Intellivision as Serial Terminal

[doctorclu]

 

If that screen shot is showing what I think it's showing, then the mod works just fine. ..

 

Sweet!! This was a parts Intellivision for extended tiles testing. So whenever you want to try that extended character terminal program this is set to try it.

Edited May 23, 2014 by doctorclu

[+DZ-Jay]

OMG! This is like Intellivision pr0n!

[Rev]

OMG! This is like Intellivision pr0n!

You should see what intvdude posted in that photo bucket thread I made.

[doctorclu]

To show what I like to call the Aquarius TRON Deadly Discs on the regular Intellivision, here is the game played with the modification active:

 

The opening title and playing:

 

The Recognizer:

[intvnut]

To show what I like to call the Aquarius TRON Deadly Discs on the regular Intellivision, here is the game played with the modification active:

 

The opening title and playing:

 

The Recognizer:

 

 

So, actually, watching this makes me think what you've actually have here is a ZERO GRAM tile mod. There are no GRAM tiles visible—everything is coming from GROM. Time to look at that wiring again. :-)

[jaybird3rd]

... and, just for the record, Aquarius TRON Deadly Discs doesn't look quite that bad.

 

Seriously, though, good luck on finding the cause of this problem. A modification to add more GRAM—or to expose more of the GRAM that is already in the console—is an exciting idea!

[doctorclu]

So, actually, watching this makes me think what you've actually have here is a ZERO GRAM tile mod. There are no GRAM tiles visible—everything is coming from GROM. Time to look at that wiring again. :-)

 

That is what I figured, but wanted to make sure. I'll test some things.

 

... and, just for the record, Aquarius TRON Deadly Discs doesn't look quite that bad.

 

Seriously, though, good luck on finding the cause of this problem. A modification to add more GRAM—or to expose more of the GRAM that is already in the console—is an exciting idea!

 

Not QUITE that bad eh? Nah just reminded me how the Aquarius has the game in all text basically, and the running men were basically an extension of their character set. But thanks for the encouragement to keep trying.

[+DZ-Jay]

Wow! That is one scary-looking Recognizer! It looks like he's coming to beat you up with a stick.

[doctorclu]

Wow! That is one scary-looking Recognizer! It looks like he's coming to beat you up with a stick.

 

Right? And I'm sure in all text mode if you can hit the eye of that recognizer. That was one tough dude. With a stick even...

[doctorclu]

Ok, here is where I currently stand on this. Here is what the gram and Cuttle Cart screen is looking like:

 

How it is wired:

 

 

And how Tron Deadly Disc is looking:

 

At this point I have completely separated the A9 leads of the two gram chips from ground (cut completely and lifted up) and soldered to the wires going to A12 on the Grom (?) If you need a better picture of the wiring let me know.

 

Open to suggestions/input on how close I am at this point, or what I might need to do next. Otherwise I might have to fix this Intellivision before I wreck it some more to find out if something else isn't up.

 

Edited May 24, 2014 by doctorclu

[intvnut]

Ok, here is where I currently stand on this. Here is what the gram and Cuttle Cart screen is looking like:

 

2014-05-24 13.38.18.jpg2014-05-24 13.38.28.jpg

How it is wired:

 

2014-05-24 14.12.25.jpg

 

And how Tron Deadly Disc is looking:

 

At this point I have completely separated the A9 leads of the two gram chips from ground (cut completely and lifted up) and soldered to the wires going to A12 on the Grom (?) If you need a better picture of the wiring let me know.

 

Open to suggestions/input on how close I am at this point, or what I might need to do next. Otherwise I might have to fix this Intellivision before I wreck it some more to find out if something else isn't up.

 

100_1053.JPG

 

 

You want to hook A9 from the GRAMs to pin ADDR9 on the GROM (pin #12). I can't tell from your photo, but it looks like you may have connected to pin 8 or 9 on the GROM, not pin 12.

 

Pin 12 is listed as "N.C." in the data sheet, but it's really ADDR9. If you take a look at this photo, you'll see that I soldered to the 9th pin from the left (12th pin from the right), as viewed from the bottom.

 

 

Also, I would check for an inadvertent solder bridge somewhere, as you seem to have lost bit 0 in the GRAM/GROM address. All of your stuff went half-resolution vertically! DB0 / ADDR0 are pins 34 and 33.

 

Data sheet here: http://spatula-city.org/~im14u2c/images/inty2_mod/ro39503.pdf

[doctorclu]

Ahhh. Corrected the wiring, but I'm afraid I fried this poor Intellivision learning on it.

 

 

I'll try again another day when I find another Intellivision 2 to play with.

[doctorclu]

An hour and a half later after cleaning up the board a bit the Intellivision is a little better off. Has a green background instead of black, which is in the right direction.

[doctorclu]

So it has been a year since an Intellivision called a BBS. I heard of the new "Electric Dreams BBS Podcast" from listening to the Intellivisionaries Episode 18 podcast. There is not a Electric Dreams BBS, but they have a message board on the Particles BBS. So I decided to give THAT message base a call... with my Intellivision.

 

If nothing else this shows a less blurry video than last year. Just set the BBS settings from 24 lines to 4 lines, and the BBS becomes navigatable with the Intellivision ECS.

 

 

 

(BTW, no idea why the video recorded at a slightly higher speed, but meh! And you'll notice that my characters type double. That is a weird effect of telneting through the Prison Board BBS. You type a character, it shows two characters, but all that is recorded is the one character, so normal in the end.)

[doctorclu]

Today I saw Bill Kendrick get on Facebook with his Atari 1200 XL.

 

"Posting via my Atari 1200XL (telneting to my Linux laptop, and running Links browser to visit FB mobile site). Did it work!?"

 

 

Honestly, if I had to connect up the Intellivision today, and I've been thinking about doing it again for fun BECAUSE I CAN , I would need to do much of what he did.

 

The shell account I called into in 2014 is no longer there. But if I were to access another computer in my house with a Lynx browser then I could use that to point to the interwebs.

 

Also my home line is now a digital line so the option of using the dialup modem is out. So will probably use a Lantronix with the Intellivision when I do. And then point that to my internal IP to the Linux server (been thinking it would be cool to get my Dreamcast up with Linux for that) and visit the internet. In all the Intellivision 20x12 glory. Hehe...

 

Edited February 14, 2017 by doctorclu

[+DZ-Jay]

Today I saw Bill Kendrick get on Facebook with his Atari 1200 XL.

 

"Posting via my Atari 1200XL (telneting to my Linux laptop, and running Links browser to visit FB mobile site). Did it work!?"

 

16708347_10154244512465778_2879030597519251166_n.jpeg

 

Honestly, if I had to connect up the Intellivision today, and I've been thinking about doing it again for fun BECAUSE I CAN , I would need to do much of what he did.

 

The shell account I called into in 2014 is no longer there. But if I were to access another computer in my house with a Lynx browser then I could use that to point to the interwebs.

 

Also my home line is now a digital line so the option of using the dialup modem is out. So will probably use a Lantronix with the Intellivision when I do. And then point that to my internal IP to the Linux server (been thinking it would be cool to get my Dreamcast up with Linux for that) and visit the internet. In all the Intellivision 20x12 glory. Hehe...

 

post-4709-0-44876800-1397183029.jpeg

 

Now, for your next trick, a 40 column expansion kit for the Intellivision Terminal software -- in good ol' 1980s fashion!

 

-dZ.