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mr_me

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Posts posted by mr_me

  1. Posted · Edited by mr_me

    Had to ask, funny something antiquated has such strict copyrights surrounding it. Heard Keith talking about the ownership of it but even bitd there wasn't anything to stop programmers from taking it apart other than lawyers lol. You wouldn't happen to know what Keith means by "official INTV games", I mean how and why would you use the INTV EXEC now? I listened intently but I didn't understand much other than how to get sued.

     

    Funny you mention not being that interested in the genre, neither am I but I think for me it's just a matter of content style and a few nagging interface conventions to fix and then I'd like them. For example having a partial visual element increases my interest like the later day procedural rendered games on Apple II like King's Quest, Masquerade, or Mystery House.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpg5vnhpEyI

     

    I think the Keypad offers a good input device for games like this, either through word shortcut branch construction or text parsing through a phone like character input IE. 2=ABC, 3=DEF etc.

     

    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.

    • Like 1

  2. Posted · Edited by mr_me

    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

  3. Posted · Edited by mr_me

    Well it is kind of why I keep some SD-TVs around, I tend to get fussy about emulator options so I favor real hardware most of the time.

     

    Smoother animation too, hadn't considered that but it makes sense. I understand the upside of the EXEC and sometimes you can conform to it but other times you just can't.

     

    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.

  4. Posted · Edited by mr_me

    I'll give that a try, I usually try for clean pixel inflation but I'll experiment with percentages. It's a tough resolution to display outside of the original hardware, the VIC-20 wasn't easy either, kind of varied in aspect ratio within PAL and NTSC regions for pixel inflation in emulators.

    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.

  5. Posted

    Wow, interesting. I think I got into He Man when I was about 9-10. No way would I have been able to handle the "scary monsters" in the cartoon when I was 4 (not that He Man existed then). I've got the DVDs of the 1st two seasons, but my son isn't ready for it yet and he's 7... pretty close, though. There's a big difference between 4 and 7,8,9... Then again, there's a big difference between the cartoon and the video game. I can see a 4 year old handling the game if they have the coordination to play games.

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

    • Like 2

  7. Posted · Edited by mr_me

    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

  8. Posted · Edited by mr_me

     

    I was a big fan of the He Man cartoon when I was a kid, and I thought the Intellivision game was a blast. The graphics and music are top notch, the two gameplay sections keep it interesting, and it while it gets challenging later it has a nice, easy ramp up. I did wish for more swordplay, though. It's like the paladin in the D&D cartoon - just as shield? Lame. I wanted to cleave stuff with He Man, although he didn't do that much in the cartoon. Maybe some of Skeletor's robots. Despite that, it's still a lot of fun. Probably a top 5 game on the system, but on the borderline. Definitely top 10.

     

     

     

    4 year olds watching He Man? Really? That seems like quite a stretch. /grumpyoldman

     

     

    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.

    post-43287-0-68777400-1458478221_thumb.jpg

    • Like 1

  9. Posted

    Hi Mr ME

     

    I open the unit and did find the slot for the extended Ram and extended basic module.

    Matter in fact in my book fir the module on page 84. This is what is written and I gues they never made it but the slot is there for it to be installed.

     

    The Intellivision Program Expander ( availiable later in 1983 ) will enable you to add 32K of RAM and extended Basic Language for more

    sophisticated programming Capabillity.

     

    This was printed in my book for the Computer module on page 84.

     

    Again the slot is there. I found it ,so I know they did plan it out but they just did not follow through with it,

     

    I know in the Timex Sinclair computer they had a large ram Chip that had 2K on it.

    I know other computers that used the small 16 or 18 pin chips that could be just change out for more memory.

    Some use 4 chips to get the 4 K of memory and others used just two memory chips.

    So I am just curious if the chips that provide only 2 K of ram could be changed out to the higher ram chips.

    Maybe I could get her at least 4 K out of this thing,

    A different basic Rom chip would be hard since it would have to be written to the 1610 CPU instruction set.

    since most were written around the 6502 CPU like the Comodore 64 and Atari 800 that just not going to happen.

    I think even the Vic 20 use that 6502 chip and the atari 2600 used the 6507 cpu which was a cut down chip of the 6502 cpu.

     

    Anyways the expansion module slot does exist in the board, but to bad they never even made a couple for testing.

    The extended basic and extra memory may have provided a much better computer system.

    Well for right now I am stuck with this due to all the medical cost,funeral cost and so much more.

    She seems happy with it but I was hoping to give her a little extra memory.

    Again I am retired from the military and worked for Raytheon and NASA.

    Now I am just retired. So if I knew what chips would work in extending the memory I could

    install them myself. I was just not sure if anyone had found a way to get more memory.

     

    By the way I tried signing up for that intellivision site and have not received a second email

    that says my account is active.

    Can anyone find out what is going on.

     

    Thanks

    Sean

     

    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.

  11. Posted · Edited by mr_me

    Hi

    Thanks for the help. I do not have alot of money right now and I already invested alot into this computer for her.

    Did they come up with an expanded basic for it and is there a way to change out the chips and give her more memory than 2 K of RAM ?

    I am a retired eletronic engineer and electronic tech.

    I had my daughter very late in life and we never expected my wife and her mom to die in an auto accident. My wife always thought I would go before

    her since I was the older one.

    I am almost 50 years old and my daughter still has alot of year left in school before she graduates.

    I was hoping there might be a basic on tape or on a cartrige. Also I thought maybe they may have came up with a larger rom with an expanded basic.

    Now can the ram chips be changed out to larger ones that could bring it up to at least 16K or 32K of Ram.

    Well I would even take 4 to 8K for her.

    If someone can tell me what chips I need then I could change them out to get more memory.

    Anyways this is the computer I bought and she wanted. Plus I was able to buy a little bit at a time. This computer I am on is just a loaner from

    my cousin, so I can get on the internet.

    I had Atari computers but had to sell them all off to cover medical and funeral cost, so in the last two months been buying enough things

    to put together an Intellivision computer. First bought the Intellivision one thinking I could get the brown keyboard. Oh wow was I wrong there.

    Anyways I was told that was recalled. So I was instructed on the ECS Computer module and the Intellivision II went together to form a

    computer. Anyways it been buying the owner manual for the ECS computer module and then I was told there was a step by step basi book

    that went with that. So I bought that book. They come in tomorrow hope fully. Anyways I can use any help on this.

    I have the computer and waiting on a second keyboard that I bought today incase the first keyboard is bad,

    I am sorry the intellivision computer is the computer we have now that we actually own and not a borrowed computer.

    I still need to buy her an intellivoice module because I read how they place a second sound chip in the ECS computer module ,but

    read that only for the music Keyboard program and I am not even sure where to find that keyboard.(the one that looks like a piano)

    Anyways I am just trying to get her set up to program in basic. Again if we can expand her Ram memory by changing out some chips

    I would do it. Just need help on what chips to change and what chips I can put in place of the ones in it.

    Let me ask a question and it may seem stupid but I need an answer to this. It says the Intellivision or intellivision II has about 1.5K of ram in both of them, and it says the ECS computer module adds an extra 2K of ram to the existing memory , So does my daughter have 3.5K of ram in her computer ? How much is left for her to program in ? I know the basic compiler takes up some of that ram from that 12K rom. I am not sure if all the 12K of ROM is all use for basic since

    it controls tape drive inputs and printer ports.

     

     

    Thanks

     

    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?

  12. Posted

    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

  13. Posted · Edited by mr_me

    you do have to remember the flashback controllers are wired differently so you might need an adaptor for that. Nurmix makes them.

    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).

  15. Posted · Edited by mr_me

    My only stipulation for selling any homebrew is please continue to sell them, don't have several year gaps (5+ years) with no new copies for sale, do a survey, get some preorders, do what you got to do to make some more. That's what I like about ROM sales, no manufacturing so no reason for not selling it continuously. I have money sometimes lol but I can't keep up with limited time windows, what are you Disney and you're putting it back in the vault after selling it for a "limited time"? :lolblue:

     

    I'm not suggesting anybody give away games for free, I just want to be able to buy more consistently any time. In this sense a steady stream of flash carts are needed more so than individual cart production, easiest route to wider spread on-hardware gaming. Other than that an emulator and maybe more INTV USB controller production at least. ;)

    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.

  17. Posted

    Has anyone tried paddle-like control on the Disc using a press and spin method? I've heard of side to side spin but not 360 degrees. Do you have Paddle Party, how does that work?

    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.

  18. Posted · Edited by mr_me

     

    I wonder if it was a case of Mattel "Toys" and Mattel Electronics actually being separate corporate entities. As such, would formal licensing agreements have been necessary? I.e. it wasn't quite as simple as just sending a memo over to Toys saying "Let's put Hot Wheels on a video game!".

     

    Though I swear I remember seeing references to USAC Auto Racing, maybe in Electronic Games magazine. There was a board game of the same name around that time...

    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.

  20. Posted

    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..

  24. Posted · Edited by mr_me

    To me it's interesting that He-Man is one of the very few (are there any others?) Intellivision games based on Mattel toy properties.

    It was like their other brands wanted nothing to do with the machine, or vice versa.

    Oh, and the game itself is disappointing.

    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.

  25. Posted

    Is there a way to make flickering MOBs appear solid in the Jzintv emulator? I remember the Stella emulator has some kind of option like this, to make flickering sprites solid.

     

     

     

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

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