ECS Program Expander was planned... in brown!

[+intellivotion]

While we know that Mattel advertised the never-released Program Expander for the ECS, I never knew they also advertised the brown PAL version.

 

Here's the brown version. Only a low-res image is available.

Program Expander Module - Brown.PNG

 

(...)

I see you found that picture in an Italian catalogue. Here's the same one. The images are still low-res but a bit bigger

[+intellivotion]

and here is another picture. I knew I saw that but I didn't remember where. Then I did: it was in the magazine "Videogiochi" #6 (June 1983)

 

[Intymike]

Interesting screen shots.

Edited March 10, 2019 by Intymike

[+intellivotion]

Interesting screen shots.

undoubtedly. Those are the same "screenshots" (some fake, some true) that we can see on the 1983 UK dealer catalog.

Top row left to right:

Mr. Basic meets Bits'n'Bites, Number Jumble, Basic Programmer

 

Bottom row left to right

The Jetsons Ways with Words, Game Factory (aka Game Maker), The Flinstones Keybord Fun

[Intymike]

undoubtedly. Those are the same "screenshots" (some fake, some true) that we can see on the 1983 UK dealer catalog.

Top row left to right:

Mr. Basic meets Bits'n'Bites, Number Jumble, Basic Programmer

 

Bottom row left to right

The Jetsons Ways with Words, Game Factory (aka Game Maker), The Flinstones Keybord Fun

 

 

The Jetsons and Flintstone "screen shots" do nothing have in common with the actual game.

[+intellivotion]

The Jetsons and Flintstone "screen shots" do nothing have in common with the actual game.

same thing for Number Jumble

[+DZ-Jay]

Do we have an idea when the Keyboard Component was finally killed off?

 

According to the Intellivision Lives site, in Fall 1982, during a marketing/sales meeting where the ECS was introduced:

 

In fall of 1982, at the annual meeting of Mattel's marketing people, sales staff and distributors, Lucky -- the Computer Module, the Computer Keyboard, and the Music Synthesizer -- was presented under its final name: the Entertainment Computer System (ECS). Everyone at the meeting was delighted (mainly by the low retail price) and the obvious became official: the Intellivision Keyboard Component was dead.

 

*emphasis mine.

-dZ.

[intvnut]

 

According to the Intellivision Lives site, in Fall 1982, during a marketing/sales meeting where the ECS was introduced:

 

It was effectively dead. When was the project actually cancelled though?

 

I've worked on projects that were effectively dead and didn't actually get cancelled for months. Pert of the reason I left my last job is that I suspected I was on one of those again.

[mr_me]

You can see on papaintellivision.com, when the KC documents stopped and the Intellivision IV documents picked up.

[intvnut]

I've worked on projects that were effectively dead and didn't actually get cancelled for months. Pert of the reason I left my last job is that I suspected I was on one of those again.

 

:s/Pert/Part/

 

[intvnut]

I'm guessing the Keyboard Component was truly dead by Sept 1982. The Sony engagement never mentioned it, and the Intellivision II was incompatible with it.

 

[CatPix]

Thanks! That is all fantastic information.

 

Here's a quick table I threw together. Let me know what I missed. Not seeing a clear pattern here. More data will help greatly.

 

Untitled.png

 

I think you made a mistake or read me wrong. My ECS doesn't feature the connector. Or I wrote it wrong, that is also a possibility.

For the sake of ...completedness??? Here are more infos on my ECS :

Internal S/N : L00056708

ROM : 83 35

PSG : 8307

 

The main board bear the printed mention of "4182-4229 REV. C"

 

While looking for more internal pics of ECS, I found a gem :

http://www.gamotek.fr/classeur-formation-revendeurs-mattel-intellivision/

Someone found a seller's manual for the Intellivision and ECS, from 1983.

 

It says that the ESC will support a modem (to be announced in 1984) a keyboard, a musical keyboard or extra gamepads!

It doesn't mention the Program Expander by name, but it says on this page http://www.gamotek.fr/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/IMG_9411.jpg "Memory Expansion : 32Ko of RAM, 12Ko of ROM : extended Basic"

Strangely the ECS page doesn't mention the expansion bay.

On another note, it also mention the Intellivoice, with a strange contradiction :

http://www.gamotek.fr/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/IMG_9416.jpg

It says "Hardware and software in English" then says that the first game available will be "Space Spartans" in French!

 

 

If you're interested I could look at the picture and try to translate more.

Edited March 10, 2019 by CatPix

[intvnut]

 

I think you made a mistake or read me wrong. My ECS doesn't feature the connector. Or I wrote it wrong, that is also a possibility.

For the sake of ...completedness??? Here are more infos on my ECS :

Internal S/N : L00056708

ROM : 83 35

PSG : 8307

 

The main board bear the printed mention of "4182-4229 REV. C"

 

While looking for more internal pics of ECS, I found a gem :

http://www.gamotek.fr/classeur-formation-revendeurs-mattel-intellivision/

Someone found a seller's manual for the Intellivision and ECS, from 1983.

 

It says that the ESC will support a modem (to be announced in 1984) a keyboard, a musical keyboard or extra gamepads!

It doesn't mention the Program Expander by name, but it says on this page http://www.gamotek.fr/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/IMG_9411.jpg "Memory Expansion : 32Ko of RAM, 12Ko of ROM : extended Basic"

Strangely the ECS page doesn't mention the expansion bay.

On another note, it also mention the Intellivoice, with a strange contradiction :

http://www.gamotek.fr/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/IMG_9416.jpg

It says "Hardware and software in English" then says that the first game available will be "Space Spartans" in French!

 

 

If you're interested I could look at the picture and try to translate more.

 

That same guide claims the ECS will have a 4MHz 6502.

 

Even the Keyboard Component didn't have that fast of a 6502. (Its 6502 was 895kHz on NTSC.)

[CatPix]

Hahaha, true!

 

Yeah, a 4Mhtz 6502 in 1983 in a "cheap" consumer item would be crazy.

 

There are a few oddities in the book like that. Like the antenna cord has (450m) written next to it. That's a long cord no idea of what it means; the original antenna cord on SECAM models was about 1.5 metres long, so it's not a typo where 45cm became 450m.

[intvnut]

I stopped by my storage unit, and am about to collect a few more data points:

 

[intvnut]

OK, for sanity's sake, I'll do one ECS per comment.

 

• P3 049308
• L00029276
• U52 date code 8331
• U42 date code 8315
• AY-3-8917 date code 8308
• Glued exp port
• No connector.

 

[intvnut]

• P3 089756
• "172"
• U52 date code 8335
• U42 date code 8315 (?)
• AY-3-8917 date code 8307
• Glued exp port
• Connector.
• Daughter board has extra bodge wires and is a lighter shade.

[intvnut]

• P3 058240
• L00030407
• U52 date code 8332
• U42 date code 8315
• AY-3-8917 date code ? (forgot to photo it.)
• Glued exp port
• No connector.

[intvnut]

• P3 049346
• L00044454
• U52 date code 8330
• U42 date code 8315
• AY-3-8917 date code 8306
• Glued exp port
• No connector.

[intvnut]

• P3 043637
• L00043621
• U52 date code 8330
• U42 date code 8324 <== unusual!!
• AY-3-8917 date code 8307
• Glued exp port
• No connector.

This one so far has the closest internal and external serial numbers. (43637 vs 43621).

 

 

[intvnut]

• P3 039546
• L00014060
• U52 date code 8330
• U42 date code 8315
• AY-3-8917 date code 8307
• Glued exp port
• Connector.

[+DZ-Jay]

 

It was effectively dead. When was the project actually cancelled though?

 

I've worked on projects that were effectively dead and didn't actually get cancelled for months. Pert of the reason I left my last job is that I suspected I was on one of those again.

 

The quote said "became official." I took that to mean that in that sales & marketing meeting it was cancelled. Are there any records of the time of that meeting? "Fall of 1982" sounds suspiciously like September 1982.

 

-dZ.

[mr_me]

I doubt there was any Keyboard Component announcement at that meeting. I think what Keith meant was at that meeting now everyone knows it was dead. I think KC work probably stopped well before that meeting, and to management it was dead well before that. The recall letters that went out to KC customers, indicating no future support would also have made it official.

Edited March 11, 2019 by mr_me

[+DZ-Jay]

I doubt there was any Keyboard Component announcement at that meeting. I think what Keith meant was at that meeting now everyone knows it was dead. I think KC work probably stopped well before that meeting, and to management it was dead well before that.

 

It could be. Do you know when that meeting was? Because "fall of 1982" could be Sept. 1982. *shrug*

 

Also, why would he write it like that? It seems redundant to say "the obvious became official" if "obvious" means "everybody already knew," and "official" means "everybody now knows."

 

I would imagine an official decision being made right before the meeting or just around that time, and then the meeting became the vehicle of communication. So that concurrently work stops on the KC while other people are told of it. Otherwise, when the KC work stops, people would have noticed and then it wouldn't just be a rumour or something "obvious," but pretty darn official already.

 

It seems also to coincide in the timeline. Keith said "fall of 1982," and everything seems to point out to September 1982 as the ultimate death date of the Keyboard Component.

 

This is all speculation, of course.

 

-dZ.

Edited March 11, 2019 by DZ-Jay

[mr_me]

Obvious to people that knew about the ecs but not everyone knew.

 

I think work stopped on the KC earlier that summer, maybe spring. Hardware that is, not sure about software.

 

Actually, dzjay is probably right about the sales meeting. Even if there was no KC announcement, the defining moment is when the ecs becomes an official product.

 

Edit:

The "history and philisophy" document on papaintellivision.com has the following.

 

"August, 1982 - terminated the program"

Edited March 11, 2019 by mr_me