doctorclu Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 Just wanted to say, if anyone has any input for the Intellivision Flashback 2 I would suggest: Place the connectors towards the back. The woodgrain on the front is nice, really nice. Just hide all the connectors in the back for presentation. That way you aren't draping cords in front of the device when it is not being used. Even side connectors would not be as bad as having the connectos in the front is my opinion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pimpmaul69 Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 Just wanted to say, if anyone has any input for the Intellivision Flashback 2 I would suggest: Place the connectors towards the back. The woodgrain on the front is nice, really nice. Just hide all the connectors in the back for presentation. That way you aren't draping cords in front of the device when it is not being used. Even side connectors would not be as bad as having the connectos in the front is my opinion. for cost reasons that will probably never happen. Thats why the power is on the side. So there is only one board with all connections on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
metzger130 Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 Controllers that work with an intellivision II out of the box. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
privateers69 Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 Ppl would complain if the controller ports are towards the back. "It makes the cables seem shorter" but I agree it'll make the front look better tho. They should just re-mold the console and place the controllers in a holding space. Not like there's no room inside for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaybird3rd Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 I think back-mounted connectors would work better, too, as would having the power cord plug into the back instead of the front-right corner. I think AtGames placed these connectors in the way that they did because they went with a highly integrated design: the controller ports are on the main logic board, which is exceptionally tiny (about 1.5" by 4.25"), and there is a very small daughterboard for the power plug and console switches. They presumably wanted the console switches at the front of the unit, to match the original design, so that's where everything else had to go, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doctorclu Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 I'm sure someone has taken inside shots of the Flashback by now. Could some post some links? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pimpmaul69 Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 I'm sure someone has taken inside shots of the Flashback by now. Could some post some links?rev did i believe. They should be within the billion pages of this thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+cmart604 Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 rev did i believe. They should be within the billion pages of this thread. All you will find on Rev's site is pictures of soiled Hello Kitty dolls 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mylok Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 Here is a photo of what is inside. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freewheel Posted October 24, 2014 Share Posted October 24, 2014 I really wish I kept all my portable hack project parts. Man this thing is tiny. Not sure how to integrate a keypad but you could make a sweet portable unit out of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IntellivisionDude Posted October 24, 2014 Share Posted October 24, 2014 While searching Youtube i found this interesting/funny/sarcastic review of the Flashback. lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doctorclu Posted October 24, 2014 Share Posted October 24, 2014 While searching Youtube i found this interesting/funny/sarcastic review of the Flashback. lol Loved that one. But ultimately he liked the Intellivision Flashback over the Colecovision flashback. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david_mn Posted October 24, 2014 Share Posted October 24, 2014 So, he's reviewing something designed to recreate an old console without knowing much about the original console? No wonder he doesn't like them. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbellanca Posted October 24, 2014 Share Posted October 24, 2014 (edited) for cost reasons that will probably never happen. Thats why the power is on the side. So there is only one board with all connections on it. Would also make it harder to play with controllers out the back... you'd have to drape them over the top to the front, giving you less cord length. Personally I'd like to see more licensed games and a cartridge port. Edited October 24, 2014 by jbellanca 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doctorclu Posted October 24, 2014 Share Posted October 24, 2014 Here is one thing I thought was interesting last night looking at the Intellivision and Atari Flashbacks: The Atari Flashback has like 92 games, and I noticed that a lot of M-Network titles were there. Obviously getting license for Mattel games to make the Intellivision Flashback made the M-Network games possible for the Atari. Donkey Kong (Nintendo) seems to be out no matter what Flashback is involved. But on ColecoVision you have Venture, Zaxxon, and other arcade ports. So would those Coleco titles be possible on the Intellivision in theory? Yeh Zaxxon blows but Venture was actually decent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gavvv Posted October 24, 2014 Share Posted October 24, 2014 If you listen to the Colecovisions Podcast (I can't remember the # exactly), they interviewed the man in charge of the Coleco Holdings Inc where it was talked about. The way it sounded it seemed like the original contracts might have given it more leeway in terms of them being able to rerelease without the need for further permissions. He also mentioned that it was a combination of his company's work along with a lot of work done by AtGames in order to get all the included licenses. Keith R has always talked about the games for inty being the ol 'dual copyright' with Mattel/Intv holding the copyright on the software, with the original media company with the copyrights to the IP, characters and names. Perhaps with Zaxxon, there wouldn't be any copyrighted 'characters' , and use of the name might have been covered in the original Coleco contracts. (Don't know, just random speculation). Perhaps Mattel's original oft-talked-about legal department covered the bases so 'competently' that it left very few 'grey areas' for future owners to take advantage of gavv Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Lathe26 Posted October 24, 2014 Share Posted October 24, 2014 While searching Youtube i found this interesting/funny/sarcastic review of the Flashback. lol What, no swimsuit competition?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Sublett Posted October 26, 2014 Share Posted October 26, 2014 Have the Flashbacks shown up at DG yet? Also has gotten one at DG.com? I was told they would be available at DG.com first week of November but the site has now gone from "coming soon" to "out of stock" on the product page. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pimpmaul69 Posted October 26, 2014 Share Posted October 26, 2014 Have the Flashbacks shown up at DG yet? Also has gotten one at DG.com? I was told they would be available at DG.com first week of November but the site has now gone from "coming soon" to "out of stock" on the product page. Thanks this could be good news. It means they have added it to the websites internet inventory/shopping cart program Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Place Logo Here Posted October 26, 2014 Share Posted October 26, 2014 Have the Flashbacks shown up at DG yet? Also has gotten one at DG.com? I was told they would be available at DG.com first week of November but the site has now gone from "coming soon" to "out of stock" on the product page. Thanks Actually, the site still shows "out of stock" if you click on the "quick shop" image when doing a search for the product on the DG site. It is only when you click on the text hyperlink of the item's name that you are taken to the page that tells you it is coming soon. Either way, the site is saying it will be "Available in early November", so I don't plan on hitting up the stores again until this Saturday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
intvnut Posted October 27, 2014 Share Posted October 27, 2014 Would also make it harder to play with controllers out the back... you'd have to drape them over the top to the front, giving you less cord length. Personally I'd like to see more licensed games and a cartridge port. I agree. I happen to like the controller ports on the front. Reminds me of the Atari 5200 a bit that way. As for a cartridge port: I think you can see from the photo above that the PCB is waaay too tiny for that. Unless you put the port on the front, it'd easily double the size of the board or more. Also, since the system is emulated, all the cartridge port would be is a fancy ROM dumper, and it could have compatibility problems with modern game board designs. If the emulation isn't 100%, it could also run into issues with new games that use the hardware more aggressively. As it stands, the existing games in the unit have some emulation errors. All this to say that adding a cartridge port opens a huge can of worms and greatly increases the engineering scope and effort. It may not be worth the additional cost unless these things really sell like gangbusters. A cartridge port would make it possible to play the games Intellivision Productions can't ship themselves, such as the TRON library, the Interphase games, etc. I hear that other FB units that do have a cartridge port are able to do so because they're based around hardware implementations of the system (such as a Genesis on a Chip or the Atari chipset), as opposed to software emulation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Lathe26 Posted October 27, 2014 Share Posted October 27, 2014 I agree. I happen to like the controller ports on the front. Reminds me of the Atari 5200 a bit that way. As for a cartridge port: I think you can see from the photo above that the PCB is waaay too tiny for that. Unless you put the port on the front, it'd easily double the size of the board or more. Also, since the system is emulated, all the cartridge port would be is a fancy ROM dumper, and it could have compatibility problems with modern game board designs. If the emulation isn't 100%, it could also run into issues with new games that use the hardware more aggressively. As it stands, the existing games in the unit have some emulation errors. All this to say that adding a cartridge port opens a huge can of worms and greatly increases the engineering scope and effort. It may not be worth the additional cost unless these things really sell like gangbusters. A cartridge port would make it possible to play the games Intellivision Productions can't ship themselves, such as the TRON library, the Interphase games, etc. I hear that other FB units that do have a cartridge port are able to do so because they're based around hardware implementations of the system (such as a Genesis on a Chip or the Atari chipset), as opposed to software emulation. I've had similar thoughts as well about the cartridge port. Then add to that the issues above with the issues of being compatible with the ECS and Intellivoice. That's not just getting the electronics right, but the connector has to be placed in the right mechanical location (right height, clearance for the controller cables, etc). Then there is the complexity of what happens when an Intellivoice/ECS game is plugged in without the Intellivoice/ECS hardware. Does the game work with built-in hardware emulation or is the hardware emulation only good for the emulated games? This is a can of worms. It will cost Keith money to pay engineers to solve these issues. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
intvnut Posted October 27, 2014 Share Posted October 27, 2014 Then there is the complexity of what happens when an Intellivoice/ECS game is plugged in without the Intellivoice/ECS hardware. Does the game work with built-in hardware emulation or is the hardware emulation only good for the emulated games? Listening to the voice games on there, it sounds like they're playing canned samples for the voice games, much like INTVPC did on Intellivision Lives. If that's the case, then an unsupported voice game would be mute. ECS is a bit easier to emulate. For most things, it just looks like extra RAM, extra ROM and a second PSG. Although, if the game needs the ECS alpha or synth keyboards... now what? Where do you plug those things in? This is a can of worms. It will cost Keith money to pay engineers to solve these issues. The question is: How many additional units would sell if it had a cartridge port, and is it enough to offset the sunk cost of adding it and the marginal cost of building it in? Something tells me the numbers don't work. I don't have an MBA, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express once. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbellanca Posted October 28, 2014 Share Posted October 28, 2014 (edited) They're now available from Dollar General online... Just picked one up! Edited October 28, 2014 by jbellanca Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+intvsteve Posted October 28, 2014 Share Posted October 28, 2014 They're now available from Dollar General online... Just picked one up! Cool! There's also a $5 coupon code: OCT5OFF Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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