Intellivision Entertainment launching a NEW Intellivision console

[+SoulBuster]

Steven Tyler's real name is Steven Tallarico and listed as such in the band Chain Reaction from the 60s.

[nosweargamer]

The youtube live chat at Brian's Man Cave had some extremely interesting nuggets of info in it. Our own nurmix popped into the chat as well!

 

 

It was a great interview. I even used it to make a new update video, trying to highlight some of the most interesting tidbits from the 2 hour marathon:

 

I'm glad that most of the original library will be included with the system. I was worried they might only include a handful of games.

I'm also intrigued by the floating disc. The 3DS is my favorite modern system, and if the controller resembles something like that, that would be cool with me.

 

One things I did not mention in the video, but that Paul mentioned in the chat, is that if you're a developer who can make games in Unity, you probably won't have much trouble making games for the new system.

[+intvsteve]

In that interview they talk about rom files. They say they won't allow the console to take user rom files because that stuff is all stolen. They are okay with someone adding a cartridge slot because cartridges are legitimate. I don't think that's fair; not all rom files have stolen content and you can certainly buy cartridges that have "borrowed" software on it. I also learned that Tommy Tallarico is Steve Tyler's cousin.

 

Edit:

They also say that Intellivision Productions will be going away and the old Intellivision properties will eventually transfer to Intellivision Entertainment.

 

It's kind of a no-win situation for Intellivision Entertainment w.r.t. ROMs unfortunately. It's frustrating that you can't write your own Intellivision ROM and put it on the system directly. If a "Classic Console Adaptor" were to be developed, would it be expected to somehow recognize Intellicart / CuttleCart3 / LTO Flash! and lock those out? If not, then for a crowd of users like us, the "can't load your own ROMs" restriction effectively does not exist. It would be slightly inconvenient and add cost, though.

 

​Realistically​ speaking, the customer base that would be passionate enough to write, or track down, new game ROMs for the classic Intellivision console is highly likely to also be the same group of people that would both buy a cartridge adaptor attachment and already have a multi- or flash-cart. (EDIT:​ ​ Does anyone know how many Intellivision fans operate purely in the emulation world, and never​ in the "hardware" world at this point? This may not be the right place to find that information.) Those customers would be a niche of a niche of a niche. If the number of consoles sold reaches the numbers they're hoping for, that "originalist" crowd would be a tiny fraction of the customer base. One would hope that it's unreasonable to take great pains to prevent the scenario of cartridge adaptor + multi/flash-cart from working. But as seems to be proven over and over, reasonableness doesn't always apply when it comes to the legal / copyright aspects of properties, e.g. Tron or AD&D.

 

Tommy also mentioned that they're going to use jzintv as the emulator for the original games. Should that ultimately prove to be the case (who knows if it'll be a modified version, et. al.) then I wonder if Intellivision Entertainment would be open enough to allow "the community" to have a way to use the new controllers with jzintv on other targets (Mac/Windows/Linux/etc. al.) And if it's jzintv running in this new console for the classic games, then, aside from the box and controllers, running the games there is mainly a nifty gimmick.

 

Don't get me wrong - it'd be totally awesome if it were just super-simple to put whatever you wanted on there w.r.t. the original or new ROMs. But as was brought up in the past, and again by Tommy in the chat, the I.P. holders get awfully testy about this kind of thing.

 

The hoped-for way this would be addressed that was expressed in the chat was that successful negotiations for a "new take" on the old properties could be agreed to. That is, say a "Tron Deadly Cycles" game -- a new game for the new​ console - happens. The hoped-for side agreement to that would be "hey, you can also go get the original Tron Deadly Discs, Tron Maze-A-Tron, Tron Solar Sailer, and Adventures of Tron games games for $1.99 apiece at the classic game shop!". It'd be cheaper than buying (yet another) copy on a cart unless you score big at a yard sale, and would "feed the meter" for getting that new license.

 

Lots and lots of interesting ideas / hopes / dreams in the air around this project.

[nosweargamer]

BTW, since you can't load or share ROMs, I was wondering in my video what the point of the SD card slot was. Both Tommy T and Bill Fisher responded to my question.

 

Here's what Tommy said:

Hi!, Thanks so much for recapping the interview! The SD slot will be where all the games you purchase will be stored. In essence.. similar to a hard drive.

 

Here's what Bill added when I asked for more details:

They (the games) will be stored on the SD card, yes, and will be uniquely downloaded just for that one unit. But the main server will keep records of the games in your library, so if your SD card gets eaten by the cat you'll be able to restore them without paying again.

 

I must say, it was very nice of both of them to quickly respond.

[+intvsteve]

BTW, since you can't load or share ROMs, I was wondering in my video what the point of the SD card slot was. Both Tommy T and Bill Fisher responded to my question.

 

Here's what Tommy said:

Hi!, Thanks so much for recapping the interview! The SD slot will be where all the games you purchase will be stored. In essence.. similar to a hard drive.

 

Here's what Bill added when I asked for more details:

They (the games) will be stored on the SD card, yes, and will be uniquely downloaded just for that one unit. But the main server will keep records of the games in your library, so if your SD card gets eaten by the cat you'll be able to restore them without paying again.

 

I must say, it was very nice of both of them to quickly respond.

 

Yeah, they've been awesome at addressing questions promptly.

 

Another question they've answered was whether backups could be made. Bill indicated that they intended to support being able to make a backup of your system.

 

As details emerge for game development, it'll be interesting to see what devs can do.

[Rev]

BTW, since you can't load or share ROMs, I was wondering in my video what the point of the SD card slot was. Both Tommy T and Bill Fisher responded to my question.

 

Here's what Tommy said:

Hi!, Thanks so much for recapping the interview! The SD slot will be where all the games you purchase will be stored. In essence.. similar to a hard drive.

 

Here's what Bill added when I asked for more details:

They (the games) will be stored on the SD card, yes, and will be uniquely downloaded just for that one unit. But the main server will keep records of the games in your library, so if your SD card gets eaten by the cat you'll be able to restore them without paying again.

 

I must say, it was very nice of both of them to quickly respond.

 

Next ask if you sell your console to another person, if the account and/or Sd card will change hands too. A person could always send the person the password to the account. (I assume)

[mr_me]

You'd have to write extra software to support a cc3 or ltoflash, if something like that is even possible. So by default multi-carts would not work and adding that support wouldn't be worth the effort.

 

Speaking of IP holders Tommy mentioned Imagic. I wonder who they are talking to regarding Imagic?

[+intvsteve]

Next ask if you sell your console to another person, if the account and/or Sd card will change hands too. A person could always send the person the password to the account. (I assume)

 

An excellent question.

[+intvsteve]

Speaking of IP holders Tommy mentioned Imagic. I wonder who they are talking to regarding Imagic?

 

Didn't Activision buy up Imagic at some point?

[mr_me]

 

Didn't Activision buy up Imagic at some point?

That's a rumour but I haven't seen any evidence to support it, other than possibly two or three Atari games transferring. The Imagic properties might still be with the remaining Imagic shareholders. In fact there was an interview with one of the Imagic founders that said otherwise. When Keith R licensed the Imagic games for the Rocks CD, he believed Activision owned them but he also said Activision denied owning them and wouldn't name any Imagic games in the contract.

[+intvsteve]

You'd have to write extra software to support a cc3 or ltoflash, if something like that is even possible. So by default multi-carts would not work and adding that support wouldn't be worth the effort.

 

I guess that all depends on how the attachment would work and if / whether the emulator is modified to work with the attachment. Some sort of special code would need to be present for the attachment to be recognized.

 

For example, if you launch the emulator, it detects the adapter, and the adapter could react like a "real" cartridge port. Wouldn't the cart just provide the menu program that maps to one of the known addresses, which the emulator would then run? The code in the emulator that requests data from memory addresses would need an interesting bridge to the USB, which would then in turn communicate with the cartridge port. From that point, I'm not sure it would be necessary to dump the entire cartridge, or just do enough communication to communicate with the "cartridge" and execute the code it supplies.

 

EDITS:​ Various clarifications / rewordings.

[+intvsteve]

That's a rumour but I haven't seen any evidence to support it, other than possibly two or three Atari games transferring. The Imagic properties might still be with the remaining Imagic shareholders. In fact there was an interview with one of the Imagic founders that said otherwise. When Keith R licensed the Imagic games for the Rocks CD, he believed Activision owned them but he also said Activision denied owning them and wouldn't name any Imagic games in the contract.

 

Ah. It is indeed a confusing history!

[mr_me]

There's a bit about imagic at this page.

http://www.ataricompendium.com/archives/articles/crash/crash_coda.html

 

Edit:

And more here, scroll down to the comments.

https://www.filfre.net/2015/09/and-into-the-fire/

Edited June 26, 2018 by mr_me

[+intvsteve]

There's a bit about imagic at this page.

http://www.ataricompendium.com/archives/articles/crash/crash_coda.html

 

Excellent! For some reason, that information seems familiar ... and new, all at once. Like our consoles, I guess our own memories may become garbled with age.

[+Lathe26]

 

I guess that all depends on how the attachment would work and if / whether the emulator is modified to work with the attachment. Some sort of special code would need to be present for the attachment to be recognized.

 

For example, if you launch the emulator, it detects the adapter, and the adapter could react like a "real" cartridge port. Wouldn't the cart just provide the menu program that maps to one of the known addresses, which the emulator would then run? The code in the emulator that requests data from memory addresses would need an interesting bridge to the USB, which would then in turn communicate with the cartridge port. From that point, I'm not sure it would be necessary to dump the entire cartridge, or just do enough communication to communicate with the "cartridge" and execute the code it supplies.

 

EDITS:​ Various clarifications / rewordings.

 

 

The problem is that USB is great for transferring blocks of data, it is terrible for fast random access (devices are polled about 8000/sec). Using a USB cartridge port in this manner would result in the emulator running 10-100 times slower than a real emulator would. This why a USB-based cartridge port will likely only be for dumping, not live execution of the cartridges hardware (RAM/ROM/registers/etc).

[mr_me]

Software emulators typically work off a copy of the cartridge rom in local ram; any other hardware like cartridge ram would be emulated. Even without usb, I've never heard of a software emulator that interacts directly with the cartridge rom. Anything is possible, but it would require new emulation software.

[mr_me]

Speaking of Imagic, Tommy mentioned redoing Microsurgeon. In the intellivisionairies interview the programmer said his intitial concept for Microsurgeon had a first person perspective. They talk about keeping the same mechanics, so I don't know if they would consider something like that. Will the new Shark Shark, Night Stalker, Astrosmash look like the "Gen2" versions we saw a few years ago?

[+intvsteve]

...Will the new Shark Shark, Night Stalker, Astrosmash look like the "Gen2" versions we saw a few years ago?

Been wondering exactly that myself.

[+DZ-Jay]

Will the new Shark Shark, Night Stalker, Astrosmash look like the "Gen2" versions we saw a few years ago?

 

I can't see why they wouldn't. The way I see it, this new console is precisely a vehicle for those "Gen2" games which did not sell well in any other platform. It's as if the intention is to put those games in their "proper" context: "Look, these are family fun games, not generic casual mobile games. See now? They're great for that!"

[Darkhog]

Intv III in a FPGA would be neat.

Intv IV, please. http://www.intellivisionlives.com/bluesky/hardware/intelli4_tech.html

[+intvsteve]

We'll just need to keep guessing until PRGE.

[mr_me]

This thing will be many times more powerfull than an Intellivision IV / Amiga / Genesis. You could do an Intellivision III/IV in fpga or software emulation (adding Intellivision III to jzintv shouldn't be much trouble) but there would be no software to run on it. The new Intellivision will support the Unity game engine so developers can already start work.

[+nurmix]

 

I can't see why they wouldn't. The way I see it, this new console is precisely a vehicle for those "Gen2" games which did not sell well in any other platform. It's as if the intention is to put those games in their "proper" context: "Look, these are family fun games, not generic casual mobile games. See now? They're great for that!"

 

Incorrect. They will not look or play like the much maligned "Gen2" games. Completely new design / style, graphics, sounds and game play. Starting from scratch.

[+nurmix]

This thing will be many times more powerfull than an Intellivision IV / Amiga / Genesis. You could do an Intellivision III/IV in fpga or software emulation (adding Intellivision III to jzintv shouldn't be much trouble) but there would be no software to run on it. The new Intellivision will support the Unity game engine so developers can already start work.

 

On the "new game" side of the console, the coding environment will be Unity. So it would be possible for developers to create games that are very modern and contemporary looking, or go all pixelated and more "legacy", creating within whatever system limitations they choose to impose on their work (ie. Intellivision III, IV).

[+nurmix]

Speaking of Imagic, Tommy mentioned redoing Microsurgeon.

 

Working on it - both with regard to the licensing (which is quite ambiguous when it comes to Imagic) and the original programmer Rick Levine.