Tutorvision games - Interest check

[mr_me]

I think that's the first full tutorvision found in that sn range. The others lacked the tutorvision exec.

 

Pretty sure there's no headers for the jumper block.

Edited December 12, 2018 by mr_me

[intvdave]

The Tutorvision system I have has a video issue This is how the title screen of Tennis looks:

 

 

and the game screen looks like

 

 

The text in all games look fine. I was able to run the ROM to test the system and it shows fine and says this is a Tutorvision console. All graphics are boxes though in any game I try.

 

I cleaned the system, pulled the STIC chip out and put it back in. All the pins on the chip look fine. No other chip is has a socket. The main board is labeled INTV 1988.

 

Does anyone have an idea why the graphics would be boxes instead of looking correct? Do you have a suggestion of something I can test to fix this? Could this be an RF box issue?

 

[mr_me]

Hopefully it's not the stic. You can try replacing the gram chip at u12 and maybe it's latch chip at u10. There's also the system ram at u5-u8 but I'd try the gram first.

Edited December 22, 2018 by mr_me

[mjarnold7]

I've seen a photo of one where the vents beside the label appear filled in with plastic. I don't think it's common. I'd plug it in and see what the font looks like and look for the 160th pixel. What's the serial number?

 

Okay, after over a year, lol......here is what I found: The Super Pro system is serial A9716, the INTV III is A006133. I've attached pics of screenshots etc. Do I need to go further or are these definitely NOT Tutorvision?

[mr_me]

All we can tell from the photos is that A9716 and A006133 have the original mattel grom. No way to tell what exec, stic, or mainboard is there from those photos. It's highly unlikely, since all the tutorvision boards found have the intv grom. A screenshot of pga golf hole 1 would confirm it.

[mjarnold7]

All we can tell from the photos is that A9716 and A006133 have the original mattel grom. No way to tell what exec, stic, or mainboard is there from those photos. It's highly unlikely, since all the tutorvision boards found have the intv grom. A screenshot of pga golf hole 1 would confirm it.

Here are the two pics of Hole 1

[mjarnold7]

Sorry they are upside down....I never understood why I cannot rotate these on here...

[mr_me]

Only 159 pixels so they both have the original 1979 stic and the old style mainboard and ram to go with it.

[mjarnold7]

Thanks for your help/knowledge!

[Humblejack]

Sorry, wrong thread

Edited January 20, 2019 by Humblejack

[Humblejack]

After all the research I could handle for one day, I'm fairly certain that if these do exist, very few of the "standard" consoles would contain the WBEXEC. I highly doubt INTV was producing more than a handful of boards by the late 80s. It wouldn't surprise me if we're talking the low 100s in terms of Super Pros that had this board, which means maybe a dozen or so have survived and are accounted for by collectors at best.

 

Especially because nowhere in years of variant collecting, screenshots, etc, has this rabid community ever once mentioned a different font on startup.

 

I'm waiting to see even ONE of them from the local crowd before I accept this as anything more than a collapsing Lupin

 

Hi, I was doing some research about my Super Pro TutorVision and thought I would let you know.

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/287388-another-super-pro-tutorvision-found/

 

HJ

[Swami]

I and David Harley dumped the roms of 3 tutorvision games:

 

- Geo Graphics

- Map Mazes

- Shapes In Space

 

We could produce these games with box, manual and all, BUT they would work only on tutorvision consoles and on some (not all) of Super Pro System consoles.

 

So, they would be mainly pieces for collectors (but could be played on emulator on pc).

 

If we do it, anyone would buy them?

 

Thanks:)

 

Alessandro

I don't know if Alessandro is still listening...I think people would at least be interested in Geo Graphics, which I've never seen the rom for; Especially, since it is for older kids, it might be more interesting than the young kid ones. It could be a cart+ROM and ROM only product. I've learned Tutorvision games can now be played correctly on jzintv. It should have the standard and 1/2WBEXEC version to choose from or 2in1. Too bad the other 11-13 games seem to be at a museum in some copyright limbo where the people thought to have the rights don't acknowledge they have the rights. I saw a google group post in 2013 spoke about how some group, apparently Real Time Associates, was working on preparing the roms for release and writing text file game instructions for an emulator, but that never seemed to go anywhere. It sounds like standard Intellivisions might be easily modified to play the 1/2WBEXEC versions and availability of more roms/carts for the TutorVison might prompt more people to mod their intellivisions for such carts, which would further increase demnd for the TutorVision games.

 

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/intellivisiongroup/C15f_EFmZxg

[pacman3211]

Where can I find the Tutorvision grom.bin? I want to change the font on jzintv.

[mr_me]

If there's anything copyrightable in this file I'm pretty sure it belongs to Intellivision Entertainment. The file should be removed if there's any issue.

gromintv.bin

Edited March 9, 2019 by mr_me

[Alfguin]

!Time sensitive information sharing!

 

Hey all, I’m hoping someone checks this post in the next few days. In short, I have an IntelliVision Super Pro System for sale right now, this isn’t an add for that, I just want to offer to share any information on my system before it sells on eBay in a week. I can post a few pictures here and I am willing to open it up and take pictures of any internal components/chips/whatever before I let it go. 
 

I am new to the hobby of NES collecting and on a recent trip to a thrift store I found a filthy dirty Super Pro that obviously hadn’t been used in a long time (literally had a few dried up pine needles INSIDE when I opened it). I thought it would be fun to clean it up and sell on eBay so a collector somewhere who can appreciate it; I’m not an IntelliVision collector myself. After I posted it on eBay, I found a video by Lathe26 on YouTube and this forum. I had no idea I may be holding an interesting piece of history. 
 

I know some people on this forum have been tracking serial numbers on consoles and components. PLEASE let me know if there is anything specific anyone wants to know about this unit.  
 

I can’t wait to open it myself and find out if it has any Tudor components, and anything I find out here I want add to my post so the future owner knows what they are getting.  The only game I have to test it with is Frogger.

 

The serial number to my system is A8906 and as far as I can tell everything works well. 

 

Edited November 21, 2019 by Alfguin
Delete a duplicate photo.

[Alfguin]

And just to add for fun, my kids had a blast playing Frogger for the first time. 

[mthompson]

Unless I'm mistaken, the rounded font on the title screen shows that your Super Pro has the Tutorvision's graphics chip inside.

[+Lathe26]

It definitely has the right motherboard since the large capacitor is viewable through the vents.  If you open it up, a photo of the chips where the printing is readable would be great.

[+intvsteve]

1 hour ago, mthompson said:

Unless I'm mistaken, the rounded font on the title screen shows that your Super Pro has the Tutorvision's graphics chip inside.

Well, it has the GROM at least. And it almost certainly has the new version of the STIC.

 

1 hour ago, Alfguin said:

I can’t wait to open it myself and find out if it has any TutorVision components...

A couple of notes of caution before you open it up:

• The power switch button may be (lightly) glued on. You should try to cautiously pry it straight up. You don't want to break it or scratch the system.
• The LED power light is very cheaply connected to the main guts of the system, and it's super easy to tear the wires right off. Use caution!

Expanding on the second point:

1. After you remove the power switch "glamour cap" and the 6 screws on the underside, turn the system back upright
2. Take the controllers out of their cradles and lay them on the table "below" the system (i.e. between you and where the reset / power are)
3. Gently lift the top half the shell up maybe 1/2 to 1 inch
4. Carefully tip it toward you, keeping the area with power and reset close to where they already are -- use that as the axis of rotation

That way, you won't tear the wires. Not that such a thing has ever happened to me. ?

 

And like Lathe26 mentioned, some pictures of the board would be great! To get those, you'll have a bit more of an adventure. You'll need to take out 6 more screws. The rest of the process is a little hazier to go on from memory... Surely there are some pictures of what to expect floating around...

 

 

 

 

[+intvsteve]

One final note, from personal experience:

One of these landed in my lap not too long ago, and it seems that one of the 6 screws holding the case together must have been glued in. I ended up literally pulling it apart using enough force to tear the plastic. It's not visibly damaged unless you take the system apart. It'll be interesting to hear if you run into any similar problems, though.

 

I'll try a little ASCII art to illustrate what I mean...

                _____________________________
               /    | |
Top of shell  /     | |
             |      |~| <-- post the screw goes into
             |      |~|
Midpoint     ----------------
             ----------------
             |      |~| <-- recessed area for the screw
             |     =xxx= <-- head of the screw
              \   |     |
               \  |     | <-- well the screw goes into
bottom of shell | |     |
                --|     |-------------------

When I opened it, I had to pull the head of the screw through the bottom part of the case, so it's still screwed into the post in the other half of the shell.

[+intvsteve]

1 hour ago, Alfguin said:

And just to add for fun, my kids had a blast playing Frogger for the first time. 

And you got them holding the controllers properly! Good job!

[mr_me]

The only thing left is to check for the tutorvision rom.  The rom chip at U2 will be labeled either RO9580 P586 or RO9580 P587.

 

[You can tell it has the updated Stic because it has 160 horizontal pixels instead of 159.]

 

Notice the extra plastic on the controllers by the cable.  Their supply of connector blocks must have eventually run out.

Edited November 21, 2019 by mr_me

[Alfguin]

OK, I greatly appreciate that several of you are actively monitoring this thread still.  I was not able to make time today to open the system up, but I expect I will be able to do so tomorrow.  I will try to take pictures of the chips, and will look for the ones you mentioned.  Hopefully more photos posted tomorrow.  

 

Lathe26, I am especially glad you are still active on this thread.  Your YouTube video from a year ago titled "Tutorvision games on real hardware" is something I stumbled across yesterday and it was the first I learned of all this, and shortly after I read this thread and signed up with AtariAge so I could add information.  When I do figure out what I actually have in my system, do I have your permission to mention your video in my details description of my eBay posting?  I want to be as informative as possible in my post; the buyer should know exactly what they are getting. I'm pretty excited to know more myself.

 

Intvsteve, glad I got 'em using it correctly!  Believe it or not, shortly after getting home with this a couple weeks ago from the thrift store (in its filthy dirty state) I opened it up to give it a simple cleaning inside and out.  After putting it back together, I fired it up and it worked right away... and I belive at this point it was the first time in my life I ever played an IntelliVision.  The very first time I played on this console, I was playing with my kids, and I had already pulled it apart and put it back together.  I was confused that the left controller seemed like it should be the first player (and indeed was when we played Frogger), but the right controller had the wear marks on the disc; usually the first controller gets the most use on a system.  I'm a newbie here, just trying to appreciate what is in front of me  

[+Lathe26]

2 hours ago, Alfguin said:

OK, I greatly appreciate that several of you are actively monitoring this thread still.  I was not able to make time today to open the system up, but I expect I will be able to do so tomorrow.  I will try to take pictures of the chips, and will look for the ones you mentioned.  Hopefully more photos posted tomorrow.  

 

Lathe26, I am especially glad you are still active on this thread.  Your YouTube video from a year ago titled "Tutorvision games on real hardware" is something I stumbled across yesterday and it was the first I learned of all this, and shortly after I read this thread and signed up with AtariAge so I could add information.  When I do figure out what I actually have in my system, do I have your permission to mention your video in my details description of my eBay posting?  I want to be as informative as possible in my post; the buyer should know exactly what they are getting. I'm pretty excited to know more myself.

 

Intvsteve, glad I got 'em using it correctly!  Believe it or not, shortly after getting home with this a couple weeks ago from the thrift store (in its filthy dirty state) I opened it up to give it a simple cleaning inside and out.  After putting it back together, I fired it up and it worked right away... and I belive at this point it was the first time in my life I ever played an IntelliVision.  The very first time I played on this console, I was playing with my kids, and I had already pulled it apart and put it back together.  I was confused that the left controller seemed like it should be the first player (and indeed was when we played Frogger), but the right controller had the wear marks on the disc; usually the first controller gets the most use on a system.  I'm a newbie here, just trying to appreciate what is in front of me  

Thanks, I'm glad the the video proving useful.  Making videos can be time consuming so compliments are always appreciated.  Go ahead and put the video in your eBay listing.

[+intvsteve]

3 hours ago, Alfguin said:

but the right controller had the wear marks on the disc; usually the first controller gets the most use on a system

Yeah, that's strange. Then again it could simply be that someone swapped the controllers.  Perhaps that janky one was the left controller in the past. Are the both equally responsive?  Frogger is pretty simple, so it may not be apparent.  Some other games would likely reveal if such was the case.