+intvsteve Posted September 3, 2014 Share Posted September 3, 2014 As to your question about the Flashback... I haven't played one yet. Are Tennis and Soccer both two-player only? That is a bit surprising. I haven't played the later Championship Tennis or World Cup Soccer that much, so don't have well-founded opinions. Some around these parts dislike these games though, IIRC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onmode-ky Posted September 4, 2014 Share Posted September 4, 2014 So overall, I'd say maybe half of the sports titles on this have a decent resemblance to the originals. Golf and Hockey seem TOTALLY different, and Football seems very weakly related. Thanks for all the info! Very helpful. Regarding Long Drive Golf, that game was specifically called out by Intellivision Productions, in their PR material for the Intellivision X2 15 and Intellivision 10 2nd Edition plug-n-play systems, as being newly created, "in the spirit of Intellivision," rather than being based on an actual Intellivision game. Based on your description, it seems that Hockey game is also an independent creation, unrelated to the prior Intellivision hockey titles. As to your question about the Flashback... I haven't played one yet. Are Tennis and Soccer both two-player only? That is a bit surprising. I haven't played the later Championship Tennis or World Cup Soccer that much, so don't have well-founded opinions. Some around these parts dislike these games though, IIRC. Yes, I confirmed with Bill L. that Tennis and Soccer on the Flashback are the 2-player-only games, back when the game lists were first released. It struck me as odd, but I didn't look into it any further, since I had plenty of other Flashback-related research to do already. onmode-ky Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
didimo63 Posted September 4, 2014 Share Posted September 4, 2014 (edited) My review of the Intellivision & Colecovision Flashbacks was published today on an Italian retrogame website:http://www.retrogamesmachine.com/2014/09/04/atari-intellivision-colecovision-flashback-anteprima-in-esclusiva/ Sorry, it's in Italian (but maybe google translate can give you a general sense of what I am saying. Basically, that they are very good products, especially for the price tag ]. I stopped writing professionally about videogames back in 1999 (I used to write for Super Console, the leading Italian videogame magazine back in the days). The launch of a "new" Colecovision and Intellivision was a good reason, I felt, to come back to (some form of) videogame journalism .Ciao! PS: BTW, in my article I mention Bill Loguidice's excellent work on the Colecovision manual . Edited September 4, 2014 by didimo63 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
didimo63 Posted September 4, 2014 Share Posted September 4, 2014 (edited) And...Time to come out as an Intellivision ECS fan ! I had one (the brown European version. I was living in Italy at the time), and I loved it. I was able to program a couple of fun action games for it in those meager 2K, and I loved the "call grab" function that let you use sprites from other game cartridges. Too bad I was never able to locate a 16K expansion, although rumor had it that some of them were sold in Italy (Italy was the n. 1 Intellivision kingdom back in the days. Intellivision was heavily advertised during the 1982 World Cup Soccer, and it sold better than Atari at least through 1984).I sure wouldn't mind playing Scooby Doo Maze Chase and maybe some unreleased prototypes (Game Factory anyone? ] in future iterations of the Flashback .BTW, I just said pretty much the same about the Adam on the Colecovision Flashback forum . Edited September 4, 2014 by didimo63 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Lathe26 Posted September 4, 2014 Share Posted September 4, 2014 ... Too bad I was never able to locate a 16K expansion, although rumor had it that some of them were sold in Italy... Very interesting. It was my understanding that the 16K expansion module was advertised in catalogs but never manufactured or sold. What do you know about the 16K expansion module? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+nurmix Posted September 4, 2014 Share Posted September 4, 2014 Thanks for all the info! Very helpful. Regarding Long Drive Golf, that game was specifically called out by Intellivision Productions, in their PR material for the Intellivision X2 15 and Intellivision 10 2nd Edition plug-n-play systems, as being newly created, "in the spirit of Intellivision," rather than being based on an actual Intellivision game. Based on your description, it seems that Hockey game is also an independent creation, unrelated to the prior Intellivision hockey titles. Yes, I confirmed with Bill L. that Tennis and Soccer on the Flashback are the 2-player-only games, back when the game lists were first released. It struck me as odd, but I didn't look into it any further, since I had plenty of other Flashback-related research to do already. onmode-ky That's most likely because the one player versions were developed by Nice Ideas in France, and eventually sold to a company called Drexel. They were not INTV Corp remakes. In other words, it was probably a licensing issue, so they went with the original Mattel releases. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
didimo63 Posted September 5, 2014 Share Posted September 5, 2014 (edited) Very interesting. It was my understanding that the 16K expansion module was advertised in catalogs but never manufactured or sold. What do you know about the 16K expansion module? Well, it was never really clear. As I mentioned, the Intellivision was hugely popular in Italy, due to a massive advertising campaign during the 1982 World Cup, and Atari being poorly imported up to that point (Atari Italy did not officially open until well after the Intellivision launch). In late '83-'84 in a few reader's letters in Videogiochi and Electronic Games Italy, the two leading videogame magazines at the time, Videogiochi and Electronic Games Italy, a few ECS users from other areas in Italy mentioned owning the 16K expansion. At the time, we just took it at face value. I, and others, just assumed that it was available in stores. I remember asking a couple of stores for one, they didn't have it, then I lost interest. Fast-forward to the late '90s, and I'm talking to a member of the now-defunct Intellivision Club, and he mentioned that the 16k expansion was not sold all over Italy, but an import / export company based in Southern Italy had acquired a stock and sold it to stores in that area. That is all I know, but it was never confirmed. I will bring up the matter again in Italian retro forums and let's see what kind of responses I get. BTW, the retro Italian groups are, among others (these are the two that I check more often): https://www.facebook.com/groups/theretrogamesmachine/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/358154910930474/ Edited September 5, 2014 by didimo63 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeffrey Bouchard Posted September 5, 2014 Share Posted September 5, 2014 Nurmix, Nice Ideas was Mattel Electronics France and then those two games were distributed by INTV correct? If so, I'm lost as to why it would be a licensing issue since IP owns all of the Mattel and INTV stuff. In any case, that would explain why those 2 games have not made it onto any complilation as of yet. On a side note, have you given anymore thought into mass production of the controller adaptors? I would love to be able to have them in hand when I can buy a flashback. Sorry if I'm asing too much at this point. I can wait to try out the machine and controllers but the suspense is hard to deal with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+nurmix Posted September 5, 2014 Share Posted September 5, 2014 Nurmix, Nice Ideas was Mattel Electronics France and then those two games were distributed by INTV correct? If so, I'm lost as to why it would be a licensing issue since IP owns all of the Mattel and INTV stuff. In any case, that would explain why those 2 games have not made it onto any complilation as of yet. On a side note, have you given anymore thought into mass production of the controller adaptors? I would love to be able to have them in hand when I can buy a flashback. Sorry if I'm asing too much at this point. I can wait to try out the machine and controllers but the suspense is hard to deal with. True. I think it comes down to Nice Ideas continuing on doing games (and not just Intellivision stuff) for quite a while after Mattel Electronics closed it's doors; essentially becoming an independent game publisher. I will ask Keith Robinson about this the next time I talk to him for clarification, but I do know that while INTV did sell the games, at that time, they were labeled as coming from Drexel Ltd - which may or may not have been the name Nice Ideas switched to when they became independent. As for the cables... I just received a parts order today to make up a small batch of about 20. If I can finish them in time, I will bring them to CGE, and will have them in the podcast booth. So far the numbers requested don't warrant a large scale production run. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Lathe26 Posted September 5, 2014 Share Posted September 5, 2014 I don't think I voiced interest yet, but I am interested in a pair of adapters. I'm assuming these are the adapters that let you plug the Flashback controllers into an Intellivision II / Sears Intellivision / ECS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+intvsteve Posted September 5, 2014 Share Posted September 5, 2014 I thought it was Dextell, Ltd. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+nurmix Posted September 5, 2014 Share Posted September 5, 2014 I don't think I voiced interest yet, but I am interested in a pair of adapters. I'm assuming these are the adapters that let you plug the Flashback controllers into an Intellivision II / Sears Intellivision / ECS. Correct. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+nurmix Posted September 5, 2014 Share Posted September 5, 2014 I thought it was Dextell, Ltd. You are probably right. I was going from memory and didn't feel like Googling to confirm! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daldude Posted September 5, 2014 Share Posted September 5, 2014 Well, it was never really clear. As I mentioned, the Intellivision was hugely popular in Italy, due to a massive advertising campaign during the 1982 World Cup, and Atari being poorly imported up to that point (Atari Italy did not officially open until well after the Intellivision launch). In late '83-'84 in a few reader's letters in Videogiochi and Electronic Games Italy, the two leading videogame magazines at the time, Videogiochi and Electronic Games Italy, a few ECS users from other areas in Italy mentioned owning the 16K expansion. At the time, we just took it at face value. I, and others, just assumed that it was available in stores. I remember asking a couple of stores for one, they didn't have it, then I lost interest. Fast-forward to the late '90s, and I'm talking to a member of the now-defunct Intellivision Club, and he mentioned that the 16k expansion was not sold all over Italy, but an import / export company based in Southern Italy had acquired a stock and sold it to stores in that area. That is all I know, but it was never confirmed. I will bring up the matter again in Italian retro forums and let's see what kind of responses I get. BTW, the retro Italian groups are, among others (these are the two that I check more often): https://www.facebook.com/groups/theretrogamesmachine/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/358154910930474/ Where would the expansion modules plug in? There is nothing on the ECS that has a place to add memory to it would it plug into the cartridge port and have a cartridge port at the end of it like the ECS and Intellivoice or would it be like the System Changer and be only for writing programs? I took the black sticker that was covering the information about the expansion module off the box of my Music Synthesizer and it said that th expansion module would add features like instant replay and the ability to create more sophisticated programs and more sophisticated video games so this means it was for more then just BASIC Programming. Those links don't work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+intvsteve Posted September 5, 2014 Share Posted September 5, 2014 Where would the expansion modules plug in? There is nothing on the ECS that has a place to add memory to it would it plug into the cartridge port and have a cartridge port at the end of it like the ECS and Intellivoice or would it be like the System Changer and be only for writing programs? I took the black sticker that was covering the information about the expansion module off the box of my Music Synthesizer and it said that th expansion module would add features like instant replay and the ability to create more sophisticated programs and more sophisticated video games so this means it was for more then just BASIC Programming. Those links don't work. It would have been similar to Intellivoice, acting as a passthrough for most games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
didimo63 Posted September 5, 2014 Share Posted September 5, 2014 Where would the expansion modules plug in? There is nothing on the ECS that has a place to add memory to it would it plug into the cartridge port and have a cartridge port at the end of it like the ECS and Intellivoice or would it be like the System Changer and be only for writing programs? I took the black sticker that was covering the information about the expansion module off the box of my Music Synthesizer and it said that th expansion module would add features like instant replay and the ability to create more sophisticated programs and more sophisticated video games so this means it was for more then just BASIC Programming. Those links don't work. 1) That's actually quite interesting. I was talking about the 16K Memory Expansion module. The 1983 Intellivision Italian Dealer's Catalog and the price list in Videogiochi - The magazine actually listed 3 memory expansions: 4K, 16K, 32K. I owned a brown, European ECS and, on the top, rows 3-6 from the end of the "vents"/ridges would detach (lift and unlock from the sides) and the memory expansion slot was underneath. Mine was purchased in 1983, first run. If you look at the US version (I just did), you will see that the "slot" is there, but I seem unable to pop it open. Maybe the option was removed? Maybe my US version is a later model? Maybe they got rid of the top slot in the US version and they were planning for a cartridge pass-through version? Here are pics of the Italian brown model. I cannot find anything that would show the open slot, though: http://www.bitsndust.com/en/2011/12/mattel-electronics-ecs/ 2) Sorry about the links. For clarification, I was just showing the two main Italian retrogame Facebook groups. I posted about the 16K memory "mystery" there. One of the main Italian collectors is in the process of investigating with his contacts, too. https://www.facebook.com/groups/theretrogamesmachine/ And https://www.facebook.com/groups/115602518461922/ If they don't open, you probably need to log on to your Facebook and copy and paste the links, then open again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+intvsteve Posted September 5, 2014 Share Posted September 5, 2014 I think that some of the early U.S. model ECSs also had that top opening. IIRC IntelliVoice also had a similar capability. Later production runs of the ECS may have glued those ports down. Guess I'll have to dig out the ECS and take a closer look now! It would have started to look pretty crazy with these long chains of things plugged into each other and stacked on top of each other! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Lathe26 Posted September 5, 2014 Share Posted September 5, 2014 IIRC, all ECS units have a removable panel in the top plastic. These are the "rows 3-6 from the end of the vents/ridges would detach" that didmo63 was talking about. However, every US ECS I've encountered has this panel glued down. You can see the glue if you peek inside the cartridge hole on the right side. I haven't checked my European ECS's panel to see if it is glued down. If you open up the entire plastic housing, you can remove the glue so that the panel is removable when you put your ECS's plastic housing back together. Underneath the panel, there might be an edge-card connector. Early runs of the ECS had this connector on the circuit board, late runs do not. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Lathe26 Posted September 5, 2014 Share Posted September 5, 2014 ... and here is a picture of the BASIC Expansion module for the ECS from a US catalog. As far as anyone knows, at least for the US, this was vaproware and only appeared in catalogs. Here's a picture of an ECS circuit board with the connector... ... and here's one without the connector. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeffrey Bouchard Posted September 5, 2014 Share Posted September 5, 2014 Nurmix, Maybe you could ask Keith about this but Super Soccer (a prototype to World Cup) was on Intellivision Lives. I'm surprised that that version couldn't be substituted. As for the adaptors, I realize a mass run would not work but can I still purchase them or will you make them available to those who won't be attending CGE? Thank you very much. I can't wait to try the flashback and see how the controllers feel\respond. Jeffrey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+nurmix Posted September 6, 2014 Share Posted September 6, 2014 Nurmix, Maybe you could ask Keith about this but Super Soccer (a prototype to World Cup) was on Intellivision Lives. I'm surprised that that version couldn't be substituted. As for the adaptors, I realize a mass run would not work but can I still purchase them or will you make them available to those who won't be attending CGE? Thank you very much. I can't wait to try the flashback and see how the controllers feelrespond. Jeffrey I will get the story from Keith. And yes. I will make adapters available to those wanting them after CGE. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+nurmix Posted September 6, 2014 Share Posted September 6, 2014 ...If you open up the entire plastic housing, you can remove the glue so that the panel is removable when you put your ECS's plastic housing back together. Underneath the panel, there might be an edge-card connector. Early runs of the ECS had this connector on the circuit board, late runs do not. Now you made me go open my brown 'Euro' ECS and pry off 31 year old glue. I never knew about this! Very cool! Sadly, mine doesn't have the connector, just the solder points. Gonna have to dig out my mint CIB white ECS and check that now. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+intvsteve Posted September 6, 2014 Share Posted September 6, 2014 Yikes... Still looking for a brown ECS, and now there are TWO hardware variants. Great. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+nurmix Posted September 6, 2014 Share Posted September 6, 2014 Yikes... Still looking for a brown ECS, and now there are TWO hardware variants. Great. Tell me about it! If I could 'like' this twice I would. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Utopia Posted September 7, 2014 Share Posted September 7, 2014 Just opened mine to check but the connector is not there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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