mr_me

The EXEC is copyrighted code so if someone wanted to produce an Intellivision compatible machine or distribute a complete Intellivision emulator that played the original games they legally cannot. The Flashback is officially licensed. I suppose someone could write new Intellivision games that ran on Intellivision hardware with a different EXEC but it wouldn't run the original games. Back in the day, the third party games from Imagic, Activision, etc used reversed engineered Intellivision knowledge (mattel did not share or license anything). The reverse engineering had to be done a certain way to be legal (you have to be able to prove that no trade secrets were stolen). So although programmers could figure it out or had prior knowledge from working for Mattel they legally could not use their own knowledge. Even Mattel programmers started figuring out the Colecovision but were ordered to stop so it can be reverse engineered legally. The Atari VCS has no embedded software, so as far as I know there is no legal issues there. In the last few years some people have taken Keith's games and published them on cartridge and/or distributed them electronically, maybe Keith is referring to that. If you want to see what Intellivision narrow/proportional text might look like, check out some screen shots of the Tutorvison http://www.intellivisionlives.com/media/newsletters/news030715.html. Keep in mind that the Tuturvision is a modified Intellivision and is very rare. It has an updated EXEC (backward compatible) but its technical specs are unknown. edit: Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't any Intellivsion game have to use a small portion of the EXEC to run, even if all the EXEC routines are otherwise not used.

The default character set is in GROM and has 213 characters. GRAM has the limit of only 64 user defined characters but can be changed throughout the program. The STIC works with these 8x8 characters/cards for the background. You're stuck with the limitations of the Intellivision graphics system regardless of the EXEC. See here for some technical information. http://www.intellivisionlives.com/bluesky/hardware/intelli_tech.html#systag Edit: I think intvnut explained an idea where you can program a smaller font by constantly updating the GRAM. However, if I understood it correctly, the small GRAM size would severely limit how much text you can display per screen. Multiplexing text sounds crazy. Here you can see all the GROM characters. http://wiki.intellivision.us/index.php?title=Graphics_ROM&oldid=14925

There really is no upside to the EXEC, except in the early days. When the Intellivision was being developed in 1978, ROM was expensive. The EXEC was a way to share some game code so a 4K cartridge was actually a much larger game. It was a good competitive advantage in the early days. Later ROM prices came down so cartridges got bigger and there was no need to use the EXEC and its outdated code anymore.

I thought your mock-up looked good. But sprites can have a half pixel height resolution so maybe you should use 160x192 with background pixels being double height. I prefer the 4:3 aspect ratio. And yes Mattel SuperGraphics! It's not just a marketing ploy and is not referring to graphic resolution. It's about smoother animation. I think MOTU may have been the first and only game from Mattel to bypass the EXEC ROM and run at 60Hz. Maybe Bump'N'Jump did as well but that game was programmed by a couple of hackers outside of Mattel.

That was Mattel Canada marketing. Canadian 4-year old boys are obviously tougher than American 4-year old boys.

Apologies, I was referring to Mattel's claim "...is doing very well with boys 4-11."

Four player games are fine as long as three players can be computer controlled. Actually in World Cup Soccer, it doesn't work so well. The ball carrier does not automatically switch to the controller in order to support multiple controllers. The game's not as much fun this way. jZintv supports four controllers using any USB gamepads, but not with default settings. A few lines would have to be added to your "keyboard hackfile" like below. Where JS2/3 are the third and fourth USB joysticks and PD1L/R are the ECS left and right controllers. JS2_BTN_00 PD1L_A_T JS2_BTN_01 PD1L_A_L JS2_BTN_02 PD1L_A_R JS2_BTN_08 PD1L_KP1 JS2_BTN_09 PD1L_KP2 JS2_BTN_10 PD1L_KP3 JS2_BTN_11 PD1L_KP4 JS2_BTN_12 PD1L_KP5 JS2_BTN_13 PD1L_KP6 JS2_BTN_14 PD1L_KP7 JS2_BTN_15 PD1L_KP8 JS2_BTN_16 PD1L_KP9 JS2_BTN_17 PD1L_KPC JS2_BTN_18 PD1L_KP0 JS2_BTN_19 PD1L_KPE JS2_E PD1L_J_E JS2_ENE PD1L_J_ENE JS2_NE PD1L_J_NE JS2_NNE PD1L_J_NNE JS2_N PD1L_J_N JS2_NNW PD1L_J_NNW JS2_NW PD1L_J_NW JS2_WNW PD1L_J_WNW JS2_W PD1L_J_W JS2_WSW PD1L_J_WSW JS2_SW PD1L_J_SW JS2_SSW PD1L_J_SSW JS2_S PD1L_J_S JS2_SSE PD1L_J_SSE JS2_SE PD1L_J_SE JS2_ESE PD1L_J_ESE

Here's the clip from Mattel's 1983 dealer catalog, I had back at that time. Mattel could have been wrong on their facts. This catalog only mentions a MOTU game in the M-Network section.

My suggestion is to sell your ECS, extra keyboard, and one or both of your Intellivisions. That might be more than enough money to buy a modern and practical computer. If not a used PC than a new Raspberry Pi computer. Did your ECS come with any games? Which games do you and your daughter like to play? By-the-way, the RAM chip in your ECS is likely a Toshiba TMM2016P-2. Some ECSs don't even have the expansion slot under the cover, guessing to save cost after initial production started.

Are the STIC chips not all the same from any Intellivision or Intellivision II?

Consider investing in a Raspberry Pi computer. It's cheap, comes with 512MB or 1024MB RAM, and can use a regular television for a display. It's a good environment for kids of any age to learn programming. People might recommend learning the Python programming language but I think you can program it with a BASIC interpreter (free download may be required). It can also get you on the internet and do lots of other things, and even play Intellivision games in emulation. I think IntyBasic requires a PC or MAC computer and is meant for developing Intellivision games. When the Intellivsion ECS came out in 1983, there were planned upgrade options. The announced Program Expander with 16K of additional RAM and an expanded BASIC was never produced as all hardware development at Mattel Electronics was cancelled later in 1983. I don't know if you could ever have bought any third party RAM that would upgrade the ECS. edit: from Intellivisionlives.com: http://www.intellivisionlives.com/bluesky/hardware/ecs_tech.html#exec "An additional 2K of 8-bit RAM is contained in the ECS. How much of it is available for use by the game program depends on how many of the ECS EXEC/BASIC routines are used. If the game does not use any of the ECS EXEC routines or BASIC, 1,984 RAM locations are available to the program. If all features are used, including BASIC which reserves a 1,535 location block for programming, only 2 locations of the system RAM are left over. Note: Use of the ECS/BASIC features also eats up some of the Master Component's 147 8-bit scratchpad RAM locations normally available to the programmer; from 3 to 14 locations, depending on the features used." So a minimum of 1.5K of 8-bit ECS RAM is available to BASIC programming. I don't know if BASIC has access to the 704 bytes of 16-bit Intellivision memory, much of which is used to display characters. Same goes for the Intellivision's scratchpad ram and gram which would might not be used at all for BASIC programming. The Program Exapander was suppose to plug into the top of the ECS. Does the ECS actually have this expansion slot under the cover?

Championship Tennis looks like it was written for four players. After placing the first two players in two of the four available positions, the third player comes out like its waiting to be positioned. The game eventually continues with two player singles or doubles. I don't have the hardware but I can't get this game to run using jzIntv with ECS, It crashes after I select the cartridge option. I've tried the following mappings in jzIntv: [mapping] $0000 - $1FFF = $5000 $2000 - $3FFF = $D000 ------------------------ [mapping] $0000 - $1FFF = $5000 $2000 - $4FFF = $D000

Retronic has firmware that is flashback controller compatible, and with the Raphnet circuit you can wire it however you want and use regular firmware. The Nurmix adapters are great for original consoles. edit: both Retronic and Raphnet provide their firmware source code so you can customise as you like (eg. add button combos).

Retronic USB Adapter - http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Universal-DB9-to-USB-joystick-adapter-/181514462569?hash=item2a431ae569:g:KmEAAOSwPcVV0T6t or for a do-it-yourself project Raphnet circuit board - http://www.raphnet-tech.com/products/intellivusb/index.php

Flash carts are rare but there are new Intellivision controllers readily available. In Canada, just go to Bed Bath and Beyond and pick up a Flashback (use their 20% off coupon). And fortunately we have a Canadian source for USB controller adapters as well. Producing and shipping cartridges for individual games does seem like a waste of resources.

SameGame & Robots - http://www.gooddealgames.com/More_Stuff/Intellivision/SameGame_Robots.zip Minehunter - http://www.intellivision.us/roms/minehunter.zip

Sadly, the only Intellivision game that I know of that uses the disc as a spinner is "Turbo". None of the paddle games do. I'd really like to see a simple demo rom showing a paddle being controlled with the disc as a spinner. Maybe it doesn't work very well.

Sorry for being off topic but I had to google it. Electronic Games May 1982 calls it "USAC Auto Racing" ( https://archive.org/details/electronic-games-magazine-1982-05 page 59). I wonder where it came from; it would have been a couple of years since Auto Racing was released.

Is the Nostalgia emulator suppose to have network/internet play? I get an error when starting a game using Nostalgia/Kaillera. If anyone knows anything about it please say so.

There is a practical application for emulator tricks similar to this. I heard that some softwares were written for television/CRT displays using the display's unique characteristics to create colours that the computer doesn't produce. These effects are lost when displayed on an LCD display, but an emulator could be programmed to reproduce them. I'm not sure if any Intellivision games are effected by anything like that..

Whether or not intentional, some very successful software companies today owe their popularity to the user base that piracy built in the 1980s.

The major sports leagues and Disney, at that time, were far from the mega corporations they are today. So they were probably much easier to work with than you might think. And Mattel Electronics became a separate company around 1981/82 so definitely before the MOTU game.

jzIntv is primarily a developer's tool. Accuracy to the original hardware is the priority (I think someone mentioned this already).

I don't think the game is disappointing. It's a decent game for it's target audience; children aged 4-11. You don't even have to hit Skeletor to get him with a bomb; the bomb creates a hole and Skeletor falls in. I thought I heard somewhere that they originally wanted Auto Racing to have "Hot Wheels" in the name. But even within a company there are costs between departments and rivalries.

Intellivision games with flickering objects are fairly rare. Which games are you concerned about?