The Intv Ecs club

[atari5200dude82]

I really like to play the Ecs on the Intellivision quite a bit. I really enjoy the games on the system. I know some of you either like, or hate the Ecs. So i decided to start a Intv Ecs club. Yes, this includes the Music Synthezizer and Melody blaster. Some day i would like to get them both. I would like to see for games to come out for the system. Like unreleased Game Factory and Number Jumble. Thanks Dave for the Super Nfl and Flintstones. I believe The Ecs needs more recognition. Just like the Intellivoice. Share your stories and pics. Maybe Rev can make some Ecs buttons also. Hint Hint.

 

Here is my collection at the present time.

[jaybird3rd]

Congratulations! That's a nice collection. I like the ECS Computer Adaptor, too; mine was water damaged when I got it, but I repaired it and still use it all the time with my Intellivision II and Cuttle Cart 3.

 

Even though the ECS Computer Adaptor was reportedly a low-budget stopgap solution, it nevertheless adds some interesting potentialities to the Intellivision. It's a pity that it didn't get better support, but at least it got a small library of intriguing titles. Game Factory, Melody Blaster, and World Series MLB are examples of the kind of experimentation that might have continued at Mattel had it not been for the crash, and Mind Strike is a game that makes the ECS worth owning all by itself. Here's hoping that future homebrew titles make even better use of it!

[+JasonlikesINTV]

Thanks for starting this thread. I have meant to pull out my ECS and play with it more, but never got around to it. I also have never tested my Synthesizer or played my Melody Blaster. This must happen soon Maybe I'll post pics of my ECS game collection as well. Hopefully some people will upload some videos. I think I read in the Synth manual that you can alter the sounds of the synth using the BASIC programming. Or, I could have made that up. Either way, I would love to play around with the sounds and see what I can come up with. More to come....

[pimpmaul69]

what you need to do now atari5200dude82 is have a chip programmed with the ws baseball rom that has the real player names and replace the chip in one of your wsb carts. or you could just wait for a multicart....

Edited June 27, 2013 by pimpmaul69

[LidLikesIntellivision]

I hope I can join this club soon.

Something tells me I'm gonna love the ECS.

[+swlovinist]

ECS owner here and like the system. I dont have all the games yet, but am just happy to trade for a boxed system from a good friend.

[IntellivisionDude]

Awesome. I have all the ECS games except NFL and Flinstones

[atari5200dude82]

what you need to do now atari5200dude82 is have a chip programmed with the ws baseball rom that has the real player names and replace the chip in one of your wsb carts. or you could just wait for a multicart....

LOL. Probably wait for the multicart. I am no techincal expert.

[Rev]

Some more ecs games would be cool

[+JasonlikesINTV]

I'm waiting for

 

Melody Blaster II: Heavy Mattel

[pimpmaul69]

I'm waiting for

 

Melody Blaster II: Heavy Mattel

someone will have to modify some rockband guitars for that games release

[Tales from the Game Room]

Because of your immense support, I present my second game review for Intellivision: Beamrider, by Activision

 

[Tales from the Game Room]

Because of your immense support, I present the second installment of my "Tales from The Game Room" reviews: "Beamrider" by Activision...

 

[+cmart604]

I knew I'd done a thread about this stuff.

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/209150-cmarts-complete-ecs-hardware-and-software-collection/

 

I'm in the club. I've actually been meaning to play the Super NFL Football more than I have to date.

[pimpmaul69]

Because of your immense support, I present my second game review for Intellivision: Beamrider, by Activision

 

what you need to do is create a thread to put your videos in. just randomly putting them in other threads makes it harder when we need to re-watch or reference a video

[Intymike]

I even attached a cassette recorder to the ECS, typed in a BASIC program by Joe Z and saved it to cassette.

[Ignorama]

I am also a ECS owner and I like the system, also the most games are not worth to play

[+DZ-Jay]

I hate the ECS. Yes, I do, sorry. It brings back the very opposite feeling of nostalgia in me.

 

I owned one when I was 11 years-old, and I fell for the dream of programming my own Intellivision games in BASIC, and letting my imagination fly. I was so excited and starry-eyed, and I tried and tried and tried, but the device brought nothing but pain and frustration.

 

In spite of the frustration, I did learn the basics of programming, and I manage to retain the dreams of becoming a game programmer. (I eventually, no thanks to Mattel, became quite a successful programmer.)

 

A year later I got a Commodore-64, which immediately strengthened and cemented my opinion on the ECS as the worst micro-computer ever made. I then was embarrassed to even think I owned one--and that's a powerful feeling when you're 12 years-old.

 

As an adult, in spite of myself, I now own an ECS again. It is different now. I now see it in the same light as some of you: it provides an extra sound chip and additional on-board memory, which allowed for some enhanced games at the time.

 

However, these features are not as important anymore; with 30 years of research experience and the significant increase in RAM offered by modern cartridges, even more amazing games can be made now (though the extra sound chip is still cool).

 

I did not know at the time the politics involved, so to me the ECS was intended to replace the expected Keyboard Component, and in that was implicit the promise of a full-fledged computing platform, not just enhanced sound for Mattel's titles. It was the promise of harnessing the power of a 16-bit microprocessor and of the whole Master Component and explore your imagination with your very own Intellivision games.

 

That is an unconscionable and wretched lie to make to an impressionable 11 year-old boy, and I fell for it. And I damn Mattel for it ever since.

 

That said, when not viewed as a computer, the ECS is an interesting device to enhance some games, and I expect to utilize it in the future.

 

dZ.

[Intymike]

I was trying to get the ECS myself back than. I even wrote a letter to Mattel Germany, asking where I could get one. But it was already 1984 and to late. In 1986 I bought my C64.

[+DZ-Jay]

I was trying to get the ECS myself back than. I even wrote a letter to Mattel Germany, asking where I could get one. But it was already 1984 and to late. In 1986 I bought my C64.

 

Consider yourself lucky then. It took me a while to forget the pain of the ECS as I relearned BASIC proper on the C=64.

 

Don't get me wrong, the ECS is a good enhancement to the Master Component, and the additional sound chip provides great possibilities. It is just a very crappy home micro-computer, which was its main selling purpose at the time.

 

dZ.

[bikeguychicago]

The best things about the ECS was the games: Mind Strike, WSMLB and Melody Blaster in particular.

 

I'd used three versions of BASIC at home in my youth: Sinclair BASIC, PCjr Cartridge BASIC and ESC BASIC. It was amazing that Sinclair could get a full-fledged BASIC into 2K yet Mattel's version was a complete joke. I did find it cool that the Mattel BASIC let you pluck sprites out of Intellivision games and display them on-screen but, other than that, there was little else you could do with it.

 

The built-in music app wasn't much better, even with the synthesizer attached.

[Fushek]

I am a owner but I haven't played the games for it much. Was never impressed with the unit but have it for the sake of completeness of my collection. I'm not sure if it just wasn't utilized properly by Mattel as the only game that they really untapped it's potential seems to have been WSMLB. I'm not a hater (didn't need the keyboard as I was a proud C64 owner myself) but I'm certainly not a huge fan either.

 

Don't forget that it also enhances Space Patrol as well!

[Ignorama]

Don't forget that it also enhances Space Patrol as well!

 

In which way?

[+Allan]

What is the basic like? It is as bad as the Atari 2600 Basic?

 

Allan

[jaybird3rd]

In which way?

If the ECS Computer Adaptor is present, Space Patrol can use the other three voices provided by its extra AY-3-8910 sound chip. This matches the original Moon Patrol arcade, which also had two AY-3-8910 chips.

 

What is the basic like? It is as bad as the Atari 2600 Basic?

Not quite that bad. It was an extremely limited implementation of BASIC, but unlike "BASIC Programming" for the 2600, you could actually use it to write real (if exceedingly simple) programs, you could save them to tape and re-load them again later, and you could produce printouts through the Computer Adaptor's printer port. That satisfied the bare minimum requirements for the ECS to be classified as a computer. The "sprite sucker" feature of ECS BASIC was interesting, as was the idea of color-coding different types of BASIC statements. But as a computer, the ECS was indeed pretty pathetic, even by 1983 standards.

 

I didn't grow up with the Intellivision, and wasn't "forced" to try to use it as a computer, so to me, the ECS Computer Adaptor is just an interesting expansion module that was never used to its full potential. I have a special fondness for funky 80s computer and console add-ons, and for imagining creative ways to use them in new games; I suppose that I like the MBX Expansion System for the TI 99/4A (a computer I did grow up with) for the same reason.