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mr_me

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Posts posted by mr_me

  1. Posted

     

    Here's a crazy idea: Has anybody tried to correlate these with contemporary Barbies and other toys, just in case the product numbers were global to Mattel as opposed to the Intellivision product line?

     

    I guess looking up an old Sears Winter/Christmas catalog would help. :)

     

    -dZ.

    Could be. Here's some Hot Wheels part numbers from 1980 and 1975. Someone just needs to find a conflicting part number.

    Hot wheels used #7600s for 1975 products and Intellivision used #7700s for 1984 products. Both used #2000s for 1980 products

     

    http://www.plaidstallions.com/mattel/heroes.html

    http://www.plaidstallions.com/mattel/75hw.html

    • Like 1

  2. Posted

    Maybe like this

     

    2000s then 1000s (1978 & 1979)

    then 3000s and 5000s (1980 & 1981)

    then 4000s (1982)

    then 7000s (1983)

     

    Maybe they had preprinted project books and a couple of managers. Each one grabbed a book. The guy with the 6000s must have been laid-off first. And keep in mind that the start of a game project, and the start of programming, and then release to manufacturing can have varied timelines.

  3. Posted

    I read this on the internet, so it must be true. But I haven't seen any evidence like a photo of a master component box with a sticker saying Astrosmash cartridge inside. I do remember that Astrosmash was free with the purchase of an Intellivision 1, but I'm not sure if if was a pack-in or a free offer and LV Poker & Blackjack being the pack-in. If anyone can post a picture of Astrosmash as a pack-in with the master component, please do.

    • Like 1

  4. Posted

    Are there any options to how the paddle is controlled?

     

    This would only apply to the classic single-axis pong variation but here are some ideas:

    1) disc up/down - problem with this is its only a single speed so its a trade off being able to get there and precise movement

    2) multiple speeds - from Intellipongola; paddle moves faster further along the disc; allows for four (or more) different speeds but may be unintuitive

    3) discrete position - divide the screen into say 11 paddle positions (or 13 positions) corresponding to a disc direction

    4) disc as rotary/spinner - paddle speed based on rotation; clockwise moves paddle down and counter-clockwise moves paddle up

     

    I'm not sure how well using the disc as a rotary/spinner might work but I sure would like to see a simple proof of concept if someone has the time.

    Should have said that the third idea "discrete position" has accuracy but not the precision required for pong. And one more idea

     

    5) disc + button - hold a side button for speed giving you both precise movement and a fast speed to get to the out of reach ones; it would also work for games with 16 direction paddle movement

  5. Posted

    Some Mattel production numbers for unreleased games And the M-network games had production numbers mixed in there as well. You'd think that they would go in some chronological order from concept and project creation but it doesn't seem to.

     

    3605 Arcade (possible Galaxian)
    4161 Magic Carousel (Intellivoice)
    4162 Space Shuttle (Intellivoice-enhanced)
    4163 Convoy
    4433 Thin Ice
    4463 Quest (Intellivoice)
    4469 Thunder Castle
    4535 Flintstone's Keyboard Fun (ECS)
    4537 Super NFL Football (ECS)
    4539 Game Factory (ECS)
    4542 Song Writer or Melody Maker (ECS)
    4544 Number Jumble
    4545 Music Tutor or Music Conductor (ECS)
    4547 BASIC Programmer (ECS)
    4551 Woody Woodpecker (Intellivoice)
    4552 Winter Olympics
    4601 Rocky & Bullwinkle
    4602 Yogi's Adventure
    4692 ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS TOWER OF MYSTERY Cartridge
    4743 Illusions
    5302 Land Battle
    5393 Go for the Gold
    7742 Hover Force 3-D
    7744 Party Line
    7841 Masters of the Universe II
    7842 Flashlight
    7843 Pizza Time
    7844 Magic Carpet
    7845 Hydroplane

  6. Posted

    Are there any options to how the paddle is controlled?

     

    This would only apply to the classic single-axis pong variation but here are some ideas:

    1) disc up/down - problem with this is its only a single speed so its a trade off being able to get there and precise movement

    2) multiple speeds - from Intellipongola; paddle moves faster further along the disc; allows for four (or more) different speeds but may be unintuitive

    3) discrete position - divide the screen into say 11 paddle positions (or 13 positions) corresponding to a disc direction

    4) disc as rotary/spinner - paddle speed based on rotation; clockwise moves paddle down and counter-clockwise moves paddle up

     

    I'm not sure how well using the disc as a rotary/spinner might work but I sure would like to see a simple proof of concept if someone has the time.

    • Like 1

  8. Posted

    In this post they have the Intellivoice at the end.

    http://atariage.com/forums/topic/245386-stacked-and-interconnected-intv-ii/?p=3363288

    Does it make a difference? There's only one game that uses both ECS and Intellivoice.

     

    Sean, you're bringing back some memories. When I was in high school they had Commodore PETs. I actually did a running man animation using BASIC and the PET character set. The teacher was impressed.

  10. Posted

    I did find Armor Battle as the free game in the master component box and even if it was my first game together with Ice Trek I've never liked it. I't's too slow and frustrating sometimes. My best friend at that time found Triple Action as the free game and we enjoyed Battle Tanks (and Biplanes, of course) so much. We especially liked the bouncing bullets option. Realism? Not at all. Fun? A lot! IMO, there's no competition: Battle Tanks wins

    Mattel did make a running change with a faster turning tank, maybe you have the original version. I wonder how common the slow version is. Mattel was definitely going for realism in the early days to differentiate themselves from the competition. And a slow turning tank is realistic. I can't comment on Armor Battle, we didn't have it, Sometimes I questioned the use of perspective views in several of these games. Armor Battle might have made more sense as a top view game like Land Battle but again there's the idea of showing up the competition. I remember when we were buying sports games the guy in the store sold us hard on Sea Battle but never mentioned Armor Battle.

  11. Posted · Edited by mr_me

    Current List/Preference looks like this:

     

    Consoles:

    Atari 2600 = Stella

    Intellivision = Nostalgia

    ColecoVision = blueMSX

    Vectrex = MAME

    Atari 5200 = kat5200

    NES = Nestopia Undead

    Atari 7800 = MAME

    SMS = Kega Fusion

    TurboGrafx-16 = Ootake

    Sega Genesis = Kega Fusion

    SNES = bsnes 0.85 i686 accuracy via ssnes 0.9.5 x64 [Alt higan]

    Atari Jaguar = Virtual Jaguar

    Playstation = ePSXe

    N64 = Project64

     

    Computers:

    Apple II (c/e) = AppleWin

    Commodore Vic-20 = WinVice [v2.0]

    Atari 400/800/XL/XE = Altirra

    Tandy/DOS PC = DOSBox SVN Daum 20140127 build

    Coleco ADAM = MAME [Alt ADAMEm via DOSBox]

    Commodore 64/128 = WinVice [Nightly Builds]

    MSX(2) = blueMSX

    Atari ST = Hatari

    Commodore Amiga = WinUAE

    X68000 = WinX68k HighSpeed

     

    Handheld:

    Game & Watch / Misc = MADrigal Collection

    Game Boy (Color) (Advance) = Visualboy Advance [kode54 build]

    Game Gear = Kega Fusion

    Atari Lynx = Mednafen

    Neo Pocket (Color) = NeoPop

     

    For Intellivision, Nostalgia is a fine emulator but it has one problem that bothers me. It is stuck in a 5:3 aspect ratio, I'm use to the standard 4:3 aspect ratio that the Intellivision originally used. Consider the jzIntv emulator, it has versions for Linux, Windows, MacOS and other systems, and most importantly it is actively supported by the programmer. It is a command line program, but no need to open a command window, as you can play roms by drag and drop. You can also set up different button mappings for each game. See here for some simple instructions ( https://www.reddit.com/r/intellivision/comments/4a627b/howto_use_jzintv_emulator_without_typing/).

     

    edit:

    Download software from the original developer/publisher whenever possible.

  14. Posted

    HI DZ

     

    Hey the ECS does have REM in it Basic. I told my daughter not to use it since it just eats up memory that she cannot afford to give up.

    I just looked it up in the owners manual to make sure it had the REM Statement. I cannot find ASC listed in the Owners manual or Step by step guide.

    Most books show you in the back the codes for the Characters. I am going to try the ASC even though it shows nothing about it in either book.

    That maybe one of the functions it just left out.

     

    DZ I attatched in one of my post above the ASCII table I came up with. I also listed the program I used to get it. The ASCII table is not in my books,

    but I think it is much different from others.

     

     

     

    Thanks

    Sean

    It looks like the first 64 cards/characters in GROM. Too bad you don't have access to the rest of the GROM.

    see http://wiki.intellivision.us/index.php?title=Graphics_ROM

  15. Posted

    Certainly the investment for an ECS compatible printer of any sort could be better spent at some low end PC, and then bring USB memories to school or wherever there is a printer for your daughter to use? I understand you would want to make use of the equipment you already purchased, but getting more antiquated gear that might not work well sounds like a money pit.

    You could say the same thing about the sealed Mind Strike.

  16. Posted · Edited by mr_me

    The Aquarius model 4210 printer is a thermal printer and needs compatible thermal paper. I don't know if there are differences in thermal paper for different printers that would make them incompatible. Unbelievably a search found a couple of rolls of official Mattel model 4216 thermal paper available. I wonder if still works after 33 years. According to this web site ( http://archive.kontek.net/aqemu.classicgaming.gamespy.com/aqfaq2.htm) the Mattel thermal printer was an OEM Alphacom 42 thermal printer.

  17. Posted

    Hi DZ

     

    yes you are right and I was just trying to get some extra memory. I know the ECS was going to be expandable in memory but also it basic was going to be expanded on too.

    As you know that project was cancelled.

     

    For right now it good enough for my daughter to start out on.

    If she likes it alot and then I will try and get a better computer.

     

    I am going to ask this question because I really do not know. Ok we know the basic is not the greatest in the world and the memory is limmited.

    You said the ECS had other problems, What kind of other problems does it have???

     

    thanks

     

    Your daughter might want to save her work. That will require more hardware in a tape recorder or compatible device and the appropriate cables. The 20x12 character display is a somewhat limited interface, printing your work is possible but would require a special printer.

  18. Posted

    Regarding Intellivoice, this is what I found on Wikipedia. It's not necessarily the best source of information so correct me if I am wrong. As DZ-Jay pointed out General Instrument developed 59 allophones for general speech synthesis, and that data is on some of their SP0256 chips but not the version in the Intellivoice. I guess Mattel wanted their own speech sounds and ROM space is expensive. So on the Mattel version of the chip there is data for the phrase "Mattel Electronics presents" and all the numbers and maybe a few other words but not the data for general speech. These are more natural sounding than the GI allophone synthesized words but limited. The 59 GI allophones are in the Odyssey2 voice module, so I think its why Missile Domination speech might sound like the Oddyssey2 speech synthesizer. I'm thinking the 59 allophones from GI must be on the Missile Domination cartridge and they must have been sourced from a non Mattel SP0256 chip. Dz-Jay also mentioned that someone out there has the ability to convert recorded voice to Intellivoice data, so I guess we will eventually have a game with naturally sounding speech to check out.

     

    Back on topic, should more Intellivoice games have been made? Only six were originally completed. Mattel's policy was to have speech essential to gameplay. Only one game was made where it's optional, and I don't think third party developers had the ability to make voice games. I think optional speech is okay if done well and is not just a gimmick; just like good sound effects. But as was mentioned before, speech in Intellivision games can help with player feedback when limited by Intellivision's graphics system (eg. screen scrolling and text display); so maybe a game like that should be made.

  19. Posted · Edited by mr_me

    I remember hearing in one of the podcasts that the programmers at Mattel would debate on whether a video game should have an ending. At the time we all wanted to play arcade games at home, so I had Lock'n'chase, Burgertime, Bump'n'jump but I found that once I got a high score that became too difficult to beat, I more or less stopped playing these games (and that goes for Deadly Discs and Shark Shark too). However, I always went back to games like Space Battle, Dungeons and Dragons, Bomb Squad, and even Sub Hunt. I liked games where I either won or lost and scoring was not necessary. I think more games should have been made like this rather than the arcade type games with endless scoring. Unfortunately Mattel ultimately felt that the market wanted the latter.

     

    I agree that arcade conversions are unnecessary today. And I use the term conversion because I don't think its possible to port the code of an arcade game to a different machine like the Intellivision. I don't know if the Mattel programmers of Lock'n'chase, Burgertime, and the other licensed games even looked at the code of the original games. I think most people who use the term "port" understand that the game is being rewritten. Having said that I do like seeing games like DK Arcade, Stonix, Missile Domination and comparing them to the originals and other conversions. I'm sure nobody wants to see a bad conversion so considering Intellivision limitations it can be debated.

  20. Posted

    How was the Missile Domination voices done? That's not the proprietary system DZ-jay is referring to, is it? They are nothing like the Mattel voices from the 1982 games that originated from voice actors. The screen text supported voice BladeJunker mentioned must be the "yerrrout" in Baseball which isn't voice at all.

     

    Synthesized voices like those in Missile Domination sound fine for a Berzerk game. Voices aren't even necessary for gameplay here, but would be nice. I'd rather see a Robotron game with dual disc and 16 direction fire than a Berzerk game with voice. Voice is good when used to enhance Intellivision gameplay, for example when the game uses lots of screen scrolling and providing text information is difficult.

  23. Posted

    I hear you loud and clear, tangents occur but at least Tech Talk helps towards making "Games that should have been made for Intellivision" more possible with some discussion of how to marry the original games design with the INTV hardware limitations.

     

    I'm basically done talking about boring old text unless someone has more to say about it. :lolblue:

    Here's a another discussion about smaller Intellivision text. http://atariage.com/forums/topic/232923-font-or-typeface-smart-creation/

    • Like 1

  24. Posted

     

    I got partway into making a 4-player Warlords. It lends itself very well to the Intellivision's graphics. I think it'd be awesome.

     

    Unfortunately the number of people who can find 3 friends to actually play with can probably be counted on one hand. :(

     

    What control scheme would it use?

    • Like 1
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