up in every game.

Why? The CC3 has all of the functionality of the Intellicart, plus the ability to load from an SD card. I can see why someone might want it as a collector's item, but not for much more than a CC3 would be worth. (Then again, people have bought Intellivision homebrews for more than the cost of a small car, so maybe I'm wrong about that.)

Sure, but you've got big shoes to fill. To me, George Wendt is the most amazing actor ever: his entire job consisted of sitting on a bar stool, drinking beer and delivering killer lines, and he managed to stretch it out for eleven years.

carmel_andrews: the Cliff Clavin of AtariAge.

No, unfortunately ... I didn't see an Intellivision for the first time until I was in my thirties. My great-grandmother did get me an Intellivision game once, though. In 1989 or 1990, she gave me a copy of Night Stalker for Christmas. She must have gotten it from some clearance bin somewhere, and I'm sure she picked it up thinking that it would work with one of my Atari or TI 99/4A machines. Instead, it was for this funny video game system called the Intellivision, which I hadn't heard of before. I was intrigued by the overlays, and I think I wrote my own simplified version of the game for the 99/4A based on the description in the manual. But I didn't have an Intellivision and had no means to acquire one, so the cartridge went into my pile of stuff. Years later, after my great-grandmother was long deceased, I expanded my collection to include an Intellivision, and I was finally able to make use of her gift. It has since been joined by about 90 other Intellivision games. I've picked up several other copies of Night Stalker along the way, of course, but that original one is the one I will always keep.

Demon Attack was (originally) a cartridge release, so it wouldn't allow you to boot the translator disk first. You might want to try the disk version (the Demon Attack / Pitfall! compilation) that Activision released later.

I think video mods will only become more and more desirable as time goes on. The Atari 2600 and 7800 "markets" are already pretty well covered by the mod kits that Longhorn Engineer offers, which in my experience are quire good. However, that's not to say that there isn't room for competition, and I certainly think there is a need for more upgrade options for the ColecoVision and (especially) the Intellivision systems. Longhorn's prices, both for unassembled and preassembled kits as well as for installation, are pretty reasonable, so perhaps they can serve as a starting point.

I'm sure you already know this, but Nolan has claimed (in the video interview that was linked in the "blocking strategy" thread) that the name was already taken by "a candle maker in Mendocino." I'm sure there have been other accounts as well.

Perhaps caused by the same immaculate conception that bought the late JC into the world (j/k) Or perhaps she was created 'species' like (if you remember the film)...j/k In case you don't remember, I was the one who pressed "Nolan" into giving out that little tidbit of information, and it's still my favorite example of his blatant historical revisionism. Given that, I think the work that Curt and Marty are doing is essential to setting the record straight. Bushnell has been the only source (or has at least been regarded as the most "authoritative" source) of information on the events of those years for too long.

Well, it hasn't exactly been "constant": Dabney has kept his silence for years, while Bushnell has omitted Dabney's contributions in all of his "recollections" of the early Atari years. Besides, if somebody I worked with years ago had the gall to show up on a discussion forum and claim--either personally or through an anonymous intermediary--that my grown daughter never existed, I think I'd be pretty upset, too.

But it isn't "hearsay and conjecture": Curt and Marty are researching and cross-checking multiple sources. It isn't "holding grudges" years after the fact, either; Bushnell has repeated these stories several times, and it has affected the way that many others have interpreted and written about the events of that era. Just to give you one example, Bushnell repeated the "blocking strategy" story on Back In Time (Mike Stulir's old webcast) in the April 2000 episode. Here is a rough transcript: Without a strong rebuttal supported by counter-evidence, we're in danger of all of this becoming "documented historical fact."

I agree; I always love hearing stories like this. Thanks for sharing! Unfortunately, I can't claim any personal nostalgic attachment to the Aquarius at all. Before I got my first one earlier this year, my only previous contact with it was a brief encounter at a used/secondhand computer store that I worked at around 1990 (I was about 14). My Dad ran the warehouse and brought me in for a part-time job taking apart old computers on weekends, pulling EPROMs and so forth. This was the time when the Intel-based PC was beginning to displace a lot of older systems, so I got to play with some really interesting 70s and 80s technology just as it was exiting the workforce: dedicated word processors (mainly Wang and IBM DisplayWriter systems), the Cromemco C10 (I'd still love to find one of those), DEC Rainbows, and lots of glorious old mainframe stuff, along with the usual mix of Apples, Commodores, and Ataris. I bought my first Atari 800 at that store, along with lots of TI 99/4A stuff (that was my main computer at the time). I still have most of it today. I used to like hanging around in the showroom upstairs, talking to customers and looking at the new stuff on the shelves. That was where I built my first PC, a 12MHz 286 with a megabyte of RAM. Anyway, I went up there one day and spotted this funny little computer with a blue chicklet keyboard, which was unique enough to catch my eye, gathering dust on a high shelf. There had been a lot of Timex-Sinclair clones (like this one) coming through my scrap pile, and because of its similar appearance, I thought the Aquarius was just another one of those, but it intrigued me enough to have remembered it all these years later. I'm pretty sure it was just the bare computer, which wasn't very interesting, but if I had seen a Mini-Expander and some hand controllers and game cartridges with it, I'm positive I would have wanted it. I probably could have gotten it at a good price, too. If there was such a thing as time travel, I'd love to go back to that warehouse with a tractor-trailer and load it up with some of that rare old stuff before it went on the scrap heap. I could probably make a fortune with it today on eBay.

Well, unfortunately, Bushnell's "selective memory" is already a known issue, so that affects his credibility right off the bat. Bushnell's accounts also seem to be intended to bolster his PR, whereas Dabney doesn't have any such motivation. Plus, the subsequent research that Curt and Marty have done has apparently corroborated Dabney's statements and not Bushnell's. I don't interpret it as a personal issue with Bushnell at all. People sometimes allow "hero worship" to affect their ability to view the past objectively. I certainly can't speak for them, but my impression is that Curt and Marty are simply trying to counteract that by insisting on getting (and giving) the full story.

No, I seem to have been automatically logged into their store account for some reason. I've never entered their information into a form before, and I've cleared my cache a few times since our last transaction, so I know it wasn't that. It was weird because, when I tried to log out and log in again, I just got dumped right back into their account; it didn't even prompt me for login credentials. I entered my own information and checked out, and I haven't been able to reproduce the problem since. This person's purchase was the one immediately before mine, so perhaps their transaction left something open on the server that was finally closed when I completed my purchase. EDIT: I checked their site a minute ago, and they've got a whole different layout on the main page now. They must have been transitioning from the old site when I placed my order, so maybe I just picked a bad time.

Fortunately, nobody's credit card info was leaked; it was just the name and address.

No, but it was another AtariAge member (I recognized his name from some trades we had done). But again, they responded quickly to my problem report, and according to them it hasn't happened to anyone else, so I'm sure it was just a glitch.

The cartridges could certainly be bad; I've had a few dead Coleco carts, too. Fortunately, both Donkey Kong and Mousetrap are fairly common titles, so it should be fairly easy to find replacements at a reasonable price.

Coleco games should work on the Super Pro System. The Intellivision II introduced changes that prevented some of those games from working, but the INTV System III and the Super Pro System (the same hardware with different names) went back to the original Intellivision design. I've never used a Super Pro System, but I have used Coleco games successfully on an INTV System III, so I know for a certainty that they are compatible.