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BREAKING NEWS! Spiker box variation discovered!


roberto

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I'm just back in front of my PC and I can't contain my excitement... But let's proceed in order: it is going to be a pretty long story and I need to calm down a little bit first to tell it properly.
Ok, as some of you know, I have been living in Singapore for more than 9 years now and, like any other Intellivision Brotherhood member and collector, I always had the curiosity to find out more about our beloved "Inty". I guess most of us know also that Intellivision games and peripherals were not only manufactured in the USA but also in different Asian countries like Hong Kong, Taiwan and, last but not least, Singapore.
Finding out more about how and where Intellivision games were manufactured over here was something that took, on and off, a sizable part of my free time in the past few weeks. In fact it wasn't an easy task at all: Singapore had a tremendous growth in the last 30 years or so and it is now a very modern country. This implies not only that companies move fast but also that actual buildings and infrastructures are constantly upgraded or completely demolished and rebuilt at a very fast pace. Trying to find traces of a manufacturing plant that operated 20+ years ago is almost an impossible mission.
Anyway, little by little, asking here and there, I managed to get an address within the St. Michael Industrial Estate in Jalan Tenteram, an industrial area within the city. Was that one of the 'historical' sites where our beloved games where made and packaged to be then shipped around the world? I had to find out.
As predictable, at the address location there is now a modern, well established electronic manufacturer and people there know nothing about the Intellivision. Anyway, after annoying a pretty PR lady for half an hour, I managed to find out that this company settled over there only in the mid 90s but, before it, there was another company that leased the site. That might have been the one I was looking for.
In the end, I managed to get some names to keep investigating and left the place even more determined to find out more.
Several phone calls later, I got confirmation that, indeed, that earlier company was in the electronics manufacturing and packaging business and, most likely, also had commissions from American gaming companies during the 80s.
I knew I was on the right track, though I still thought nothing particularly surprising would have come out from all this research work. Most importantly, though, I also got a new lead to keep the research going: a name and a phone number of the last manufacturing manager of said factory. If this was indeed the right company, this guy might have had some good stories to tell about those early days!
I called the number and, after an understandable initial surprise, I managed to have a chat with Mr. Daniel Tan, today an affable 80+ year old "uncle" (as they call here older people in sign of respect) who confirmed that, yes, he was one of the managers at the company that also made Intellivision games! I asked for an interview and managed to get it a couple of days later, i.e. earlier this morning.
Once arrived at Mr. Tan's place, he kindly offered me a cup of green tea and I could finally unleash all my questions about the life in Singapore during those days, how those game carts were done and assembled, the costs involved and if they ever played those games too. This was all extremely interesting and I was already delighted but I still had no idea of what was coming up next.
After we "broke the ice", Mr. Tan said "You know, I think I still have saved a few cartridges and new boxes of some game runs back in the bombshelter, let me check..." (don't ask me why
many new homes in Singapore have bombshelters, which are just used as simple storage space anyway). My excitement was reaching new heights: I indeed spilled a cup of tea all over the place in hearing that! I started feeling like I was unearthing a long forgotten secret treasure.
A few minutes later Mr.Tan came back with a big box. I was ecstatic: inside there were some mint boxes of Burger Time, Bump 'n' Jump, Mission X (the gatefold version) and... and then I almost had a heart attack! There were some white boxes too. Yes, you guessed right: nothing less than Spiker! But the surprise was far from over: alongside the "standard" Spiker boxes we all know and long for, there were also a few different ones. A box variation based on the same design but with two female, not male, volleyball players!!!
I can't recall exactly what happened next. I think my blood pressure "spiked" to 200. I pointed at the box and tried to say something. I don't think I could utter any meaningful word for a while, then I finally managed to explain Mr.Tan why I suddenly became so pale. He thought I saw a ghost! Then, like if nothing extraordinary happened, replied that, while he didn't know whether that game was actually distributed or not since INTV orders were really dwindling at the time, they definitely had also the female design available and, as we could see, printed and ready to go!
To prove myself I wasn't dreaming, I took a picture of the alternative box before taking my leave and rush back to my PC to tell you all about this unbelievable adventure. Anyway, enough writing. Here it is, for all of you to see: one of the alternative Spiker boxes that were not actually released but remained hidden in Mr. Tan's bombshelter for all these years!

 

post-25981-0-16106100-1396325541_thumb.jpg

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It's not April 1st yet here on the West Coast of North America. You're about three hours early. :) I appreciate the effort though. The giveaway was the pretty PR lady. You didn't need to make her pretty, but as you dreamed up the story it was just better in your mind as you imagined her being hot. No one can blame you but it takes away from the authenticity. :) lol!

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LGBT Spiker? :-D

 

I guess that would just be "L" Spiker....

 

BTW, I was totally buying it, but what did it for me was that you totally left out the part where Tan gives you the box....or at least you make an offer. Nice detail about the gatefold Mission X and Burgertime.

 

With so many announcements in the last few days, I really hope that they don't all turn out to be jokes :_(

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I was hoping the joke could stand for more than 5 minutes, but u guys are really terrible! lol ;-)

 

Anyway, I want to thank Ms. Samantha Ong, a very talented Singaporean game artist, for "photoshopping" the Spiker box pic for this April fool joke: it actually looks pretty good!

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I was hoping the joke could stand for more than 5 minutes, but u guys are really terrible! lol ;-)

 

Anyway, I want to thank Ms. Samantha Ong, a very talented Singaporean game artist, for "photoshopping" the Spiker box pic for this April fool joke: it actually looks pretty good!

Yes, please give cudos to Samantha - looks nice :thumbsup:

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Poll: If this really existed and had a matching art B&W manual and was CIB, what would it sell for? I can't imagine anyone paying over $3000, but who knows. Would it matter if the old man had only 1....or 5?

 

That's an interesting question! I can testify ( :D ) the old man had 5 or 6 copies...

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