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Intellivision Entertainment launching a NEW Intellivision console


Rev

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I believe (rightly or wrongly) that the CD craze of 1984-2016 and the complexity of how it transitioned into digital music and streaming services soured a lot of the younger generation and kids of today - on digital music.

 

 

It's mostly a hipster fad. There are some who genuinely prefer analog equipment (e.g., I'm a DJ and I much prefer the tactile experience of controlling the physical vinyl discs with my fingers than pushing buttons -- but then again, nowadays you can get that experience with some fancy gadget that transfers the analog signal picked up by the needle into your computer for digital playback), but mostly it's just hipster nerd crap.

 

Remember, cheap earpods playing heavily-compressed, low-bitrate MP3s at very loud volume did a lot of damage to all those millennials growing up in the 90s and early 2000s; I doubt they got some sort of sensory awakening 20 years later.

 

-dZ.

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It doesn't matter how good the equipment is if you're listening to lousy music.

 

Now that's funny !!! lol and there is a lot of lousy music being promoted and endorsed by the music industries the last 20 years and counting.. ( with the odd exception)

 

Seem's to line up with the surge and rise of digital downloading of music. That instant download of one song killed the radio star to put it one way...... ;) No more Dark Side of the Moon , Master of Puppets, Rumours, ext(catch my point) and that is on the rock side.. Soul , Dance , and Disco ,Hip Hop all have their Artist and Albums that are at that level... Don't get me wrong there are very talented musician's and Bands now a days but for the most part they are ignored and not developed or promoted by the industry...

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The problem I have with digital is that once the company is done supporting it you are out of luck. Look at Wii and any digital game you bought. You have until a certain date to download them. So it sounds okay right? It is fine until that system fails, then you won't be able to download them or transfer them. At least with physical you can get a new system and plug it right in.

 

Not to mention the addition hard drives you will have to buy to keep all of them.

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Based on what's been posted in the comments on the Facebook live event, the games on this console would be downloaded immediately, and user backups of the system also supported. Storage likely will continue to become cheaper and cheaper, so that's likely not a big issue. That said, it does get to be tiresome juggling backups and physical drives / cards and keeping track of all of it. Depending on the space requirements, possibly online cloud storage from your chosen vendor could be another backup option. Until concrete details emerge, we can only speculate.

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I have digital purchases on my modern systems and the only thing I hate about it is the lack of visibility. If I go into my hobby closet I can stumble upon a coleco or intellivision game I haven't played in months just by looking at the cartridge on my shelf. Sometimes I forget I purchased digital games because I haven't logged into my PS4 or whatever :)

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There is a good bit of fun in the whole tactile experience of just browsing to find something you've not experienced for awhile, be it games, movies, music, books. There's that feeling of (re)discovery that you can't capture when you browse a grid of icons. Sometimes you surprise yourself with what ends up in your hands when you go rummaging for something to play.

 

The indication that I.E. hopes to have 'Special Editions' for at least some titles that will ship on physical media is certainly a nod to that experience. Tough as it is to admit, though, the world does move on from these things, and there are practical reasons for going the digital route. We try to keep those tactile experiences and nostalgic emotions alive but it doesn't always work. As has been brought up here, the recent resurgence in vinyl LPs (and even cassettes!) shows that there is perhaps some instinct to embrace the more tactile world - but realistically it will be a phase that passes out of the popular culture.

 

Being a terrible packrat myself, over time one of the most onerous aspects of maintaining that tactile experience is simply the amount of space you need to keep all that stuff! The worst offenders are books. Heavy, dust-magnets, and voluminous, it's a challenge to have the office not look like a dump. A challenge which I fail miserably to meet. At the same time there's just something difficult to embrace regarding books on a digital device. It's probably age and habit that are the real problem there. :P

 

Anyhow, back to the topic. Let's put on our collective speculation hats and imagine: What if Intellivision hadn't virtually vanished - what if The Crash hadn't happened? Where would things have gone after Intellivision III and Intellivision IV? There were so many innovations that, in our timeline, were timed a few years too early. Is the Intellivision Entertainment console "PlayCable IV"? Intellivision IX? What would such a system be like?

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There is a good bit of fun in the whole tactile experience of just browsing to find something you've not experienced for awhile, be it games, movies, music, books. There's that feeling of (re)discovery that you can't capture when you browse a grid of icons. Sometimes you surprise yourself with what ends up in your hands when you go rummaging for something to play.

 

True enough. For my favorite digital-only titles, on the PC, I've gone ahead and printed out the PDF manuals. Or at least made reference cards in a nice portfolio folder. Something to lend a little physicality to the experience. I gone ahead and printed out reference sheets on thick laminated cardboard for all the major emulators. With period fonts and fonts representing the typeset and logo of the original console, for the cover.

 

Printed documentation goes a lot farther than one would think. Much more so than boxes. I could make faux boxes for my emulator rig and stuff. But I don't go that far.

 

 

The indication that I.E. hopes to have 'Special Editions' for at least some titles that will ship on physical media is certainly a nod to that experience. Tough as it is to admit, though, the world does move on from these things, and there are practical reasons for going the digital route. We try to keep those tactile experiences and nostalgic emotions alive but it doesn't always work. As has been brought up here, the recent resurgence in vinyl LPs (and even cassettes!) shows that there is perhaps some instinct to embrace the more tactile world - but realistically it will be a phase that passes out of the popular culture.
I love classic gaming in all its forms, and the arcades too. But the sheer amount of crap it generates is way beyond my ability to manage it and present it all in a nice elegant and appealing display. I'm essentially allotted 5,000 sq. ft. more or less for my hobby space and a little extra for my electronics workbench. And that'd go pretty quick if I was to do a walls of cartridges and cabinets of systems.
So I think balance is good. Pick a favorite system or two, collect for that. Virtualize the rest.

 

Being a terrible packrat myself, over time one of the most onerous aspects of maintaining that tactile experience is simply the amount of space you need to keep all that stuff! The worst offenders are books. Heavy, dust-magnets, and voluminous, it's a challenge to have the office not look like a dump. A challenge which I fail miserably to meet. At the same time there's just something difficult to embrace regarding books on a digital device. It's probably age and habit that are the real problem there. :P

 

I, too, have a somewhat uncomfortable unease about lengthy books on pdf. I often would rather read a real book most of the times. Especially when it's conceptual or philosophical material, or fun easy-reading entertainment.

 

But on the other hand I love pdfs (searchable is even better) for reference material, instruction manuals, technical datasheets, and schematics.There electronic reading is invaluable.

 

I also question the notion that pdfs are environmentally friendly. Look at ALL the resources needed to make an e-book reader. And the energy needed to run it. Did you know Intel has to use over 1000 gallons of highly purified water to make one microprocessor? It's not that the water is contaminated significantly, but it has to be pure to start with and that means energy consumption. And water is costly to pump around. Then it has to be treated and re-filtered before it's sent back to the environment as wastewater.

 

Maybe there is a break-even point someplace where economies of scale and manufacturing containment turn in favor of the e-book.

 

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I have digital purchases on my modern systems and the only thing I hate about it is the lack of visibility. If I go into my hobby closet I can stumble upon a coleco or intellivision game I haven't played in months just by looking at the cartridge on my shelf. Sometimes I forget I purchased digital games because I haven't logged into my PS4 or whatever :)

 

I just pull out one of those hard drives and start going through them. I never know what I will find. I've been saving everything for decades even! I got saved games and add-on levels from 1996 still!

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Based on what's been posted in the comments on the Facebook live event, the games on this console would be downloaded immediately, and user backups of the system also supported. Storage likely will continue to become cheaper and cheaper, so that's likely not a big issue. That said, it does get to be tiresome juggling backups and physical drives / cards and keeping track of all of it. Depending on the space requirements, possibly online cloud storage from your chosen vendor could be another backup option. Until concrete details emerge, we can only speculate.

 

I suppose for multiple systems it could get tedious. I suppose I'm rather lucky in that I settled in on the PC and stuff remains rather universal. I save my Doom levels from 1996 and my purchased X-Plane add-on aircraft from 2018 on the same hard drive.

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The problem I have with digital is that once the company is done supporting it you are out of luck. Look at Wii and any digital game you bought. You have until a certain date to download them. So it sounds okay right? It is fine until that system fails, then you won't be able to download them or transfer them. At least with physical you can get a new system and plug it right in.

 

Not to mention the addition hard drives you will have to buy to keep all of them.

 

The trick (and it can be a pain) is to get things that CAN be backed up, transfered, saved, and archived for the long term. This works rather well on the PC, but I understand not so well on dedicated consoles.

 

I LIKE digital on the PC, it's been that way since BBS'es in the 1970's even! But digital on consoles, with lack of utility and control, is a big turn-off for me. Enough that I don't do modern consoles much. At least not of my own initiation.

 

Edited by Keatah
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Now that's funny !!! lol and there is a lot of lousy music being promoted and endorsed by the music industries the last 20 years and counting.. ( with the odd exception)

 

Seem's to line up with the surge and rise of digital downloading of music. That instant download of one song killed the radio star to put it one way...... ;) No more Dark Side of the Moon , Master of Puppets, Rumours, ext(catch my point) and that is on the rock side.. Soul , Dance , and Disco ,Hip Hop all have their Artist and Albums that are at that level... Don't get me wrong there are very talented musician's and Bands now a days but for the most part they are ignored and not developed or promoted by the industry...

 

I have to wonder, maybe the crap music has some part in causing people to switch formats. They switch in attempt to get away from the shit.

 

All the industry has to do is push, and the people will consume. And that's their mantra. Development be damned.

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The problem I have with digital is that once the company is done supporting it you are out of luck. Look at Wii and any digital game you bought. You have until a certain date to download them. So it sounds okay right? It is fine until that system fails, then you won't be able to download them or transfer them. At least with physical you can get a new system and plug it right in.

 

Not to mention the addition hard drives you will have to buy to keep all of them.

That's why I buy all my Wii games as physical copies only :D

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Yeah, yeah, yeah. All good but for those of us that have a good L.P. collection and good Hi-Fi equipment the argument is moot.

There is a big difference to listening to music and "listening to music" a good audiophile setup wins over every other format every time.

 

That depends on whether the audiophile's goal is to recreate the master recording as accurately as possible or to alter/tinker with the audio.

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Special Podcast #7 from Intellivisionaries was interesting. Although the unit will not have a cart port built in, It may be possible to buy an attachment separately to fulfill people's desire to have one. It could even be built by a third party. So it is not ruled out.

 

This unit would be great with a cart port attachment.

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Every once in a while I think it would be cool to pickup a record player. Then I see $25 price tags for new records and remember having to flip the album every 25 minutes or so, and I say maybe not.

I spoke too soon. I was at my mom's house a couple days ago and got into a conversation about music. She's has a massive collection of CD's. Collecting used CD's has become her hobby since she retired. Anyhow, we start talking about records coming back and she tell's me about this box of records she found in the alley behind her house about 5 years ago. Unfortunately, she gave most to a friend of her's. Pink Foyd, Led Zeppelin, all great 60's-80's rock. I'm kinda pissed she gave them away, but she still had a few and gave them to me. I'm really stoaked to have the first four Car's albums in pristine condition. Now I think it's time to pick up a turntable.

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Special Podcast #7 from Intellivisionaries was interesting. Although the unit will not have a cart port built in, It may be possible to buy an attachment separately to fulfill people's desire to have one. It could even be built by a third party. So it is not ruled out.

 

This unit would be great with a cart port attachment.

Thats still not the same as if it was built in,who wants to spend another bunch $$$$ For that option.

Its just like saying you could if you add if you want later.

That later may never come.

I hope thats not true and this unit takes off and does well.

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I spoke too soon. I was at my mom's house a couple days ago and got into a conversation about music. She's has a massive collection of CD's. Collecting used CD's has become her hobby since she retired. Anyhow, we start talking about records coming back and she tell's me about this box of records she found in the alley behind her house about 5 years ago. Unfortunately, she gave most to a friend of her's. Pink Foyd, Led Zeppelin, all great 60's-80's rock. I'm kinda pissed she gave them away, but she still had a few and gave them to me. I'm really stoaked to have the first four Car's albums in pristine condition. Now I think it's time to pick up a turntable.

See someone was listing ....

 

Too Bad bad she gave those away. But thats a great start. ???????

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Thats still not the same as if it was built in,who wants to spend another bunch $$$$ For that option.

Its just like saying you could if you add if you want later.

That later may never come.

I hope thats not true and this unit takes off and does well.

 

No, you are right. I would rather have it built in. But like it was said in the podcast, and they were being generous, maybe 20% of all sales would find a cart port useful. That would mean that 80% would be spending more money (because it costs money to add it) for something they would never use. So, I think that making it an add-on is a good solution. Those that want it can have it.

 

BTW, I would spend the extra money for the add-on for the simple reason that the new console with add-on has to be smaller than any Intellivision console with the ECS and Intellivoice plugged in.

 

Boom! That makes it good for me.

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