Promo Intellivision II Questions - Guage Interest

[Jeremy Popp]

Hello All,

 

I just picked up this Intellivision II in a lot with a bunch of other stuff. The bottom says "For Promotional Use Only". I've seen a few threads about this, and generally seem to not really add much value. The question I have is, does the board look normal? Specifically the sound chip or whatever it's called. Looks like it has a row of resistors soldered onto it. The sound works, though it does seem like the volume could be a bit low.

 

I will be selling this unit, and didn't know if these are points of interest/concern? Also, the disc on one of the joysticks is gold like the 1st model. Are these interchangable? Thanks!

 

[+intvsteve]

Honestly can't say if that's an unusual unit or adds value or not. Cmart is probably more into that. IMHO the promo sticker was probably added after the fact when the retailer set it up in the store, but who knows.

 

I haven't opened up enough Intellivision II units to know off the top of my head if the placement of those resistors is typical. It certainly looks like those resistors belong there according to the schematics. They look to be pull up resistors for the controller inputs. The sound chip package for Intellivision has two 8-bit digital I/O ports which are used for controllers. Nifty, eh?

[+evg2000]

Mine does not have the resistors soldered to the chip

[Jeremy Popp]

Thanks for the info, maybe it's not all that unique afterall. The resisters seem a bit wierd, but probabaly just a running production change.

[Jeremy Popp]

http://console5.com/wiki/Intellivision_II

 

Board revision information for future reference. One unanswered question, is the directional pad/disc interchangable between model 1 and 2 joystick/controllers? From what I can tell, gold is typically model 1 and black is model 2 typically.

[+intvsteve]

Yes, gold discs are from the original 2609 line. I know repair shops had the 'stickers' for the discs so if they got chewed up, they could recondition units by taking the old gold part off and put a new one on, keeping the plastic substrate. Since yours has a gray disc with gold sticker on it, I wonder if this unit saw lots of use and they replaced the black 'sticker' with the gold one. 'Sticker' is really a bit of a misnomer, as the disc is thin metal - it just has adhesive on the back that you reveal just like peeling a sticker.

 

The substrate must be the same diameter, but not sure about the thickness -- i.e. would an entire disc from one of the 2609 variants fit into an Intellivision II controller housing... Don't know. A spring needs to go in there, too.