Free Intellivoice in the 80's?

[Denicio]

Okay, i am dating myself with this post.

 

As a 12/13 year old nerd gamer in the early 80's i VIVIDLY recall getting the Intellivoice for FREE!

 

I forget the promotion they were running. My fading memory tells me it was a combo deal with the new Intellivision II console. Something like ...Buy the system and a game and get the voice free....i think.

 

I do recall waiting what seemed like an infinity after mailing in my proof of purchase to finally receiving my voice. My dear old mom made many a call for me too.

 

To me it was THE proof i needed to show my pals that Intellivision WAS superior to the 2600 because...it TALKS! HA!

 

Never understood Solar Sailer at all, B17 alluded me as well....i just bombed a bunch of stuff till i got bored. The ONLY voice game i was ever able to beat was Bomb Squad. Ahh the memories.

 

Anyone else remember getting the Intellivoice for free through some promotion Mattel was running?

 

 

[Flojomojo]

I remember that promotion, but not the terms. Seems like there was a "buy 2 Voice games, get the unit free" deal, too. I also recall seeing it on sale for like $40. I kinda-sorta wanted both this and the Odyssey 2 voice module, but not at their asking prices.

 

I totally agree with the Wikipedia article:

 

• The Intellivoice itself was a costly add-on, debuting at around $100, and rarely selling for less than $80 (at least not until the unit was discontinued and retailers began dumping the inventory at cost to get rid of it). Since the Intellivoice package didn't even include a game cartridge with it, this required Intellivision owners to make an initial investment of as much as $150 just to get one game that talked.

[Denicio]

 

I remember that promotion, but not the terms. Seems like there was a "buy 2 Voice games, get the unit free" deal, too. I also recall seeing it on sale for like $40. I kinda-sorta wanted both this and the Odyssey 2 voice module, but not at their asking prices.

 

I totally agree with the Wikipedia article:

 

 

 

 

Good info in this Wiki article. thanks for sharing. IN it...i found this gem " Even a promotional giveaway of a free Intellivoice by mail with the purchase of an Intellivision Master Component failed to kick-start sales of the Intellivoice game titles; "

I know we had both the original MCU and the Intv 2 (white) so i want to say it had something to do with the Intv 2 purchase.

[Denicio]

I also always felt that Space Spartans was just a Voiced Up / Dressed Up version of Space Battle.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

 

I remember that promotion, but not the terms. Seems like there was a "buy 2 Voice games, get the unit free" deal, too. I also recall seeing it on sale for like $40. I kinda-sorta wanted both this and the Odyssey 2 voice module, but not at their asking prices.

 

I totally agree with the Wikipedia article:

 

Quote

The Intellivoice itself was a costly add-on, debuting at around $100, and rarely selling for less than $80 (at least not until the unit was discontinued and retailers began dumping the inventory at cost to get rid of it). Since the Intellivoice package didn't even include a game cartridge with it, this required Intellivision owners to make an initial investment of as much as $150 just to get one game that talked.

 

 

Honestly, though much later than in the 80's I made the same initial investment towards having just a few minutes of speech in the game Wing Commander II when it was released. I already had an Adlib sound card at the time it came out and for the first Wing Commander, that was fine. But when the sequel was released like a year later, it forced me to work a bit more over the summer that year so I could buy my first Sound Blaster card at roughly about $120 and a copy of Wing Commander II which, I'm sure was close to if not $50 in cost as well.

 

So really that wasn't unusual at the time I think. Seems crazy now when I think about it, but I do remember thinking how cool it all was and obviously the investment seemed warranted at the time.

[Denicio]

 

Honestly, though much later than in the 80's I made the same initial investment towards having just a few minutes of speech in the game Wing Commander II when it was released. I already had an Adlib sound card at the time it came out and for the first Wing Commander, that was fine. But when the sequel was released like a year later, it forced me to work a bit more over the summer that year so I could buy my first Sound Blaster card at roughly about $120 and a copy of Wing Commander II which, I'm sure was close to if not $50 in cost as well.

 

So really that wasn't unusual at the time I think. Seems crazy now when I think about it, but I do remember thinking how cool it all was and obviously the investment seemed warranted at the time.

 

I do know that in 82' if you were to spend 100.00 on a game upgrade...thats was CRAZY money!

Still remember hearing my mom rant around Xmas time about how expensive each of these games were at 30.00 ish each.

Remember, this was when gaming was new so there was no benchmark game price by comparison. Those prices seemed really high at the time.

So a voice box that had NO game play in it was crazy. Which is why we jumped on what ever deal it was to get the free voice.

[mr_me]

I dont know where Wikipedia is getting their numbers. I remember the Intellivoice coming out at $79.99. Intellivoice games a little more expensive than regular games at $44 and there was some sort of mail-in cash rebate. Thats all in Canadian dollars. Denicio probably got his Intellivoice after Mattel bailed on hardware in later 1983. They should have put the Intellivoice inside the Intellivision II. I think INTV sold them for $40.

 

B17 Bomber has six skill levels. I always played level four (disc). I found after a few missions the game got suddenly hard and impossible; but otherwise a great game.

 

Edit:

Actually, Intellivoice games might have come out at $39.99 in 1982. The regular games were a few dollars less and I think it was USCF Chess that was around $44.

 

B-17 Bomber has no winnable ending unfortunately; new targets reappear.

 

Space Spartans and Star Raiders are based on an old text game from 1971 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek_(text_game) . At first I thought Space Spartans was similar to Space Battle but not after playing it.

Edited February 6, 2017 by mr_me

[Denicio]

I dont know where Wikipedia is getting their numbers. I remember the Intellivoice coming out at $79.99. Intellivoice games a little more expensive than regular games at $44 and there was some sort of mail-in cash rebate. Thats all in Canadian dollars. Denicio probably got his Intellivoice after Mattel bailed on hardware in later 1983. They should have put the Intellivoice inside the Intellivision II. I think INTV sold them for $40.

 

B17 Bomber has six skill levels. I always played level four (disc). I found after a few missions the game got suddenly hard and impossible; but otherwise a great game.

Is there a way to 'Win" B17?

[Flojomojo]

I also always felt that Space Spartans was just a Voiced Up / Dressed Up version of Space Battle.

 

Star Raiders, I think. They're definitely cousins though ... just like AD&D Cloudy Mountain and Tower of Doom share some roguelike DNA.

 

Honestly, though much later than in the 80's I made the same initial investment towards having just a few minutes of speech in the game Wing Commander II when it was released. I already had an Adlib sound card at the time it came out and for the first Wing Commander, that was fine. But when the sequel was released like a year later, it forced me to work a bit more over the summer that year so I could buy my first Sound Blaster card at roughly about $120 and a copy of Wing Commander II which, I'm sure was close to if not $50 in cost as well.

 

So really that wasn't unusual at the time I think. Seems crazy now when I think about it, but I do remember thinking how cool it all was and obviously the investment seemed warranted at the time.

 

I still value Wing Commander because I always coveted it ...but it seemed sooooooo expensive to me. Now I have it in multiple formats and still don't play it. Doh.

[+intvsteve]

I also always felt that Space Spartans was just a Voiced Up / Dressed Up version of Space Battle.

 

You should check out this episode of Intellivisionaries. They do a great deep-dive into Space Spartans and talk about that common misconsception, and how it's got more similarities to Star Raiders. I came away from that episode with a better appreciation for the game.

[Denicio]

 

You should check out this episode of Intellivisionaries. They do a great deep-dive into Space Spartans and talk about that common misconsception, and how it's got more similarities to Star Raiders. I came away from that episode with a better appreciation for the game.

 

 

Thanks! I will give it a listen.

[Flojomojo]

I'm a little bummed that Star Raiders isn't a modern genre. Seems to me there should be homages to it all over the place, much like we have a zillion Roguelikes these days.