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Check out my thrift store find. Intellivision Keyboard still sealed


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I'd go a little higher just for the record. I'd at least give them triple and cover the paypal fees...and shipping. I might even put out a number with a coma in it...

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Are you asking the audience of buyers to appraise the thing they want to buy? : )

i wouldnt expect them to appraise it at this moment. I would be curious what you sell it for though. This is one sweet find. I love seeing these kinds of things happen here. Some collectors will find stuff and never tell a soul and all the good stories and pics never happen. Luckily here in the intellivision section the big collectors that we know of are more than happy to share info and pics. Good luck with your silent auction or bidding war. (whatever it ends up being) :)
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You darn Californians get the nice weather AND the coolest toys.

 

Congrats on the find ... that's a once in a lifetime find. For what people paid for these originally ... to not even open it. Wow ... just wow.

 

BTW, I would NOT open it to test the tape drive. I think that would devalue it as this may be the only mint, sealed one of its kind.

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You darn Californians get the nice weather AND the coolest toys.

 

Congrats on the find ... that's a once in a lifetime find. For what people paid for these originally ... to not even open it. Wow ... just wow.

 

BTW, I would NOT open it to test the tape drive. I think that would devalue it as this may be the only mint, sealed one of its kind.

I think it may be the only *known* one to be in working condition, so perhaps it warrants opening it up and testing it, and video taping its functionality for posterity.

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I think it may be the only *known* one to be in working condition, so perhaps it warrants opening it up and testing it, and video taping its functionality for posterity.

There are actually a number of working ones out there, including at least one of Joe's. The way the tape decks seem to fail on them, unfortunately you can't assume that even this sealed one works although I hope that it does.

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There are actually a number of working ones out there, including at least one of Joe's. The way the tape decks seem to fail on them, unfortunately you can't assume that even this sealed one works although I hope that it does.

 

Sorry for the Newb question here but what dictates a functioning keyboard component? I would be interested in fully testing and confirming mine properly. Thanks!

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I'd say read and write to tape. You might need some software to do that, but as Nurmix advised, you can do some tape drive tests without software. The basic cartridge since it uses a different slot.

 

What premium would a working one have over one that hasn't been tested?

Edited by mr_me
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I don't like sealed items, since I prefer paying less and getting to play with them.

 

I am the same. I play every game on every console I own. Nothing I own is sealed. This also extends to my other hobbies: I love Record Store Day, because I only buy titles I will listen to. So, as soon as I check out, I always go, "hey, everybody, let's see what this looks like inside!" and I rip open the shrinkwrap on the most desirable records. That definitely gets a reaction!

 

Despite this, I highly recommend keeping your astonishing find intact. I know it has been said here before, but the device is pretty half-assed and the titles for it aren't anything special. You don't have a peripheral--you have a museum piece.

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Sorry for the Newb question here but what dictates a functioning keyboard component? I would be interested in fully testing and confirming mine properly. Thanks!

Do you have any of the software that you could test?

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What exactly breaks on these? And why isn't there a way to fix them? I mean if I can reball a PS3 how can people not fix whatever IC breaks on these (i mean these are easy to replace, they arent even SMD)? If it is part of the tape drive, can't you scavenge working parts from a working normal tape drive and jerryrig it?

 

Also is whatever breaks the fault of some IC? Like a cap going and shorting out a non replaceable microcontroller? That way if I ever turn it on, I cna make sure to replace/check the fault link in the chain.

Edited by Deprekate
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The tape drive on the Keyboard Component is probably subject to the same common problem as regular audio (compact cassette) tape drives. It isn't electronic per say; as in some kind of damaged component or failure. Especially in your particular case as it is most likely unused.

 

Rather, it is the "rubber band(s)" that physically / mechanically run the tape drive through various gears or pully mechanisms contained within. The rubber dries up on the band & it snaps off and/or completely corrodes apart. VHS tape players also suffer this fate; just by sitting on a shelf for a few years. Probably an easy fix. The difficulty is in finding the exact size & length band replacement.

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Have to get a 6502 emulator to work or something. It was such an odd beast using the 6502 8Bit processor with the Intellivision's CP1610 CPU. It theory an 8 bit CPU taking advantage of what a "16bit" CPU could do. I really wanted one of these. In the end I got a TI 99-4A.

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Have to get a 6502 emulator to work or something. It was such an odd beast using the 6502 8Bit processor with the Intellivision's CP1610 CPU. It theory an 8 bit CPU taking advantage of what a "16bit" CPU could do. I really wanted one of these. In the end I got a TI 99-4A.

 

I believe Joe Z. was working on a Keyboard Component emulator...

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Intellivision lives says some of its software was written in 1610 assembly. Probably uses more ram and the io has to be emulated or reproduced, maybe it can run without much more work (I really dont know). I'm guessing the basic interpreter ran on the 6502.

 

MAME emulates this thing but I haven't heard of any software being dumped/converted to file.

Edited by mr_me
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What exactly breaks on these? And why isn't there a way to fix them? I mean if I can reball a PS3 how can people not fix whatever IC breaks on these (i mean these are easy to replace, they arent even SMD)? If it is part of the tape drive, can't you scavenge working parts from a working normal tape drive and jerryrig it?

 

Also is whatever breaks the fault of some IC? Like a cap going and shorting out a non replaceable microcontroller? That way if I ever turn it on, I cna make sure to replace/check the fault link in the chain.

As I understand it, the design included a very sophisticated tape-driven system that was fully computer-controlled. This was close to the same thing that large mainframes and minicomputers did at the time, where the computer moved the tape back and forth scanning for specific records of data, voice recordings, etc. and wrote information in a very precise manner.

 

Consider the typical use case, where the machine read data from the tape to drive a program, and also played back voice recordings from tape. Then it let you record your own voice and played it back, as it synchronized all this to the screen output and graphical animations -- all without having the user manually pressing start and stop buttons or scanning himself. It was all under computer control.

 

The problem was that it was implemented on a consumer/commodity tape transport mechanism. This made the tape system a very unreliable component, which tended to break or become misaligned rather easily.

 

As opposed to any old "datasette," where the usage of tape is fairly linear and simpler, the Keyboard Component used the tape drive much more aggressively (scanning, reading, recording, forwards, backwards, etc.) and required much more precision; so any misalignment threw the entire thing off.

 

I read the support documents on David Chandler's web site and it explained all the faults. They had constant failures and reports from customers. It was very unreliable.

 

Too bad, though, because the specifications and the capabilities sound like nothing that existed in the consumer space at the moment, and indeed appeared to be very futuristic.

 

dZ.

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Intellivision lives says some of its software was written in 1610 assembly. Probably uses more ram and the io has to be emulated or reproduced, maybe it can run without much more work (I really dont know). I'm guessing the basic interpreter ran on the 6502.

 

MAME emulates this thing but I haven't heard of any software being dumped/converted to file.

I think it was Microsoft's standard BASIC for 6502.

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The weird thing is I don't like to collect games. I already collect so many many things: MTG (I have full sets of beta-aliances), vintage Star Wars (full set of 92. I am missing Yak Face. plus boxes and boxes of vehicles), and a variety of other toys.

 

Collecting the cartridges would be just too much, seeing how I go for all consoles.

 

I just like the consoles, and use rom cards (not sure if that is frowned upon here).

 

 

On a side note, you have a complete Beta MTG set?!?! Wow! Even the Power 9? Black Lotus! And dupes of them all in a complete Unlimited set! Do you even feel like sleeving them up and playing in a vintage tourney with black bordered power 9? Selling those could sure buy a lot of NES games: double digit times more dollar value what the keyboard is worth for the Beta alone :-o . And that doesn't even consider the big money cards in the other sets you have complete, my personal favorite of which being force of will.

 

To keep this on topic, I thought I did well when I made $40 on a thrift store find... Incredible!

Edited by KreatorKat
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On a side note, you have a complete Beta MTG set?!?! Wow! Even the Power 9? Black Lotus! And dupes of them all in a complete Unlimited set! Do you even feel like sleeving them up and playing in a vintage tourney with black bordered power 9? Selling those could sure buy a lot of NES games: double digit times more dollar value what the keyboard is worth for the Beta alone :-o . And that doesn't even consider the big money cards in the other sets you have complete, my personal favorite of which being force of will.

 

Yup, well my unlimited is pretty sparse, I don't remember if I have dupes of the power 9 in my UL set. Actually most of them are sleeved and in various decks, much like video games, there is no point in owning it if you dont play with it. Here was the last time I dragged some out for this killer Bazaar of Baghdad deck. It was essentially a guaranteed 3rd turn win.

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Speaking of Force of Will. I still cannot believe how much they go for these days. I mean when I filled in my pre dark sets everything was rather pricey (ie the price wasnt trivial). But I remember being able to pick up of Will for about fifty cents, as they were only uncommons. Although it appears in the last year or so they have gone down (they used to be $100), prob reprinting.

Edited by Deprekate
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There's a scan of the instructions here http://kentrepairs.com/General/Intellivision.asp . Looks complete with the microphone. I wonder if the tape drive works.

 

Those scans seem to have come from my site.

 

You can find the scans of the manuals and games at:

 

http://www.beeslife.com/intvlibrary/index.htm

 

Under MANUALS, you will see:

 

- Keyboard Component Basic

- Keyboard Component Console

- Keyboard Component Software

 

Under IMAGES, you will see:

 

- Keyboard Component

- Keyboard Component Game Boxes

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