ECS Program Expander was planned... in brown!

[+DZ-Jay]

On 12/3/2022 at 8:13 AM, Walter Ives said:

Why would you think 12K bloated? Depends on the functionality, right? This was a CP1600 cartridge that included an EXEC-like run time system and a lot of built-in graphics, and was on track to being delivered in 1983, when ROM prices had dropped a bit.

 

Prodromou and Denham inherited the Keyboard Component, and Intellivoice was given high priority at the strong "suggestion" of Bob Anderson. There was no way that the development cost of the other hardware listed was "in the hundreds of millions of dollars." The Intellivision II project was a cost-reduction effort that repackaged the original in a less-expensive housing and initiated the development of the STIC 1A and CP1610A, with GI funding the latter. The ECS was a trivial piece of hardware by 1982 standards. The Aquarius was a pre-existing design that had been fully developed by Radofin. The development cost of new ROM types was almost immediately recouped by lower cartridge manufacturing costs. Total expenditures on the two biggest hardware projects, Intellivision III and IV, couldn't have exceeded $20 million before they were cancelled. The "hundreds of millions of dollars" number thrown around in support of this narrative just doesn't add up.

 

That's not to say poorly considered hardware projects didn't contribute to Mattel's problems, but excess inventory, excessive promotional commitments and uncontrolled software development expenses played a far greater role.

 

No, blaming Mattel's problems on hardware development is a narrative pushed by proponents of turning Mattel into an Activision-like software house that only made software for other manufacturer's systems, a camel that got its nose under the tent with the M-Network cartridges and survived Denham and Prodromous' departure. That idea didn't work out so well either, eh?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yup. LUCKY was at a much lower price point, one that Denham was more comfortable with.

 

 

 

 

Nope. (1) Chandler wasn't that stupid, (2) knew about the ECS from the beginning and (3) never had that kind of clout.

I've mentioned elsewhere how Mattel took compartmentalization to extremes. This memo is a case in point: look at the tiny distribution list. Only ten people, including the author, were privy to this vital information. It's also interesting to note that although Chandler knew at the time of this memo that the Keyboard had been killed, either word hadn't yet filtered down to Rudd or Rudd wasn't going to be the one to let the cat out of the bag to the others on this distribution list.

 

End of August 1982.

 

 

1977. Really. But in earnest the week after the Keyboard Component was killed.

 

Yup.

 

Earlier; it certainly knew by Winter CES, the month before. Even knew it used a Z80 and the TMS9918.

 

Nope. The Keyboard Component was killed in a carefully planned assassination. The ambush took place before Denham and Prodromou, who informed those who needed to know within 24 hours of witnessing the deed. Although the feeding of the corpse ceased immediately, those who didn't need to know were kept in the dark pending the fabrication of, er, preparation of a cover story as to how the ECS was a credible replacement.

 

 

 

Not here. The Keyboard Component had the full support of management immediately before the ambush and was completely dead immediately thereafter.

 

As you can see from the milestones listed on the slide, the Keyboard Component was fully alive in June and fully dead in August.

Here’s an interesting perspective: Based on the milestones listed in that slide, it took only 20 months for the Keyboard Component to get from the start of design work to first units on the market. The product was being sold for almost a year before being canceled, albeit at a low level. Design of the ECS began in mid-1981 and first units arrived in stores in December of 1983, about thirty months later. The ECS was only for sale for a month before Mattel quit the market.

 

OMG!  😱  This is great insight!

 

Dear Mr. Ives, would you mind sharing a bit more internal gossip er … details on the “carefully planned assassination” of the Keyboard Component?

 

Inquiring minds would like to know! 

 

   dZ.

[mr_me]

There is what could be a key event that took place just prior to Mattel terminating the Keyboard Component.  On August 18, 1982 Mattel's external lawyer met with the FTC.  There's a letter, on papaintellivision.com dated August 4, from that lawyer asking Mattel questions like "when was it first decided that the keyboard computer might be dropped?", "had we decided to introduce the new keyboard before or after we decided to stop advertising or selling the original keyboard computer", "why did we switch to a scaled down model?".  Perhaps an agreement with the FTC took place allowing them to finally cancel the Keyboard Component.

https://papaintellivision.com/docLegal.php

Edited December 7, 2022 by mr_me