Intellivision 40years birthday?

[CrazyBoss]

Hi

As we all know the Intellivision is about to turn 40 years old but do we know the date when people could actually buy the consoles in stores?

 

And who among the collectors have the Console with the lowest serial number?

 

Also what games was possible to get on the release date ?

 

Or was the 1979 test marked not public ?

 

[+atari2600land]

And who among the collectors have the Console with the lowest serial number?

 

I would guess AtariBill...

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/291462-intellivision-sn-90/

[Atari_Bill]

I would guess AtariBill...

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/291462-intellivision-sn-90/

Unfortunately not. Mines only the box with the low serial. The unit doesnt match. I think cmart604 has 111.

[mr_me]

Hi

As we all know the Intellivision is about to turn 40 years old but do we know the date when people could actually buy the consoles in stores?

 

And who among the collectors have the Console with the lowest serial number?

 

Also what games was possible to get on the release date ?

 

Or was the 1979 test marked not public ?

 

There's an internal Mattel document that says Intellivision first shipped to stores on December 3rd 1979.

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/255608-where-was-the-intellivision-born/?p=3622144

 

That would be the Fresno California area test market. I think five cartridges were available. Baseball as the packin, Armor Battle, Backgammon, Poker & Blackjack, and Math Fun. One cartridge from each network.

 

---------

You can't get much lower than serial number seven.

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/198812-the-official-intellivision-serial-number-database/page-16

Edited June 7, 2019 by mr_me

[Intymike]

Is far as I know, Intellivision Entertainment has set the nationwide release as official release date of the Intellivision.

This seems to be 10/10/1980.

The Amico will get it's release on 10/10/2020.

[mr_me]

But there's cartridges with release dates in August and September of 1980.

https://intellivision-productions-inc.myshopify.com/pages/games

Edited June 7, 2019 by mr_me

[Flojomojo]

[+cmart604]

Unfortunately not. Mines only the box with the low serial. The unit doesnt match. I think cmart604 has 111.

Yep. Mine is 111 with matching box and system

[BSRSteve]

Is far as I know, Intellivision Entertainment has set the nationwide release as official release date of the Intellivision.

This seems to be 10/10/1980.

The Amico will get it's release on 10/10/2020.

 

I think it was just the attraction of 10/10/2020, and a date that was achievable and early enough for Christmas.

[1980gamer]

Late August early September sounds right to me. It was not yet fall when we got ours. Though I was 10... So, if it wasn't snowing, it was summer!

[Intymike]

I just can say that the Intellivision was introduced to Germany in the 3rd week of 1982 at the hifivideo expo in Düsseldorf.

Because I have a handout that accompanied the release.

 

Btw. this was the expo on which the Compact Disc was introduced too.

 

 

[Walter Ives]

On 6/6/2019 at 11:14 PM, CrazyBoss said:

As we all know the Intellivision is about to turn 40 years old but do we know the date when people could actually buy the consoles in stores?

Monday, December 3, 1979. On the previous Saturday Chandler and a crew loaded a rented U-Haul with product and point-of-purchase displays at Mattel in Hawthorne and drove 250 miles north to Fresno set up in Gottschalk's seven department stores. Sales were slated to begin on Sunday but they were running late, the drive took longer than expected and there were other hangups, so they had to push setup, which was to occur after store closure, to Sunday evening.

 

On 6/7/2019 at 3:57 AM, mr_me said:

I think five cartridges were available. Baseball as the packin

The pack-in was Las Vegas Poker & Blackjack.

 

On 6/7/2019 at 6:06 AM, Intymike said:

Is far as I know, Intellivision Entertainment has set the nationwide release as official release date of the Intellivision. This seems to be 10/10/1980. The Amico will get it's release on 10/10/2020.

Don't know about Intellivision Entertainment, but Mattel began shipping product to stores outside of the Fresno area in late February 1980 in preparation for the start of its nation-wide roll-out in March.
 

[+DZ-Jay]

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

Monday, December 3, 1979. On the previous Saturday Chandler and a crew loaded a rented U-Haul with product and point-of-purchase displays at Mattel in Hawthorne and drove 250 miles north to Fresno set up in Gottschalk's seven department stores. Sales were slated to begin on Sunday but they were running late, the drive took longer than expected and there were other hangups, so they had to push setup, which was to occur after store closure, to Sunday evening.

 

 

And so it is that we chose this date as the “official” birthdate of the Intellivision.

 

I played my games to celebrate the event a couple of days ago.  Anybody else marked the special occasion?

 

    dZ.

[mr_me]

While Mattel started shipping Intellivisions around December 3rd in California, Sylvania was selling Intellivisions in their stores on the east coast, so Intellivisions may have been available a little earlier.  Intellivision was also in the 1979 Sears Catalog.  Maybe Walter Ives knows if or when Intellivisions were shipped to customers through the Sears catalog in 1979.

 

And ads at the time show eight cartridges available, Las Vegas Poker & BJ, Baseball, Basketball, Football, Math Fun, Armor Battle, Backgammon, Checkers