dave1dmarx Posted March 25, 2017 Share Posted March 25, 2017 Hi All, I found some audio cassettes I had made in 1982/3 of the Intellivision with PlayCable. While I wish I had a VCR back then, I thought some of you might like to hear one of the menu songs. There were four different songs in total on the menus: this one, Ride Of The Valkyries (same song from Checkers/Sub Hunt), The Entertainer and Music Box Dancer. Right now I have just made a video for the one song, but maybe I'll do videos for the other two "rare" songs. BTW, if ANYONE has footage of PlayCable in action from back in the day, please let me know! 16 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Intellivisioner Posted March 25, 2017 Share Posted March 25, 2017 WOW! Thanks for sharing this audio rarity! Please upload the others too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave1dmarx Posted March 25, 2017 Author Share Posted March 25, 2017 WOW! Thanks for sharing this audio rarity! Please upload the others too Will do, but I'm at work right now. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasonlikesINTV Posted March 25, 2017 Share Posted March 25, 2017 Very cool! Thanks for doing this! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DZ-Jay Posted March 26, 2017 Share Posted March 26, 2017 Hi All, I found some audio cassettes I had made in 1982/3 of the Intellivision with PlayCable. While I wish I had a VCR back then, I thought some of you might like to hear one of the menu songs. There were four different songs in total on the menus: this one, Ride Of The Valkyries (same song from Checkers/Sub Hunt), The Entertainer and Music Box Dancer. Right now I have just made a video for the one song, but maybe I'll do videos for the other two "rare" songs. BTW, if ANYONE has footage of PlayCable in action from back in the day, please let me know! So, wait, you made the recording on a real PlayCable back in the early 1980s, and what we're hearing is the music playing while on the menu screen? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave1dmarx Posted March 26, 2017 Author Share Posted March 26, 2017 So, wait, you made the recording on a real PlayCable back in the early 1980s, and what we're hearing is the music playing while on the menu screen? Yes. My family had PlayCable two different times - once from January '82 thru about July of '82 and again from about Jan '83 thru May or June '83. The first time around, PC had 15 games a month and there were four different menus songs that would randomly play once you got past the "Catalog" title screen. By '83, there were 20 games a month with only one menu song (The Entertainer). In 1982, I had recorded everything off the TV on a portable mono cassette recorder (I was 11 at the time). By 1983, I had figured out a way to record directly from the TVs headphone jack, so those recordings were in-line (albeit in mono as well). For the video, I had taken the in-line portions where the Catalog booted up from the '83 tape and switched to the '82 tape for the song. When I get around to putting up videos for the other two songs, you'll notice that The Entertainer is in-line while Music Box Dancer is not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave1dmarx Posted March 26, 2017 Author Share Posted March 26, 2017 Here are the original cassettes. The top one is from '82 and the bottom from '83: 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr_me Posted March 26, 2017 Share Posted March 26, 2017 That's some nice Intellivision history. I have questions. What city were you in? Would you know what the monthly fee was? Do you remember the newest game that it had? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Intellivisioner Posted March 26, 2017 Share Posted March 26, 2017 This is pure Intellivision history! I made similar recordings from German commercial TV at the same time (1982/83). Unfortunately I did miss recording the German Intellivision commercial... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave1dmarx Posted March 26, 2017 Author Share Posted March 26, 2017 That's some nice Intellivision history. I have questions. What city were you in? Would you know what the monthly fee was? Do you remember the newest game that it had? We lived in Poughkeepsie, NY. I don't know the monthly fee and my mon doesn't remember! From the '83 tape, I hear games like Buzz Bombers and Shark! Shark! loading up, so those were among the newest games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Byte Knight Posted March 26, 2017 Share Posted March 26, 2017 Very cool! I'd love to see PlayCable done in emulation or via a multi-cart menu so the rest of us could experience this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+fdr4prez Posted March 26, 2017 Share Posted March 26, 2017 Very cool! I'd love to see PlayCable done in emulation or on via a multi-cart menu so the rest of us could experience this. I'd imagine that a RetroPie theme could be created. Definitely the PlayCable splash screen, and you can play the needed mp3 files while in the game menu. Just need the theme to match the layout for the games. Probably split the games into various "systems" so they could better match whatever the PlayCable layout was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R.Cade Posted March 26, 2017 Share Posted March 26, 2017 The commercials list it at $12/month. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave1dmarx Posted March 27, 2017 Author Share Posted March 27, 2017 Are there any programmers out there who could recreate the music on the tape? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave1dmarx Posted March 27, 2017 Author Share Posted March 27, 2017 Very cool! I'd love to see PlayCable done in emulation or on via a multi-cart menu so the rest of us could experience this. Me too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr_me Posted March 27, 2017 Share Posted March 27, 2017 The commercials list it at $12/month.Yes, I've read that. And in the Intellivision FAQ someone remembers $4.95/month. I've also read that it only had 4K RAM. But listings have AD&D and Lock'n'chase. Two 6K games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Lathe26 Posted March 27, 2017 Share Posted March 27, 2017 The PlayCable had 8K RAM. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave1dmarx Posted March 27, 2017 Author Share Posted March 27, 2017 Yes, I've read that. And in the Intellivision FAQ someone remembers $4.95/month. I've also read that it only had 4K RAM. But listings have AD&D and Lock'n'chase. Two 6K games. That "someone" may have been my brother! I'll reach out and see if HE remembers exactly what the cost was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R.Cade Posted March 27, 2017 Share Posted March 27, 2017 How did the Playcable box attach to the cable TV system? None of the pictures seem to show this... Did it have a direct Coax connection? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Byte Knight Posted March 27, 2017 Share Posted March 27, 2017 I'd imagine that a RetroPie theme could be created. Definitely the PlayCable splash screen, and you can play the needed mp3 files while in the game menu. Just need the theme to match the layout for the games. Probably split the games into various "systems" so they could better match whatever the PlayCable layout was. Great idea - let's do it!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+fdr4prez Posted March 27, 2017 Share Posted March 27, 2017 Great idea - let's do it!! I'm right there with ya, but my post is about all I can contribute as I've never messed with themes in RetroPie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Byte Knight Posted March 27, 2017 Share Posted March 27, 2017 Hi All, I found some audio cassettes I had made in 1982/3 of the Intellivision with PlayCable. While I wish I had a VCR back then, I thought some of you might like to hear one of the menu songs. So you must be the guy who wrote the "Memories of PlayCable" article for CGM a while back? http://www.digitpress.com/library/magazines/cgm/cgm_v2n1.pdf If so, great article! If not, that's a lot of coincidences... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Byte Knight Posted March 27, 2017 Share Posted March 27, 2017 So does anyone have a picture or a video of the PlayCable's game selection menu? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave1dmarx Posted March 27, 2017 Author Share Posted March 27, 2017 How did the Playcable box attach to the cable TV system? None of the pictures seem to show this... Did it have a direct Coax connection? The RF switch box had two RCA inputs - one labeled GAME (for the Intellivision) and another labeled ADAPTOR. The coax for cable TV also went into the box so, I imagine there was a signal being sent that was specifically for PlayCable. We still used the RF box to connect cable to our TV for about a decade after we got rid of PlayCable (as the box worked just fine for regular cable as well), but it's long gone by now at my mom's house. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+fdr4prez Posted March 27, 2017 Share Posted March 27, 2017 This video has all 5 commercials for the PlayCable, but none of them show the menu https://youtu.be/0N7f4Gakqao https://youtu.be/0N7f4Gakqao 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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