IntelliXpander module

[+cmart604]

Nice! These new Opcode boxes are really cool. How about a Goonies sneak preview?

[wolfy62]

I love the Goonies Idea, and I hope you still plan on Castlevania and Gradius as well.

 

All of which are games that have not yet been programmed for the Intellivision. Carry on......

[opcode]

I am waiting for the final graphics before I preview Goonies. As for the others, sure, I love both Gradius and Castlevania, and they will come. Just trying to get a sizable number of games on day one.

[CatPix]

Burgertime? I'm not a huge fan of redoing the same games, but being that Burgertime is almost THE Intellivision game, I think it deserve to be on the Intellivision III IMO.

[m-crew]

Looks Great!!!

[ColecoGamer]

Those games look incredible! Yes, go ahead and get it done!!

[ColecoGamer]

Double post.

Edited July 15, 2017 by ColecoGamer

[RT12 Productions]

Hello!

 

I saw photos for both color choices for your new IntelliXpander module console—both the brown/gold (INTV 1 style) and the white/red (INTV 2 style) look very fine (these color choices for whomever wants ’em). Please put me down for a white/red model IntelliXpander!! I do hope it’ll have ports for keyboard/mouse/musical keyboard (organ type)/extra controllers/microphone/headset/Internet, and a good sized hard drive. Please keep the cartridge pass-through port. I also hope that the Intellivoice’s audio/speech capabilities get built-in.

 

Thank You!

[JasonlikesINTV]

Liking that Goonies box (and the others too)!

[Intymike]

My opinion is that games like Donkey Kong, Pac Man and Burger Time have good versions already on the Intellivision. New, never on the Intellivision released games like The Goonies making much more sense to me.

And there are still a ton of games from the 8-bit era that would be great to port on the Intellivision. Impossible Mission, Pole Position, H.E.R.O., Carnival (good version), Pitfall II, Bezerk, Wizard Of Wor, Yie Ar Kung-Fu, Loderunner or even new games that were released for 8-bit (mostly C64) over the last years. Cannabalt, Power Glove, Micro Hexagon, Tiger Claw, Super Bread Box...

[+fdr4prez]

^^^^ I agree with that ^^^^^^ No more DK, Pacman, etc.

 

 

Start with titles that are new unknown territory for the console that will be welcomed into the family.

 

Existing titles should be redone only if they are significantly enhanced into better games.

[IMBerzerk]

Bruce Lee!!

[+Steve Jones]

Yeah me too, we've had countless versions of Donkey Kong and Pac man games, how about something never released for Intv already. I nominate Galaga, Joust, Vanguard, Tron original arcade version from the old games,

or something completely new.

[+Steve Jones]

Or Robotron 2084 too.

[CatPix]

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/267839-intellivision-iii-game-boxes/

 

 

Interesting. You can see it's early, it's very 70's.

But maybe you cna take some inspiration from them?

[opcode]

IntelliXpander graphics...

 

[+cmart604]

Very cool ?

[JohnPCAE]

Hmm. Those appear to be colors outside the Inty's palette, so I have a question: will this work on an Inty 1 or will it have to have the System Changer mod?

[opcode]

Hmm. Those appear to be colors outside the Inty's palette, so I have a question: will this work on an Inty 1 or will it have to have the System Changer mod?

Indeed, I am using the proposed improved Intv III video specs.

[mr_me]

The Intellivision III specs have 20 horizontal tiles: 8 pixel wide mode at 4 colours (160 pixels) or 16 pixel wide mode at 2 colours 320 pixels. The goonies graphics has yellow, blue, and black within 8 pixels. You'd have to go to the wider shape 160 pixel mode for that. We can assume the 16 colour palette can be reprogrammed per scanline to produce the gradient. [intellivision III backgrounds should look more like Atari 5200 or 7800]

 

Are you using Intellivision cartridge pin 8 for video input? If so Intellivision ones wouldn't need modifications.

Edited July 17, 2017 by mr_me

[+Rev]

Will intellixpander pass through for Mattel cart?

[opcode]

The Intellivision III specs have 20 horizontal tiles: 8 pixel wide mode at 4 colours (160 pixels) or 16 pixel wide mode at 2 colours 320 pixels. The goonies graphics has yellow, blue, and black within 8 pixels. You'd have to go to the wider shape 160 pixel mode for that. We can assume the 16 colour palette can be reprogrammed per scanline to produce the gradient.

Are you using Intellivision cartridge pin 8 for video input? If so Intellivision ones wouldn't need modifications.

.

 

Is this a rhetorical question? All within the specs, fewer than 16 colors on screen so far.

 

 

 

Will intellixpander pass through for Mattel cart?

We are still evaluating the impact on price for that. The legacy slot takes considerable space inside the case, takes valuable board space, etc. we will know soon.

[mr_me]

The Intellivision III would use tiled graphics and either two colours or four colours per tile depending on resolution mode. If you want to use three or four colours per tile (yellow/blue/black) you'd have to drop down to 160 pixel wide tile mode (blockier). If you get rid of the blue highlight than you could do it in 320 pixel wide tile mode.

 

Since the Intellivision III specs allow for reprogramming the sprites per scanline, I would think you could reprogram the colour palette at the same time. So more than 16 colours on the screen at the same time could be possible (16 per scanline).

Edited July 17, 2017 by mr_me

[m-crew]

Oh my !!! is my excitement building for this release !!! Teasing me and pleasing me, . What's cool here is, this feels like a community project the way you are involving us during the development of the expansion and games..

 

Cheers and Thanks

[opcode]

Ok, some time for some math, because it seems to me the Intv III specs as they are being quoted here doesn't make sense.

 

You probably know most of a video chip powerness can assessed from its memory bandwidth. Usually that is quoted on a scan line basis, representing the # of memory accesses per scan line.

Intv 1: 20 bytes for pattern, 40 bytes for attribute, 8 bytes for sprite. Sprites attribute is inside de chip, so we don't add that. Total is 68 bytes/scanline.

Intv 3: in 320 mode. 40 bytes pattern, 20 bytes for attribute (tiles are 16 pixels wide, single byte in this mode), 16 bytes for sprites. Total is 76 bytes/scan line. I am assuming sprite attributes are still inside the chip.

In 160 mode, 40 bytes pattern (now 2 bits/pixel), 40 bytes attribute (8 pixels wide, 2 bytes/ tile), 16 bytes sprites. Total 96.

 

A couple of things don't make sense:

 

1) they doubled the CPU speed, and yet the graphic chip didn't get an equivalent boost. To put that in perspective, the ColecoVision memory bandwidth for the same thing is 104 (real is considerably higher than that as the sprite attrubutes are also in vídeo memory. Around 120 would be a more realistic bandwidth for the Intv 3.

2) 320 mode doesn't make sense. In order to keep the memory bandwidth you either increase the tile size to 16 pixels OR reduce the attribute to 1 byte, not both.

 

So those specs look phony to me. Let's see something that makes more sense, in the vicinity of 120 bytes/scan line. With the Intv 1 we have 3 bytes per tile (1 pattern, 2 attributes). Assuming 320 pixels wide, 8 pixels wide tiles, making each tile 2 bits per pixel, 1 byte of attribute per tile: 40x2+40= 120. Now add the 16 byes of sprite and voila, 136 bytes/scan line, exactly twice the Intv 1 bandwidth. That makes a lot more sense, considering you doubled the CPU clock, doubling the STIC click gives you double the bandwidth.

 

The only possible explanation for the extra 18 bytes per scan line in the proposed Intv 3 specs is if they kept the new STIC at the same clock as before, and just added optimizations. I fail to see how that would be possível though, as STIC has full access to the video memory during active screen, and there is no gain in attribute bandwidth, only pattern.