The Intellivision was a revolutionary game console developed and released by Mattel (the company probably best known for Barbie dolls, Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars) in 1979. It was the first 16 bit game console ever released and unveiled a host of new concepts and technologies: innovative gaming devices, graphics above and the sound, downloadable games, home computer extensions, a voice synthesis device and a keyboard synthesizer, for example.

The processor used in the Intellivision was a General Instruments CP1610, a general purpose microprocessor capable of supporting 16-bit addresses and 10-bit instructions. The U.S. statement used a CPU clock of 894,886.25 Hz while the European version uses a 1 MHz clock, because of different NTSC / PAL specifications, meaning that games runs up to 10% faster on European consoles in their U.S. counterparts!

The CP1610 by eight 16-bit registers – using a 16-bit CPU a video game console was really quite exceptional. There were 1.2 kb of RAM (including 512 bytes of video memory) and 7 kb ROM (which included the "Executive ROM" – A mini-OS – and the "Graphics ROM", which often includes using sprites, for example). It's graphics performance was outstanding for the end of 1970, which allows a screen of 160 x 196 pixels with a palette of 16 colors (all colors can be used simultaneously), plus eight hardware supported sprites offering collision detection, and the stretch reflex.

The game controllers were quite different too, as it presented a "disc" (something similar to the scroll wheel on Apple's iPod) instead of a joystick, and twelve keypad buttons. The disc was capable of 16 detection of the direction and games usually came with "overlay cards" that could be included in the drivers (in front of the keypad – changing the games require inserting a new cartridge and overlay flip cards).

In 1980, the Intellivision became available in the U.S. for all U.S. $ 299, the console was the first to pose a serious threat to the realm of Atari (Atari was the number one video game producer at the time). Mattel sold 175,000 consoles in 1980, with 19 games availalble. After Mattel realized that the gaming market that offers a good income, which launched its own software development group became known as the "Blue Sky Rangers".

In 1981, Mattel launched a service that allows you to download games via cable television. In 1982, Mattel sold 2 million consoles, more and more companies began developing software titles for the Intellivision.

The "keyboard" Component must turn the console on a home computer, was planned to include a CPU 6502 MOS (the one used by the later C64), 64 KB of RAM and a built-in drive cassette tape. But during the development process there were many problems with the reliability and hardware was too expensive. After repeated delays of key project component was officially canceled in 1982. Apparently, around 4000 Keyboard components were sent to selected customers for testing purposes, which are extremely rare today.

As Mattel's directors had been aware of the problems of key components for a long time, has launched a secondary project in mid-1981 that could replace the component in case of a failure. It was released as Computer Entertainment System (ECS), was presented with a keyboard interface includes cassette recorder and 2k additional RAM. He lacked the originally planned 6502 extension CPU and 64 KB of RAM, but functionalm cost effective and was finally able to Intellivison turning on a computer at home.

Shortly thereafter, Mattel released a 49-key keyboard music synthesizer that could turn the Intellivision / ECS combo in a multi-voice synthesizer. Unfortunately, the ECS received very little further marketing push or hardware and software development for ECS were canceled.

Intellivision was also the first game console to provide real-time human and robot voices in the game. Intellivoice module, which is required To use this feature, use a speaker SP0256 "voice chip, developed jointly by Mattel and General Instrument. But Intellivoice not sell as well as expected, and only a few parties that support him have been released.

In 1983 Mattel also introduced the Intellivision II (which is only one case of renewal) and the System Changer module (which allows to play Atari 2600).

In 1983 and 1984 the video game market crashed. The new house computer systems became more and more popular and interest in the classic game consoles vanished. Moreover, there is now a large number of video game consoles available, further subdividing the market. In 1983 Mattel Electronics posted a loss 300 million U.S. dollars, was closed in early 1984 the division.

A trustee acquired all rights, hardware and software sales continued until the majority of stocks were sold. Later, Mattel marketing executive Terry Valeski created INTV Corp., which sold the remaining shares through retailers and by mail. She then introduced the INTV III, which was only a Intellivison within A case report and continued the development of some games. The console was discontinued in 1991. Over 6 million Intellivision consoles were sold for 12 years, and a total of 125 games available.

Keith Robinson, a former Mattel programmer, finally bought the rights to software, founded Intellivision Productions and published Intellivison emulators including the classic Intellivision games available for MacOS, Windows and modern consoles.

About the Author:

Jos Kirps is the creator of several software and web projects, including Galaxiki, a science fiction galaxy where site members can get their own solar system and the Joopita.com web directory and search engine.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – Intellivision: a Game Console Far Ahead of Its Time