IntelliXpander module

[+cmart604]

A new/updated version of the classic Cloudy Mountain/Crown of Kings would be great to see.

This! Couldn't agree more. Seems like Cloudy Mountain 2 would be a great choice for upgraded graphics.

[+cmart604]

Too much? Yes? No? Can we go ahead?

 

EDIT:

 

I used the Intv III specs or less: 16 colors from 4096, 256 tiles or less (the 4KBx16 bit external GROM memory mentioned somewhere, which leads to 512 patterns for sprites and tiles), 8x8 tiles and 8x16 sprites with 4 colors each, 64 sprites on screen, 8 sprites/scanline maximum. Resolution for both is 256x192, just because the source material doesn't work well in 320x192, so I am actually using a windows.

The mock ups look awesome. I'm excited to see what you and other programmers could do with the Inty 3 specs. ??

[opcode]

This! Couldn't agree more. Seems like Cloudy Mountain 2 would be a great choice for upgraded graphics.

 

I also agree, I am a huge fan of Cloudy Mountain too.

But thanks for the feedback. Let's wait a few more hours and unless we get some negative with the idea, I am going ahead.

 

Didn't forget about the "stereo sound" and "voice" either

[+fdr4prez]

You can produce an updated (real) version of Grand Theft Auto for Intellivision:

 

https://youtu.be/ZdHG5-K8E1E

[opcode]

Ok, now comes the hard part, let's discuss games...

 

I will try to get some of the other developers involved, we have a nice plan for that, but it is going to be up to them to take it or not.

 

On the other hand, I don't want to cook this for too long, as my experience with the SGM taught me a few things about delaying stuff forever. I had started Castlevania, but with the new video, I will have to start from scratch. And I said from the begging I don't want a direct port of the NES, the Intv crowd deserves something more "intelligent" than that.

 

And finally, releasing this with a single game isn't very exciting either. So I thought of this, a clear plan for 4 games around the release window. Not exactly what I had in mind, but yet more realistic than working on some ultra mega advanced stuff that would take forever (and they will come, just planning the release window here).

 

So my suggestion is this, 2 arcade ports and 2 non-arcade games. The two arcade ports would be Pac-Man Collection and Donkey Kong, while the two non-arcade would include Goonies (a nice action adventure full of exploration) and another yet-to-be-decided gamer, probably a shooter.

 

Comments on that? Better ideas? Please feel to speak your mind. Again, just trying to get a list of games that can be realistically produced and less than a year to a brand new hardware. Hopefully we can get other developers on board and increase the number.

[+Tarzilla]

 

That is what I said a few post above:

 

Case style: I posted the mock-up a few days ago. Offered both brown and gray to match Intv I and II

Hardware specs: similar to proposed Intv III

 

So, just as an exercise in what is possible with such hardware, here are mock-ups for IntelliXpander versions of Pac-Man Collection and Donkey Kong.

 

Image38.jpg

 

Image39.jpg

I'm a little confused by the mockups, they are 800x600. Can you post some native resolution versions? based on the discussion above regarding the Intellivision III, I would expect 320 x 192

[opcode]

I'm a little confused by the mockups, they are 800x600. Can you post some native resolution versions? based on the discussion above regarding the Intellivision III, I would expect 320 x 192

 

Just mock-ups I put together quickly. Also, the source material is 256 pixels wide, as usual for most arcade games from that era.

[Eric7100]

It looks more like NES, rather than Intellivision.

[opcode]

It looks more like NES, rather than Intellivision.

 

Because that is how Mattel speced it. In fact the "nearly infinite" colors is a plus, even if the palette is limited to 16 colors.

[+fdr4prez]

It looks more like NES, rather than Intellivision.

 

Isn't that the plan when using the Intv III specs?

 

The NES was released in '83 in Japan and '85 in the US.

 

The Intv III design started in '81 and was canceled in '83

 

So if we pretend that the Intv III was released just prior to the NES, then it could have been said "NES looks like Intv III graphics"

[+fdr4prez]

It looks more like NES, rather than Intellivision.

 

 

 

Because that is how Mattel speced it. In fact the "nearly infinite" colors is a plus, even if the palette is limited to 16 colors.

 

For those that haven't looked up the Intv III specs, there is a nice listing on Wikipedia:

 

Intellivision III[edit]

Mattel began designing their next generation console in 1981 codenamed Decade. It was based on the 32-bit MC68000 processor and a custom designed advanced graphic interface chip. Specifications called for dual display support, 240x192 resolution bitmap and 40x24 tiled graphics modes, four colours per tile, 16 multicolored sprites per scan-line with 3D rotation and shading, multiple palettes of 16 programmable 12-bit colours and antialiasing.^[35] A machine that could lead Mattel Electronics into the 1990s, however on August 4 1983 most hardware people at Mattel Electronics had been laid off. It's now sometimes referred to as the Intellivision IV.

In 1982, with new machines introduced by competitors, Mattel marketing wanted to bring an upgraded system to market sooner. The Intellivision III was to be an upgraded but backward compatible system; based on the same CP1610 processor but with an improved graphics STIC chip producing double the resolution with more sprites and colours. The Intellivision III existed in the lab and a new EXEC was written for it but little else.^[36] It was cancelled in mid-1983.^[37] A Mattel document called Target Specification Intellivision III has the following.^[38]

• CPU: CP1610-2 at 3.56 MHz (2x original CPU speed)
  • separate 16-bit data bus and address bus
  • multiplexed data/address mode for backward compatibility with existing cartridges
• Graphics: STIC 1B
  • tiled graphics, 20 cards by 24 rows, each 16x8 pixels for a resolution of 320x192
  • 40 x 24 alphanumerics
  • 8 user defined colour palettes of 16 colours
    • colour palette selectable per card
    • 12-bit RGB definition for 4096 possible colours
  • 8 sprites per scanline
    • reusable on different scanlines
    • 16 pixels wide in 2 colours, 8 pixels wide in 4 colours
    • up-to 255 lines high
    • overlap detect of individual colours
  • fine pixel horizontal and vertical scrolling (backward compatible)
  • single data bus allows graphics rom/ram storage on cartridges
  • STIC 1 backwards compatible mode
• RAM: 4K words, 16-bit, DRAM (upgradable to 65K words)
• five channel sound with improved frequency range (backward compatible)
• integrated Intellivoice

[opcode]

 

Isn't that the plan when using the Intv III specs?

 

The NES was released in '83 in Japan and '85 in the US.

 

The Intv III design started in '81 and was canceled in '83

 

So if we pretend that the Intv III was released just prior to the NES, then it could have been said "NES looks like Intv III graphics"

 

Thanks.

 

Officially working on Goonies.

[+fdr4prez]

Not sure if it is possible to do a comparison of the NES video specs (again from Wikipedia):

 

The NES^%5B91%5D uses a custom-made Picture Processing Unit (PPU) developed by Ricoh. All variations of the PPU feature 2 kB of video RAM, 256 bytes of on-die "object attribute memory" (OAM) to store the positions, colors, and tile indices of up to 64 sprites on the screen, and 28 bytes of on-die palette RAM to allow selection of background and sprite colors. The console's 2 kB of onboard RAM may be used for tile maps and attributes on the NES board and 8 kB of tile pattern ROM or RAM may be included on a cartridge. The system has an available color palette of 48 colors and 6 grays. Up to 25 simultaneous colors may be used without writing new values mid-frame: a background color, four sets of three tile colors and four sets of three sprite colors. The NES palette is based on NTSC rather than RGB values. A total of 64 sprites may be displayed onscreen at a given time without reloading sprites mid-screen. The standard display resolution of the NES is 256 horizontal pixels by 240 vertical pixels.

 

 

So if someone smarter than me were to compare them which system would have been better?

 

The NES or the Intv III?

[+Tarzilla]

For those that haven't looked up the Intv III specs, there is a nice listing on Wikipedia:

 

 

Intellivision III[edit]

Mattel began designing their next generation console in 1981 codenamed Decade. It was based on the 32-bit MC68000 processor and a custom designed advanced graphic interface chip. Specifications called for dual display support, 240x192 resolution bitmap and 40x24 tiled graphics modes, four colours per tile, 16 multicolored sprites per scan-line with 3D rotation and shading, multiple palettes of 16 programmable 12-bit colours and antialiasing.^[35] A machine that could lead Mattel Electronics into the 1990s, however on August 4 1983 most hardware people at Mattel Electronics had been laid off. It's now sometimes referred to as the Intellivision IV.

In 1982, with new machines introduced by competitors, Mattel marketing wanted to bring an upgraded system to market sooner. The Intellivision III was to be an upgraded but backward compatible system; based on the same CP1610 processor but with an improved graphics STIC chip producing double the resolution with more sprites and colours. The Intellivision III existed in the lab and a new EXEC was written for it but little else.^[36] It was cancelled in mid-1983.^[37] A Mattel document called Target Specification Intellivision III has the following.^[38]

 

• CPU: CP1610-2 at 3.56 MHz (2x original CPU speed)
  • separate 16-bit data bus and address bus
  • multiplexed data/address mode for backward compatibility with existing cartridges
• Graphics: STIC 1B
  • tiled graphics, 20 cards by 24 rows, each 16x8 pixels for a resolution of 320x192
  • 40 x 24 alphanumerics
  • 8 user defined colour palettes of 16 colours
    • colour palette selectable per card
    • 12-bit RGB definition for 4096 possible colours
  • 8 sprites per scanline
    • reusable on different scanlines
    • 16 pixels wide in 2 colours, 8 pixels wide in 4 colours
    • up-to 255 lines high
    • overlap detect of individual colours
  • fine pixel horizontal and vertical scrolling (backward compatible)
  • single data bus allows graphics rom/ram storage on cartridges
  • STIC 1 backwards compatible mode
• RAM: 4K words, 16-bit, DRAM (upgradable to 65K words)
• five channel sound with improved frequency range (backward compatible)
• integrated Intellivoice

Wikipedia seems to be mixing the III and the IV, which were two different proposals, I'd trust this source more:

http://www.intellivisionlives.com/bluesky/hardware/intelli3_tech.html

http://www.intellivisionlives.com/bluesky/hardware/intelli4_tech.html

[opcode]

Not sure if it is possible to do a comparison of the NES video specs (again from Wikipedia):

 

 

 

 

So if someone smarter than me were to compare them which system would have been better?

 

The NES or the Intv III?

 

They are really really close. But the 4096 colors, even if limited to a 16 colors palette, is a huge advantage. Interesting that it would have been superior to the 7800, a full year ahead of the 7800.

[1980gamer]

Opcode,

 

I am so looking forward to SGM DK, I don't think DK is a good choice for the intellivision.

We have had a bunch of DK releases in the past few years. I buy almost everything and even I gave up at DK II SE.

Not that I won't buy it as a ROM someday. But it is pretty cooked on the intellivision, However, DK Jr may be something to consider.

 

On the PacMan side, I know REV is planning a PacMan Jr. release in the near future... If I didn't miss it already.

 

Do what you think is best, but I don't think DK will be a KILLER APP. Hmmm, How about TRON Arcade and Discs of Tron?

[opcode]

Opcode,

 

I am so looking forward to SGM DK, I don't think DK is a good choice for the intellivision.

We have had a bunch of DK releases in the past few years. I buy almost everything and even I gave up at DK II SE.

Not that I won't buy it as a ROM someday. But it is pretty cooked on the intellivision, However, DK Jr may be something to consider.

 

On the PacMan side, I know REV is planning a PacMan Jr. release in the near future... If I didn't miss it already.

 

Do what you think is best, but I don't think DK will be a KILLER APP. Hmmm, How about TRON Arcade and Discs of Tron?

 

TRON is a must! I love TRON, the Intv was the console of choice for TRON games, so a new TRON is definitively a must.

[+Tarzilla]

Opcode,

 

I am so looking forward to SGM DK, I don't think DK is a good choice for the intellivision.

We have had a bunch of DK releases in the past few years. I buy almost everything and even I gave up at DK II SE.

Not that I won't buy it as a ROM someday. But it is pretty cooked on the intellivision, However, DK Jr may be something to consider.

 

On the PacMan side, I know REV is planning a PacMan Jr. release in the near future... If I didn't miss it already.

 

Do what you think is best, but I don't think DK will be a KILLER APP. Hmmm, How about TRON Arcade and Discs of Tron?

Other than the Disney lawyers, I'd agree with the Trons, I also think we are Konged out, but reality is, it sells. I'd prefer a DK Trilogy with DK, DK Jr and DK 3 in one package, even if it costs more.

[opcode]

Other than the Disney lawyers, I'd agree with the Trons, I also think we are Konged out, but reality is, it sells. I'd prefer a DK Trilogy with DK, DK Jr and DK 3 in one package, even if it costs more.

 

Just gave the go ahead to the hardware team. They say the video part will require some planing, as the video input is different in each Intv model.

 

As for games, again, arcade ports aren't what I had in mind, but they could be an option initially. Someone in the Intv FB page also suggested remaking classic Intv titles, like AD&D and Night Stalker. That would be awesome IMHO. Shark Shark OMG!

[+fdr4prez]

I really am not too familiar with other consoles, like NES and the 7800 (I've never played either of them), so are there some games that are on those consoles that could make a nice addition into the INTV family?

[opcode]

Well, the NES is too common, not worth porting games from, unless a lot is changed. But I like the idea of remaking old Intv classics

[atari5200dude82]

Another good idea opcode, Quest for the intellvoice was planned and cancelled, It was like TRESURE OF TARIM , with a voice. Maybe that can be finished alond side with more uNreleased Mattel/Intv games.

 

Quest iNTELLIVOICE

Airstrike

Gridshock planned intv 3

 

Target anrdomeda

Space shuttle also, itellivoice

 

yuctan? planned intv3

 

many more.

super pro auto racing will be good

super pro utopia

shark shark plus

cloudy mountain 2

king of the mountain 2

Night stalker 2

mAYBE SOME ARCADE GAMES AS WELL

 

SCRAMBLE

MR DO

mR DO WILD RIDE

GORF

BERZERK/FRENZY

[IMBerzerk]

You need a retro-adventure game like Ultima or Temple of Apshai... a sports game, Baseball always shined on Inty specs. A shooter... Galaxian, Galaga, Space Invaders (not Armada...please!!!) And lastly a retro Intellivison game that's been beefed up using the new specs. I said Cloudy Mountain, but really Space Battle, Night Stalker, Astrosmash... one of the classics.

[1980gamer]

Battle Star Galactica: Super Pro Space Battle

Yeah, I like it! The way it could have been!

 

I have been waiting for Super Pro Auto Racing since I got that catalog in the mail almost 30 years ago...

 

An enhanced Bi-Planes would be great too. I think David H. May be working on this? He has enhanced several games. Including Ms, Night Stalker.

 

Doubling the graphics and speed could make almost all of the games better, Though I am of the belief that game play trumps graphics. So in the process, loosing the game play would be a shame.

 

I am excited about the possibilities of the Xpander. Oh, I don't know if you can pass video to an unmodified Intellivision 1 / Sears / Tandy / Sylvania.

I wouldn't fight with passing video too much, go with the intellivision 2 method. The modification info is available online.

http://wiki.intellivision.us/index.php?title=Intellivision_System_Changer_Support_Modification

[+cmart604]

Ok, now comes the hard part, let's discuss games...

 

I will try to get some of the other developers involved, we have a nice plan for that, but it is going to be up to them to take it or not.

 

On the other hand, I don't want to cook this for too long, as my experience with the SGM taught me a few things about delaying stuff forever. I had started Castlevania, but with the new video, I will have to start from scratch. And I said from the begging I don't want a direct port of the NES, the Intv crowd deserves something more "intelligent" than that.

 

And finally, releasing this with a single game isn't very exciting either. So I thought of this, a clear plan for 4 games around the release window. Not exactly what I had in mind, but yet more realistic than working on some ultra mega advanced stuff that would take forever (and they will come, just planning the release window here).

 

So my suggestion is this, 2 arcade ports and 2 non-arcade games. The two arcade ports would be Pac-Man Collection and Donkey Kong, while the two non-arcade would include Goonies (a nice action adventure full of exploration) and another yet-to-be-decided gamer, probably a shooter.

 

Comments on that? Better ideas? Please feel to speak your mind. Again, just trying to get a list of games that can be realistically produced and less than a year to a brand new hardware. Hopefully we can get other developers on board and increase the number.

Definitely like the idea of Goonies, Tron would be a big hit IMHO, Cloudy Mountain 2 would be top of my list for Inty upgrades/sequels, and given that Carl had given us great DK and Ms PAC Man, I'd actually prefer DK Jr as an arcade option.