frdarryl

Ahh, that's a good suggestion too. From what I understand, the AY-3-8914 also handles the controller I/O so if that wasn't working it would explain a lot.

Glad you got the first one fixed! If the problem with the characters comes back on that system, I see the following in the Mattel Electronics service manual: "Test the SYSTEM LOGIC ... Replace the PCB LOGIC ICs as required. ... Most of the graphic problems are caused by PBC-LOGIC ICs U2, U4, U5, U7 and U8." It also suggests checking the power supply. U2: System RAM, RA-3-9600 U4: STIC, AY-3-8900-1 (this was one of the culprits on my INTV) U5: Graphics ROM, RO-3-9503 U7 and U8: Scratchpad RAM, GTE 3539 The service manual is here: https://console5.com/techwiki/images/c/c7/Intellivision_Service_Manual%2C_Model_2609.pdf I was looking at page 2-11. For your second system, page 2-13 mentions "Picture action freeze-up." It then suggests swapping chips in this order: U1: CPU (I recently did this with a random freezing problem and it was the culprit!) U4: STIC U2: System RAM U9: System ROM U3: Program ROM I hope this helps! I wish I could find the MTE 201 test cartridge referred to in the manual (for a reasonable price). That looks like it would be very handy.

If anyone is interested (or in case it helps anyone with troubleshooting), I've written a blog post detailing my repair of this INTV unit. https://saskapriest.com/2022/03/29/repairing-the-intellivision-vintage-gaming-console/

Huzzah! I think I figured it out! I swapped the CPU for the one from a non-functioning Sears Super Video Arcade and the INTV seems to be running stably now! I'm going to have to play it a lot more to put it through it's paces (tough job, I know ??), but so far, so good. Along with the reflowed-solder and the cleaned contacts, hopefully this INTV runs for a long time to come. I also replaced the rapidly-disintegrating power supply ribbon cable with a wire-based ribbon cable. So far the caps all look fine on that board and the voltages are stable. Thanks for your suggestions, everyone!

Thanks! Yeah, I did clean the contacts, re-seated the socketed chips, and also re-flowed the solder on the board, as it looked like some of those joints may have not been all that great. I guess several decades can do a number on old electronics...

Unfortunately there was no score shown, so Space Armada seems to have frozen just before that point. I've also experienced NHL Hockey freezing just after a goal was scored. So it seems pretty random, except for the case with the pattern I've seen in Skiing (which I will be able to test with a different cartridge next week). I've also tested with Auto Racing, Masters of the Universe, and Beauty and the Beast (for the sake of testing a non-Mattel game), and those appear to work flawlessly so far. Ahh, intermittent troubles: the most "fun" type of thing to troubleshoot! I suppose that trying to track this down is almost as much fun as playing the games... Part of me wonders if I should just break down and get a cheap oscilloscope so I can see what the bus is doing when it crashes.

Thanks! I'm not sure if it's a programming thing so much as the program is possibly intersecting with a bad part of RAM (scratchpad RAM maybe, since the sound remains enabled??). I also saw an order of recommended chip replacement in the official Mattel repair manual that has the CPU as the first thing to try. So I'll probably do that first. However, I've possibly identified another pattern: If I complete a ski run in Skiing without crashing my player, it ends normally. But if I crash my player on the way down, then at the end of the hill the game crashes to a black screen and the crowd audio remains stuck. It's almost like some instruction is called at the end of the hill which is crashing. Or something is calling upon a certain part of RAM/ROM and is crashing. Or... who knows? I have another Skiing cartridge arriving in the coming days so I will test that one also. But since I'm having crashing with multiple games I don't hold out much hope for that. This might almost be enough to make me want to dive into learning more about the GI architecture!

Hi everyone, I've been having a strange, somewhat intermittent issue with my INTV System III unit. It was having graphics glitches, and swapping out the STIC fixed that. But I'm also having a strange, intermittent crashing problem. It seems that in certain (mainly old Mattel) games, when either I am about to enter the "game over" state (e.g. the enemies reach the bottom in Space Armada, or if I finish the ski hill in Skiing), the console will, randomly, completely freeze up. Sometimes the crowd sounds at the end of a ski run will continue while the screen goes blank. Other times it doesn't go blank or the sound turns garbled. And other times these games work completely as expected. But as far as I can tell, when these games crash, it seems that the game is about to jump from the end-state to a game-over-state, and that is interrupted somehow. So... I don't know much about the General Instruments architecture, but is it possible that perhaps there's a glitch when the code is jumping to a different memory vector somehow? Would that possibly be a RAM error? Or something with the glue logic on the bus? Or a CPU issue? For example, does Skiing jump to a certain vector at the bottom of the ski hill and somehow a certain bit on the bus is getting corrupted? (I'm trying to put on my EE hat but it's been a while!) I do have an extra (non-functional) Sears Super Video Arcade so I can try swapping chips, but I'm curious if anyone else has encountered this sort of problem or has ideas of what to try. Thanks!

About a month ago I managed to find someone making new controller membrane sets in the UK. They were 10 pounds each (plus shipping) and actually arrived pretty quickly for me in Canada. https://www.sellmyretro.com/offer/details/brand-new-mattel-intellivision-1-controller-mylar-set-38583

My dad first got our Sears Super Video Arcade in around 1980. As I grew up it became a great way to play two player games. I have many, many memories of Baseball (YER OUT), Frog Bog, Auto Racing, and Triple Action. The single player games were a ton of fun, too! Masters of the Universe, Space Armada, and Night Stalker were great.

Greetings, everyone! This has been a fantastic forum as I try to troubleshoot a couple of consoles (a Sears Super Video Arcade and an INTV System III). Unfortunately both are exhibiting strange graphical glitches. The Sears unit has both duplicate and missing sprites, while the INTV system will have random glitches rolling through the display once the unit has gotten up to temperature (usually after about 15 minutes). As a troubleshooting step I tried switching the STIC chips from one console to the other and... sure enough, the same behaviour followed the chips. So I'm in need of at least one - preferably, two - working AY-3-8900-1 ICs. I see some threads on this forum from several years ago about sources for these chips but I'm curious if anyone has found more recent suppliers of old stock or junked consoles with working chips, etc. I see several parts consoles on eBay but those are a bit of a risk as to whether they'd have a working IC. I've also seen some Chinese suppliers willing to sell them for cheap... but who knows how legit those are. Thanks for your help! It'd be awesome to get these systems operational again. I have many fond memories of playing them with family. And also nightmares from Night Stalker. ?