Intellivision TutorVision found w/games

[Chuck Gill]

I bought a World Book TutorVision Saturday at a garage sale.

 

It was an odd color for an Intellivision and came with a couple games, so I bought it

 

After searching around the web I can only find one other person that mentions having one of these and nobody else that has any TutorVision games. This one came with two TutorVision games - Shapes in Space and Map Mazes. The TutorVision games do not work on my Intellivion II, but all of my Intellivision games seem to work fine in it. It even plays Donkey Kong that my Inty II won't. Here's a pic of the console. I can post pics of the carts and some screenshots if anyone is interested.

 

-Chuck

 

[Jess Ragan]

Bizarro 'till the end of tomorrow! I didn't know that World Book made video game systems as well as encyclopedias!

 

Chances are that this is a clone of the original Intellivision game system. I know Mattel licensed the the hardware to at least one other company, Sears. I wonder if there are any other Intellivision clones that I don't know about...?

 

JR

[ApolloBoy]

[Chuck Gill]

Here's a couple of pics of the games. They are just like Intellivision carts except for the color and the TutorVision logo on the back.

 

-Chuck

 

 

[Chuck Gill]

Chances are that this is a clone of the original Intellivision game system.  I know Mattel licensed the the hardware to at least one other company, Sears.  I wonder if there are any other Intellivision clones that I don't know about...?

 

JR

851230[/snapback]

 

Jess,

 

I'm pretty sure there was a Tandy/Radio Shack version too. The World Book one seems to have a slightly modified Intellivision operating system. I sure can't get the TutorVision games to work in my Intellivision, but the TutorVision console is compatible with Intellivision games.

 

-Chuck

Edited May 8, 2005 by Chuck Gill

[MegaManFan]

I have a feeling Chuck you've got a "holy grail" there among INTV collectors, as I thought I knew all the obscure variants and even THAT one is new to me. Color me jealous!

[snorlaxnut]

Here is a good page about the Tutorvision:

 

http://www.tripoint.org/tutor/tutor.html

 

Can you post any screenshots of the games Chuck?

[SteveW]

I've heard of that one before. One was found in the late '90s by a guy thrift store shopping in Chicago. It turns out that it was a prototype machine done for World Book Encyclopedia. The EXEC has been modified to squeeze more text onto the screen, among other things. The deal between INTV and World Book never went through, though. So that console is probably a promotional type thing. That thing's got to be really, really valuable.

Edited May 8, 2005 by SteveW

[Seob]

Nice find. I think why this unit play's intv games and your intvII doesn't is because , the intvII had somekind of lockout chip to prevent coleco produced intv games to be played on the intv.

Here's a article about that:classicgaming

Here's a little text of the site:

"The Intellivision II was designed for a few reasons: to lower the production cost, make repairs easier (for example, it replaced the hard-wired controllers with removable ones), make expansion easier (for the upcoming 2600 adapter and other accessories), and to prevent Coleco's Intellivision games from working on the system. Yes, Mattel actually put in a subroutine to prevent the Intellivision II from playing its competitor's games. This subroutine also prevented one of Mattel's own games from working as well. When this was discovered, Mattel claimed it was the fault of the competitors' software. This change also led to a slight timing error in some games with sound effects. Competitors soon found a way to bypass this subroutine, to get their future games to work. "

[intvgene]

Very Very nice find!

 

I hope that you will allow the carts to be dumped so that they can be shared among the community. You have a very unique find there.

[Chuck Gill]

Thanks everyone. I thought it was a good find. I had read Ted Brummer's page, it was about the only website that had much info on the TutorVision. I'm sure more info will come to light.

 

Here are a some screenshots from the title screens. I wish I had a better camera, but here's what I could get.

 

-Chuck

 

 

 

[oesii]

Congrats on a unique find. Even if there are a few more of these out there, you just don't hear about them everyday

[Chuck Gill]

Very Very nice find! 

 

I hope that you will allow the carts to be dumped so that they can be shared among the community.  You have a very unique find there.

851493[/snapback]

 

intvgene,

 

I don't mind dumping them at all.

 

I have the means to dump Atari 2600 carts using a modded 7800. Is there a similar system fo the INTY? I also have an eprom burner I could use if the chip pinouts were compatible. Anyone know the pinout?

 

-Chuck

 

 

[chrisbid]

i would write the blue sky rangers about this. they would probably want the roms dumped for their own records

[3vi1]

Nice find. I think why this unit play's intv games and your intvII doesn't is because , the intvII had somekind of lockout chip to prevent coleco produced intv games to be played on the intv.

Here's a article about that:classicgaming

Here's a little text of the site:

"The Intellivision II was designed for a few reasons: to lower the production cost, make repairs easier (for example, it replaced the hard-wired controllers with removable ones), make expansion easier (for the upcoming 2600 adapter and other accessories), and to prevent Coleco's Intellivision games from working on the system. Yes, Mattel actually put in a subroutine to prevent the Intellivision II from playing its competitor's games. This subroutine also prevented one of Mattel's own games from working as well. When this was discovered, Mattel claimed it was the fault of the competitors' software. This change also led to a slight timing error in some games with sound effects. Competitors soon found a way to bypass this subroutine, to get their future games to work. "

851486[/snapback]

 

The reason the games don't work on an IntyII is that they don't have a valid year stored in the memory location used by Mattel's generic title screen routine, which is understandable since the Tutorvision or the games appear to use a custom title screen with no dates. That's how Mattel shut out Coleco too..

 

I read about it on the Blue Sky Rangers site, I think, long ago. It was even a hush-hush thing around Mattel, as they had to let some developers (like those making Burgertime) in on the secret to getting games working (i.e. put a valid date in those memory locations, even if you don't display the generic title screen).

Edited May 8, 2005 by 3vi1

[mdoerty]

Great find:!: :!:

 

It is interesting that the other Tutorvision talked about on the net was also found in Chcago. If I recall correctly, that is/was where World Book had/has its headquarters.

 

By the way, the BSRs are not the only persons who might want to get ahold of that unit for analysis. And from what I have heard, they have all the software stored (somewhere) in disk format. But this marks the first time a "regular" collector has gone public with postings regarding the Tutorvision games.

 

Congrats again.

 

Mike from Morgantown

[Brad2600]

Very nice find, Chuck!

 

It's always fun to find things like this at times.

[BassGuitari]

Chances are that this is a clone of the original Intellivision game system.  I know Mattel licensed the the hardware to at least one other company, Sears.  I wonder if there are any other Intellivision clones that I don't know about...?

 

JR

851230[/snapback]

 

There's a few. I personally own a Sylvania Intellivision by Sylvania/GTE, and there is the Tandyvision [One] by Radio Shack.

 

After Mattel discontinued Intellivision, the rights to the system and software (including unreleased programs) were bought by a group that went by name of INTV. INTV released a few obscure consoles (all clones of the original Intellivision, I believe) like the Intellivision System III and the Super Pro System. At least, I'm pretty sure that's how it went down, though I'm not positive (haven't read up on it in a while)...anyone feel free to correct.

[yuppicide]

Great find.

[Chuck Gill]

This is pure speculation, but it sounds reasonable. (to my twisted mind)

 

I thought of this because the console has an extremely short power cord, and the two consoles known to exist were found around Chicago.

 

The power cord is less than a foot long. The perfect length to mount the unit in some sort of demonstration cabinet. The headquarters for World Book was in Chicago. During the years surrounding the copyright date on the games, 1989, the Consumer Electronics Show was also held in Chicago. Perhaps they made a few of these prototypes to demo at CES and when the show was over some World Book employees gained custody of them. The one I bought came with Golf and Sub Hunt as well as the TutorVision games, so it was known to the previous owner that it functioned as an Intellivion.

 

One other oddity, whenever you turn it on you are greeted with a bright colored solid screen. You have to press the reset switch to get the inserted game to start.

 

Thanks for all the congrats, my wife's find of a box of 5200 protos a few years was our previous best. I'm getting more exited about this as time passes. I had no idea how unique this was until I started searching for info.

 

-Chuck

[ECGXChuck]

Whoa, another Tutorvision! And games this time! Extremely nice find!

 

If you're ever looking to sell it, send me an e-mail and name your price. 8*)

[SteveW]

INTV released a few obscure consoles (all clones of the original Intellivision, I believe) like the Intellivision System III and the Super Pro System.

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The Intellivision III and the Super Pro System were the same machine. It was just a new version of the first generation Intellivision. The Intellivision III is not to be confused with the console that Mattel was designing to replace the Intellivision system. That one was cancelled during the market decline in 1983.

[Chuck Gill]

Found more TutorVision history in the July 2003 Intellivision Lives newsletter.

It's about halfway down the webpage, Tutor Tiger is so the shiznit!

 

July 2003 Intellivision Newsletter

 

-Chuck

[elliott]

"It had a lot of American events," says Dave, "like 'Washington becomes president,' and 'Declaration of Independence signed.' After we delivered it, the guys at World Book said that they'd also need a version they could sell in Canada.

 

"The next day I called to tell them I was modeming them a Canadian version. They were like 'Wow! How did you do that so fast?' Then they downloaded the game and found that all the events were now 'Washington becomes president, eh?' and 'Declaration of Independence signed, eh?' Everything was exactly the same except with 'eh?' appended."

 

A legitimate Canadian version took a little longer to produce.

 

 

That's kind of funny.

[JB]

"It had a lot of American events," says Dave, "like 'Washington becomes president,' and 'Declaration of Independence signed.' After we delivered it, the guys at World Book said that they'd also need a version they could sell in Canada.

 

"The next day I called to tell them I was modeming them a Canadian version. They were like 'Wow! How did you do that so fast?' Then they downloaded the game and found that all the events were now 'Washington becomes president, eh?' and 'Declaration of Independence signed, eh?' Everything was exactly the same except with 'eh?' appended."

 

A legitimate Canadian version took a little longer to produce.

 

 

That's kind of funny.

852494[/snapback]

HAHAHAHAHAHA!