Is this normal for a PAL intellivision?

[Toby Russell]

I just opened up my Intellivision in order to perform an AV mod on it (the RF output is just awful) and the innards are unlike other pictures I've seen on the web. There appears to be some kind of auxiliary video board, there is no metal shielding and some of the chips are in different orientations to the ones I've seen elsewhere. 

 

Is this normal for a PAL machine or have I got some kind of early revision?

[mr_me]

Looks right for a UK part # 1591 intellivision. What's the serial number?  Did the UK have any other hardware variations?

Edited October 12, 2019 by mr_me

[mr_me]

Here's a 1983 magazine article with a photo of the same model.

 

https://archive.org/stream/PersonalComputerNews/PersonalComputerNews032-19Oct1983#page/n23/mode/2up

[Intymike]

I think the UK got the first PAL models, a year earlier than other countries  (Germany August 1982). Maybe they smashed together a working system and later the did more refined versions for other countries. And the UK has a slightly different PAL system (most people don‘t remember this because TVs from the 80s on could handle the UK and Continental PAL systems).

[+Lathe26]

1 hour ago, mr_me said:

Here's a 1983 magazine article with a photo of the same model.

 

https://archive.org/stream/PersonalComputerNews/PersonalComputerNews032-19Oct1983#page/n23/mode/2up

Interesting article.  The review is of the ECS is a good assessment.  However, I was a little surprised at the number of typos that went to print in a published article (ex: "de acto standard").

[mr_me]

He obviously spent some time with the computer module and even the music keyboard.  He praised the intellivision graphics capabilities even though it's less than half the resolution of other home computers.  The thing is, even if Mattel did make a ram upgrade and a decent version of basic I doubt they would have given users full access to the hardware.

Edited October 16, 2019 by mr_me

[HunterZero]

The Intellivision uses a STIC chip to generate the picture, and a supporting chip/circuit to generate the required colour signal. Old analogue TV signals were compatible with both black and white and colour TVs.

 

The STIC chip comes in NTSC and CCIR variants.

 

NTSC Intellivisions use the PAL STIC for 60Hz timings, and an AY-3-8915 IC to generate the colour signals.

 

PAL Intellivisions use the CCIR STIC for the 50Hz timings, instead of an AY-3-8915 color PROM, a discrete circuit is used to generate the PAL colours.

 

There must have been some frequency tolerance reason why the AY-3-8915 was deleted and replaced for PAL systems.

 

- J