decle Posted February 10, 2022 Share Posted February 10, 2022 Back in 1982 Joe Jacobs and Dennis Clark put together a personal version of PlayCable, called PlayComp. This used PDP-11 computers they had at home to "broadcast" games over a serial connection to their development kits based on Jerrold PlayCable adapters. I believe it was the rarest and best version of PlayCable. I've put together a replica of PlayComp that uses modern hardware to run the system on a regular Intellivision Master Component. You can find a short explanatory video, showing PlayComp in use and its advantages over the standard PlayCable service here: Joe, Dennis and the other Jerrold engineers constructed a library of over 40 games for use with PlayComp, and its pre-cursor PlayTape. In addition to the standard Mattel titles, this included games from Activision, Imagic and Coleco (yes, the dreaded Donkey Kong even made it both PlayTape and PlayComp). Overall, I've found PlayComp to be slick and reliable, offering a significantly better user experience that the real PlayCable service, thanks to its use of two-way communication between the server and adapter. So, now I have a PlayCable of my very own (well, sort of). What's more, unlike most adapters, it's not a doorstop, and it's even a variant that @cmart604 doesn't own! Let me know what you think. Now I really must stop being distracted by shiny things, and get back to Jack Lalanne, or @Ron The Cat is going to kill me. Cheers decle 14 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sinjinhawke Posted February 10, 2022 Share Posted February 10, 2022 As always that was very enjoyable and informative. When are you selling CIB versions? 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+cmart604 Posted February 10, 2022 Share Posted February 10, 2022 Very cool as usual. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walldog1 Posted February 10, 2022 Share Posted February 10, 2022 I am always learning more and more new things INTV related. I have never seen that adapter or knew that local cable companies offered this back then. But I was never interested in gaming at that stage of my life. Very interesting though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morpheus Posted February 10, 2022 Share Posted February 10, 2022 (edited) You well deserve the Nobel prize for Intellivision Decle!!!??? One question: what is "pick a doodle"? Was it a game??? Edited February 10, 2022 by Morpheus Wrong spelling 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DZ-Jay Posted February 17, 2022 Share Posted February 17, 2022 On 2/10/2022 at 4:26 PM, Morpheus said: You well deserve the Nobel prize for Intellivision Decle!!!??? One question: what is "pick a doodle"? Was it a game??? Check this out: Quote Pick-a-Doodle is a little animation program originally written by Dennis in 1981. It allows non-programmers to put together up to 20 frames of background cards and play them like a flick-book accompanied by background music. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morpheus Posted February 17, 2022 Share Posted February 17, 2022 19 hours ago, DZ-Jay said: Check this out: Thanks a lot DZ, very interesting !? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave1dmarx Posted July 27, 2022 Share Posted July 27, 2022 Interesting how this version differs slightly from the original PlayCable unit, beyond the obvious. The load beeps for example, they are spaced further apart on here than on the actual machine. I wonder why that is? Also, is the recording they made of the original PlayCable signal still in existence? I kick myself for not thinking of trying to capture the signal myself back in the day, but given my crude technology at the time, it's unlikely that even if I had, that the signal would be usable today. Either way, great job!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Games For Your Intellivision Posted August 5, 2022 Share Posted August 5, 2022 Decle, Can you please contact me at elektronite@hotmail.com please? William Moeller Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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