Any previous/current Intellivision ECS Computer owners out there?

[deadmeow]

My first "computer" was an Intellivision ECS computer system. It added 2k of ram to the Intellivisions 8k. In basic language only 2k was accessible. I would always use this limit up. It had a cool looking keyboard.

 

World Series Baseball kicked ass. It took advantage of the extra memory and also the Intellivoice voice module. It was a very good 3D baseball game, and it was a lot of fun, and probably the best baseball game of its time.

 

Mind Strike was another fun game. It was a checkers like game with numbers that jumped around, and the object was to land on your opponents castle and occupy it until it blew up. The best part of the game was that you could design and play your own boards, or use 1 of 100 or so in the game.

 

I never really considered it a real computer, but I used it like one. Me and my friend Marvyn would program text based games adventure games, where you had to make choices like "You are walking down the street to Charlies house, and all the sudden a car swerves in front of you, you can (A)Jump to the side of the road, (B)Stand there, ... etc..

 

The good old days of computing!

[+madman]

This was a very cool accessory. I think I was in high school or 8th grade, sometime in the early 90s and one of the eletronic surplus places I'd buy junk from got in a stock of NIB Intellivision computers. The boxes had damage, but where else were you going to find these things? I bought 2, one to keep/play and another I traded to a local collector for an Atari 2600 and a bunch of games. I think they were $15 a piece.

 

Unfortunately I never got around to buying any of the games for it, but I did use the computer quite a bit to play around with making a guy run on the screen and other programming stuff like that. I think the Intellivision was a far better system than anything else that was out at the time. Sadly, all of my INTV stuff is at my parents' house so I haven't gotten a chance to play it in years.

[Dusk2600]

do u mean the computer add on that looks like it would match the intv 2 system? if so, i do have one with a few games, i got it in the lot of 89 intv games and stuff bout 2 years ago.

[Student Driver]

I picked one up at a thrift store a few years ago, but haven't tried it out yet.

[deadmeow]

The only computer module that was released to the public was the white unit. There was an expensive unit first proposed and built with like 64k, but it never saw release due to price concerns, so the cheaper version ECS computer was built.

 

Baseball and Mindstrike are fun if you have a 2nd person to play with. If you examine the unit, there is even a small lid that comes off the base unit, that allows you to add a never-built memory card. I would of definately taken advantage extra memory is my basic programs back in the old days.

[else]

The only computer module that was released to the public was the white unit.

 

Bzzzzzt! The original computer module and some games were released in limited test markets. They are extremely rare and highly sought-after today.

 

Right from the Blue Sky Rangers themselves:

 

Intellivison Computer

 

They occasionally come up for sale on eBay....

Edited January 19, 2007 by else

[Tempest]

The only computer module that was released to the public was the white unit.

 

Bzzzzzt! The original computer module and some games were released in limited test markets. They are extremely rare and highly sought-after today.

 

Right from the Blue Sky Rangers themselves:

 

Intellivison Computer

 

They occasionally come up for sale on eBay....

 

Yeah they're REALLY expensive, and the game tapes are even harder to find than the system. I've always wanted one, but not for the price they go for. Besides, all the 'games' for it that I've seen are edutainment at best, no 'game games' so to speak.

 

I believe the reason that they're so rare is that people were offered a free ECS if they send back they're old keyboard component, so people went for the new free unit that they knew was going to be supported rather than the old unit that wasn't. They also had to sign some sort of waiver that said that Mattel would not help them if they had trouble with the old unit.

 

Tempest

[ghsqb]

The only computer module that was released to the public was the white unit. There was an expensive unit first proposed and built with like 64k, but it never saw release due to price concerns, so the cheaper version ECS computer was built.

 

Baseball and Mindstrike are fun if you have a 2nd person to play with. If you examine the unit, there is even a small lid that comes off the base unit, that allows you to add a never-built memory card. I would of definately taken advantage extra memory is my basic programs back in the old days.

 

Just to mention that there is also a brown ECS unit as well.

 

Exactly the same as the white ECS, but matches the decor of the first INTY not the INTY II.

 

I have a boxed white ECS and a boxed brown ECS, but not the "keyboard component".