Games For Your Intellivision

I agree about the kitchen sink syndrome. The great thing about using an FPGA system, is that you can re-program them. So, once the basic system functions, if there's time other things can be added. Luckily, we have a situation where some things are already in place and this is not going to be a project that we have to build from the ground up. Regarding World Book IP....not worth even considering. At some point, you have to ignore some things and let whomever owns whatever make an objection if they have one. There was some concern regarding the music rights in Defender of the Crown when we were developing the Intellivision version. Can you imagine the comments if we had ripped out the music in DOTC and replaced it with something else just because we were worried about potential objections to us using it? I just assumed that the rights of the game included the music rights, and unless I was specifically told otherwise, I was not going to worry about it.

I don't think licensing of the software is an issue. The user can load the games by himself/herself.

If someone wants to detail what makes a Tutorvision a Tutorvision, I could pass along the specs to the Intellivision FPGA core programmer. However, considering that this is a commercial product, I don't think that a lot of time can be spent implementing the Tutorvision.

It has been decided that the Intellivision FPGA core will be an Intellivision 3 specced core. The core will be written to be the Intellivision 3 and we will ensure that it can run all existing Intellivision programs and cartridges. The console will have a cartridge port and run original cartridges, have some built in Intellivision games, a couple of enhanced (Intellivision 3) updated originals... (Think Utopia with better graphics) and able to run enhanced Intellivision 3 games on current existing cartridges such as the JLP and LTO Flash! Please, no further comments about the Mister. It isn't what we are trying to do. We have no interest in using their hardware, nor glomming on some cartridge port to their hardware and our FPGA chipset is incompatible with the Mister, as far as I know, considering the hardware we have in mind. Further details to follow...

We have an FPGA chipset. We have rights. They are not transferable. I don't see how other than hiring someone from their team to do the FPGA, that there is any synergy with that group.

That's the thing. I don't know the details of the license, but sub-licensing would be totally offlimits in my estimate. I can't see there being any way that we could sublicense rights to MiSter.

It seems to me that any Intellivision MISTer FPGA core would not be licensed.

I figured there must be something on the Papa Intellivision site regarding the Intellivision III. Enhanced versions of the existing games could be included in the console, such as Utopia with better graphics, or 'sold separately'. People who want to speak privately to me can email me at elektronite@hotmail.com

I know that people in this forum are excited about the possibility of a new classic Intellivision console coming out that they can buy and use with their current HDMI televisions and cartridge collections. However, I didn't post information on the console simply to create a buzz. I want to get the word out to people with the proper skills and interest in the console and invite them to join us. Any help in locating people to form a development team would be appreciated. Elektronite is acting as basically a consultant on the new console. I joked that it could be called the 'Elektrovision'. Since it doesn't have a name, I'll refer to it as that for now. We are working with a small business that has multiple successful products in the video game business. It isn't a small operation such as Elektronite. However, it isn't a huge business either. We aren't asking for volunteers to work for free on the hardware/software implementation. However, we still don't have a ton of money to throw around. This is not a million dollar venture. It is my understanding that the @Games Intellivision flashback units were a bit of a disappointment sales wise compared to their other flashback units. Had Keith Robinson not passed away, it was doubtful that there would have been an Intellivision flashback II. So, selling a lot of cheap units cheaply didn't work. However, I believe that a Collectorvision Phoenix model is the way to go. The first step is to find someone who has implemented or can implement the Intellivision in FPGA. Someone who is interested in seeing their work professionally released but is not going to charge rates that make the project unviable. I approached a company in the past to get an FPGA Intellivision designed and I can't quite remember the exact numbers, but it was something in the 50,000 dollar desposit and another 100,000 dollars upon completion. That is not happening. Until then, issues such as enhanced sound chips and what the console looks like are cool to talk about and possibly plan for, but is kind of putting the cart before the horse. However, If someone wants to 3d print the Intellivision III shell from Mattel's promotional catalogue or draw up what the console might look like, that would be cool.

This would be a good thing to consider once the basic implementation of the FPGA is working.

Any help in finding more specific Intellivision III specifications would be helpful. Our enhanced spec is similar, but not sure how similar.

This is not a hobbyist project, so not looking to piggyback on other products such as the Mister.

No. Think Intellivision 3. It's basically more moving objects, more colours, more graphic ram.

No, this is not a crowdfunded project. The intention is to create a console and present it for sale. I'm pushing for an FPGA and cartridge based system. If it doesn't work out, it will be an emulated system similar to the Amiga minis that recently released. Obviously, the cartridge based system is preferred.

Back at the Classic Gaming Expo in Las Vegas in 2014, I proposed to Keith Robinson, an HDMI board that would drop into the flashback case, run cartridges and use the flashback controller. He sat there rolling his eyes during the entirety of my pitch. Obviously, it never went anywhere. Fast forward to 2022. Elektronite is associated with a company that is looking to bring out an FPGA based classic Intellivision console. Think Collectorvision Phoenix, but for the Intellivision. This console is NOT intended to be a 40 dollar 'flashback' unit. It will be a premium console. It is not aiming at the budget flashback market. The console will be fully licensed and legal. We have access to an FPGA chipset developed in Europe. There is a real possibility of the console having built in Intellivision games. This is not 'pie in the sky' but a serious attempt at bringing this console to market. Everything here is subject to change. As many people realize, this is not a trivial project. First of all, the console in my opinion should have: - HDMI output - Be able to run all Intellivision cartridges including JLP, LTO Flash! and other new 'homebrew' cartridges - Support the Intellivoice - Support the ECS - Able to use standard Sears/Intv II controllers - Able to use @Games Intellivision flashback controllers - Ability to load games using an SD card Of course, having a console such as this being made, it would be a shame not to allow people to create 'super' Intellivision games based on a similar architecture. We would like to support something similar to the Intellivision 3. We proposed a similar thing back in 2014. This was the 2014 proposed spec that would have been supported in the FPGA. The console, of course, is intended to be fully backward compatible with original Master Component software. Everything below is subject to change. It is simply a proposal and suggestions are welcome. Proposal for Enhanced INTV hardware specification --------------------------------------------------------- Intended implementation as a FPGA ASIC or as a an enhanced emulator ------------------------------------------------------------------- Introduction ------------ Field Programmable Gate Arrays now provide sufficient horsepower to implement custom programmable hardware that operates on a scale of integration well beyond the capabilities needed for this specification. At least one INTV FPGA design solution exists that provides a single chip solution for INTV hardware emulation, CPU, STIC and Sound. The following proposed design dramatically enhances the INTV while keeping deviations from the conceptual design of the existing FPGA solution to a minimum. This specification is preliminary and does not involve register level specifics. Although additional ports are required to control the proposed new hardware functions, adequate port space exists in the STIC memory map to manage the specification. This region has been tested on standard INTVs and no ports are currently mapped to or phantom addressed in the proposed address range. This specification offers the potential to enhance some existing INTV games to support enhanced graphics with a minimum of effort. Overview -------- 3 - Timers - Increased from 0 4 - Interrupt sources - Increased from 1 2 - Independently scrollable background 4 color background planes - Increased from 0 32 - 4 color Moveable Object Blocks - 4 banks of 8 - Increased from 1 bank of 8 monochrome MOB's 4 - Color background cards - Currently monochrome 2 - Sound Chips - Increased from 1 4 - IO ports - Increased from 2 8 - Palette sets - Increased from 0 Corrected smooth scrolling for card backgrounds Independent smooth scrolling for new background planes. Screen = view port onto a larger play field Mode Line support. Higher CPU clock speed. 1x 4x 16x De-phantomed memory map. Continuously addressable Card RAM and STIC ports. Digital video output for modern TV's rather than composite. INTV Enhancements fall into several categories.... 1. Hand Controllers INTV hand controller ports are obtained from two bi-directional parallel ports provided by the GI-??? Sound Chip. These ports are entirely adequate for their intended purpose and no real enhancements are required. However if the Sound System is enhanced as suggested below, two additional ports become available. Providing an additional two ports makes it possible to support 4 hand controllers, or provide support for alternative external hardware. 2. Sound Subsystem The INTV sound subsystem consists of a single GI->??? sound chip. Even though this chip provides 3 voices, this chip is really intended to provide flexible monophonic sound and noise. A second sound chip is included with the ECS. Enhancing the INTV by adding a second ECS compatible sound chip mapped to the standard address has obvious benefits. The clock input to the sound chip should come optionally from the STIC base clock or from one of the two proposed timer registers. 3. Interrupt System Currently the INTV has a single interrupt source that is triggered by the STIC vertical refresh circuitry and hence runs at a rate of 50 cycles per second (Pal) or 60 cycles per second (NTSC). This is only marginally adequate. The proposal is to have the INTV3 augmented with three additional interrupt sources. The first and second timer would be self resetting, 16 or 32 bit high speed timers that run independent of the video hardware. The third timer would come from a secondary count down timer that decrements with each hsync pulse from the STIC. If STIC registers are constantly available to the CPU, and updatable on the fly, the hsync interrupt would provide the the ability to implement inter- frame synchronization with the video, and specifically allow programmers to implement mode lines similar to those found on 8 bit ATARI systems. The alternate hardware timers would allow fixed interval times that are independent free from PAL/NTSC complications. One timer should be used as an alternate clock for the sound circuitry, the other to provide general timing for note durations. 4. Video Hardware INTV graphics lacks the color depth and detail of other video game systems from it's era. Enhancements should therefore principally address that issue. Enhanced color: The easiest way to enhance the colors available in a system while maintaining backward compatibility with existing software is by re-tasking the bits used to specify a color so that they specify an entry into a palette register. In the case of the INTV a particularly effective enhancement would be to create a set of separate color palettes for individual objects and object types. For standard color mode: Palette 0 = (16 words) character foreground palette Palette 1 = (16 words) character background palette Palette 2 = (16 words) MOB_Set 0 Palette Palette 3 = (16 words) MOB_Set 1 Palette Palette 4 = (16 words) MOB_Set 2 Palette Palette 5 = (16 words) MOB_Set 3 Palette Palette 6 = (16 words) Background 0 Palette Palette 7 = (16 words) Background 1 Palette Palette entry definition = xxxx:rrrr:gggg:bbbb allows a total of 4096 colors Mob colors: It is proposed that the MOB count be increased from the current 8 to 32. This is to be accomplished by duplicating the circuitry for the the existing 8 MOB's in the original INTV. This means that the MOB's will be organized as 4 banks of 8. Hardware collision detection will be limited to detecting collisions between MOB's within each bank. Since MOB's obtain their memory from GRAM like the background tiles, it is proposed that MOB video be similarly enhanced to support 16 bit GRAM thereby providing 4 colors for each MOB or a single color MOB with a higher horizontal resolution. Background planes: It is proposed that two independent 4 color bit mapped background planes be implemented. These background planes are to be held in RAM that is external to the main system and visible to the system only though port reads and writes. It is further proposed that these video planes have configurable display priorities such that they can be placed anywhere in the z plane. It is further proposed that these video planes be scrollable so that parallax foreground background effects can be implemented. The planes are to be controlled through 6, 16 bit ports. Background Plane 0\1 Port 0 (read/write) - Address in the external RAM to write to Port 1 (read/write) - The external RAM value at the port address. Port 2 (read/write) - Starting address of first byte displayed Port 3 (read/write) - Smooth scroll offset and mode selection. Port 4 (read/write) – Horizontal width Port 5 (read/write) – Starting address After each port read/write to pot 1, the hardware will increment it's address register, thereby allowing sequential read/writes from/to Port 1 to read/write sequential data from/to the external RAM. Backgrounds plane scan lines are to have a span that is larger than the horizontal screen size, and the starting address is to be configurable. These two features will allow background plane scrolling in both the horizontal and vertical direction. Smooth scrolling is controlled though a single smooth scrolling register. Plane 0 and Plane 1 are to live in their own 64K address space. This will allow for two background plains with a wide range of virtual horizontal and vertical resolutions. Gram: In the INTV, GRAM is 8 but RAM, and all tiles are 8 bits tall and wide. A potential enhancement would be to convert the GRAM into 16 bit RAM. Once the data is 16 bit, two new video output modes available. The first is to double the horizontal clock and walk out 16 bits instead of 8. This would double the horizontal resolution from 160 to 320 horizontal dots. A second mode could be produced by clocking out only 8 bits from each 16 bit GRAM value, but combining bit 15 and bit 7, and using the bit pair to specify the color used. This will provide a 4 color mode with the same resolution as the original INTV. 1 1 1 1 1 1 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 5 4 3 2 1 | | | ------------------ Bit 0 Selects palette registers 0-3 ---------------------------------- Bit 1 There are currently only 64 re-definable GRAM cards in the INTV. This is quite limited if complex games are to be produced. It is proposed that the GRAM space be increased to the full 256 cards that the backtab can support. STIC registers are to be made constantly available to the CPU so that STIC manipulation need not be performed only during the vblank interval. Backtab RAM: Backtab RAM is a block of RAM in the INTV that describes which GRAM images appear in each character character block on the screen as well as the foreground and background color used by the card. It is proposed that in the new video modes, the card data be regularized and extended as follows... 1 1 1 1 1 1 5 4 3 2 1 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ----------------- GROM/GRAM card # | | | | | | | ------------------- RAM/ROM | | | --------------------------- Foreground Color --------------------------------- Background Color It is also proposed that the GRAM have a programmable width that can exceed the screen size as well as a programmable starting address so that scrolling in both the horizontal and virtual directions can be implemented. 5. Other enhancements Timers: Is is proposed that three separate 16 or 32 bit timers be added to the system. Timer1: This timer is a single shot count down timer driven by the video H-sync signal and should trigger an interrupt when it's count reaches zero. Implementing this timer will allow for the generation of mode line effects similar to those on the Atari series of computers. The second two timers should be driven by a fixed rate external clock that has a common frequency independent of PAL/NTSC video modes. It is intended that one of these timers be used for sound duration timing, and the second for independent timing specific to the game being written. Interrupts: It is proposed that interrupts be triggered from four separate sources. 1. The Vsync 2. Hsync timer 3. Timer 1 4. Timer 2 ** Proposed Specification ends ** Forgive the bad formatting. I have heard of a handful of people who have worked on an Intellivision FPGA. I've been unsuccessful in contacting Dan from the video posted above. Any help being put in contact with capable people interested in being part of the development of this console, would be appreciated. Please contact me at elektronite@hotmail.com

During the month of October, I will be manufacturing the preorder copies. Before shipping, I will ask every one of the 100 RAPO# to email elektronite and confirm the shipping address.

Decle, Can you please contact me at elektronite@hotmail.com please? William Moeller

I posted on July 4, 2022 " ALL of the manuals and overlays for the purchased upgrade kits will be going in the mail July 5, 2022. Sorry for the delay and thank you for your patience. " All orders did indeed go in the mail on July 5, 2022. If you'd like a picture of the envelope, please send me a message on facebook, or email elektronite@hotmail.com Please be patient, delivery times are variable.

Everyone who bought Upgrade Kits (Box/Manual/Overlays) were sent the boxes months ago. Anyone who was due overlays and manuals for their upgrade kits were sent them via Letter Mail from Thailand on July 5, 2022. Please be patient. Delivery times are variable.

The Blue Sky Rangers should have a number of Star Mercenary copies available online at the start of the Portland Retro Gaming Expo. Keep your eye on the site the weekend of the show if you're not going. People who see me at the show can pay for their copy and I'll mail them when I return to Canada. I will probably have some Cat Attack!!! copies to pair with them as well. I won't be able to bring product to Portland due to customs/work issues aside from a sample. There is no fair way to distribute copies when there are fewer copies than demand. First come, first served.

No. Folks who preordered Infiltrator and Robot Army get first shot at Infiltrator and Robot Army. There won't be any copies of those games going out aside from the preorders.

No, Not really. I did Hatman a favour and sold him my personal copy. There are fewer than 100 cartridges allotted for Star Mercenary, Cat Attack!!! and The Pandora Incident. Any cartridges used for these games take away from those numbers.

All manuals/overlays for the upgrade kits were put in the mail on July 5, 2022.

In the past, I distributed to Australia, but I don't know the status of the existing boards. Do they have the firmware on them? Have the orange shells been notched? Have the few remaining boxes from the 1000 print run been built? I don't know. When I get the boxes, I'll ask where to mail them. That's as much as I know. I do know that a fairly large number of boards have existed for the last year and a half.

I am printing LTO Flash! boxes. They should arrive in the next week. So, I'd expect more copies to be built in the future.