mr_me Posted May 9, 2020 Share Posted May 9, 2020 (edited) 16 minutes ago, intellivotion said: did you mean this? https://atariage.com/forums/topic/251084-opcode-games-announces-intellixpander-castlevania-goonies-reserve-now/#comments No, that's not it. Found what I was thinking of. https://atariage.com/forums/topic/266459-birds-nest/ Edited May 9, 2020 by mr_me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy Tallarico Posted May 9, 2020 Share Posted May 9, 2020 17 hours ago, BSRSteve said: HEY. One of those is MINE Haha! For sure!! We... meaning... us. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex.Pace Posted May 9, 2020 Share Posted May 9, 2020 There are about 15-20 of them, as told. One is mine (the one in Italy). The problem is that most of them have the cassette recorder not working. Probably there are only about 5 fully functional. The price is about 4000 euro. Mine has box too: never seen other boxed. Other item ultra ultra rare is the printer, it is a truly holy grail (probably 2-3 of them in the world), Cmart has it. About software it seems a little less rare (i.e. the basic cassettes and cartridge, geography challenge). Some of them are anyway very rare. There is only 1 in the world of Spelling Challenge boxed with manual as far i know (i own it). 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+cmart604 Posted May 9, 2020 Share Posted May 9, 2020 22 hours ago, retrogmr said: Now to brag a little; there was a time when I had two of them in my possession (more than 10 years ago and long since sold off the spare). Pics since it did happen ? That’s awesome! I’m very tempted to recreate that picture. Lol! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BSRSteve Posted May 9, 2020 Share Posted May 9, 2020 (edited) 2 hours ago, Alex.Pace said: There is only 1 in the world of Spelling Challenge boxed with manual as far i know (i own it). There are at least two. Edited May 9, 2020 by BSRSteve add picture 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Intymike Posted May 9, 2020 Share Posted May 9, 2020 I bow before you masters in awe! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Midnight Rider Posted May 10, 2020 Share Posted May 10, 2020 Sometimes it brings a true sense of calmness to know when you are out of your league. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sinjinhawke Posted May 10, 2020 Share Posted May 10, 2020 You guys are way to nerdy for me. I’m outa here. Gonna go in my basement and play with my Turbografx mini, LIKE A BOSS!!!!!! 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Intymike Posted May 10, 2020 Share Posted May 10, 2020 I just hope that I get invited some day to one of your lairs or bunkers to take look or even a careful touch at this stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex.Pace Posted May 10, 2020 Share Posted May 10, 2020 (edited) 13 hours ago, BSRSteve said: There are at least two. No, it should be without manual because the manual was a prototype manual. If it has it, let me know:) Edited May 10, 2020 by Alex.Pace Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex.Pace Posted May 10, 2020 Share Posted May 10, 2020 2 hours ago, Intymike said: I just hope that I get invited some day to one of your lairs or bunkers to take look or even a careful touch at this stuff. Lol, when i'll open a museum I'll invite you:) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Intymike Posted May 10, 2020 Share Posted May 10, 2020 12 minutes ago, Alex.Pace said: No, it should be without manual because the manual was a prototype manual. If it has it, let me know:) I someone has a prototype manual, that it would be BSRSteve. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Lathe26 Posted May 11, 2020 Share Posted May 11, 2020 I can digitize the tapes with a 4-track Tascam recorder. If anyone has tapes they want digitized, contact me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Lathe26 Posted May 11, 2020 Share Posted May 11, 2020 Adding to the ultra rare list of items, there are a couple items used internally by Mattel when the KC was converted to be part of the "Black Whale" development system. One is the ROM cartridge that repurposed the BASIC cartridge. 2 are known to exist (one is mine). The other item is the serial board. 1 is known to exist. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BSRSteve Posted May 11, 2020 Share Posted May 11, 2020 2 hours ago, Lathe26 said: Adding to the ultra rare list of items, there are a couple items used internally by Mattel when the KC was converted to be part of the "Black Whale" development system. I still think the term "Black Whale" was a figment of Keith's imagination. I have talked to Fisher, Warhohl, Kaestner and others and no one remembers Black Whale. We remember Blue Whale. And some of the documents supporting the transfer to Intellivision Inc mention Blue Whale development systems. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BSRSteve Posted May 11, 2020 Share Posted May 11, 2020 On 5/10/2020 at 2:56 AM, Alex.Pace said: No, it should be without manual because the manual was a prototype manual. If it has it, let me know:) After checking today, I stand corrected. It does not have a manual. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron The Cat Posted May 12, 2020 Share Posted May 12, 2020 (edited) On 5/8/2020 at 9:03 PM, BSRSteve said: Is someone counting the one in the UK that I believe even has a working tape drive? That one in the UK would be mine , the tape drive is "working" (thanks to Decle my unofficial Mattel service agent here) in that it now it can fairly consistently save and load BASIC programs for which we have previously shared video clips on the forum. Mechanically it has had a good overhaul with new belts and break calipers, soldered on a loose connector to the tape head and sorted a burnt fuse on the main KC on the board responsible for driving the unit. Got the KC from Canada three years ago and had been sitting in a blokes garage for decades so no chance of double counting it with other KCs out there. Our copies of Jack and Conversational French still will not load. They are more hefty in terms complexity to load than simple basic programs.We have some good leads of what might be causing them to not to load now that we hope to investigate this year (probably partly with Decle as a remote surgeon) Have a few BASIC data cassettes , boxed Conversational French and a Jack loose. I also have a Jack shrink wrapped. I have the original box , fairly decent but attacked by a squirrel on one side apparently. The interview on the forum with Stephen Maine is interesting , it seems that Mattel might have abandoned working with EMI on the tape making itself at least and gone elsewhere. EMI they had patents on "watermarking" which made it difficult to copy their tapes apparently and Papa intellivison has a document where Mattel visit EMI and mentions there was a test batch of tapes produced. Papa intellivision documents briefly mentioned a UK sourced tape drive , we assumed this might have been Thorn EMI. Still no idea which third party actually manufactured the tape drive and the electronics behind it. There is no markings as we have found. Commercial 4-track for normal tapes only was introduced in 1979 by Tascam so cannot imagine it could have been too many other companies who had that tech in the time frame the KC was developed in. Always been under the impression copying the tapes would be difficult because of some sort of protection like this or biased in a weird way but maybe that is not the case ..just painful since its 4-track. How many units exist ? 20-30 maybe …. Edited May 12, 2020 by Ron The Cat 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex.Pace Posted May 12, 2020 Share Posted May 12, 2020 On 5/11/2020 at 5:10 AM, Lathe26 said: Adding to the ultra rare list of items, there are a couple items used internally by Mattel when the KC was converted to be part of the "Black Whale" development system. One is the ROM cartridge that repurposed the BASIC cartridge. 2 are known to exist (one is mine). The other item is the serial board. 1 is known to exist. can you post photo? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elektronite Posted May 12, 2020 Share Posted May 12, 2020 Frank Palazzolo has the data for all of the keyboard component programs I believe. He's been slowly working on an emulator for the Keyboard and has the basic operating on the system. Here is a picture of Frank (in the middle) along with myself (left) and Carl Mueller on the right outside of Detroit in the late 90s I believe. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+JasonlikesINTV Posted May 12, 2020 Share Posted May 12, 2020 (edited) 1 hour ago, Elektronite said: Here is a picture of Frank (in the middle) along with myself (left) and Carl Mueller on the right outside of Detroit in the late 90s I believe. I remember the 90s having more chairs. Edited May 12, 2020 by JasonlikesINTV 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex.Pace Posted May 12, 2020 Share Posted May 12, 2020 On 5/9/2020 at 12:08 PM, mr_me said: A KC component hardware emulator would be an interesting project. I could understand Keith's perspective as it wouldn't be something that would make him money. Homebrew developers wouldn't need emulated cassette storage; modern rom cartridges can store plenty. Someone was developing hardware that adds a high resolution text overlay to intellivision. Can't find that atariage topic right now. [Edit: found it here. https://atariage.com/forums/topic/266459-birds-nest/ ] A KC emulator in software would be nice too, Mame is getting closer. ------------- If someone has a KC with working tape drive they should record video of the conversational french, jack lalanne, or spelling challenge cassettes. Very little footage exists. Am I wrong or Zbiciak emulator include keyboard component emulator? he worked on it, he took the tape images from Dan Blitz who then sold his collection to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+fdr4prez Posted May 12, 2020 Share Posted May 12, 2020 5 hours ago, Elektronite said: Frank Palazzolo has the data for all of the keyboard component programs I believe. He's been slowly working on an emulator for the Keyboard and has the basic operating on the system. Here is a picture of Frank (in the middle) along with myself (left) and Carl Mueller on the right outside of Detroit in the late 90s I believe. 3 hours ago, JasonlikesINTV said: I remember the 90s having more chairs. Now that was funny 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+stupus Posted May 13, 2020 Share Posted May 13, 2020 I know of 3 not listed here. 1 is Franks, fully working. His emulator works great too. 1 of the others is also cib like new...none mine. I think there has to be at least 30 out there.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Lathe26 Posted May 13, 2020 Share Posted May 13, 2020 16 hours ago, Alex.Pace said: can you post photo? Even better, intvnut and decle did a extensive work on reverse engineering it! The PDF here includes photos Further, here it is in action 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
classic-videogames Posted May 18, 2020 Share Posted May 18, 2020 I had a boxed keyboard component that I don't think is one of the units mentioned above. I picked it up from an ex Mattel employee in the early 2000s. I sold it about 10 yrs ago to a prominent (non-Intellivision) collector. I'm pretty sure he still has it (he doesn't sell anything). This guy has a LOT of videogame stuff and even he was pretty psyched to get the KC, it was one of THE grails among holy grails 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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