PlayCart, PlayTape, PlayComp and Cyber

[decle]

Hey all, I thought I'd share my latest project results.  This year, for my brother's birthday present I put together a PlayCart for him:

It's a PlayCable, on a cart!  Under the covers PlayCart is a 15 title multi-ROMcart with the PlayCable menu replica I created previously to select games.  The titles included are all Mattel games we played as children, including old favourites like Space Battle, BurgerTime, AD&D and Utopia.

 

While designing the PlayCart box art I wondered if the PlayCable styling might work for some of the PlayCable variants that Joe Jacobs, Dennis Clark and the other Jerrold developers created.  Let's see...

 

First we have PlayComp, the personal version of PlayCable that Joe and Dennis built.  PlayComp was a piece of PDP-11 software, and it was never actually a Technology Associates product.  But if it was, it seems appropriate that it would have been distributed on an 8" floppy disk:

Of course to use PlayComp you would need a copy of Dennis and Joe's CYBER development system. Originally this was a heavily modified PlayCable Adapter.  These are way too rare and expensive to start hacking about, so instead I've tidied up the replica board I built previously and created a box for it:

 

The CYBER cart mimics a modified PlayCable adapter with Dennis and Joe's debugger in firmware, 8K of RAM and a serial interface to talk to a modern PC over USB.

 

Finally, there's PlayTape, the PlayCable variant based on audio tapes that the Jerrold engineers used to share Intellivision games.  Again this required a hacked PlayCable adapter, with the library of games recorded on audio cassette:

 

Overall I think it makes a nice little fantasy product collection.

 

If you're interested in PlayCable, you might like to know that I've also posted an update to the technical description that adds information about the equipment used by the cable companies to broadcast the service.  You can get the down-low here:

 

 

[+the1hatman]

That's amazing! What did your brother say when he got it?

[+cmart604]

Good lord! That's so awesome! And in other news I have adopted Decle as my brother and my birthday is Dec 30th bro. 

[+JasonlikesINTV]

This is so cool!  Great present!

[+The Intellivision Gamer]

Very cool! 

[decle]

7 hours ago, the1hatman said:

That's amazing! What did your brother say when he got it?

It was a surprise and went down really well .  Originally, he had idly suggested the possibility of a PlayCable on a cart about 3-4 years ago when I was first doing PlayCable stuff.  In the intervening period I think he may have forgotten about it, so it was cool when I finally got round to implementing it.

 

7 hours ago, cmart604 said:

And in other news I have adopted Decle as my brother and my birthday is Dec 30th bro. 

Oh cool!  Half-a-sec, I've got my collection list here somewhere...  I'll ping it over to you, perhaps dungeon spillover could fill in one or two gaps at Christmas?

 

Hang on, this doesn't mean I have to start eating large amounts of maple syrup or anything, does it?

Edited September 20, 2023 by decle

[WaveRider1970]

5 hours ago, decle said:

It was a surprise and went down really well .  Originally, he had idly suggested the possibility of a PlayCable on a cart about 3-4 years ago when I was first doing PlayCable stuff.  In the intervening period I think he may have forgotten about it, so it was cool when I finally got round to implementing it.

 

Oh cool!  Half-a-sec, I've got my collection list here somewhere...  I'll ping it over to you, perhaps dungeon spillover could fill in one or two gaps at Christmas?

 

Hang on, this doesn't mean I have to start eating large amounts of maple syrup or anything, does it?

Yes you do because now, you have more people interested and ready to supply you Maple syrop anything!

[+cmart604]

9 hours ago, decle said:

It was a surprise and went down really well .  Originally, he had idly suggested the possibility of a PlayCable on a cart about 3-4 years ago when I was first doing PlayCable stuff.  In the intervening period I think he may have forgotten about it, so it was cool when I finally got round to implementing it.

 

Oh cool!  Half-a-sec, I've got my collection list here somewhere...  I'll ping it over to you, perhaps dungeon spillover could fill in one or two gaps at Christmas?

 

Hang on, this doesn't mean I have to start eating large amounts of maple syrup or anything, does it?

Maple syrup is optional, but becoming pretty obsessed with Hockey is mandatory. 😎

[colormesticky]

First, this is amazing and thoughtful. Second, your brother must be pretty special because I can't imagine putting this much work into a gift for mine.

[+Psycho Stormtrooper- Rog]

Really cool. Love the box art!

Limited run?

[Morpheus]

Decle!

This is simply priceless!!!👍👍👍👍

 

Hence, you have to make a small batch of PlayCarts and give one copy to each if us!🤠🤠🤠🤠

 

Thanks a lot in advance !🙏🙏

 

Ah, I almost forgot!

Don’t forget to publish your book about all the amazing Intellivision findings!!!

[+Lathe26]

I would love to get one!

[+The Intellivision Gamer]

1 hour ago, Lathe26 said:

I would love to get one!

Me as well 😎

[alevin16]

9 hours ago, The Intellivision Gamer said:

Me as well 😎

Me too!