Intellivision Flashback 2 Wish List Ideas

[+intvsteve]

This may be premature, but let's go forward with the assumption that the flashback is successful enough to merit one or more sequels. What would you have on such a wish list? Some things are obvious, but let's enumerate them anyway.

 

• Intellivision II style packaging?
  Ideally, each iteration could replicate one of the major cosmetic variations, but it would likely add cost or licensing fees.
• Four controller inputs?
  Two on the top spaced for ECS keyboard / synthesizer (yes, a fantasy), acting also as two more controller ports for 4-player games. That would require at the least some mods to games that allowed >2 players, or new games. This would likely add too much cost, and how many would spring for two more controllers for unfamiliar games?
• Emulator support for the second sound chip in addition to the aforementioned extra controllers
  Games like Mind Strike and others that took full advantage would benefit
• Data East games (duh)
• Activision games
• Imagic games
• More unreleased titles
• New games e.g. Elektronite, Collectorvision, GDG's Blix, et. Al.

Surely there are more ideas to add. Hopefully a few will make the cut. But first, the current must succeed.

Edited September 20, 2014 by intvsteve

[JasonlikesINTV]

I'd like to see some original titles developed by more of the Blue Sky Rangers. I mentioned this to Keith and they said it was part of the plan (hopefully). They also mentioned that most of the BSRs are still programming, so hopefully they can find the time and motivation to produce some good new games.

[+save2600]

I really like the idea of a model II design! Keep the side buttons and keypad of the original controllers however. No need to totally go out of your way to replicate crap.

Other wishes would include:

Third party game selections

More homebrews (especially Super Chef BT w/ reversed side controls - ha!)

Elimination of the kiddie/edutainment filler nonsense

Power jack located appropriately in the rear or adapter plug should come with an L-shaped connector at least

SD card or cartridge input

[TrekkiELO]

This may be premature, but let's go forward with the assumption that the flashback is successful enough to merit one or more sequels. What would you have on such a wish list? Some things are obvious, but let's enumerate them anyway.

 

• Intellivision II style packaging?

  Ideally, each iteration could replicate one of the major cosmetic variations, but it would likely add cost or licensing fees.

• Four controller inputs?

  Two on the top spaced for ECS keyboard / synthesizer (yes, a fantasy), acting also as two more controller ports for 4-player games. That would require at the least some mods to games that allowed >2 players, or new games. This would likely add too much cost, and how many would spring for two more controllers for unfamiliar games?

• Emulator support for the second sound chip in addition to the aforementioned extra controllers

  Games like Mind Strike and others that took full advantage would benefit

• Data East games (duh)
• Activision games
• Imagic games
• More unreleased titles
• New games e.g. Elektronite, Collectorvision, GDG's Blix, et. Al.

Surely there are more ideas to add. Hopefully a few will make the cut. But first, the current must succeed.

 

I agree except you forgot Konami's Loco-Motion!

 

Edited September 20, 2014 by TrekkiELO

[Atariboy]

Centipede would also be nice to see and shouldn't be a difficult one to secure considering this existing relationship there. Much like how Mattel titles are now appearing on the Atari Flashback.

 

Securing some of those Data East licenses is a must as far as I'm concerned and could benefit all three Flashback lines.

[freewheel]

Compatible controllers with the INTV2. Unfortunately they'll never go for it as it would break compatibility with their existing product. Whoever made this boneheaded move will end up costing them a fair bit of money from those of us who would love a source of replacement controllers.

[+intvsteve]

Compatible controllers with the INTV2. Unfortunately they'll never go for it as it would break compatibility with their existing product. Whoever made this boneheaded move will end up costing them a fair bit of money from those of us who would love a source of replacement controllers.

Luckily the incompatibility isn't too difficult to remedy. Nurmix has posted elsewhere how to make an adapter, and has offered some for sale. If you're handy with a soldering iron it's not bad. There has been talk of the possibility of a running change to address the pin compatibility , but afaik, only talk. For the FB it would likely also require a change to the software as well.

 

Yes, pin-compatible controllers would be great. It may be a support headache to have two versions out there, though. Time will tell, I guess.

[+Tarzilla]

Since it emulator based, I'd like to see a Super INTV addition to the emulator that adds more sprites for new homebrews to use. Adding another 8, 16, or 24 sprites would make a world of difference while still retaining the look and feel. Or get ambitious and emulate the successor to the Intellivision as it was designed.

[+nanochess]

Of course Princess Quest should be included in Intellivision Flashback 2

[+intvsteve]

Since it emulator based, I'd like to see a Super INTV addition to the emulator that adds more sprites for new homebrews to use. Adding another 8, 16, or 24 sprites would make a world of difference while still retaining the look and feel. Or get ambitious and emulate the successor to the Intellivision as it was designed.

The only gotcha there is that any new games would necessarily be limited to that hardware / emulator, or have a dual release with features that fade out gracefully if the game was made available on cart or conventional ROM format.

 

Now, that idea about emulating a successor, like the Intellivision III or IV, that's interesting. Wasn't the IV a Motorola 68000-based system? Wonder if it would have even had compatibility with the original system? At that point though, what would the software be? There's nothing we know of, and nothing that sets that nostalgic hook like the original games do. It would just look like so many other consoles, barring some truly amazing revelations.

Edited September 21, 2014 by intvsteve

[freewheel]

Now, that idea about emulating a successor, like the Intellivision III or IV, that's interesting. Wasn't the IV a Motorola 68000-based system? Wonder if it would have even had compatibility with the original system?

 

I highly doubt there were plans to make it compatible, unless they included the entire 1610-STIC-etc chipset either just for that, or with some sort of utility function (kinda like how the SMS CPU was used as a sound chip in the Genesis, and other examples). I suppose the planned Magic video processor may have been feature-compatible with the STIC, but no way would the 68k have worked with 1610 code.

 

The INTV IV would have been an AMAZING leap forward. Given that it probably would have hit retail in 1984, and quite likely was a fair bit more advanced than the NES, Mattel could have owned the videogame market. Sadly the Crash basically handed the market over to Nintendo. Imagine a poor man's Genesis (also built around the 68k) in 1984! Knowing the console market it probably would have been short on RAM compared to what came later, but then again Commodore did pretty well with the C64 around the same time. Helped that they owned their own chip fab I guess

 

It's really too bad that some more h/w details haven't survived, or even some prototype software. Someone surely would have written an emulator by now. Unfortunately the project was ended before much of anything was written for it.

 

The INTV III, mind you, WAS planned to be fully backwards compatible, because it was basically an INTV I with a slightly better graphics chip (intentionally designed to support STIC functionality.

Edited September 21, 2014 by freeweed

[Flojomojo]

These are all great ideas. Personally, I'd be happy with a fixed/updated digital download for the 3DS of Intellivision Lives with Activision and Imagic games added.

[Atariboy]

Port that to the Wii U with those enhancements, toss in some licensed Mattel ports like Locomotion from Konami and the Data East games, have it premier dual gamepad support for the system, and put it on disc, would thrill me.

Edited September 22, 2014 by Atariboy