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NHL Hockey variations question


Steve Jones

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Lately Ive been buying old Mattel variations, before I never paid much attention to whether I had the original versions that mention the keyboard component (coming soon) in the small white print on the bottom right of the front or not, but now I have been buying specifically based on that, which leads to my question,

every version I have seen of NHL Hockey seems to be the older one that mentions the KC.

Are there Mattel NHL Hockey boxes that have the KC mention removed?

Or perhaps it didnt sell enough to warrant a second printing?

We Canadians are hockey obsessed (Go Leafs Go)

but back in the 80s I dont think it was that popular anywhere else.

Has anyone seen this?

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Lately Ive been buying old Mattel variations, before I never paid much attention to whether I had the original versions that mention the keyboard component (coming soon) in the small white print on the bottom right of the front or not, but now I have been buying specifically based on that, which leads to my question,

every version I have seen of NHL Hockey seems to be the older one that mentions the KC.

Are there Mattel NHL Hockey boxes that have the KC mention removed?

Or perhaps it didnt sell enough to warrant a second printing?

We Canadians are hockey obsessed (Go Leafs Go)

but back in the 80s I dont think it was that popular anywhere else.

Has anyone seen this?

 

Do you have this version?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Boxed-Intellivision-Game-NFL-Hockey-Tested-Working/391944972014?hash=item5b41bda6ee:g:h2AAAOSw9mpaCLiT

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I always had the impression that back in the 1970s and early 1980s the NHL was barely considered a major league sport in the US. There was strong support in Boston and New York but even Chicago and Detroit seem to be struggling.

 

Here's some cartridge sales numbers according to the Intellivision Lives CD. I think sport popularity would have something to do with sales; quality of the video game does too. Intellivison has many great sports cartridges and I would rate NHL Hockey, as a video game, in the bottom half of the pack. The NASL was at its peak in popularity in 1980 with games televised on ABC. It was arguably more popular than the NHL in the United States at the time. This was just before Intellivision became widely available. At the time the NHL couldn't get on american network television. The NASL had a steep decline after 1980. The Intellivision cartridge sales reflects this despite the NASL video game itself being excellent. Still not too sure about NHL popularity in the US. Boxing, as a spectator sport, was very popular at the time; much different than today. Again I would rate the Intellivision Boxing cartridge in the bottom half of the pack.

 

1085700 Major League Baseball

980200 NFL Football

565200 Auto Racing

518100 NBA Basketball

475700 Boxing

427500 US Ski Team Skiing

383100 PBA Bowling

364100 PGA Golf

337700 Tennis

284400 NASL Soccer

 

All sales are as of June 1983. Note that NHL Hockey (#1114) sales are missing from the list. I have the Intellivision Lives CD v1.1 and there is a glitch where you click on NHL Hockey cartridge stats & credits and Tennis (#1814) stats & credits appears. So if anyone can check the v1.0 cd to see if it works please let us know. Or if anyone has access to the sales numbers at Intellivision Productions please let us know.

 

As a comparison Math Fun sold 134700 cartridges (as of June 1983) and has a box revision with the keyboard component reference removed. So I think Steve is correct in thinking they had an initial over supply of NHL Hockey cartridges.

Edited by mr_me
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I always had the impression that back in the 1970s and early 1980s the NHL was barely considered a major league sport in the US. There was strong support in Boston and New York but even Chicago and Detroit seem to be struggling.

 

Here's some cartridge sales numbers according to the Intellivision Lives CD. I think sport popularity would have something to do with sales; quality of the video game does too. Intellivison has many great sports cartridges and I would rate NHL Hockey, as a video game, in the bottom half of the pack. The NASL was at its peak in popularity in 1980 with games televised on ABC. It was arguably more popular than the NHL in the United States at the time. This was just before Intellivision became widely available. At the time the NHL couldn't get on american network television. The NASL had a steep decline after 1980. The Intellivision cartridge sales reflects this despite the NASL video game itself being excellent. Still not too sure about NHL popularity in the US. Boxing, as a spectator sport, was very popular at the time; much different than today. Again I would rate the Intellivision Boxing cartridge in the bottom half of the pack.

 

1085700 Major League Baseball

980200 NFL Football

565200 Auto Racing

518100 NBA Basketball

475700 Boxing

427500 US Ski Team Skiing

383100 PBA Bowling

364100 PGA Golf

337700 Tennis

284400 NASL Soccer

 

All sales are as of June 1983. Note that NHL Hockey (#1114) sales are missing from the list. I have the Intellivision Lives CD v1.1 and there is a glitch where you click on NHL Hockey cartridge stats & credits and Tennis (#1814) stats & credits appears. So if anyone can check the v1.0 cd to see if it works please let us know. Or if anyone has access to the sales numbers at Intellivision Productions please let us know.

 

As a comparison Math Fun sold 134700 cartridges (as of June 1983) and has a box revision with the keyboard component reference removed. So I think Steve is correct in thinking they had an initial over supply of NHL Hockey cartridges.

 

Here is Intellivision Lives 1.0

 

post-36757-0-07790500-1514312999_thumb.png

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Somewhat related, when did Mattel lose the licensing with the various pro sports leagues, NHL, NFL, NBA etc?

I have Mattel north american versions of most sports games without league branding/logos. Im thinking maybe these licenses had expired before they sold enough NHL Hockey games to warrant a new printing without KC text.

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Somewhat related, when did Mattel lose the licensing with the various pro sports leagues, NHL, NFL, NBA etc?

I have Mattel north american versions of most sports games without league branding/logos. Im thinking maybe these licenses had expired before they sold enough NHL Hockey games to warrant a new printing without KC text.

I thought the licensing remained on the boxes, but logos were removed from overlays and cartridge labels.

 

Edit:

The licensing was likely not transferrable when Mattel sold the Intellivision assets to Intellivision Inc. / INTV Corp in 1984. So I thought Mattel had them until the end.

 

Maybe your looking at mattel boxes for english language markets outside north america? And sports licensing only covered north american rights.

Edited by mr_me
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post-32869-0-70291500-1514379809_thumb.jpeg

 

Not at home to check inside but all the ones in this pic with no logo

are not the European versions, the back of the boxes are the same as the branded versions

with the same text. Not sure where they were made.

 

Also NHL Hockey not rare, except possibly the Mattel US version that does NOT mention the KC.

Edited by Steve Jones
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How do you know they were not for markets like UK, Australia, South Africa? Intellivision was in the UK at least one full year before France, Italy, or Germany.

 

Edit: For comparison check your copy of Draughts compared to Checkers. They should be very similar other than the title and where they were sold.

Edited by mr_me
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