Original 125 release dates

[decle]

I've been interested in the release dates of the original 125 for a while, mainly through trying to understand which games were broadcast on PlayCable and when:

 

 

Currently, the primary source of release date information is blueskyrangers.com.  The dates published there vary significantly in precision, with Mattel games prior to the end of 1982 typically having day specific release dates, whilst third party titles and games released in 1983 or later only stating a release year.  However, there is other information that has been consolidated on Wikipedia for some titles, including some of the excellent work by the Atari Archive.  This information seems to be largely be derived from adverts and issues of Video Game Update (VGU).  Personally, I'm not inclined to trust the timing of adverts too much, however, VGU looks to be a great source, with reviews, release schedules and game sales charts.  To the best of my ability I've consolidated the information VGU contains with existing data on blueskyrangers.com and Wikipedia to come up with a spready of "best guess" release dates accurate to the month:

 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1A5JxISTJAFX0koFpd_f8oVXpboyuGaGM0v8R5rcoKnE/edit?usp=sharing

 

In general, my best guess is within a month of the dates on Atari Archive. However, sorting this stuff out is open to some interpretation and a bit fiddly, so there may be errors on both sides, which I will seek to review and correct over time.

 

So what can we learn from this?  Well, the first thing to note is that according to the September 1982 issue of VGU any release dates originating from Mattel should be taken with a pinch of salt:

 

 

The need for caution is apparent when comparing the Mattel and VGU dates for games released in the latter half of 1982.  Where the BSRs report precise dates, VGU typically only acknowledges games as being with distributors a couple of months later (where no precise dates are given on blueskyrangers.com I push the release date to the end of the period, so a "1982" release date is assumed to be before December 31st 1982).

 

Looking at the release schedule in aggregate we can see some interesting trends:

 

• Then as now, game releases tend to be clustered in the run up to Christmas to hit the holiday season.
• Mattel may have missed an opportunity to build their market in the Christmas 1981 season.  Having released 19 games in the fall of 1980 in support of the nationwide launch of the console, they only released six games in October and November for Christmas '81 (Astrosmash!, SNAFU, Space Armada, Triple Action, Bowling and Boxing), bringing the full catalogue to 25 games.
• It's really noticeable how game production ramps up in the second half of 1982 as Mattel opens the taps and third parties enter the fray. Only 31 games arrived in the 27 months prior to September 82, roughly one a month.  A further 70 hit the market over the next 15 months, more than four a month on average.  20 of these second wave titles were released in the final 3 months of 1983.  This is more games than were released in the whole of 1981 and nearly seven titles a month!

Looking in more detail at specific releases:

 

• The first third party game was probably Donkey Kong released in September or October 1982.  This seems to have been followed by Atlantis and Demon Attack in October.  I won't bother listing all the third party release dates, they're in the spready if you're interested.
• We can put some more accurate dates on Mattel's 1983 releases.  We appear to have:
  • January - Shark! Shark! and Sharp Shot (perhaps they just missed a Christmas launch?)
  • February - Tron Solar Sailer
  • April - Chess
  • May - Vectron
  • June - Burgertime
  • July - Buzz Bombers and Mission-X
  • September - Pinball
  • October - Motocross and Treasure of Tarmin
  • November - Bump 'N' Jump, Kool-Aid Man and Masters Of The Universe
  • December - Loco-Motion
  • I've deliberately missed the ECS titles off this list.  Although it seems the peripheral hit the stores in late November or December 1983, it's unclear which games were released when.  At the moment I've just assumed they were all released in December, although Atari Archive has Mind Strike and WSMLB as being released in June 1984.

 

So what does this mean for my interest in PlayCable?

 

• If we assume PlayCable launched at the beginning of 1981 it would have had an initial selection of 19 titles to select the 15 game schedule from. 
• The PlayCable advertising on the internet seems to come from the end of 1981 as it shows all 25 titles available at the end of the year.

 

 

• In some instances new games made it to PlayCable pretty quickly, for example in the schedule above Lock N Chase should be broadcast in November 1982, two months after its release in September.
• September / October 1982 seems to have been an important time for PlayCable...
  • The release of the Intellivoice meant it was not compatible with the full catalogue of Mattel games for the first time.
  • Donkey Kong hit the market highlighting that the service was a walled garden, closed to third party titles.
  • Licensing constraints surfaced for the first time as Tron Deadly Discs could not be broadcast.
  • The monthly roster of games that were broadcast was increased from 15 to 20 for the first time in October.

It might be tempting to see the increase in the number of games broadcast as being a response to one or more of these events, however, talking to Jim Wiesenberg this was not the case.  As the Intellivision catalogue grew the roster was increased to provide customers with more value in an attempt to increase sales.  However, as Jim notes "We had not reached 3% subscriber level on any system so revenue/profit contribution was negligible so going to 20 games did not make difference needed."
 

• After the Intellivoice games, the next game to be incompatible was Chess owing to its additional RAM.  This didn't hit the shelves until April 1983.
• The first game to be released that specifically breached the 8K game size limit was Vectron released in May 1983.  The next was Pinball, which wasn't with retailers until September, this was followed by Bump N Jump and Masters of the Universe in November.  However, Paul Hilt says that the writing was on the wall for PlayCable by the fall of 1983, and he was tasked with negotiating the termination contracts with cable companies.  His primary objective when doing this was to maintain a good relationship with the cable companies as they would continue to be significant customers for Jerrold's broadcast equipment business.

 

As a final aside, Video Game Update is well worth a read with lots of excellent bits and pieces scattered through its pages.  Sure, some of its review scores are rather intriguing, for example is Donkey Kong really a better game than Tron Deadly Discs, as reported in November 1982?  That said, it's scathing review of Turbo in February 1984 is totally justified in my view, and the commentary on the industry is great.  At an industry level the way that Video Game Update added the secondary "Computer Entertainer" in June 1983, then switched the newsletter name in March 1984, dropped all video game console content in January 1985 only for it to come back in February 1986 is cool to see.

 

You can also follow the demise of Mattel Electronics in July, September and December 1983, and February and March 1984.  Intellivision's resurrection can be found in October 1985, and there's an interview with Terry Valeski about INTV's plans in February 1986.  Overall, Intellivision is well represented in its pages with 85 of the 100 titles released after mid-1982 being reviewed.

 

In April 1988 VGU asked readers to write in with requests for help collecting rare titles.  Sure enough, in May three people had written in with requests to buy and trade games for various second generation systems.  Could this mark the formal recognition of retro game collecting as a hobby?

 

 

 

 

[+Lathe26]

Nice research!

[BSRSteve]

12 hours ago, decle said:

The need for caution is apparent when comparing the Mattel and VGU dates for games released in the latter half of 1982.  Where the BSRs report precise dates, VGU typically only acknowledges games as being with distributors a couple of months later (where no precise dates are given on blueskyrangers.com I push the release date to the end of the period, so a "1982" release date is assumed to be before December 31st 1982).

I will admit that I really have no idea where the specific dates we report came from. Keith got them from somewhere. It could be from when the games went to distribution. It could even be when the final ROMs were shipped to manufacturing (even though that would not be what is being indicated). One of these days I will dig around see if I can find one of the dates any where in the files.-

[Morpheus]

Hi Decle!

I’m serious, if you print all your works  about Intellivision in a nice book (that by pure conicidence could have the same dimensions of an Intellivision game box) I will be more than glad to buy it!

Actually, I would buy two of them so as to keep one sealed!!!🤠🤠🤠🤠😎

 

Any how, thanks a lot for this very interesting pills of pure knowledge you share with us!🙏🙏🙏🙏👍👍👍👍

[Walter Ives]

On 6/26/2023 at 11:06 AM, decle said:

To the best of my ability I've consolidated the information VGU contains with existing data on blueskyrangers.com and Wikipedia to come up with a spready of "best guess" release dates accurate to the month

The following eight cartridges were delivered to retailers in Fresno for sale as part of the initial roll-out: Blackjack & Poker (pack-in), Baseball, Basketball, Football, Armor Battle, Checkers, Backgammon and Math Fun. So you can list those eight as having been released on December 3, 1979.

 

That being said, GI was quite adept at producing ROMs, so those cartridges and others, including Space Battle, Hockey and Roulette, had been manufactured months earlier as scheduled and were being held pending the availability of sufficient working Master Components. Production cartridges were used both at summer CES and in-store promotional events around the country. A few even left Mattel's hands, being given as samples to major retailers.

 

Sixteen of the nineteen games released in 1980 were completed in prior years and were waiting around for the Master Component chip set; these were released strategically. Mattel's salesmen, like salesmen everywhere and for time immemorial, liked having unique special twists they could offer to help close deals with preferred customers. For example, some early retailers really liked Space Battle and negotiated for their stores to receive that cartridge as soon as April 1980, and Soccer and Roulette were initially released to Gottschalk's the first week of June 1980.

 

WJI

 

These images belong in another post. They come back after I edit them out. Ignore them here.

 

 

Edited July 6 by Walter Ives

[Walter Ives]

On 6/26/2023 at 11:06 AM, decle said:

Having released 19 games in the fall of 1980 in support of the nationwide launch of the console, they only released six games in October and November for Christmas '81

You miss that the original cartridge development schedule was set to accommodate a Christmas 1978 product introduction. Seven games were ready by the end of the summer of 1978. Well, Football was a little late, but only by about a month (Ken Smith, a summer student, recalls in an interview that he and Kevin Miller rewrote Football from scratch in three weeks at the end of the summer). So having 25 games by the end of 1981 represents a consistent development rate of about eight cartridges per year (cartridges were manufactured in Asia and so as a rule were released the year after they were developed), which is what Rochlis wanted.

 

By way of comparison, Atari, having released 22 cartridges for the VCS in the two year span 1979/80, only released four in 1981: Asteroids, Missile Command, Super Breakout and Warlords. And then Activision and Imagic came and pissed in their soup.

 

WJI

[Walter Ives]

On 6/26/2023 at 11:06 AM, decle said:

Mattel may have missed an opportunity to build their market...

Ya think? Don't get me started.

 

By late 1975 Richard Chang, director of a group in the Preliminary Design department, was formulating a vision of creating a cartridge video game console capable of playing football. Neither Chang nor anyone else at Mattel had the faintest clue about video, digital design or programming. Chang serendipitously happened upon APh, which was well versed in all three areas, and the two immediately became as thick as thieves. It sketched out a design for a console based on a 6502 (although any 8-bit processor could have been substituted), a single custom chip and 4K DRAM that met Chang's desiderata.

 

Mattel's upper management, meaning Spear and Wagner, had no interest in getting into the video game business and put the kibosh on pursuing it. This resulted in an eighteen month delay, ceding first mover advantage to Atari.

 

In the meantime GI had an unexpected success when a side project pursued by an obscure engineer named Harrower in a troubled Scottish company that GI had acquired fortuitously produced a chip that came to dominate the 1976 video game market. No, dominate is too weak a word; the chip, the famous AY-3-8500, owned the market. What did GI do to capitalize on its smashing success? Decisively initiate a program to develop the next generation product? Nah, that would have been the obvious move. It instead treated the success as a flash-in-the-pan, merely allowing Harrower and another engineer named Maine some latitude to see if they could come up a follow-up for the next generation on the condition that their efforts didn't cost the company any money. GI's niggardly resource allocation led to later chip fabrication difficulties that would end up delaying the Master Component's introduction by at least a year, arguably two.

 

Jeff Rochlis, a marketing type with a silver tongue, joined Mattel just in time to cash in on the unexpected success of Mattel's handheld Football game. He sold a recalcitrant management on the idea of developing a platform aimed at delivering what we now call "aps" to adults. To surmount the price barrier, he split the platform into two parts, the Master Component and the Keyboard Component, and hijacked Chang's video game concept for the former. Rochlis directed that development concentrate on making cassettes for the Keyboard Component. That soaked up a tremendous amount of resources. You've taken a close look at Conversational French; just how many game cartridges do you think could have been created with the resources it took to produce that?

 

APh also knew a bit about chip design as a result of its relationship with Carver Mead. When GI presented its chipset to Mattel, APh recognized it as being based on a semiconductor process that was on its last legs and vulnerable to being obsoleted by the competition. When National bailed APh recommended proceeding with the GI chipset but then immediately beginning development of a backward compatible upgrade (which it dubbed STIC II), timed to follow the original by about two years. The upgrade part of the recommendation fell on deaf ears. As a result, the associated opportunity was sniped by ColecoVision.

 

What software Rochlis commissioned for the Master Component was heavily weighted with subjects like Blackjack, Poker, Roulette, Craps, Slots, Backgammon, Checkers, Math Fun, Spelling Fun and Horse Racing, not exactly where you'd put your development resources if your primary goal was to create a video game system.

 

Rochlis decided that the Master Component cartridge library was not to include any games with arcade-like play, and for THREE YEARS management refused to countenance the development of such games. Many good ideas were proposed and even prototyped. Well, Space Battle managed to squeak through, but Rochlis only reluctantly accepted it after being told that the TREK-like game he envisioned couldn't be made to fit into 4K. It took the demonstrated success of VCS Space Invaders to get management to approve Space Armada.

 

The idea of an All of Theirs cartridge that contained five or six VCS-class games was seen by Rochlis as detracting from the Intellivision's cachet rather than as a thumbing of the nose in the general direction of Magnavox, Fairchild and Atari, never mind that the availability of such a cartridge would have made the Intellivision price-competitive with the VCS plus four of its cartridges.

 

To preclude the public from seeing Intellivision system as a computer Rochlis expressly forbade the creation of "business oriented software" such as word processing or spreadsheet programs and "programming software" such as BASIC. (The BASIC program that was eventually offered wasn't authorized until after Rochlis left the company.) Instead, his program list included Conversational French, Physical Exercise, Nutrition, Astrology, Speed Reading and Home Budgeting, all of which we today recognize as killer aps.

 

Although Mattel eventually did allow the development of a few arcade-style games, it never embraced the idea of providing teens and young adults with comprehensive library of arcade games to play at home. That idea was left on the cutting room floor, leaving a vacuum for Activision, Imagic and ColecoVision to exploit.

 

Strict adherence to the 4K limit well into 1982 forced the sidelining of many good games and precluded the start of many others.

 

And then there was Intellivoice. Enough resources to develop a dozen regular games were dumped into developing the voice unit and its four cartridges (which completely blew through the 4K limit imposed on other games). Regardless of the quality of the games, this great new offering that Mattel Electronics was depending on to carry it sailing through the 1982 Christmas season was a total market flop and most of the inventory ended up being given away as promotional items.

 

When the Keyboard Component was assassinated, Denham and Prodromou breathed a sigh of relief that the albatross they had inherited from Rochlis had been removed from their shoulders. What did they do to celebrate? They poured enough resources to sink a major public company into the ECS and the Aquarius.

 

There was also a plan to make 8K versions of each of Intellivision's best-selling sports cartridges, with scrolling play areas and single player modes. There were huge numbers of Intellivsion owners that were big fans of the originals; maybe, just maybe, they'd pony up for the updated versions. The plan finally got the go-ahead in 1982, only to be cancelled due to turnover in marketing management shortly thereafter in favor of doing ECS versions, abandoning that market to ColecoVision too. Only one ECS sports game was ever produced, and that didn't make it to market until December 1984, eleven months after Mattel Electronics' demise.

 

So yeah, Mattel just may have missed an opportunity or two.

 

WJI

[Walter Ives]

On 6/26/2023 at 11:06 AM, decle said:

Mattel may have missed an opportunity to build their market

And yet, despite this gang of managers that couldn't shoot straight, Mattel somehow in the process succeeded in creating wonderful game console with a library of games enjoyed by millions and that mention of which evinces fond memories even today, forty-plus years later. The rank and file that accomplished that are justifiably proud of what they produced.

 

WJI

[Walter Ives]

On 6/26/2023 at 11:06 AM, decle said:

Mattel may have missed an opportunity to build their market

To be fair, many opportunities were seized. For example, precluded from working on video games, Chang's group and APh spent 1976 originating Mattel's handheld line. That was a huge success; you can still buy the handheld football game they developed in stores today. Still manufactured by Mattel Toys, no less.

 

Once management approved Rochlis' concept for the Intellivision, Chang managed to obtain sufficient control of its development to be able to manipulate matters to ensure that the specifications of the game console portion, that is to say the Master Component, were sufficient to support something resembling the game console he envisioned. He also ensured that resources were devoted to not only development the football cartridge, but to a whole line of sports cartridges in a similar vein.

 

The commitment to create games far more complicated that what could be played in the arcades gave rise to more than a few unique new game concepts and garnered an extremely loyal base of followers.

 

The Mattel library had games not only for Johnny, but also for Mom, Dad, Grandpa, Uncle Harry and for Dad and Jane to play together. More than one kid came home to find Mom playing Lock'n'Chase, AD&D or Royal Dealer—that didn't happen much with the VCS. There was even an unpublished game that Uncle Billy would have liked, but we don't talk about that one.

 

The Baseball game serendipitously turned out to be pure magic. Marketing recognized this and ran with it.

 

When Rochlis left in mid-1980 Denham, his replacement, immediately changed course from marketing a home entertainment system aimed at mature adults to marketing a video game system aimed primarily at young males.

 

Denham's George Plimpton ad campaign was extremely effective. Whatever you think of the ads themselves, you can't deny that they became an iconic part of the popular culture. You definitely can't call the campaign a missed opportunity.

Astrosmash, a byproduct arising out of a failed attempt to create an Asteroids clone, was unexpectedly popular, and marketing jumped all over that.

 

Mattel also created the M-Network line for the VCS, a bright star that in 1982 significantly propped up the company's bottom line. On the other hand, this particular opportunity took advantage of a mindset that would strongly contribute to the company's eventual doom. Mike Minkoff is famously on record as having recognized this, sardonically remarking on a play on "Atari" spelled backwards by saying, "That's errata, all right." Minkoff then went over to the dark side himself by accepting assignment as Director of Aquarius programming.

 

And we can't forget !!Supergraphics!!. When Mattel teased Intellivision III at Winter CES in January 1983, retailers immediately responded by not placing orders for Intellivision II so as to avoid being stuck with obsolete product. It was an absolute disaster. Marketing rode to the rescue by inventing !!Supergraphics!!. It told retailers that Intellivision III had been cancelled (a lie, but one which had to be very closely held) because the company had developed cartridge technology that could achieve the same result with the existing console. What was this great new cartridge technology? !!Memory!! If you had larger capacity game cartridges you could devote more memory to creating graphics. The following two versions of Basketball illustrate the better graphical impression you can make with just a little more memory. Once the one on the right came out, no one would even let his most annoying, stinky little brother go back and play the one on the left.

WJI

[Walter Ives]

On 6/26/2023 at 11:06 AM, decle said:

in the fall of 1980 in support of the nationwide launch of the console

I've heard tell about this supposed "nationwide launch," but it never happened. Who made that up?

 

The reality is that the Intellivision was gradually "rolled-out" to retailers as production limitations allowed. The roll-out was generally aimed more toward specific retailers than to geographical areas.

 

Remember that the Intellivision was originally announced to be introduced in time for the 1978 Christmas season and 7-8 game cartridges had been completed in time to support that introduction. The console kept being pushed back because GI was having trouble fabricating working chip sets. Mattel even got JCPenney to carry it in its 1979 Christmas catalog, with its nationwide reach.

 

The 1979 Fresno introduction was as small as it was as mostly because it made no sense to ramp up the staffing of Sylvania's production line until GI was able to reliably deliver operational parts. GI finally began to get its act together in October of 1979. By the end of November Sylvania had succeeded in producing over a thousand units and was making a few hundred per week. That was many fewer than was hoped for but enough to be able to cover multiple retailers in one particular small geographical region. The Fresno introduction we're familiar with was tailored to match that availability.

 

By mid-February 1980 the distractions of Winter CES and Toy Fair were over and the immediate needs of the Fresno area were being fully met, and Mattel began making shipments to a few enthusiastic retailers without regard their geographic location.

 

Mattel was still concerned that no one would buy the thing without a marketing push. By March there was enough inventory available to support a series of major roll-out splashes. Where to seed the market? Obviously in big population centers strategically scattered across the country, right? That was obvious to Mattel too, so it recruited a major retailer in each of three large cities. Each hosted a big introductory event in March, the first at Macy's in New York City, the next week at Marshall Field in Chicago and the week after at The Broadway in Los Angeles. Mattel sent a retail support team to each city in turn. These events did not preclude other retailers in other regions from receiving product.

 

For the rest of the year the factors controlling the roll-out were the rate at which GI could produce functional Master Component chip sets and the rate at which Sylvania could assemble operational consoles. The fact that manufacturing was done in the United States meant both that it was unnecessary to build up a nationwide inventory before beginning the roll-out, that the number of units being built could be adjusted to match the number actually being sold and the plug could be pulled on the whole effort if the product proved an expensive flop.

That was the launch.

 

The only nationwide thing that happened in the fall was the George Plimpton advertising push. Mattel had promised retailers television ad saturation on national networks and coverage in magazines with national circulation. This was scheduled for the fall because there was no point to advertising nationally until (a) nationwide distribution channels were stocked and, (b) since despite everything Mattel still had the mentality of a toy company, Christmas was near. With the Plimpton ads, Mattel delivered as promised.

 

WJI

[Walter Ives]

On 6/26/2023 at 11:06 AM, decle said:

in the fall of 1980 in support of the nationwide launch of the console

Since by the fall the Master Component was also available in Canada, does the use of the term "nationwide" here imply that by then Canada was already generally accepted as being a de facto territory of the United States?

 

But the Master Component also reached England in the fall, so maybe you should just characterize the launch as being international.

 

The point is that the launch was not the single step the lore suggests.

 

WJI

[Walter Ives]

On 6/26/2023 at 11:06 AM, decle said:

in the fall of 1980 in support of the nationwide launch of the console

As to the wisdom of doing a roll-out in the aforementioned manner, remember that Atari was stuck with 250,000 unsold VCS consoles after the end of 1978, its first full year and would have been in severe financial straits had they not been previously purchased by Warner Communications. Mattel's upper management had far too much experience and savvy to put their company into a similar position. [Insert appropriate emoji below.]

 

WJI

[Walter Ives]

On 6/26/2023 at 11:06 AM, decle said:

Well, the first thing to note is that according to the September 1982 issue of VGU any release dates originating from Mattel should be taken with a pinch of salt

That depends on from where in Mattel you get your numbers. The accounting department at Mattel had one of those big, air-conditioned room-filling computers that kept very precise track of shipments and returns made in the ordinary course of business and could print out accurate and detailed reports in any form you could describe to a COBOL programmer. These computers were used for such exacting purposes as generating licensor royalty reports and determining the company's profit and loss for each quarter within a few hours after its end. The operation was well-audited by the independent Big-Eight accounting firm of Price Waterhouse and its reports were quite reliable, no pinch of salt required.

 

The surviving count of 1979 cartridge shipments (400 Blackjack and Poker, 400 Armor Battle, 200 Backgammon, 100 Math Fun) is obviously incomplete. The common inference that those were the only cartridges offered in the 1979 "test market" is preposterous: no units would have been sold on the basis of such a lame library. Most likely Chandler issued a separate engineering purchase order to Sylvania for the initial batch of cartridges used in Fresno, which purchase was delivered directly to Chandler and accounted for as an engineering/marketing expense so the associated cartridges never entered the inventory system. At the scale at which Mattel usually operated, that would have been de minimus. Alternatively, marketing could have ordered the cartridges from inventory as promotional materials and doled them out to the participating retailers on a day-by-day basis as needed, thereby relieving the retailers of the risk associated with tying up their own money in inventory. [These are possibilities based on common practices of the time; I don't know what actually happened.] Product that marketing and sales reps took from inventory for focus groups or promotional use or that engineering took for its various nefarious purposes was not accounted for as shipments to customers and was broken out as a separate line item on internal reports.

 

WJI

[Walter Ives]

On 6/26/2023 at 11:06 AM, decle said:

It's really noticeable how game production ramps up in the second half of 1982 as ... third parties enter the fray.

Not everyone at Mattel was clueless. Mattel employees Goldberger, Durran and Dougherty became so frustrated with Mattel's refusal to create arcade-like games that they left to help found Imagic to take advantage of the opportunity to fill the gap. Unfortunately for them, Imagic released its first four games for the Intellivision the first week of November, 1982, just in time to experience the full effects of the video game crash. Imagic had a pending IPO that it was hoping to close early the next month. The wave broke right on top of the IPO; the IPO was cancelled and Imagic never recovered.

 

WJI

[Walter Ives]

On 6/26/2023 at 11:06 AM, decle said:

A further 70 hit the market over the next 15 months, more than four a month on average.  20 of these second wave titles were released in the final 3 months of 1983.  This is more games than were released in the whole of 1981 and nearly seven titles a month!

With that dramatic increase came absolute disaster. The "1983" video game crash actually started in late summer 1982, when so many companies began offering games for the 1982 holiday season that many of them could only land orders by offering heavy discounts. The public was alerted to the problem on the afternoon of December 8, 1982, when Warner Communications, parent of Atari, issued a profit warning during an investor conference call. The perceived value of Warner's stock plunged so precipitously that trading came to a halt because there were no ready investors willing to buy. Warner's stock lost a third of its value before enough bottom-feeders were attracted to allow trading to resume the next day. From there the problem snowballed so fast that game orders were cancelled or renegotiated, retailer returns skyrocketed and all cartridges sold in 1983 were sold at a loss to the manufacturer. Yup, that includes each and every one of those 70 titles to which you refer so excitedly above. In an observation joyously punctuated with an exclamation mark, no less! The Germans undoubtedly have a word for that glee you're expressing, something like Schadennutzungziehenfreude.

 

WJI

[Walter Ives]

On 6/26/2023 at 11:06 AM, decle said:

The first third party game was probably Donkey Kong released in September or October 1982.

Not probably, definitely. It was on the shelves of at least some stores by early September.

 

WJI

[Walter Ives]

On 6/26/2023 at 11:06 AM, decle said:

This seems to have been followed by Atlantis and Demon Attack in October.

I don't know about October, but definitely November. Imagic released a batch of four games more-or-less simultaneously: Atlantis, Demon Attack, Beauty and the Beast and Microsurgeon—I wouldn't be surprised if they all arrived in this country in the same shipment. Activision followed about a week later with Stampede and Pitfall. All six were in stores well before Thanksgiving.

 

WJI

[Walter Ives]

On 6/26/2023 at 11:11 PM, BSRSteve said:

One of these days I will dig around see if I can find one of the dates any where in the files.

This was posted elsewhere on the site:

On 6/10/2019 at 8:14 AM, mr_me said:

1939400	1980-08-25	Las Vegas Poker & Blackjack 
1085700	1980-09-04	Major League® Baseball 
983900	1981-10-15	Astrosmash 
980200	1980-08-27	NFL® Football 
972000	1980-08-25	Space Battle 
931100	1981-10-15	Space Armada 
837500	1981-12-22	Star Strike 
698000	1982-08-16	ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS® Cartridge 
571600	1980-09-04	Armor Battle 
565200	1980-10-03	Auto Racing 
539000	1982-07-09	Lock 'N' Chase® 
529200	1980-10-03	Sea Battle 
518100	1980-08-25	NBA® Basketball 
503400	1981-10-15	Triple Action 
475700	1981-10-21	Boxing 
467900	1982-04-19	Space Hawk 
427500	1980-12-10	U.S. Ski Team® Skiing 
383100	1981-07-31	PBA® Bowling 
378100	1981-10-15	Snafu 
364100	1980-11-05	PGA® Golf 
348200	1982-05-16	Night Stalker 
348200	1982-08 	TRON® Deadly Discs 
337700	1980-12-10	Tennis 
331200	1982-05-25	Frog Bog 
309900	1982-07-23	B-17 Bomber 
295600	1982-06-29	Space Spartans 
291000	1982-10-06	TRON® Maze-A-Tron 
284400	1980-09-04	NASL® Soccer 
268200	1982-05-06	Sub Hunt 
251000	1980-10-03	Horse Racing 
243800	1982-06-03	Utopia 
233400	1982-09-14	Bomb Squad 
147500	1980-11-05	The Electric Company® Word Fun 
142100	1980-10-16	ABPA® Backgammon 
134700	1980-10-16	The Electric Company® Math Fun 
120500	1980-09-17	Checkers 
106300	1980-10-03	Las Vegas Roulette 
96700	1982-10-28	Sharp Shot 
91500	1982-05-11	Reversi 
87700	1983		TRON® Solar Sailor 
85200	1982-12-06	Shark! Shark! 
82700	1983		Vectron 
54900	1982-08 	Royal Dealer 
??????  1980-10-03	NHL Hockey

While you're at it, is there any chance of you posting the November 23, 1983 memo on which it's based?

 

WJI

[Sinjinhawke]

2 hours ago, Walter Ives said:

Since by the fall the Master Component was also available in Canada, does the use of the term "nationwide" here imply that by then Canada was already generally accepted as being a de facto territory of the United States?

Never, not as long as I own a sharpened hockey stick.  Also you yanks are too religious and fanatical about your political parties.  Just stay down there where we can keep an eye on you.

[+fdr4prez]

4 hours ago, Walter Ives said:

There was even an unpublished game that Uncle Billy would have liked, but we don't talk about that one.

sure we do

[+Lathe26]

5 hours ago, Walter Ives said:

To preclude the public from seeing Intellivision system as a computer Rochlis expressly forbade the creation of "business oriented software" such as word processing or spreadsheet programs and "programming software" such as BASIC. (The BASIC program that was eventually offered wasn't authorized until after Rochlis left the company.) Instead, his program list included Conversational French, Physical Exercise, Nutrition, Astrology, Speed Reading and Home Budgeting, all of which we today recognize as killer aps.

Was the Home Budgeting you mention related to the Family Budgeting / Budget Program / Home Budget Program (the various names embedded in the code) that was written using KC BASIC?

[wolfy62]

11 hours ago, Sinjinhawke said:

Never, not as long as I own a sharpened hockey stick.  Also you yanks are too religious and fanatical about your political parties.  Just stay down there where we can keep an eye on you.

Apparently we're not fooling anyone in other parts of the world!

[+DZ-Jay]

On 7/6/2023 at 7:34 AM, Walter Ives said:

Not probably, definitely. It was on the shelves of at least some stores by early September.

 

WJI

 

Mr. Ives,

 

I find all your comments fascinating -- even those castigating my own opinions.  The information you have provided offers an interesting picture of how events transpired at the time, and an insightful view into the minds and motivations of those involved.  Far be it from me to reject any of these accounts as mere rumours, gossip -- or as has been suggested to me by at least one individual, "Internet trolling of this small and information-starved community."  There is far too much detail -- technical, historical, etc. -- for any of it to be less than accurate.

 

And yet ... without a clear understanding of your sources and their authority, it would not be possible for any of us to quote any of this information as factual and authoritative in order to correct (or complete) the historical record -- even though some of us would jump at the chance to do just that.

 

Personally, I do not doubt that you speak from a position of authority on any of these matters -- at least not any less than, say, Mr. Robinson (perhaps even more so).  So, in the interest of transparency and of building a coherent, complete, factual, insightful, and authoritative record of the history of the Mattel Intellivision, would you mind offering at least some insight into your sources?

 

It would not only be very much appreciated, but will allow this community to build upon the accounts you have provided, and resolve many disputed or ambiguous parts of the known record.

 

Thank you again for your comments, and I look forward to continuing reading them in the future.

 

    -dZ.

[Intymike]

On 7/6/2023 at 1:33 PM, Walter Ives said:

Since by the fall the Master Component was also available in Canada, does the use of the term "nationwide" here imply that by then Canada was already generally accepted as being a de facto territory of the United States?

 

But the Master Component also reached England in the fall, so maybe you should just characterize the launch as being international.

 

The point is that the launch was not the single step the lore suggests.

 

WJI

I always had the impression that the UK was the first PAL country to get the Intellivision. A bigger box, red Space Battle and a circuit board that looks a bit rushed.

[Walter Ives]

On 7/6/2023 at 4:29 AM, Walter Ives said:

And we can't forget !!Supergraphics!!.

I screwed up.

 

I shouldn't have used the exclamation points to highlight the word SuperGraphics. That highlighting is something I invented for that post—Mattel didn't write it that way it back in the day. I know this didn't confuse the regulars, but I don't want to mislead casual visitors to the site. Sorry. The word should be rendered as SuperGraphics.

 

A little more on SuperGraphics.

 

The early 4K cartridges devoted a little over 1.5K to storing graphics leaving 2.5K or less for game play. This often limited the graphical impact of the games. Witness Basketball vs. Basketball II, PGA Golf vs. Chip Shot Super Pro Golf, etc.

 

Mattel started allowing cartridges under development in 1982 to go to 8K and the ECS titles to go to even more. This made more memory available to store graphics, as a result of which the games began to look more graphically impressive. Exceedingly impressed with the graphics that had been designed for World Series Major League Baseball, marketing planned to call the ECS games "Super Games."

The poor sales of Intellivision during the Christmas selling season led to emergency management meetings. Among other things management had the inspiration of leveraging the term Super Games to create the term SuperGraphics. SuperGraphics was envisioned as something that was associated with the cartridge that made the console perform better. Marketing would have liked to call it "SuperGraphics Technology," but "SuperGraphics programming" was as far as legal would let them go.

 

Booth personnel at Winter CES in January and Toy Fair in February, who were not really gaming types, were trained that the 1983 line of game cartridges looked better than those of prior years because of SuperGraphics. They weren't told what that entailed beyond, "it’s a way of getting better graphics out of the system."

The term did not get much traction at that point, partly because the catalogs and other marketing material that had already been printed didn't use it and partly because the sales force was at a loss for words when it came to explaining it to store buyers.

 

When orders for the Intellivision II in the spring were underwhelming, buyers often gave the excuse that they would wait for Intellivision III.

 

In 1977-79 Mattel could simply keep announcing delays to the introduction of the initial Master Component. That wouldn't work for Intellivision III in 1983, and in the run-up to Summer CES Mattel had little choice but to announce its cancellation. Being forced to do that, Mattel really needed something compelling to keep the trade from concluding that it was withdrawing from the market, so it doubled down on SuperGraphics, telling the trade and the press that the capabilities of SuperGraphics made the Intellivision III unnecessary. Management may have served this Kool-Aid, but it didn't drink it, and allowed development of Intellivision III to proceed apace.

 

WJI

 

[This graphic does not belong here]

 

Edited July 8 by Walter Ives
Graphic