Nobody Loved the Intellivision

[NovaXpress]

I've been on an Intellivision binge for a couple of weeks now, making use of Bliss to check out the games I've never played before. I'm noticing some very shabby treatment by third parties. Interphase was good, Sega was there, but neither had a real library built.

 

Let's start with the first third party: Coleco. Donkey Kong speaks for itself, but at least it has the excuse of being the first third-party to try to crack the EXEC. What went wrong with Donkey Kong Jr? This was released about a year later, there is no excuse. Zaxxon and Turbo are pretty much unplayable. LadyBug is good.

 

Then we had Activision, who crapped on the Intellivision not only by releasing a pair of 2600 ports without any attempt to take advantage of Intellivision's gifts, but by making Stampede one of those ports. A clone of a 2K game? Way to mail it in, guys. After that poor launch, Activision really outdid themselves. Dreadnaught Factor and Beamrider were so good that they were ported to other systems. Happy Trails is great and notable for totally screwing over Mattel's Loco-Motion license.

 

Parker Bros didn't make an effort. Empire Strikes Back is pure misery to play. More warmed-over 2600 games on a system with entirely different advantages.

 

Atarisoft kicked ass, because like Activision and Imagic they hired Blue Sky Rangers away from Mattel.

 

Imagic started strong, but their final few games were hit-and-miss. Tropical Troubles, Ice Trek and White Water pretty much sucked. Dragonfire just doesn't cut it on the Intellivision, the graphics suck. Same goes for the regular waves in Demon Attack.

 

Intellivision sold enough copies to make third-party support profitable, but not enough for them to make a real effort. They were pretty much just whipping programmers and crapping out product. That's the story of Mattel as well. Shame.

[jbanes]

Happy Trails is great and notable for totally screwing over Mattel's Loco-Motion license.

I love that game. Its the best aquisition I got out of the Midwest show.

 

Same goes for the regular waves in Demon Attack.

Have you actually played through this version? The waves start changing as the game goes on, then eventually you blast off to fight the Demon Mothership. Awesome graphics, sound, and gameplay.

 

Intellivision sold enough copies to make third-party support profitable, but not enough for them to make a real effort. They were pretty much just whipping programmers and crapping out product.

For what it's worth, Mattel didn't make it easy. They did everything in their power to keep the games first party, including adding a Copyright Check to the EXEC ROM. Coleco cracked the EXEC first, but obviously didn't have a feel for it. Contrast that with the 2600 where the documentation was so well known that it was pitiful.

 

That's the story of Mattel as well. Shame.

Nonsense. Mattel and the Blue Sky Rangers did an amazing job with the Intellivision. The games were crisp, original, and (above all) FUN! Mattel's only real mistake was putting all their eggs in the video game basket when the crash was imminent. (Well, that and playing up the "Keyboard Component".) Thankfully, INTV took the Intellivision all the way into the 90's. Quite a feat for a system built in the 1970s!

[NovaXpress]

Have you actually played through this version? The waves start changing as the game goes on, then eventually you blast off to fight the Demon Mothership. Awesome graphics, sound, and gameplay.

Of course I've played through it. of course I'm aware of the mothership. As I said, the regular waves with the regular demons are pathetic. Compare the blocky horrors on Intellivision to the groundbreaking neon of the 2600 version.

 

Nonsense. Mattel and the Blue Sky Rangers did an amazing job with the Intellivision. The games were crisp, original, and (above all) FUN!

Not all of them were. The BSR site is a never ending bitchfest about how Mattel held the programmers back. Not giving them enough memory, jerking them from project to project, spending all the money on stupid licenses, misjudging which games would be hits. Mattel did not treat the system well. Games like Dreadnaught Factor and Microsurgeon show off what could have been.

 

The Intellivision story seems to be one of rushed programmers and legal hassles. Mattel ended up making more money off M Network than off their own system.

[shadow460]

Mattel's only real mistake was putting all their eggs in the video game basket when the crash was imminent.

 

Matell's always been pretty diverse. I believe they still made guns during the early Intellivision days. Real guns, that is, not the video game ones.

They've made Hot Wheels, too, for as long as I can remember.

 

As for inty, I've played it all of once. I played Dark Caverns on it. The gameplay was a little more advanced than on the 2600, but it just did not have the slick feel to it. There really was something missing.

[jbanes]

Of course I've played through it. of course I'm aware of the mothership. As I said, the regular waves with the regular demons are pathetic. Compare the blocky horrors on Intellivision to the groundbreaking neon of the 2600 version.

In that case, I don't understand your point. Demon Attack on the 2600 was probably the worst version of all the consoles. Sure, it might have had multi-line neon sprites for you to ogle at, but I'll take colorful moons, stars, and motherships over that ANY DAY. Neon or no neon, the 2600 version is not flattering to the system.

 

Not all of them were. The BSR site is a never ending bitchfest about how Mattel held the programmers back. Not giving them enough memory, jerking them from project to project, spending all the money on stupid licenses, misjudging which games would be hits.

Pff. You have an odd definition of "BitchFest". The BSRs recount tales of when they worked at Mattel, so it's no suprise that times when they disagreed with management stood out. Yet they recount these episodes with fondness rather than anger, even pointing out times when Marketing (the real "devil" of Mattel, just like with Atari) was right. (Horrors of Horrors!) For example, the Blue Sky Rangers had always wanted to do different versions of games for the Atari. When they finally got their chance with Kool Aid Man, it bombed with critics who complained that it was different than the Intellivision version!

 

Mattel did not treat the system well. Games like Dreadnaught Factor and Microsurgeon show off what could have been.

Space Attack? Night Stalker? Locomotion? Burgertime? Space Spartans? Astrosmash? (Another time that Marketing actually did The Right Thing.) Lock 'N' Chase? Shark! Shark!? Utopia? B-17 Bomber? (Or is that BEEEEE, SEvunTEEEN BAAAHHHMRRR? ) Bump 'N' Jump?

 

There were tons of great games done by Mattel. While I grant you that their early library tended to focus on sports and simulation, their later library has some great arcade-style hits. Sadly, many of the best hits were released by INTV Corp after Mattel imploded from the crash. (Which is, BTW, when Mattel probably made some of their worst decisions. They were in a blind panic, and titles like Duncan's Thin Ice were suffering for it.)

 

The Intellivision story seems to be one of rushed programmers and legal hassles.

Sorry, I'm not seeing it. Other than the Keyboard Component, Mattel didn't have that many legal hassles. And the programmers were top notch, being no more rushed than their Atari counterparts were. At least they got six months to get a hit title out the door. Atari programmers got six weeks. Thus the reason why ET is widely hated while B17 Bomber is considered an amazing pioneer. Why Kool Aid Man is highly sought after, while Pac Man is sought for laughs.

 

Mattel ended up making more money off M Network than off their own system.

Putting aside that the BSR site doesn't make such a claim (at least as far as I can find), there's still the matter of 10 million 2600s compared to the 2 million Intellivisions. The numbers speak for themselves. Porting games to the 2600 was profitable. But so was the Intellivision business. Which was why Mattel supported both.

[jbanes]

Matell's always been pretty diverse. I believe they still made guns during the early Intellivision days. Real guns, that is, not the video game ones.

They've made Hot Wheels, too, for as long as I can remember.

Mattel sold off much of the rest of their business to support the Mattel Electronics division. It had seemed like a good idea at the time (they were making money hand over fist!), but nearly bankrupt the company when the crash happened.

 

As for inty, I've played it all of once.

You don't know what you're missing.

 

I played Dark Caverns on it.

I believe you mean Night Stalker. Dark Caverns was the Atari port.

 

The gameplay was a little more advanced than on the 2600, but it just did not have the slick feel to it. There really was something missing.

Something probably was missing. The other controller!

 

Night Stalker was one of the earliest games for the Intellivision, and it shows. However, it's still a really fun game if you know how to play it. Now the programmer was well aware of how the Intellivision was wired, so he programmed the game to work with one or two controllers. With one controller, you have to make sure that you're not pressing the direction pad when you're firing. This is highly frustrating. But if you pull out the other controller, you can use one controller to move while using the other controller to fire. Suddenly, the game becomes a heck of a lot more fun!

 

This little trick is widely overlooked by casual Intellivision reviewers (including Video Game Critic), as it doesn't quite fit in with the way that most consoles work. But once you realize it, the game gets 1000x better.

 

Three games that will change anyone's mind about the Intellivision:

 

1. Shark! Shark!

2. Beauty and the Beast

3. Dreadnought Factor

[Trip_Cannon]

The AD&D games were pretty fun... Tron Deadly Discs rocked compared to the 2600 version.... That's about all I know...

[moycon]

Beauty and the Beast is a great game.

That game used to see daily play when I had an Intellivision and had it hooked up. Damn I hated those disks controllers though.

[thomasholzer]

Ah, makes me wanna get an Intellivision now

[Flojomojo]

a never ending bitchfest

I thought the Intellivision was pretty cool.

 

TRON games. 3 of them!

A better Burgertime than the arcade.

The Dreadnaught Factor! By Activision, and much cooler than their 2600 ports.

Parker Brothers: Popeye and Frogger were worthwhile.

Dungeons and Dragons games: 2 of them, completely different from each other, one roguelike and one 3D crawler, both very well done.

Imagic: Demon Attack was sweet. I liked Dragonfire for its speed. Beauty and the Beast was amazing at the time. Don't forget Microsurgeon.

Coleco: their Venture port was pretty well done IMHO. Disintegrating enemies like the arcade game, and 3 dungeons.

Mattel's own: Blackjack, Auto Racing, Space Battle, Sub Hunt, Shark! Shark!, Astrosmash = good times.

INTV games: Hover Strike and Tower of Doom, very slick for the hardware

Intellivision sold enough copies to make third-party support profitable, but not enough for them to make a real effort. They were pretty much just whipping programmers and crapping out product. That's the story of Mattel as well. Shame.

Sounds like the industry in general at the time. There wasn't time to let an artiste take his time with a game in this cutthroat market. Mattel is lucky to have had the Intellivision last as long as it did.

[+remowilliams]

The AD&D games were pretty fun... Tron Deadly Discs rocked compared to the 2600 version.... That's about all I know...

Hell yeah, the AD&D games were great. The INTYs got a lot of fun games and shitbag controllers

 

Swords and Serpents 2 player, B17, heck even Truckin' - where else you gonna play that!

 

B17 and the voice alone were why I got into the INTY.

[SteveW]

I remember reading that the company Interphase was actually a one-man operation. The guy programmed everything by himself. I can understand why the games might not have come out all that good, but they're pretty good. There's no excuse for the Coleco releases.

[+uosipa llamxew]

Beauty and the Beast is a great game.

That game used to see daily play when I had an Intellivision and had it hooked up. Damn I hated those disks controllers though.

 

I always enjoyed taking the character all the way to the top of the building and dropping him off the edge!

[NovaXpress]

Demon Attack on the 2600 was probably the worst version of all the consoles. Sure, it might have had multi-line neon sprites for you to ogle at, but I'll take colorful moons, stars, and motherships over that ANY DAY. Neon or no neon, the 2600 version is not flattering to the system.

That is so much ninsense. I guess it's a matter of personal taste, but I think the 2600 version is far superior. Not only is the play smoother, but the cool demons are far more impresssive than a blocky-assed planet background. I refer you to the multiple threads about how grounbreaking and exciting 2600 Demon Attack really was in the summer of 82.

 

Not a lot of bitching from the BSR? Let's look at just one page from their game history section. I randomly ended up with Action Network Page 2. We start with Night Stalker (programmer wasn't allowed to go over 4K and game elements were lost), Pinball (took 2 years to figure out the physics and it still sucked), Deadly Discs (overproduced by marketing), Maze-A-Tron (ditto), Lock-N-Chase (so limited by marketing that a 6K re-release was needed), Sharp Shot (a bad idea covered by bad marketing lies) Shark Shark (underproduced by marketing). Every single game on the page has a note about how marketing screwed up. Every one.

 

Other than the Keyboard Component, Mattel didn't have that many legal hassles.

We have the Loco-motion issue, the liscensing issues, the "suing departed programmers" issues, suit after suit which never did anything good for Mattel.

 

Mattel sold off much of the rest of their business to support the Mattel Electronics division. It had seemed like a good idea at the time (they were making money hand over fist!), but nearly bankrupt the company when the crash happened.

That's a lie. Mattel had and still has Barbie, Hot Wheels, toy lines galore, games, He-Man, lots of non-electronic products.

 

As far as M Netowrk being more profitable than Intellivision, look at the numbers. BSR states that Star Strike was the top-selling Intellivision game on 1982 with 800,000 sold. The best-selling cart of all time was MLB with just over one million sold. Meanwhile, each M Network game averaged over one million sold. Pretty easy to do the math, isn't it?

 

Your technical expertise does not translate into historical expertise.

[Flojomojo]

Demon Attack on the 2600 was probably the worst version of all the consoles. Sure, it might have had multi-line neon sprites for you to ogle at, but I'll take colorful moons, stars, and motherships over that ANY DAY. Neon or no neon, the 2600 version is not flattering to the system.

That is so much ninsense. I guess it's a matter of personal taste, but I think the 2600 version is far superior. Not only is the play smoother, but the cool demons are far more impresssive than a blocky-assed planet background. I refer you to the multiple threads about how grounbreaking and exciting 2600 Demon Attack really was in the summer of 82.

Agreed 100%. The Intellivision version had nice backgrounds, but the gameplay of the 2600 VCS original is vastly superior.

[Room 34]

My biggest problem with the Intellivision, and it applies to Mattel's games, third-party games, originals and 2600 "ports" (even though they're not really ports)... the games are almost ALWAYS slow-paced and sluggish feeling.

 

Night Stalker is a great game... except for the fact that you have to play it for a half hour before it creeps up to a moderately engaging pace! Astrosmash is a little faster-going, but it's so easy that after you've played it for a while it can take a half hour just to kill off all of your extra lives.

 

(Yes, I suppose I'm ripping on the Intellivision... but I do own one, and several cartridges, and I have REALLY tried to give it the benefit of the doubt.)

[NovaXpress]

I love Intellivision and think it was a far better system than most of the software seemed to show. I'm a major Night Stalker fan, but agree about the difficulty. Way too easy until the top level robot shows up. Most Intellivision games seemed to have this problem, with Space Battle being yanked and redone for that reason. Astrosmash is ruined for me because it's so easy. I don't think I've ever seen the end to a game, I turn it off out of boredom after ten minutes.

[Flojomojo]

I love Intellivision and think it was a far better system than most of the software seemed to show. I'm a major Night Stalker fan, but agree about the difficulty. Way too easy until the top level robot shows up. Most Intellivision games seemed to have this problem, with Space Battle being yanked and redone for that reason. Astrosmash is ruined for me because it's so easy. I don't think I've ever seen the end to a game, I turn it off out of boredom after ten minutes.

I consider sticking with Astrosmash in a zoned-out Zen state to be the whole point of the game. It's not a quick arcade game, it's an eye-drying, ass-numbing meditative experience. In Astrosmash, you can easily rack up double-digit extra lives. Not just the one life you got in the action Odyssey 2 games. Instead of the usual Short Attention Span Theater, you get Astrosmash War and Astrosmash Peace. It's epic, man.

 

Back in the early 1980's, we probably thought of this as "value." One game can drag on for a whole hour! And the cartridge only cost us thirty bucks! Much better than the arcade! I seem to recall some majorly long Tron Deadly Discs sessions, too.

 

I was once a kid who would love to play Berzerk and Defender on the teddybear level, Gravitar on the level with 100 ships and no gravity, The Quest for the Rings without the boardgame, The Treasure of Tarmin without a map (the thing didn't save the game, either ... what was I thinking?), and I could easily roll the scoreboard on just about any variation of VCS Asteroids. Why? I think I just liked watching the pretty pictures or something. My standards were certainly lower back then. The fact that I would even look at one of those silly LED Mattel Football games would imply I was pretty desperate for entertainment.

 

I still like Freedom Fighters and Pick Axe Pete, though. Maybe not better than anything on the Intellivision, but a good game is a good game.

[NovaXpress]

I'd love the variable difficulty as an option, but they could have easily stuck in some harder variations. But no one seemed to take the time with making Intellivision games as special as they could be.

[BrianC]

Demon Attack on the 2600 was probably the worst version of all the consoles. Sure, it might have had multi-line neon sprites for you to ogle at, but I'll take colorful moons, stars, and motherships over that ANY DAY. Neon or no neon, the 2600 version is not flattering to the system.

That is so much ninsense. I guess it's a matter of personal taste, but I think the 2600 version is far superior. Not only is the play smoother, but the cool demons are far more impresssive than a blocky-assed planet background. I refer you to the multiple threads about how grounbreaking and exciting 2600 Demon Attack really was in the summer of 82.

 

I actually like both versions. I prefer the 2600 one for the more challenging patterns and enemies that split in two, but I like the Intellivision version for offering a different set of patterns and bosses. I also like the graphics for the intellivision one, though I like the 2600 graphics better. I don't like how the moon takes up part of the screen in the inty one, though.

 

Not a lot of bitching from the BSR? Let's look at just one page from their game history section. I randomly ended up with Action Network Page 2. We start with Night Stalker (programmer wasn't allowed to go over 4K and game elements were lost), Pinball (took 2 years to figure out the physics and it still sucked), Deadly Discs (overproduced by marketing), Maze-A-Tron (ditto), Lock-N-Chase (so limited by marketing that a 6K re-release was needed), Sharp Shot (a bad idea covered by bad marketing lies) Shark Shark (underproduced by marketing). Every single game on the page has a note about how marketing screwed up. Every one.

 

Yeah, Mattel did make some marketing mistakes, but I don't agree with Pinball (I found it to be quite good myself and much better than Atari's 2600 version of video pinball) and the 6k Lock 'n Chase is the original release, not the rerelease (in fact, the re-release may not have even been released!). According to Intellivision Lives, the developer was trying to shoehorn Lock 'n Chase into 4k, but got management to approve a 6k version before the game was released. A 4k version was never released, but an 8k version with better control and the death animation from the arcade was supposedly finished. However, all of the re-releases seem to be the 6k version and, as far as I know, the only evidence found of the 8k version was a non-playable demo cart.

 

I love Intellivision and think it was a far better system than most of the software seemed to show. I'm a major Night Stalker fan, but agree about the difficulty. Way too easy until the top level robot shows up. Most Intellivision games seemed to have this problem, with Space Battle being yanked and redone for that reason. Astrosmash is ruined for me because it's so easy. I don't think I've ever seen the end to a game, I turn it off out of boredom after ten minutes.

 

I love Night Stalker too, but I agree about the difficulty thing. I like how the 2600 counterpart, Dark Cavern, starts with more enemies and robots, but I don't like it better than the Intellivision version. They both have a different feel and are both great games in their own right. I actually like Astrosmash better in its 2600 incarnation. I like how the 2600 Astrosmash, Astroblast, is faster and harder than the Intellivision version and can be played with paddles.

 

I wish Armor Battle and Astrosmash had better set difficulty options. The highest speed in the Intellivision version isn't quite fast enough, not even when pressing the disc to start the game. Armor Battle should have had an option to make it so you don't have defeat 50 tanks to win too. The 2600 version, Armor Ambush improves on this by reducing the number to 25 tanks and has better speed too.

 

I think I have the redone Space Battle. It seems to be much harder than the 2600 Space Attack and it came with a reprinted b/w manual. Is Space Attack based on the earlier version or later version of Space Battle? I love both the Inty and 2600 versions, though I definatly prefer the later Intellivision version.

Edited June 28, 2006 by BrianC

[NovaXpress]

I hate it when I get my Ks wrong! I noticed that my Lock N Chase was the lesser version. No one found the one with the better control and collapsing hat? Shows us how well the 6K shipment must have sold.

 

I's say Intellivision pinball is inferior to Astrocade's and Midnight Magic. I like Video pinball, though I don't think it has much in common with pinball. That's all a matter of taste, though.

[jaybird3rd]

I've said it before in another Intellivision thread, but I've become a HUGE fan of the Intellivision even though I didn't grow up with one. I was first exposed to the system through the BSRs' web site and Intellivision Lives, and I've since built up a collection of Intellivision hardware and most of the best games for the system. It's easily become my very favorite non-Atari console.

 

Regarding "weak" third-party support: the Intellvision didn't sell nearly as many systems as the 2600, and most of the third-party developers that supported it (primarily Activision and Imagic) were started by ex-Atari people who made most of their money with the 2600. I'm sure those publishers must have considered Intellivision development a secondary part of their businesses at the time. Michael Becker (ex-Imagic artist) has claimed that Imagic was reluctant to put their best programmers (Fulop, Smith, Koble, etc.) on Intellivision projects because they were among the few who knew the 2600, so they brought in a bunch of college grads instead. Perhaps this is one reason that their Intellivision games seemed less-polished in some cases than their 2600 games, although I think many of those titles (especially the forementioned Dreadnaught Factor and Happy Trails from Activision and Atlantis from Imagic) are very good.

 

A second issue is that, compared to the 2600, the Intellivision had a lot of custom hardware and a more complex architecture, and it must have been more difficult to reverse-engineer and to find tools and developers for. About the only custom hardware in the 2600 was the Stella chip (TIA), which had been reverse-engineered by several groups by the early 80s. In contrast, Atari could only get Intellivision expertise for their Atarisoft group by stealing developers from other companies. Even the Mattel group didn't begin to really learn to stretch and exploit the system until around 1983. Many of the late Mattel releases, and all of the INTV releases I've seen, are astonishing technical achievements in addition to being outstanding games, and it makes me wonder what more could have been done with the Intellivision if INTV had survived longer.

 

I've also been playing a lot of Intellivision games lately. Among my favorites are Night Stalker, Shark! Shark!, Astrosmash (others have said it's too easy but I start having a really hard time around 10,000 points), Thunder Castle, BurgerTime and Diner, the Dreadnaught Factor, and Thin Ice.

[jbanes]

That is so much ninsense. I guess it's a matter of personal taste, but I think the 2600 version is far superior. Not only is the play smoother, but the cool demons are far more impresssive than a blocky-assed planet background. I refer you to the multiple threads about how grounbreaking and exciting 2600 Demon Attack really was in the summer of 82.

As you say, it's a matter of personal taste. I personally think the Intellivision version is far superior, but to each his own, I suppose.

 

Not a lot of bitching from the BSR? Let's look at just one page from their game history section. I randomly ended up with Action Network Page 2. We start with Night Stalker (programmer wasn't allowed to go over 4K and game elements were lost), Deadly Discs (overproduced by marketing), Maze-A-Tron (ditto), Lock-N-Chase (so limited by marketing that a 6K re-release was needed), Sharp Shot (a bad idea covered by bad marketing lies) Shark Shark (underproduced by marketing). Every single game on the page has a note about how marketing screwed up. Every one.

I don't know where you work, but I can tell similar tales on nearly every project I worked on. The key is that they remember these tales fondly, not as things that completely screwed up Mattel. The blame for that lands primarily on the market crash.

 

Pinball (took 2 years to figure out the physics and it still sucked),

I don't see how that was the fault of management. The programmer had a lot of problems with the physics. It took another developer to help figure it out before the title ever got out.

 

Other than the Keyboard Component, Mattel didn't have that many legal hassles.

We have the Loco-motion issue, the liscensing issues

Which never became a "legal issue".

 

the "suing departed programmers" issues

According to the BSRs Mattel sued Atari, not the departed programmers themselves. The key, of course, is that Mattel sued. Hardly a "legal hassle" when they instigated the action.

 

Mattel sold off much of the rest of their business to support the Mattel Electronics division. It had seemed like a good idea at the time (they were making money hand over fist!), but nearly bankrupt the company when the crash happened.

That's a lie. Mattel had and still has Barbie, Hot Wheels, toy lines galore, games, He-Man, lots of non-electronic products.

Mattel History:

 

1977 - Mattel ventures into the electronic games market and reevaluates its diversification strategy.
[...]
Falling revenues in non-toy–related ventures and record sales and profits of Mattel’s toy lines eventually cause the company to re-evaluate its diversification strategy and, by 1984, all non-toy–related subsidiaries are sold off or closed.

 

I didn't claim that they sold off their toy line, only that they divested much of their other business.

 

As far as M Netowrk being more profitable than Intellivision, look at the numbers. BSR states that Star Strike was the top-selling Intellivision game on 1982 with 800,000 sold. The best-selling cart of all time was MLB with just over one million sold. Meanwhile, each M Network game averaged over one million sold. Pretty easy to do the math, isn't it?

It depends on whether you're speaking absolute or per-game. Absolute, you have to take in the 100+ Intellivision games, plus the console sales, plus sales of accessories against the sales of just the games that were ported. In addition, I have no idea what the actual profit margins were on each item. Selling a million copies with $2 profit only nets you $2,000,000 in profits, whereas 800,000 carts at $5 profit nets you $4,000,000.

 

Basic accounting. If you don't know the profit margins, the raw numbers don't help you much. I'm not saying that Mattel didn't make a lot of money on the Atari 2600, but you can't know the actual profits without more info.

 

Your technical expertise does not translate into historical expertise.

Cheap shot.

[maibock]

For me it was definitely the sports games. Even back then as a kid, I realized the controller for the Inty was awkward for action games, but wonderful for sports. My buddy had an Inty, and damned if I wasn't chasing his older sister around, I was playing Baseball and Football..

[Dusk2600]

JBanes did u work for intvl?!? im not trying to be sarcastic and i dont know if this was covered b4? u seem to know a lot about this, sounds like u experienced it all 1st hand