Program: Kevin Miller Art: Jerrol Richardson Production: APh Technological Consulting Licence: American Backgammon Players Association USA launch: 10/16/1980 (No. 13)
Beating Intellivision at backgammon is a lot of fun. But it's definitely not child's play.
The computer knows all the tricks -- and it calculates all the odds before it moves.
Can you find a flaw in its strategy? Can you give it pieces to gobble up freely, then trap it in the back game? Or will you just cross your fingers, press the button and roll the dice?
Perfect your own backgammon skills with this modem version of one of the world's oldest games.
ABPA Backgammon was one of the original four games introduced with Intellivision when it was test marketed in 1979.
The program code was recycled in the Triple Challenge cartridge released by INTV Corp..
Program: Tom Loughry Art: Jerrol Richardson Production: APh Technological Consulting Licence: Based on the RPG by TSR Hobbies, Inc. Working title: Adventure USA launch: 08/16/1982 (No. 35) Brazil launch: 10/1984
AKA 'AD&D Cloudy Mountain', 'Crown of Kings'
Take the wrong turn and you'll soon be staring at the biggest, meanest and most clever dragon you've ever imagined.
You start out in a maze. But, this is no ordinary maze. It's revealed to you only a few feet at a time as you enter
each new uncharted corridor. The maze scrolls: up, down, right and left. You don't know when it's going to take a
turn -- for the worse. That dangerous dragon could be between you and the treasure that you must find. Along your way
you'll find a variety of objects to help you avoid the dragon. Based on the popular role-playing board game, this
video version will provide you with many hours of enjoyment.
Because of its complexity, this was the first cartridge to go over the 4K size limit; it was allocated a whopping 6K.
Originally released as ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS Cartridge, CLOUDY MOUNTAIN was added to the name later
when ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS TREASURE OF TARMIN Cartridge was announced.
The all-capitalization and the word "cartridge" are actually part of the title, as required by the contract with TSR Hobbies, owners of the Dungeons & Dragons trademark.
Find a slow monster (in the first levels they all are, but it works best with blobs) and position yourself below
it in a long vertical passage. Scroll down until the monster is right at the top of the screen and quickly come
back up. The monster will be duplicated. With blobs, you can get up to three copies of the original. It is
necessary to practice a little.
ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS TREASURE OF TARMIN CARTRIDGE
Program: Tom Loughry Art: Jerrol Richardson Production: APh Technological Consulting Licence: TSR Hobbies, Inc. Working title: Minotaur USA launch: 1983
AKA 'Dungeons & Dragons II'
You've found the secret map to the underground lair of the dreaded Minotaur. You can go in, but you'll never come
out unless you slay the Minotaur and claim his Tarmin treasure. As you make your way through the hallways and chambers,
monsters wield their conventional or spiritual weapons. You must gather the proper defenses along the way. But use them
sparingly, the Minotaur looms closer!
ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS Treasure Of Tarmin Cartridge was in production at APh since 1981. At the
beginning, APh hoped to do two versions: an Intellivision cartridge, and an enhanced version for the original
Keyboard Component, featuring synchronized voices.
The Keyboard version was never started.
As with ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS Cloudy Mountain, the
capitalization and inclusion of the word "Cartridge" are contractually part of the title of ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS
TREASURE OF TARMIN Cartridge at TSR's insistence.
TSR insisted on so much legal lingo on the title screen, there was no room for the title Treasure of Tarmin.
The title screen identifies the game simply as ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS Cartridge, same as on the ADVANCED DUNGEONS
& DRAGONS CLOUDY MOUNTAIN Cartridge title screen.
Program: Chris Kingsley Art: Jerrol Richardson Production: APh Technological Consulting Working title: Tanks-A-Lot USA launch: 09/04/1980 (No. 7)
Dust off your field glasses and scan the horizon for enemy tanks. There's one -- grinding its way out of the woods!
You see each other at the same time. Both turrets swing toward their targets. Who will fire a split second sooner?
And who will be reduced to a pile of rubble?
When you've beaten your opponent, move on to a new battlefield. There are literally hundreds of new terrains to conquer!
War may be nerve-wracking, but this is pure fun!
An M Network version of the game, called Armor Ambush, was released for the Atari 2600.
The game actually made it pretty far through the production phase with the title "Tanks-A-Lot" before some
Mattel bigwigs pronounced the name "stupid" and made APh change it. David Rolfe (Major League Baseball) avers, however,
that the name wasn't APh's idea - it had been attached to the original concept art that came from Mattel.
Design and Programming: John Sohl Art: Jerrol Richardson Working titles: Meteor! + Avalanche, Rocks USA launch: 10/15/1981 (No. 23) Brazil launch: 11/1983
Spin. Blast. And drop into hyperspace to avoid a killer asteroid shower. Power on. Attack computer engaged. Fire a quick burst at the alien antagonists. Got 'em!
Now take a deep breath and relax. But only for a fraction of a second, because more trouble is on the way.
You're all alone in a hostile universe of tumbling asteroids and homicidal aliens. You've got the wits and the speed, but you're awesomely outnumbered.
With a little practice, you may survive...
Astrosmash started out as a clone of the arcade game Asteroids, called Meteor!. The game wasn't very
big, so John Sohl used the extra room in the cartridge to come up with a variation called Avalanche using the same
graphics and sound effects. At the last minute, afraid of a lawsuit from Atari, the Mattel lawyers killed the
Asteroids-like Meteor!. Rather than risk introducing bugs by deleting code, John simply put a branch around the
opening-screen menu straight into the Avalanche! variation, which was released under the name Astrosmash.
John admits he wasn't sorry to see Meteor! go -- he hadn't been happy with the game, much preferring the
Avalanche! version.
Astrosmash quickly became one of the most popular Intellivision games thanks in large part to a very simple
technique John programmed in: like most arcade-style games, Astrosmash gets faster and harder at higher levels, but
unlike most arcade-style games, as you start to lose lives, the game gets easier again. The game then is never too
easy or too hard, making it extremely addictive and making it possible for even a beginner to play a single game for
over an hour.
The popularity of Astrosmash was such that late in 1982 it replaced
Las Vegas Poker & Blackjack as the cartridge
shipped with the Intellivision Master Component. By June 1983, the last date for which figures are available, 984,900
copies of Astrosmash had been shipped, making it the most widely distributed cartridge by any of the Blue Sky Rangers
(trailing only the APh produced Las Vegas Poker & Blackjack and Major League Baseball cartridges).
John Sohl was rewarded with a plaque from Mattel and a better offer from
Activision, which he took (after finishing B-17 Bomber).
An Aquarius version was also released, as was an M Network version called Astroblast for the Atari 2600.
A musical adaptation, Melody Blaster, was released for the
ECS Music Synthesizer.
Late in 1981, Mattel held a series of local "Intellivision VideoChallenge Tournaments" in Washington DC, Baltimore,
New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and Los Angeles benefiting Variety Clubs International. Contestants competed for prizes
(Grand Prize: an RCA projection TV) playing Major League Baseball,
Auto Racing and U.S. Ski Team Skiing.
The publicity was so good, that Marketing took the idea national in 1982 with the "$100,000 Astrosmash Shootoff."
(presented by the press and in stickers
in the box of the game itself).
From March until August 11, Intellivision owners were invited to send photographs of their TV screens showing
their high score in Astrosmash. Just for entering, they would receive an
Astrosmash Shootoff patch, and it was
announced that 16 regional high-scorers would be flown to Houston to compete for eight cash prizes.
Over 13,000 people entered, and quickly it became obvious there was a problem. First, because of the scoring
bug, many of the pictures showed scores made up of seemingly random ASCII characters. John Sohl had to review the
photos and, with an ASCII table, decipher the actual scores. Second, it turned out that no one in Marketing realized
that Astrosmash, like many Intellivision games, can be played at slower speeds simply by starting the game by pressing
1, 2, or 3 instead of the disc. (This is a feature programmed into the EXEC.) There was no way of telling who had
legitimately obtained a high score and who had played at the easiest speed. There were reports of competitors who
literally played for days at the slowest speed, pausing the game (pressing 1 and 9 simultaneously, also programmed into
the EXEC) to sleep or go to school.
Unable to decide who was legit and who wasn't, instead of the announced 16, Mattel Electronics wound up
flying 73 entrants to Houston for an all-expense paid weekend, September 11 & 12, 1982. There, the entrants competed
in 1 hour of timed play.
18-year-old Manuel Rodriguez of Stockton, California won the US$25,000 top prize with a
score of 835,180.
The game adjusts to the player. Each lost asteroid means lost points. So, if you are at an advanced level and
your points decrease, you will return to a slower level.
The unused Asteroids-version code was recycled in the game Space Hawk.
In Brazil, some cartridges manufactured by Digiplay bring the
time-limited version used in the "$100,000 Astrosmash Shootoff!" and on the TV POWW program.
It is not known why this version was released in Brazil.
One of these cartridges
displays the manufacturing information "8447" on the chip (47th week of 1984, which represents the week between
11/19 and 11/25/1984, 10 months after Mattel Electronics' bankruptcy).
John simply branched around the code for the Asteroids version of the game; the code is still in the cartridge.
Verrrry rarely, when there's a glitch hitting RESET, the Asteroids version will show up on screen. (This would
be a dandy Easter egg if it were intentional or reliably repeatable, but it's neither.)
An obscene version, called...well, we can't tell you what it was called, was developed for in-house use only.
There's no check for the score overflowing -- beyond 9,999,999 points, the scoring routine starts displaying
negative numbers, letters, and other ASCII characters. (Ironically, the catalog description promises "Unlimited
scoring potential.")
Program: Pat Ransil Sound: Dave Durran USA launch: 1982 Brazil launch: 12/1984
Alien spacecraft bombard the underwater city of Atlantis. Centuries of progress seem doomed. You man the
defense installations. Night falls. Blinded by rage, you scramble into Atlantis' last defensive spaceship and
fly into enemy-filled skies. How long can one ship survive against so many?
This is the Intellivision version of Imagic's previously released Atari 2600 Atlantis cartridge. Imagic later released a version for Odyssey II.
Program: Larry Zwick Art: Jerrol Richardson Production: APh Technological Consulting USA launch: 10/03/1980 (No. 9) Brazil launch: 09/1984
Snap on your crash helmet, fire up your Formula I, and slam it into first. Power through the first turn
and you're off on a Grand Prix class racing circuit.
The faster you push your race car the more alert you have to be. You may slide off the track and into a maze
of grass and trees. You may find yourself skidding into a pond. Or you may find yourself halfway through a
hairpin turn before you know it.
There were two versions of Auto Racing released due to a running change made during manufacturing. In
the original version, steering is realistic -- it is oriented to the car. For example, if your car is moving
downward on-screen and you want to turn right (that is, toward the left of the screen), you press right on
the hand controller disc. Mattel received complaints about how difficult this was (even the instruction book
warns that it takes some getting used to), so a running change was ordered to make steering intuitive -- to
orient it to the screen. In the above example, to turn toward the left of the screen, you press left on the
hand controller disc, even though the car is actually making a right.
Both versions had their advocates -- intuitive steering being easier to play; realistic steering being a
better simulation of driving. One programmer likened it to the difference between driving an automatic and
driving a stick. Unfortunately, there's no way to tell which version is which from the package; you either
have to check the instruction book, or just plug in the cartridge and play.
The five courses are mapped on a globe; you can drive off one, through the trees, and onto another, or
onto the hidden drag strip. Drive off at the right place and the trees are spaced so that, without touching
the hand controller, your car will circle the globe forever (well, until the screen-saver times out).
Design: John Sohl and Bob Del Principe, Bill Fisher and Steve Roney Program: John Sohl, Bill Fisher, Stephen Roney Graphic: Kai Tran, Peggi Decarli (map of Europe) Sound: Bill Fisher Voice of pilot: Phil Proctor Voice of bombardie: Phil Austin Working titles: Air Traffic Controller, Flying Fortress USA launch: 07/23/1982
World War II action at 12 o'clock high as you fly a bombing mission deep inside Fortress Europe. You select your
targets and switch from cockpit view to bomb bay view. the closer you get to your target the more flak and enemy planes
you encounter. "Target in sight," you switch back to the bomb bay view "Bombs Away." Three voices, three different
screens.
Despite published reports that this game came out of a brainstorming picnic in the park (TV Guide, June
19, 1982), John Sohl remembers it differently: The initial Intellivoice
brainstorming session was held mid-1981 on the third floor of the main Mattel Toys building -- a floor with armed
guards to keep spies from finding out Mattel's biggest secrets, such as what Barbie would be wearing next year. This session yielded three
ideas that went into production:
Space Spartans, Bomb Squad
and Air Traffic Controller. John, fresh from
Astrosmash, began work on Air Traffic Controller, although he wasn't enthusiastic about the concept:
bringing a plane in for a landing based on feedback from the control tower. He was leaning toward using
the alternate scenario developed for the game -- an oil tanker negotiating a foggy docking with feedback
from the Harbor Master -- when Bob Del Principe, a graphics artist, came into his cubicle and suggested
making the airplane a bomber on a mission over Europe. Now blowing stuff up was a concept John could get
enthusiastic about! Within an hour, Air Traffic Controller turned into Flying Fortress.
By early 1982, John, with graphics artist Kai Tran, had developed an impressive bombing run
simulation with revolutionary Intellivision effects, but the cartridge was oversize and the gameplay
was still to be defined. Steve Roney and Bill Fisher, just off Space Spartans, were assigned to the
game, now called B-17 Bomber, full-time. John, Steve and Bill worked up to the last minute -- literally --
to finish it. Unfortunately, most of John's fancy features (such as a turret gunner who could rotate
360 degrees) had to be cut in favor of gameplay. On April 23, 1982, two months overdue, on the day
the program absolutely had to be shipped to the ROM factory in Arizona, programming frantically
continued. (John recalls: "During the final week, and particularly the final day, I got the impression
that everyone [in the department] was adding code or graphics to the game.") With less than an hour to
go, they pronounced it finished (or, more accurately, "close enough"). An unsuspecting visitor to Mattel
that day was Shanghaied, stuck in a cubicle and asked to try out the game. That 30 minutes of play was
the extent of the game testing. The code was shipped, and everyone kept their fingers crossed that the
bugs wouldn't be too bad. Luckily, they weren't, and B-17 Bomber was released to strong reviews.
The gauges screen was not intended to be in the game. It was a debugging tool, used by the programmers to
check on the value of certain variables during the game. John liked it so much it became part of the finished
product. But since this screen was never intended to be seen by the public, it wasn't coded to check for values
overflowing, resulting in non-numeric characters showing up on the counters.
Early in the development of the game, John and Kai, just for fun, used Atari logos to mark targets on the map
of Europe. No one noticed this when the marketing department displayed the unfinished game at the January 1982
Consumer Electronics Show. No one, that is, except the Atari legal team, who swooped into the Mattel booth and
forced them to stop demonstrating the game.
One of the characters in the game has a pronounced Southern accent. A few customers, hearing the drawl
"Buheee-Sevunteen Baaahmmmer" on the title screen, sent the cartridge back as defective. (The character,
described in Joey Silvian's script as: "Southern accent, laid back, slow drawl even under fire, talks like
sittin' in a cotton field on a sunny day watchin' the bees buzz," was voiced by Phil Austin, a member of
The Firesign Theatre comedy group).
B-17 Bomber was not included when foreign versions of the Intellivoice games were recorded. In a rare show
of good taste, Marketing decided that a game in which the goal is to drop bombs on France, Germany and Italy
would be inappropriate for the European market.
At least one programmer was strongly opposed to Mattel releasing the game at all. In the main hallway of
the programming department one day, numerous copies of a flyer appeared "announcing" the "logical follow-up" to
B-17 Bomber: a Viet Nam game called Napalm the Babies. The flyer described how well Intellivision graphics could
render burning flesh and how realistically Intellivoice could reproduce children's screams. The author of the
flyer was, and remains, anonymous.
If your altitude is high enough, and you're hit with enough enemy fire, you can rack up so much damage
before you hit the ground that you'll roll over the counter. Voilá! Instant repair!
Dropping a bomb to the far left of the screen from just the right altitude will crash the game.
Flying into flak features some great perspective animation; the rear view, however, doesn't look quite right.
They ran out of time to debug it. By the way, they also ran out of room for a flak graphics picture. Instead,
the program grabs some of the Executive ROM program code and graphically displays it. This random jumble of
bits passes as flak.
When the game starts, the bomber faces east. When you return from a mission, the bomber faces west. When you
start the second mission, the bomber is still facing west, so you can easily end up halfway to Bermuda, trying
to figure out how the English Channel got so wide and where the German fighters are.
Design and Programming: David Rolfe Production: Cheshire Engineering USA launch: 1983 Brazil launch: 11/1984
An impenetrable shield of light, 99 sectors deep, is encompassing the planet. You, alone, must cruise from beam
to beam, casting lariats of laser bolts into white saucers, red zig bombs, yellow chirpers and more! The quest:
to penetrate the shield and restore space exploration to the planet. You have the skill! You have the daring!
You are Beamrider!
Beamrider was an original Intellivision game programmed at Cheshire Engineering under contract to Activision.
Inspiration for the game came to David Rolfe one day as he was leaning back in his chair staring at the ceiling.
Suddenly, the receding grid of acoustical tiles became an outer space playing field.
Activision later released versions of Beamrider for Atari 2600, Atari 5200 and ColecoVision.
The Activision instruction booklets included playing tips signed by the programmer. David Rolfe wasn't sure
he wanted his signature in the hands of hundreds of thousands of video game players, so he had another
programmer sign his name in the Beamrider booklet.
Video Review magazine named Beamrider "Best Cartridge Game of the Year" in its April 1984 issue. It quoted
its earlier review (12/83) by Ken Uston: "Beamrider is a space shoot-out - but not your ordinary space
shoot-out....The torpedoes give such an authentic 3D feeling that they're a joy to launch just to watch them
progress into space. The Gargon explosion is noisy, colorful and fun just to observe. It takes a while to get
hooked on Beamrider, but the addiction will eventually set in among space shooters. Beamrider has found a niche."
Players who sent a photo to Activision showing a score over 60,000 on level 20 or above received an
"Activision Beamriders" emblem.
Design and Programming: Wendell Brown Sound: Dave Durran USA launch: 1982
That big bully's got the girl. It's you to the rescue. Climb the building, floor by floor. But watch out! Our
fearsome foe is angrily tossing boulders. Dodge them. Or squash them to score points. The higher you go, the
harder the going gets. Best time to the top wins the game.
This was an original game for Intellivision.
EXPERT CLUB PERFORMANCE STANDARD: 8 buildings, 25,000 points.
Get to the top of the building and, while the Horrible Hank is falling, press 3 on the right control to
see the letters "WB" in the building (programmer's initials Wendell Brown).
Design and Programming: Stephen Willey USA launch: 1983
Blockade Runner is a great visual concept in video games - play by yourself or team with a friend to bring home
to earth four ships loaded with vital supplies. Enemy aliens have blockaded your route, so you must flash through
a mine-filled asteroid belt to avoid destruction. You steer and shoot from your ship's nose-cone command post as
the universe rushes past your eyes!
This game was also released for ColecoVision. Advertised versions for Atari and Commodore 64 were not released.
Design and Programming: Steve Ettinger Graphic: Connie Goldman Sound: David Warhol Art: Steve Huston Production: Realtime Associates USA launch: 1988
ALL RIGHT YOU CREEPS -- this is the one you've been waitin' for -- BODY SLAM!!! -- the roughest, fastest,
wiiiiiildest game ever! Climb in the ring with one of the toughest, craziest ANIMALS in the WHOLE WORLD --
like JACK HAMMER, BARON VON THUD, and DR. PAIN!!! They look pretty funny, huh? Well, ha ha ha -- they want to
TEAR YOUR LAUGHIN' HEAD OFF! Whatsa matter -- AM I SCARING YOU???!!! C'mon -- you can learn the moves: THE HEAD
BUTT (OOOOO!!!) -- THE BAZOOKA PUNCH (BOOM!!!) -- THE SPIN HEAVE (HEEEEEE'S OUTTA HERE!!!!) -- Anything Goes!!!!!
ARGHH!!! Pin Your Opponent in a Zany Free-For-All Match!
OOOFF!!! Pick 'im Up! Spin 'im! Toss 'im Outta the Ring! Chase 'im Through the Blood-Thirsty Crowd!
GLURK!!! 12 Tough, Bizarre Characters to Become or to Battle!
UNNHH!!! 26 Different Moves to Master, from the defensive POSSUM ROLL to the devastating POWER KICK!
YIPES!!! Play One-On-One or Tag Team!
AACKK!!! 6 Skill Levels for Constant Challenge!
UUULP!!! Battle a Friend or a Merciless Computer Controlled Opponent!
See youse in the ring, IF YOU GOT THE GUTS!
This was a game where Steve Ettinger and Dave Warhol were able to go crazy -- no idea was too wild. They were
helped in that the deadline was extremely tight, necessitating many all-night design and programming marathons.
They later admitted that many of the wackier names and moves were the result of sleep deprivation.
To display the credits, press 0 (zero) on either hand controller while the title screen is displayed.
Press 23 (two and three simultaneously) on the left hand controller, 26 on the right and press reset to see programmer Steve Ettinger's message to his family
INTV President Terry Valeski insisted on lots of hype and excitement in the catalog descriptions; copywriter
Keith Robinson (TRON Solar Sailer) worked to deliver it. Ray Kaestner made fun of this at one point, telling
Keith there was a typo in the Diner description: "There's a sentence here that doesn't end with an exclamation
point." Keith was able to make fun of it himself with his catalog description for Body Slam --
it contains 58 exclamation points.
Design and Programming: Gene Smith, Shatao Lin Graphic: Kai Tran Sound: Russ Lieblich Voice of Frank: Phil Proctor Voice of Boris: Peter Bergman Working titles: Juggernaut, Voice Bomb USA launch: 1982
It's a race against time as you attempt to disarm the terrorist bomb before it destroys the city! The screen
shows the bomb circuitry as voices heighten the tension. "Wrong part...they'll never do it in time...one minute
till blast." Hurry, other lives besides your own hang in the balance.
French, Italian and German translations of the dialog were recorded but never used.
The working title Juggernaut came from the 1974 Richard Harris movie of the same name that was used for inspiration.
The voices of Frank and Boris were provided by Phil Proctor and Peter Bergman, two members of The Firesign
Theatre, the popular comedy group responsible for 22 best-selling record albums. Phil Proctor and a third
member of the group, Phil Austin, are heard in the game B-17 Bomber.
INTV Corp. unloaded the leftover inventory of Bomb Squad cartridges to a distributor in Mexico, even
though the Intellivoice was never sold in that country.
Without an Intellivoice, the game is virtually unplayable.
Depending on the level (Level 3 is the worst), you cannot take a part, with pliers, to extreme ends of the
circuit board when the fast (top action) key is pressed. Once the key is released, you can. It is most
noticeable when you release a part and you need to pick one up at the top level.
If the wrong part is cut, Frank will say, "wrong part: resolder!" and there is a sound associated with it.
If Boris is talking when this happens, his voice overrides Frank's. Frank won't say "wrong part: resolder,"
but the associated sound still occurs.
When you have correctly soldered a part, it will not move like the others so that you know what you have
replaced. However, if you solder that piece again, it will start moving.
Program: Tom Loughry Art: Jerrol Richardson Production: APh Technological Consulting USA launch: 10/21/1981 (No. 22) Brazil launch: 1984
Slip into the powerfully muscled body of the fighter of your choice. Maybe you'll go for a power slugger. Or an
agile defender. Or a completely unpredictable fighter.
There's the bell! You're playing at championship speed, so the action is lightning fast. Feint, duck, block, then
move in for a quick combination.
Remember that your fighter is using up precious energy. And each punch he takes has its toll. So use your brains
as well as your brawn -- and keep your warrior in shape to go 15 rounds.
Boxing was one of the games to be included on the Go For The Gold album cartridge.
Program, Graphic, Sound and Music: Dennis Clark and Joe Jacobs Title screen graphics: Daisy Nguyen Project coordination: Dave Warhol and Andy Sells Licence: Based on the Data East arcade game Production: Technology Associates USA launch: 1983 Brazil launch: 12/1984
The wackiest thing to happen to driving since rush hour! You're racing down a highway, but there's a traffic
jam up ahead. You can bump the cars out of the way, or jump them to score points. But slow drivers aren't the
only hazards on the road! You must jump over water, and debris dropped in your path by dumptrucks. And beware
of the reckless driver! Get out of enough jams and you can stop at the gas station for a fill-up.
THE STORY ACCORDING TO THE BLUE SKY RANGERS:
One day, Mattel Electronics was contacted by a couple of guys from New Jersey, Joe Jacobs and Dennis Clark, with
startling information: they had hooked up a PlayCable unit to a
personal computer and made their own Intellivision development system. They demonstrated that they had figured out how to
program Intellivision games quite well, and they wanted to offer their services to Mattel before going to some
other company. Ah, blackmail is such an ugly word...
To keep them away from the competition, Mattel contracted with them to program the Intellivision version of the
arcade game Bump 'N' Jump. They, under the name Technology Associates, were paid $24,000 for the conversion.
David Warhol (Mind Strike) served as liaison, giving technical assistance as needed. Except for the title screen
graphics by Daisy Nguyen, all the work was done in New Jersey, in one of the programmers' basements; they weren't
invited to Mattel headquarters.
THE STORY ACCORDING TO JOE JACOBS AND DENNIS CLARK:
(See "PlayCable, Joe & Dennis" tab under "History")
An M Network Atari 2600 version was also released. An Aquarius version was announced, but not released.
Finish the course without destroying any enemy cars and earn 50,000 points.
If you jump and cross the screen (left or right), your car will appear on the other side of the screen. This is
an important weapon when cornered.
Watch out for the garbage truck! When it is black, move away or you will be hit by the trash. To destroy it,
just "run over it". But that can end your plan to try the 50,000-point bonus.
Phase 8 is one of the most difficult courses in the game. There is a lake similar to the final lake in the
autumn and winter screens, however, with two islands. The result of this is an extremely difficult course to
be completed. One way to overcome this obstacle is to accelerate (220 km) and jump on the edge of the track.
However, there is no guarantee that you will be able to set foot on the second island. The game's tester for
Intellivision, Dale Lynn, hints: the islands have a different size and position than the rest. The secret
is to use them as a trampoline.
Considering that the player achieves the feat of earning 50,000 points on all screens, he will get the score
of 1,000,000 on screen 20. Thinking about it, the game's creators have altered the end of screen 20, which can
only scare or really complicate your game.
Bump 'N' Jump was released just after credits began appearing on boxes (the first was
Masters of the Universe: The Power of He-Man).
But since policy forbid including names of people not currently employed at Mattel Electronics, no programmers
are credited on the packaging and Daisy is given sole credit for graphics. Dave and Andy Sells (Daisy's
supervisor) share credits as "Project Coordinators" and the design is credited to Data East USA, Inc.
The already known "easter egg" of the hidden road off the screen is, in fact, a bug not detected in the testing phase (see the video in the "Description" tab).
In some moments, you may come across a "heap" of cars in the middle of the road that, when going over, will be
destroyed (like garbage trucks). Some of them, when destroyed, do not increase the score: a "yellow explosion"
appears in place of the score.
Program: Ray Kaestner Graphic: Karen Nugent Sound and Music: Bill Goodrich Licence: Based on the Data East arcade game USA launch: 1983 Brazil launch: 1984
As the burger chef, you're out to build delicious hamburgers. As you run through the colorful maze assembling
the ingredients, nothing can stop you. Except menacing hot dogs and pickles that are out to ruin the meal! Bury
them under beef patties, lettuce and buns. Or, knock them out with pepper. Build four burgers and you're on to
the next level.
Returning from vacation in August 1982 thinking he was going to start the Loco-Motion
conversion, Ray Kaestner discovered he was going to do the BurgerTime conversion, instead. Scheduled to get
married in December, Ray was determined to finish the job within three months so he wouldn't have to worry
about deadlines and debugging during wedding preparations.
Three months was a tight schedule; Ray did it in two, a record for an Intellivision game in the Hawthorne office.
The extra month gave him a chance to tinker with the timing of the game to get it just the way he wanted. (He
didn't escape the game on his wedding day, though -- the groomsmen were playing it while waiting for the
ceremony to begin.)
Data East did not have wide distribution for their arcade games, which had hurt when the Intellivision version
of Lock 'N' Chase came out -- the name wasn't exactly a household word. But
BurgerTime was so good that arcade giant Bally Midway licensed it and got the game into every arcade in America.
Mattel had lucked out; it finally had the license to a hit game.
Marketing ordered BurgerTime ported to every system possible (to "all flavors"). M Network Atari 2600, IBM PC
and handheld versions were released. Apple and Aquarius versions were also developed. A Commodore translation
was ordered but never started. A Colecovision version, done at the Mattel Electronics French programming division,
was eventually purchased and released by Coleco. (A later version for the original Nintendo system was unrelated
to Mattel Electronics.)
BurgerTime was the first Intellivision cartridge not released as part of a game "network," although the box
color, burgundy, matching that of Vectron, indicates that it was originally intended to be part of the Arcade
Network. BurgerTime was initially released in the same style boxes of the game networks -- the covers opened
like a book. Later copies of BurgerTime were sold in the cheaper, slightly shorter, end-opening boxes used for
all subsequent cartridge releases. In Brazil, all Intellivision games were released with book-style boxes.
The popularity of BurgerTime was such that a sequel, PizzaTime,
was ordered by Marketing. (Mattel Electronics was closed before programming could begin.) A different sequel,
Diner, was released by INTV Corp..
In the opening screen, it is possible to select the level of difficulty of the game: pressing the disc, the most
difficult level; pressing 1, 2 or 3, the easiest levels (level 3 being the easiest). To check the selected level,
just check the indication in the right corner of the screen - a point, for the most difficult level, a dash for
the easiest level.
You get more points for dropping the nasties than crushing them. Always take the loaves from the bottom
up. If you take the top ones, they will crush the bottom ones and you will stop earning a lot of points. Another
important tip is to "stick" the nasties and drop them all together. Often, you can spend a lot of time on the
same screen to get them together. Note the "join" points on each screen.
In a straight line, eggs and pickles tend to go up, and sausages go down.
From the third level, this rule is not strictly followed (in many moments who should go up, go down; who should
go down, go up ... and, many times, neither go up nor go down! You may come across an egg chasing your friend
Peter Pepper in a straight line, regardless of the stairs).
With each round of the 7 screens, the nasties attack faster and faster. From the fourth level on, they are
faster than Peter Pepper. However, when you are running with a nasty on your tail, it is possible (at
the right time) to throw the pepper forward so that it reaches the nasty behind you.
Try to accumulate as many peppers as possible to the most difficult levels.
Many people ask why one of the bad guys in BurgerTime is an egg. The arcade game was developed in Japan where
many fast-food restaurants give the popular option of adding a fried egg to your burger.
The television commercial for BurgerTime was the first non-Plimpton ad to focus on one game. In it, two
teenagers drive up to a burger stand in which the chef is being chased around the kitchen by giant hot dogs.
One of the hot dogs (an actor in a foam-rubber costume with only his red-painted face showing) slams the drive-up
window while sneering into the camera "We are CLOSED now!" These prophetic words were repeated many times by the
programmers as they packed up their personal belongings a few months later.
BurgerTime benefited from the demise of the Aquarius Home Computer System. Mattel Electronics had bought
considerable television time and magazine space to advertise Aquarius during fall and winter 1983. When the
Aquarius was quickly killed by Mattel, the rest of the reserved advertising was switched mostly to commercials
for BurgerTime.
In the more advanced stages it is possible to lose a life, while eliminating your enemy: due to the high speed
of the nasties, you can knock down or crush a nasty and, at the same time, be touched by him. The
result is a hamburger falling and scoring points while its chef fights alone on the platform. In some cases,
it is also possible to knock down a nasty who was climbing the stairs below you (instead of crushing
him). This usually does not happen at the player's will.
Design and Programming: Mike Breen Graphic: Monique Lujan-Bakerink, Peggi Decarli Sound and Music: Bill Goodrich USA launch: 1983 Brazil launch: 11/1984
You're out to extinguish an angry swarm of honey bees armed with only a spray can of bee repellent. As the bees
buzz ever closer, you hit them with a blast of spray to turn them into pieces of honeycomb. The more honeycombs,
the more points you score. Don't get stung.
Marketing was trying to get as many games as possible that were similar to known arcade hits, so when retailers
said "Atari has Pac-Man," they could say "We have Lock 'N' Chase," or "Atari has
Asteroids," "We have Astrosmash
and Space Hawk." Buzz Bombers was put into production as Intellivision's answer
to Centipede.
Marketing had a version of the game prototyped with a RAID can and tried to sell Johnson & Johnson, makers of
Raid bug-spray, on a tie-in deal a la Kool-Aid Man. They gave it, according to
a memo by Director Don Daglow, a "cool reception."
The classic tune "Flight of the Bumblebee" is used in the cartridge, but it almost wasn't; the crack Legal
Department couldn't track down whether the melody was in the public domain or not. Bill Goodrich (Quest)
pointed out that the composer, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, had died in 1908, but Legal still wasn't convinced.
Eventually, though, they gave it the green light.
Buzz Bombers is a one-player game only, a fact that wasn't properly communicated to the Visual Design (packaging)
department. Tens of thousands of copies were packed before someone realized the back of the box said "1 or 2 can
play." They had to cross it out. Every copy. By hand.
(This was just after Josh Denham "resigned" as President of Mattel Electronics. As part of his resignation deal,
he was given an office at Mattel from which he could continue to conduct business [i.e., look for work]. The
joke going around was that as another part of the deal, he was in there with a Marks-A-Lot crossing out "1 or 2
can play" on Buzz Bomber boxes.)
Licence: Based on the Sega Enterprises, Inc. arcade game USA launch: 1982
This game captures the fun, excitement, and sounds of an old-time shooting gallery. Blaze away at clay pipes,
dancing bears and sitting ducks. But watch out, those aren't ordinary sitting ducks. They come to life when they
reach the end of the gallery, and avenge themselves by eating from your limited supply of ammunition. How many
can you shoot down?
Versions were released for Atari 2600, ColecoVision and Intellivision.
Doesn't work on Intellivision II. (Find out why here).
Program: Mark Kennedy Graphic: Eric Wels Sound: Russ Haft Licence: Based on the Atari arcade game USA launch: 1983
An insidious invasion of multiplying insects (Centipedes, Jumping Spiders, Poisonous Scorpions and Frenzied Fleas)
pose different perils to the mushroom patch. Get out your Bug Blaster and save that Fungus!
Classic from Atari produced by AtariSoft for Intellivision.
Program: John Fiddes, Patrick Aubry Production: Nice Ideas (Mattel Electronics - France) Working titles: 4-Player Tennis, Doubles Tennis USA launch: 1986
Includes code from the previously released Tennis
You can play alone, against your Intellivision unit or with another player either in singles or in doubles. You
can even let your Intellivision take both sides and just watch. Maybe you'll see some weakness.
Go ahead conquer Paris, New York, and Wimbledon if you can. You will need both great concentration and strong
legs to win at Championship Tennis. Play locations such as Flushing Meadows, Roland Garros, Wimbledon. In
Championship Tennis you are in charge. See if you have what it takes to win the "grand slam"!
Championship Tennis is an advanced version of the original, successful Intellivision Tennis. You will feel the
tension and excitement of some of the great courts in the world, as you serve deep to your opponent's backhand
and return a lob with a smashing overhead, just out of reach of your opponent's outstretched racquet. It will
require skill, dexterity, cunning and wits along with plenty of practice to master Championship Tennis.
As with World Cup Soccer, this is a Dextell release we are including here
since it received its US debut in the INTV Corp. catalog. And also like World Championship Soccer, it is a Blue
Sky Rangers game.
Championship Tennis was started at Mattel Electronics to be a one- to four-player game for the
Entertainment Computer System (ECS).
Ray Kaestner (BurgerTime) started working on the game briefly at Mattel Electronics headquarters in California,
but when he was put on Masters of The Universe II,
Doubles Tennis was sent to the French office.
A very preliminary version of the cartridge was shown at the January 1984 Consumer Electronics Show. As with
World Cup Soccer, when Mattel Electronics closed, the rights to the unfinished game were given to Nice Ideas,
the company formed from the French office.
Nice Ideas completed the cartridge as a one- or two- (or zero-) player non-ECS game and it was released in
Europe by Dextell Ltd. INTV Corp. negotiated the rights to distribute the cartridge in the United States,
introducing it in Spring 1986.
Program: David Rolfe Art: Jerrol Richardson Production: APh Technological Consulting USA launch: 09/17/1980 (No. 8)
Released by Mattel in Great Britain as "Draughts"
Pit your skill and imagination against an opponent who can assess the board opposition in a few seconds and
think several moves ahead.
The computer won't make a foolish mistake, but you can still beat it...if you concoct a strategy it can't handle.
The game Checkers is known as Draughts in Great Britain, necessitating a packaging change for the English market.
Design and Programming: Steve Ettinger Graphic: Connie Goldman Sound: David Warhol Production: Realtime Associates USA launch: 1987
Puts You On the Most Challenging Courses in the World!
Two years in development by a team of golfers and programmers!
Most sophisticated video game yet.
Select an easy or a hard course, or put together your own from a selection of 99 holes, many based on the most famous holes in the world!
Choose from a full bag of clubs!
The wind can affect your shot; watch the flag to see which way it's blowing!
You determine how hard the ball is hit, you determine if the ball hooks or slices!
Watch out for trees, sand traps and water hazards.
Close-up view of each green for putting.
All the challenges and rewards of golfing.
With the success of the other enhanced versions of the early Intellivision sports titles, INTV Corp. contracted
Realtime Associates to produce an enhanced version of the original PGA Golf cartridge.
Realtime President Dave Warhol approached Steve Ettinger (Hover Force) about doing the programming, knowing that
Steve is an avid golfer. Steve was interested, but he wanted to ignore the original version and design a new golf
game for scratch. Dave agreed, and the result was a real labor of love by Steve.
Press 0 (zero) while title screen is displayed to display the credits.
Press 23 (two and three simultaneously) on the left hand controller, 26 on the right and press reset to see Steve's hidden message to his family.
Steve and Dave were pretty much the "team of golfers and programmers" referred to in the catalog. The "two years
in development" was also an exaggeration, by a year-and-a-half or so.
If a golfer successfully makes a particularly long putt, there is an animation of him fainting onto the green.
Program: John Tomlinson Graphic: Connie Goldman Sound: David Warhol Production: Realtime Associates Licence: Data East USA Inc. and Capcom USA Inc. USA launch: 1987
More Action Than We've Ever Before Packed Into a Single Game!
You're on foot, alone, armed with a machine gun and hand-grenades. Your goal: advance across deserts and jungles
through swarm after swarm of well-armed enemy soldiers! The odds are impossible!
Producer Dave Warhol hired former Mattel Electronics programmer John Tomlinson (Mission X) to do the conversion
of Commando to the Intellivision. John did some brilliant programming (the bullets are not moving objects, they
are animated on the fly in the background), but he wasn't big on discipline. As the deadline loomed with the game
far behind schedule, Dave had to take drastic measures.
We'd like to avoid the word "kidnapping" since it implies a capital crime, but Dave did drive to John's
apartment, grab him, and drive him back to Dave's home office where John remained, living and working, until
Commando was finished.
Press 0 (zero) while title screen is displayed to view credits.
Secret screen: Press 23 (two and three simultaneously) on the left hand controller, 26 on the right and press reset.
Licence: Based on the Sega Enterprises, Inc. arcade game USA launch: 1983
A funny thing happens when you play Congo Bongo, the new home game from Sega. In fact, a lot of funny things happen.
You have to get to Congo, the mighty ape, before the jungle beasts get to you. Dodge falling coconuts as you scale
Monkey Mountain. Shake the monkey from your back and chase Congo onto the lagoon screen. Then cross the water on
the backs of hippos, lily pads and hunter-eating fish. And do it all before Congo makes a monkey out of you.
But watch your step - one slip and it's off to hunter heaven.
Congo Bongo. Straight from the arcade and into your home. It's more fun than a barrel of, well, monkeys.
Congo Bongo is Sega's only game for Intellivision.
Program: Peter Farson Graphic: Eric Wels Sound: Russ Haft Licence: Based on the Williams Electronics Inc. arcade game USA launch: 1983
Landers, Bombers, Baiters, Pods and Swarmers. The alien attack has come and defeat at the hands of crazed invaders
threatens the Humanoids. The planet's only hope is your spaceship, Defender.
Developed by Atarisoft based on the Williams Electronics Inc. arcade
Program: Gary Kato Sound: Dave Durran USA launch: 1982 Brazil launch: 12/1984
An awesome array of demons attacks a scientific colony on the Moon. You maneuver your laser cannon, destroying an
entire army of cunning demons. Now you have but one choice...seek out the demon's home base and end their treachery
forever! But as you approach their monstrous lair, your blood chills at an unspeakable horror, perhaps the last
sight you'll ever see!
This is the Intellivision version of Imagic's previously released Atari 2600 Demon Attack cartridge. Imagic later released a version for Odyssey II.
EXPERTS CLUB PERFORMANCE STANDARD: 20,000 points.
To destroy the mothership, first destroy the shield and then shoot the window when it is in the center of the ship.
To activate the automatic firing of the cannon, press any number on the numeric keypad. To deactivate, press the fire button.
Avoid positioning yourself in the corners for a long time, as you will be an easy target for guided bombs.
Demon Attack has serious bugs that can be noticed during the game: after advancing some levels, the game may
crash or enemy ships may cross the lunar ground and hit your ship from below. According to the programmers,
Imagic hastened the completion and launch of the game.
While the mothership disintegrates after a direct hit, in some cases, the firing button will continue to
function. If a shot hits any part of the mothership while it disintegrates, your ship will be lost in space,
stopping the game.
Program: Mark Kennedy Production: Atari Release version: Realtime Associates Licence: Based on the Namco arcade game USA launch: 1987
Burrow your way through a maze of subterranean passages, hunting the deadly Pooka and the fire-breathing Fygar!
Break into their tunnels, shoot 'em with your air hose, pump 'em up and...POP! Simple? Not exactly, because now
they're after you! Run away! Dig under that rock just ahead...time it just right...BAM! The rock falls on Fygar!
All the thrills and fun of the original arcade hit!
The Intellivision version of Dig Dug had been programmed at Atari by former Mattel Electronics programmer Mark
Kennedy (Kool-Aid Man). The game had not been fully debugged, though, when Atari closed up their Intellivision
division in 1984. INTV Corp. negotiated the rights three years later to release the cartridge for the first time.
The source code no longer existed, but Producer Dave Warhol uploaded the code from a prototype of the game still
in Mark's possession. Working with the disassembled code, Mark fixed the game's remaining bugs and removed the
Atari title screen.
While debugging the cross assembler and disassembler he had written to develop the new INTV games, Dave Warhol
tested the software on one of his favorite Mattel Electronics game, TRON Deadly Discs.
He substituted the men in the game with the hot dogs from the BurgerTime cartridge,
creating a new game: Deadly Dogs!. Later, while preparing
Dig Dug for release, Dave found there was enough space on the cartridge to slip in his new game. To play it:
Press 47 (four and seven simultaneously) on both hand controllers and press reset.
In the first print run, the box had the expression “1 or 2 players”, although the game is for only 1 player.
It was necessary to paste a tag correcting the information. In the second print run, the information was printed
correctly.
Design and Programming: Ray Kaestner Graphic: Connie Goldman Sound: David Warhol Art: Keith Robinson Production: Realtime Associates for INTV Corp. Licence:BurgerTime trademark used under license from Data East USA, Inc. USA launch: 1987
Includes code from the unreleased Masters of the Universe II produced at Mattel Electronics
Peter Pepper, the brave chef from BURGERTIME is back! But so are the evil Hot Dogs and some NEW villains -- a
cheap Cherry, a bad Banana and Mugsy, the Mug o' Root Beer. Peter needs your help to escape these Rotten Foods
and get lunch onto the plate!
In reviewing the released and unfinished Mattel Electronics games, INTV Corp. decided that (1) they wanted a
sequel to the very successful BurgerTime cartridge and (2) they did not want
another Masters of the Universe cartridge.
While a BurgerTime sequel, PizzaTime, had been started at Mattel,
development had been done at the French office and INTV had no prototype of the game. On the other hand, INTV did
have the prototype of Masters of the Universe II,
done at Mattel Electronics in California.
Coincidentally, BurgerTime and Masters of the Universe II had both been programmed by Ray Kaestner. Producer
Dave Warhol hired Ray to convert the Masters sequel into a BurgerTime sequel. The two of them came up with the
rather bizarre concept of Chef Peter Pepper kicking "food balls" past the bad guys from BurgerTime. The resulting
game, however, introduced in mid-1987, was a winner.
Credits will roll automatically if you leave the title screen up long enough.
Licence: Based on the Nintendo of America, Inc. arcade game USA launch: 1982
In this engaging game, Donkey Kong the ape has captured Mario's girlfriend, and has taken her to the top of a
steel fortress. You've got to get Mario to the top to save her! But - as he runs across the girders and up the
ladders, the ape throws barrels at him to prevent his progress. mario must jump the barrels to get to the top
and rescue his girlfriend!
Versions were released for Atari 2600, ColecoVision and Intellivision.
The Japanese word for "stupid" or "foolish" literally means "donkey-like." So "Donkey Kong" can be interpreted
as "Stupid Kong." However, since the Japanese language has no obscenities, translators usually use the same word
when an obscene adjective is needed. So "Donkey Kong" can also be interpreted as "F***ing Kong."
Just four months before the heavily-anticipated home release of Donkey Kong, Universal Studios sued Nintendo
and Coleco claiming the arcade game and the home versions ripped off the movie King Kong. Coleco, not wanting
to risk delaying the launch of ColecoVision, agreed to pay royalties to Universal. Nintendo chose to fight.
Several months after release of ColecoVision and the Donkey Kong cartridges, Nintendo won. Coleco then sued
Universal, winning back a portion of the royalties.
When the programmers at Mattel Electronics saw the Intellivision version of Donkey Kong, they were shocked
at how bad it was. They actually suspected a conspiracy: that Coleco released an awful version for Intellivision
so that the ColecoVision version - and the ColecoVision itself - would look that much better.
Far more likely it was the result of a rushed development schedule and having no experienced Intellivision
programmers on staff.
But whatever the reason, the programmers (specifically Bill Fisher, Steve Roney, Mark Urbaniec and Keith
Robinson) begged management for the opportunity to program their own version of Donkey Kong - not for release,
obviously, but to demonstrate for the press what Intellivision could do when programmed properly. They were
confident they could put together a version more faithful in feel and gameplay to the original arcade game
than even the ColecoVision version. Management said no, feeling the programmers' time could be better spent.
Doesn't work on Intellivision II. (Find out why here).
Design and Programming: Alan Smith Graphics Assistance: Wilfredo Aguilar Sound: Dave Durran USA launch: 1983
You are Count Dracula. Rise from your resting place in the graveyard and fly into the night! Travel in two
forms - as a man or a bat. Wolves hound you when you are in human form, and vultures snatch at the bat you can
become. You've got to sink your teeth into a victim soon. You're growing paler and slowing down. Constables throw
stakes that'll stop you cold! Bite all the victims you can find, then return to your resting place before sunrise,
or you'll never hunt again!
Program: Alan Smith Sound: Dave Durran USA launch: 1982
Dreadful dragons control the King's castle! You, the young Prince, want them banished - but first you must
reclaim the royal treasures. You have to cross castle bridges, dodging dragonfire as you go. Leap, duck and
sprint to reach the other side!
Once across, enter a splendid storeroom. Pocket every treasure you touch. But beware of deadly dragonfire!
Each dragon is smarter than the last, and some are almost invisible! How many bridges can you cross? How many
storerooms can you empty?
Intellivision and Atari 2600 versions of Dragonfire were developed and released together. A version for ColecoVision was released later.
Discover Neptune's Trident! But how? As a magical seagull, flap your wings and fly for shore. Grab speeding clouds
but beware! Blackbirds and erupting volcanos thwart your every move. Find the Trident then head for the sea.
Careful, danger lurks in the briny deep!
Take the plunge and swing your fin as an enchanted dolphin. Snarls of seaweed and sinister octopuses keep you from
touching precious seahorses. Keep diving - magic awaits in the ocean depths.
At the bottom, a mermaid appears, trapped in a mystical cage. Free her with the magical Trident.
Programmer Dave Durran had worked at Mattel Electronics on the hardware designs of the
Intellivision Master and
Keyboard components and
Intellivoice before leaving to join the startup
Imagic. At Imagic he wrote much of the system code used
in game development and worked on the hardware design of the Imagic cartridge ROMs. He also wrote the sound
effects for the games.
With everything else he was working on, he says that writing Fathom was a "kind of afterthought." It was
designed to be a children's game with (mostly) friendly characters and an easily understood goal. The theme
is the same as Imagic's Atari 2600 Fathom designed by Rob Fulop, but the gameplay is slightly different.
Imagic later released a version of Fathom for ColecoVision.
Fathom was released after the final Numb Thumb newsletter, so no performance standard was published for the game.
Program: Peter Kaminski, Tom Soulanille Art: Jerrol Richardson Production: APh Technological Consulting Working title: Frogs USA launch: 05/25/1982 (No. 32) Brazil launch: 11/1983
Sitting upon two lily pads in the middle of a lily pond are a pair of hungry frogs; one for you, one for your
opponent. Overhead swarm delicious flies. Whether or not your frog scores his dinner while you rack up points
is entirely up to you. You control the height and direction of his jump; even the flick of his long pink tongue.
Leap too high or at the wrong angle and "Pl-op" your frog goes into the pond. He must swim back to his lily pad,
taking away valuable scoring time while your opponent goes on racking up points. As play continues, night will
come to the pond. Or, you can choose to play the entire round at night, leaping for fireflies -- in the dark.
The graphics and the name of the game have been changed from the initial version called
Frogs.
An M Network version, called Frogs and Flies, was released for the Atari 2600.
Life isn't all lazy days and lily pads for a frog - it abounds with dangers. Guide your frantic frog home to
safety in a madcap dash across a busy highway and a treacherous river. Fast and furious action is guaranteed
to keep things hopping.
Parker Brothers also released Frogger for Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Atari 400/800/600XL, ColecoVision, Commodore
Vic 20, Commodore 64 and TI99/4A.
Design and Programming: Carol Shaw USA launch: 1983 Brazil launch: 11/1984
Dag nab it! That mangy critter Black Bart's robbed the stagecoach from Culver City and all heck's broke loose.
Just when you're in hot pursuit, the trail you're ridin' on deadends into the side of the canyon. You've got
to figger out another route by moving the puzzle parts to create a new trail, faster than you can say Happy
Trails, pardner.
Happy Trails was an original Intellivision game.
From designer Carol Shaw in the Happy Trails instruction manual:
"To really play well, you'll need three things: patience, practice and planning. Here are some specific
pointers that can help you out."
"Use the reverse button to avoid deadends, the black space or Black Bart. But to really take advantage of this
feature, use the reverse button to move your hat back and forth over a 'safe' area, while you're busy
rearranging the trail."
"Once a trail is cleared, use the speed button to move quickly. By saving time, you'll earn more bonus points
and reduce the chances of the Bonus Timer reaching zero."
"As you arrange your trail, keep in mind that you are also arranging Black Bart's trail. Occasionally, you
might like to hold Bart hostage by making him walk in a circle, so you can plan your next move."
This game made a lot of people at Mattel Electronics angry since they felt it was a rip-off of the Konami
arcade game Loco-Motion, which Mattel had licensed for Intellivision. To add insult
to injury, Activision released Happy Trails before Intellivision Loco-Motion came out. Happy Trails received
reviews lauding its originality; Loco-Motion looked like an also-ran.
The unofficial word within Mattel Electronics was that they considered suing but that Mattel and Konami
couldn't agree on how to split the legal expenses. In reality, though, few if any lawsuits for design
infringement were filed in the pre-crash video game industry. So many games from all of the companies
borrowed features from so many other games, it seemed no one wanted to open that can of worms.
Program: Chris Hawley Art: Jerrol Richardson Production: APh Technological Consulting for Mattel Electronics USA launch: 10/03/1980 (No. 12)
A great game of make-believe for up to 6 players. It's like spending a day at the races. Study the tout sheet.
Pick a winner -- or a loser. The odds will change. Go for a long shot or play it safe. They're off and the
excitement begins. Cheer your horse on. You could clean up -- on paper. A fun party game.
Design: Steve Ettinger, Joe (Ferreira) King Program: Steve Ettinger Graphic and Art: Joe King Sound: David Warhol USA launch: 1986
Developed at Mattel Electronics as Hover Force 3-D
Completed by Realtime Associates for INTV Corp.
TOP SECRET
TO: HOVER FORCE PILOTS
FROM: COL. N.K. NEWCOMBE
RE: MISSION INSTRUCTIONS
Terrorist helicopter forces have taken over the island city of New Seeburg. Luckily, civilians have been
evacuated from the city, but the enemy is causing millions of dollars in damage. Fires are burning out of
control throughout the island.
We're sending you in with a heavily armed combat helicopter. Your assignment:
Use RADAR SCREEN to spot and track the enemy!
Use LASER CANNONS to blast enemy copters out of the sky!
Use WATER CANNONS to put out fires from mid-air!
Cover hundreds of square miles ridding the city of terrorists and fires for highest RATING.
Aim carefully! Your wild shots can damage the city and lower your rating!
Use STRATEGY! There are over 20 different types of enemy copters, each with its own skill level and
flight pattern! You need your BRAINS to catch up with them!
Fly repeated missions, each more difficult than the one before.
One last warning: these guys will be gunning for YOU. And this isn't some game, this is combat. None of this
"three lives" foolishness. Crash your copter and it's all over -- you're finished.
So watch your tail out there. Now, let's scramble!
Hover Force 3-D was developed under greater secrecy than any other Mattel game. Researcher Richard Steenblik
working at the University of Georgia had developed pseudo-3-D glasses. Small prisms in the glasses bent
different colors of light entering the eye at different angles, fooling the eye into thinking that, for example,
blue objects on a flat surface were actually farther away than red objects on the same surface. The University
approached several game manufacturers to see if they were interested in the technology. After a
middle-of-the-night test session in which Keith Robinson (Solar Sailer) quickly threw together an Intellivision
screen full of flying bugs of different colors, Mattel management decided to aggressively pursue an exclusive
license for the glasses.
Game development was ordered to start immediately, before the license was secured. For fear that a competitor
would find out and try to outbid Mattel, the project was kept top secret, even from the other programmers. It
was code named "Peach" since the glasses originated in Georgia, the Peach State. Steve Ettinger and Joe King,
who had worked well together on Magic Carousel, were
given a locked, windowless office in which to work (the rest of the software staff worked in open cubicles);
it was quickly dubbed "The Bat Cave."
Midway through the project, Mattel won the license and Peach emerged from the cave. The 3-D effect, while not
eye-poppingly dramatic, was effective, especially given the visual cues Steve and Joe had designed. And Dave
"Papa Intellivision" Chandler's group had developed an inexpensive method to manufacture the glasses, making
it practical for the game and glasses to be sold together at the price of a normal cartridge. Marketing felt
they could strongly promote the 3-D feature in ads and the press.
Hover Force 3-D debuted at the January 1984 Consumer Electronic Show to good response. While the 3-D effect
got mixed reviews, everyone was talking about it. Management immediately started talking about putting two
more 3-D games into development, including a flight simulator cartridge, but before anything could be started,
Mattel Electronics closed.
For the INTV Corp. release of the game in 1986, Steve and producer Dave Warhol beefed up the "intelligence" of
the enemy helicopters, adding more strategy to the play. Since the glasses were not included with the game,
"3-D" was dropped from the title.
Press 0 (zero) on either hand controller while the title screen is displayed to view game credits.
Press 23 (two and three simultaneously) on the left hand controller, 26 on the right and press reset to see Steve's message to his wife and kids.
The game has three difficulty levels, the middle of which, "RANGER" level, is named in honor of the Blue Sky Rangers.
The island of New Seeburg derives its name from Steve Ettinger's initials: SEE.
Joe King was commissioned to do the artwork for the INTV packaging; if the JAF-3000 helicopter (JAF for Joseph
Arthur Ferreira; he has since changed his last name to King) looks vaguely familiar, it's because he based it
on the submarine Nautilus from Disney's film version of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Why? Joe explained,
"I make every vehicle I draw look like the Nautilus."
A recent magazine article reported that the University of Georgia is still trying to find a customer for
their 3-D glasses.
Design and Programming: Patrick Schmitz Sound: Dave Durran USA launch: 1983
The legendary Nordic hero travels toward the isolated, sinister Ice Palace. He must cross miles of frozen tundra.
Massive herds of caribou thunder by him. He tries to ski around them. If he must kill a caribou, the great and
unforgiving Wildlife Goddess rises to avenge the loss! He must bridge a frigid lake, using a huge hook to catch
and link floating icebergs. He must destroy other icebergs that can crash into his bridge!
When he reaches the Ice Palace, he assaults that loathsome landmark with enchanted fireballs! He must evade
spikes hurled at him and melt the Ice Palace!
Design: Mark Kennedy, Vladimir Hrycenko Program: Mark Kennedy Graphic: Monique Lujan-Bakerink Licence: General Foods Corporation USA launch: 1983
Two children are trapped in a haunted house. A pair of insatiable THIRSTIES roam around trying to catch them!
Help the children avoid the dangerous THIRSTIES and collect all the makings for a batch of KOOL-AID soft drink
mix. Hooray! KOOL-AID MAN comes to the rescue! From then on -- the THIRSTIES, plus PHANTOM FLAVORS get chased
by KOOL-AID MAN!
On December 6, 1982, all of the programmers and graphic artists were herded into a conference room and shown a series of TV commercials -- the new Kool-Aid ad campaign. It was announced that Marketing had made a tie-in deal to release Intellivision and M Network Atari 2600 Kool-Aid Man cartridges. The games were scheduled to be ready in about 6 months, which meant that programming had to begin immediately. Worse, they wanted game-screen mockups to appear in the 1983 Mattel Electronics catalog at the Consumer Electronics Show -- one month away. A two-week contest to come up with the best game concept was announced. Separate ideas were developed for Intellivision and Atari 2600.
This led to a confrontation with Marketing. The programmers' viewpoint was that the features of a game should be tailored to the system it would be played on, to take full advantage of the system's strengths. Marketing, on the other hand, wanted games designed for multiple systems, with the features being the same on each system. If a game couldn't be ported to other systems, it shouldn't be done on any system.
The programmers argued that this meant all games would have to be designed for the lowest common denominator -- the Atari 2600. Marketing argued that keeping the features the same would make games easier to advertise and make word-of-mouth among customers more favorable.
This was the programmers' chance to make a stand, insisting that because of the tight schedule, the Intellivision and Atari versions of Kool-Aid Man would have to be developed independently and differently -- there was no time to create a design that could be implemented on both systems.
Reluctantly, Marketing agreed, and two entirely different versions of Kool-Aid Man were developed, designed to take best advantage of each system. The winning design for the Intellivision version came from programmer Vladimir Hrycenko (Convoy). Steve Tatsumi did the design and program for Atari Kool-Aid Man.
Programming won the battle, but Marketing won the war -- they never again allowed different versions of a game tailored for different systems.
And, well, it looks like they were right. To this day, people still seem upset that the two Kool-Aid Man games are different. Go figure.
"And please, no 'Jonestown' references," admonished manager Russ Haft (TRON Maze-A-Tron) upon announcing the contest for game ideas. He was trying to stem the inevitable suggestions that would revolve around the 1979 mass suicide via cyanide-laced-grape-Kool-Aid of Jim Jones and his religious followers in Guyana. Some people at Mattel feared that sick, juvenile jokes made by the programmers might get back to the Kool-Aid folks and screw up the deal. Of course, the only people who feared that were the people who actually knew us.
Reportedly, General Foods was delighted with the games and the response to the special promotion, and expressed an interest in a Kool-Aid Man II project. But at the time (July, August, 1983) Mattel Electronics was dealing with a massive layoff and management restructuring, and Kool-Aid Man II apparently got lost in the shuffle.
One magazine dubbed Kool-Aid Man as the "stupidest video game of 1983," adding "What's next, the Michelin Man game?"As a result, to this day when someone refers to Kool-Aid Man, Mark Kennedy corrects them with, "that's the AWARD-WINNING Kool-Aid Man!"
Licence: Based on the Universal Co. Ltd. arcade game USA launch: 1983
In this game, you direct a lady bug through a maze. While eating dots, she must avoid running over the poisonous skulls and encountering the evil insects which are out to devour her. Revolving doors permit her to change the maze, thwart her pursuers and get through!
Versions were released for Atari 2600 and ColecoVision as well as Intellivision.
Program: David Rolfe Art: Jerrol Richardson Production: APh Technological Consulting USA launch: 08/25/1980 (No. 3) Brazil launch: 11/1983
AKA Poker & Blackjack
From the shuffle of the cards...to the clinking of the coins...to the felt green of the gaming table...to the shifty eyes of the dealer, Intellivision has captured the flavor and the color of casino card games.
Play poker! Five card stud or draw. Seven card stud. This dealer plays tough. He raises, drops, even bluffs. Play carefully because he'd like nothing better than to empty your wallet.
When you've had enough poker, relax with a few hands of blackjack. Play real casino style and double down when you feel hot!
Because it came free with the Intellivision Master Component during 1980, 1981 and most of 1982, Las Vegas Poker & Blackjack had the most distribution of any Intellivision cartridge: over 1,900,000 shipped by the end of 1982. When it was eventually replaced by Astrosmash as the free cartridge, distribution fell dramatically; only 2,500 Las Vegas Poker & Blackjack cartridges were shipped in the first six months of 1983.
Program: John Brooks Art: Jerrol Richardson Production: APh Technological Consulting USA launch: 10/03/1980 (No. 11)
AKA Roulette
Can you parlay your pile of chips into a fortune? Do you dare risk it all on a single number that you just know is due to come up on the next spin of the wheel? Here's a great party game with all the sound and color of the big casino. Place your "bets"...all "bets" down? Then here goes the big wheel of fortune -- clickety-click-click -- and cross your fingers as the wheel slows and the ball bounces toward your lucky number.
Press and hold 1 and 3 on the left control; 1, 2 and 3 on the right and press RESET to see the opening screen
with the title inverted and copyright information with the year 2001.
Design and Programming: David Warhol Graphic: Connie Goldman Sound: David Warhol Production: Realtime Associates USA launch: 1987
Includes code from the previously released Electric Company MathFun
Two exciting games in one cartridge that strengthen your math skills while you have fun! Battle math problems to arrive at answers in MATH MASTER! Or use given answers to create math problems in FACTOR FUN! Race the clock or an opponent! Skill levels can be set for players of any age -- first graders to adult!
MATH MASTER is an improved version of the previously released MATH FUN. FACTOR FUN is an entirely new game!
Design and Programming: David Warhol Graphic: Connie Goldman Sound: David Warhol Production: Realtime Associates USA launch: 1987
Includes code from the previously released Electric Company MathFun
Four exciting games in one game cartridge that strengthen your spelling and memory skills while you have fun!
CROSSWORDS: Build words from a random jumble of letters!
WORD ROCKETS: Exercise both manual dexterity with spelling skills -- launch vowel "rockets" to complete words!
WORD HUNT: Scramble through a jungle, finding letters to build words!
MEMORY FUN: Uncover hidden letters two at a time, looking for letters that match. A challenge to your memory!
CROSSWORDS, WORD ROCKETS, and WORD HUNT are enhanced versions of games previously released as WORD FUN. MEMORY FUN is an entirely new game!
As with Learning Fun I, this was mostly recycled material that Dave Warhol could put together himself quickly and profitably.
While enhancing the game Crosswords, Dave accidentally left off a prefix that indicated a number was supposed to be base 10 instead of base 16. As a result, the computer only selects words beginning with letters A through T instead of A through Z.
Program: Julie Hoshizaki, Mike Winans Graphic: Peggi Decarli Sound and Music: Bill Goodrich Art: Jerrol Richardson Licence: Based on the Data East arcade game USA launch: 07/09/1982 (No. 34) Brazil launch: 11/1983
A fast-action chase game as you maneuver your thief through the maze, picking up coins and other treasures. Billy-club swinging cops are in hot pursuit, but you can temporarily escape them by locking gates behind you. The longer you survive, the more valuable the treasures become.
Lock 'N' Chase was the first in a series of conversions based on Data East arcade games, a series that eventually would include Bump 'N' Jump, BurgerTime,
Mission X, Thin Ice (based on the arcade game Disco No. 1) and
the unfinished PizzaTime (a BurgerTime sequel). The association carried over to INTV Corp., which did
Commando and Diner (another BurgerTime sequel).
Mike Winans almost killed himself trying to fit the game into 4K. He finally proclaimed it couldn't be done and, reluctantly, 6K was authorized. Mike managed to just squeeze it into the 6K, although the control of Lupin wasn't ideal. (In the arcade game, the thief is named Lupin, a nice touch of personality that Mattel left out of our version.)
When the game was released, press and customers complained about how difficult it was to control Lupin. (You had to time turns precisely, or Lupin would stop dead.) The problem was considered bad enough that a running change was ordered: after the 6K cartridges were sold out, improved 8K versions would be released. By this time, Mike had transferred to the Design & Development department, so Julie Hoshizaki was assigned to make the improvement. The improved versions aren't marked on the package; the easiest way to tell if you have an improved version is to watch what happens when a cop catches Lupin. In the arcade game, Lupin collapses into his hat -- an animation there wasn't room for in the 6K version. The collapsing animation is in the 8K version.
An M Network Atari 2600 version and an Apple II version were also released. IBM PC and Aquarius versions were announced, but never completed.
If you lose your last life while capturing any bonuses, you will receive extra points. Sometimes a few thousand.
In the arcade version, the thief is named Lupin, but not in the Mattel Electronics version. Why not? In the early 1900s, French author Maurice LeBlanc wrote a series of books featuring Arsene Lupin: Gentleman Thief. The books became popular in Japan, where they later inspired a series of comic books that were even more popular. The problem: the comic books were not authorized by LeBlanc. At the time, it was difficult enforcing a French copyright in Japan, so Lupin entered Japanese culture, eventually becoming synonymous with the word "thief." The copyright was enforced in the United States, though, where the Japanese Lupin comics developed a following. In English translations, the name Lupin is often changed to Rupin to avoid the copyright problem. For the game Lock 'N' Chase, Mattel avoided the copyright problem by leaving out the name altogether.
An insignificant typo almost caused Mattel to dump tens of thousands of dollars of perfectly good ROMs and to delay the release of Lock 'N' Chase by several months. Why? First, some background:
The legal department required programmers to include an ASCII copyright notice somewhere in every game so that it could be read if someone dumped the cartridge's object code. Traditionally, if there was room, the programmer would also include his or her name. (It was forbidden to hide your name in the game such that it could ever show up on screen, but object code was OK.) For Lock 'N' Chase, Mike included his, Peggi's, and Bill's name in the code. The day the game was to be shipped to the ROM factory, the three of them went to lunch to celebrate. At lunch, Mike realized for the first time that Peggi's last name is spelled "Decarli." He had spelled it "de Carli" in the code. No problem; he went back after lunch, corrected it, then bid everyone farewell and went off to his new job in Design & Development.
What Mike didn't know was that Bill Fisher, who was in charge of coordinating with the factory, had copied the finished game off of Mike's hard disk during lunch and shipped it out.
Three months later, ten thousand plus ROMs were finished. Sample chips were sent back from the factory. Bill loaded one into a ROM reader, then compared the chip's checksum to the checksum of the archived version on Mike's hard disk. To Bill's horror, they didn't match. There was a bug in the ROMs!
Programmers started playing the game for hours on end, trying to see how bad the bug was -- would the game crash? Marketing needed to know instantly if the game was releasable. Should they toss out tens of thousands of dollars worth of chips and lose at least three months time, or should they risk the bad publicity of sending out a bug-filled version?
Finally, after a couple days of panic and anxiety, they asked Mike to come up from Design & Development to help track down the bug. After working on the problem for awhile, he slowly remembered lunch that day three months earlier. Learning how to spell Peggi's name....
Mike went to the archived version of the game, changed "Decarli" back to "de Carli" and recompiled the program. Now the checksums matched. Crisis averted, the cartridges went out.
Stop at the entrance to the tunnel (easier with the upper one) and move continuously back and forth trying to keep it off the screen. Eventually, your thief will leave the screen and disappear. After a minute or two, it will reappear on the other side.
Enter a tunnel and move the disc up and down quickly. You will cross the screen over any obstacle and exit on the other side of the screen. However, you will be stuck on that trail forever.
Take all the coins in the maze and close a door just below the top exit. Underneath, throw yourself against that door. You will be stuck with it. Press the disc up and the level will be completed without leaving the screen.
Program: Daniel Bass Graphic: Dan Bass, Joe Ferreira Sound and Music: Andy Sells Track layouts: Dan Bass, Mark Buchignani Licence: Based on the Konami arcade game USA launch: 1983
An exciting version of the popular Loco-Motion arcade game. You're the engineer deftly guiding your train through scrambled track. You must put the right tracks together to help the train continue safely on its way to pick up passengers. And, you must avoid the crazy train! Non-stop fun as you race to beat the time schedule.
With Atari having most of the good arcade games sewn up, Mattel had to compete with other video game manufacturers for whatever was left over. Upon seeing the Konami arcade game Loco-Motion (one was moved into the Applications Software department in Summer 1982), the programmers and Marketing felt this was a great game for an Intellivision conversion -- it was fun, unique, and "doable" with our technology.
Marketing shelled out big cash to beat out some other bidders for the rights and Ray Kaestner was chosen to do the conversion. Ray was set to take two weeks of vacation in August, so he was scheduled to begin work on Loco-Motion upon his return.
But Dan Bass, who was working on the ECS game Wall Street at the time, became addicted to the Loco-Motion arcade machine and decided he had to do the Intellivision version. Not knowing that Ray had already been picked for the job, Dan set out to get it. In about a week, he secretly put together a demo of the game mechanism, then presented it to management.
Based on the quality of the demo, Dan was pulled off of Wall Street and given the higher-priority Loco-Motion. Ray Kaestner returned from vacation to find that he was off the game. VP Gabriel Baum and Director Don Daglow (Utopia) apologized to Ray and gave him a consolation prize: the job of converting the arcade game BurgerTime.
Everyone was excited about Loco-Motion and Marketing was prepared for a big advertising campaign. Then, just as Loco-Motion was going to ROM manufacturing (a three-month process), Activision released an Intellivision game called Happy Trails.
As far as most people at Konami and Mattel were concerned, Happy Trails was a blatant rip-off of Loco-Motion, actionably so. The programmers and Marketing personnel happily anticipated a lawsuit that would shut Activision down. But no lawsuit was ever filed. Why not?
A Mattel lawyer claimed the problem was that Konami and Mattel couldn't agree on who should file (and pay) for the suit. Mattel felt that since Konami owned the game, Konami should sue. Konami's position, according to the lawyer, was that essentially Mattel was the damaged party (Konami got a huge guaranteed royalty whether the game sold or not); it was Mattel's responsibility to sue.
So no one sued, and Activision got credit for their "originality" in the overwhelmingly good reviews Happy Trails received. Marketing dropped plans for the big push on Loco-Motion, and got rid of the large number of ROMs that had been ordered by discount pricing the cartridge.
An M Network Atari 2600 version was in development but never released.
Program: David Rolfe Art: Jerrol Richardson Licence: Major League Baseball Promotion Corp. Production: APh Technological Consulting USA launch: 09/04/1980 (No. 5)
Re-released by INTV Corp. as Big League Baseball (INTV #2614)
The crowd roars as the nine man home team sprints out onto the field. Then you and your opponent use all the tricks in the book to score the winning run.
You control all the action -- balls and strikes, hit and run, double plays and stolen bases. And it's not over until the last out of the ninth inning!
Developed at APh during 1979, Major League Baseball came out in 1980 and went on to become the best selling Intellivision cartridge, with 1,085,700 shipped as of June 4, 1983 (the last date for which figures are available). After Mattel Electronics went out of business, INTV Corp. changed the name of the cartridge to Big League Baseball rather than pay to renew the Major League Baseball trademark license.
An M Network Atari 2600 version, called Super Challenge Baseball, was released
Major League Baseball is the only cartridge to use the Intellivision sound chip for speech synthesis (the umpire crying "Yer out!"). Marketing put a stop to any further such use, fearing it would hurt sales of the Intellivoice module.
Program: Rick Koenig, Ray Kaestne Graphic: Connie Goldman Sound and Music: Joshua Jeffe Licence: Mattel Toys USA launch: 1983 Brazil launch: 12/1984
Fly HE-MAN in his WIND RAIDER on a hair-raising dash in pursuit of SKELETOR. Avoid running out of fuel as you outmaneuver, bomb or blast away the fireballs coming at you -- while bombing SKELETOR on the ground below. If you get HE-MAN near enough to CASTLE GRAYSKULL he fights on foot with just his shield -- through lightning-balls, power-bolts and magic swords -- to get at SKELETOR!
Masters of the Universe -- a series of action figures tied in to an afternoon animated series -- was a smash hit for Mattel Toys, its biggest success in years. Getting Intellivision and Atari 2600 video games out for Christmas 1983 was a priority.
Wanting to avoid what happened with Kool-Aid Man, Marketing decreed that the two versions should be the same. A two-phase game was agreed on -- flying the Wind Raider to Castle Grayskull; battling Skeletor inside the castle -- with different programmers doing each phase to speed production. In February 1983, work started on the Intellivision version.
Rick Koenig (Motocross) was chosen to do the Wind Raider phase and Vladimir Hrycenko was pulled off the lower-priority Convoy to do the Castle Grayskull phase.
By the end of April, it became apparent that the Castle Grayskull section wasn't coming together. Vladimir was replaced with Ray Kaestner (BurgerTime) who was at the time experimenting with ideas for a proposed Intellivision III version of Night Stalker. Ray scrapped all of Vladimir's existing code and started from scratch with the deadline only four weeks away. Using some fancy graphics-handling routines that he had developed for the Intellivision III, Ray met the deadline.
When the game came out (on schedule) it did well, so Rick and Ray were put to work on Masters of the Universe II. It was unfinished when Mattel Electronics was closed in January 1984; Ray's part of the game eventually became the INTV Corp. release Diner, a sequel to BurgerTime.
A Colecovision version of Masters of the Universe: The Power of He-Man was completed but was unreleased when Mattel Electronics closed.
The Intellivision III routines that Ray used and the special graphics routines Rick independently developed for the game -- all of which bypassed the EXEC -- moved objects on screen smoother and faster than in standard Intellivision games. Marketing dubbed this improved look SuperGraphics, hoping it would help in the competition with the higher resolution Colecovision. While Masters of the Universe was the first (and only) game to carry the SuperGraphics logo on the box, Marketing liked the designation so much they started using it even before Masters came out to promote any game -- beginning with BurgerTime -- that simply had nice graphics and animation. At the June 1983 Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago, nearly every Intellivision game on display --
Buzz Bombers, Thin Ice, Mission X -- carried the SuperGraphics logo.
At the beginning of the video game boom, Mattel Electronics worked hard to keep the names of its programmers secret, for fear
Atari, Imagic
or Activision
would lure them away. But by 1983, this secrecy was pretty much meaningless -- headhunters had learned the identities of every company's roster (often bribing employees hundreds of dollars for copies of internal phone lists). Sure that everyone knew their identities but the public, and rankled by Activision's publicizing of their designers, the Blue Sky Rangers started pushing for names on cartridges.
The cause was helped by an editorial in the June 1983 Electronic Games magazine, written by Arnie Katz, which called upon the game companies to reveal the programmers: "All designers of electronic games are just as much creative artists as painters and novelists...Why shouldn't the creator of such a work of art be entitled to put his or her name on it to reap the praise and brickbats of gaming consumers?"
Copies of the editorial appeared throughout Applications Software pinned to programmers' cubicles. More importantly, on May 11, a few days after the magazine had hit the newsstands, VP Gabriel Baum forwarded a copy to the Senior Vice Presidents, with a brief note supporting it: "The names of our key personnel are available to any investigative headhunter and I believe that we are more likely to retain employees than to lose them by publicly recognizing their connection with a cartridge. I also believe that our Marketing group could use programmer/designer recognition to their advantage."
On May 27, Mattel Electronics announced credits would appear on future game packages.
Masters of the Universe: The Power of He-Man, the Intellivision and M Network Atari 2600 versions, were the first cartridges in which the design teams received credit on the packaging. The Intellivision box lists Ray, Rick, Connie and Josh, plus "Project Coordinator" (what today would be called Producer) Mark Urbaniec
Design and Programming: Rick Sinatra Music: Hal Cannon Working title: Astromusic USA launch: 1983
The musical version of the popular video game, Astrosmash. And a fun, new way to learn musical notation. As musical notes fall from the sky in the pattern of a popular song, you must play the right keys to shoot them down. The faster you shoot down the notes, the faster you're learning to play your favorite songs!
The VP of Design & Development, Richard Chang, loved music-based games and toys; the ECS had a music synthesizer due to his pushing. This cartridge for the music sythesizer was based on his idea.
Design and Programming: Rick Levine Sound: Dave Durran USA launch: 1982
The patient is critically ill! You navigate the Robot Probe through the patient's blood stream, outmaneuvering white blood cells that attempt to slow you down. Remove a tumor from the brain, a blood clot from near the heart and much more! But hurry! To save the patient's life, you must act quickly!
This was an original game for Intellivision. The programmer, Rick Levine, first designed video games at Mattel Electronics, programming the Intellivision Bowling cartridge with Mike Minkoff.
EXPERTS CLUB PERFORMANCE STANDARD: $300,000,000 bill.
Design, Programming, Sound and Music: David Warhol Graphic: Connie Goldman, Joe King, Peggi Fiebig Gameboard design: David Warhol, Mark Buchignani Working title: Mindstrike USA launch: 1983
A futuristic, 3-dimensional space version of a chessboard game. Pit your skill against a computer, or another player. Alternate turns with your opponent or move simultaneously for a fast-action game. You can even sit back and watch the computer play itself. Use the keyboard to program the computer opponent to match your skill as you master the game. Select from over 50 challenging game boards.
Mind Strike was an original game that David Warhol had created before coming to Mattel Electronics.
He started work on it as an Intellivision cartridge. Since the Master Component didn't have enough memory for a computer player, he designed it as a two-player game.
When the Entertainment Computer System was introduced with its extra RAM, Dave was asked to change Mind Strike to a one- or two-player ECS cartridge. He proposed making it two-player for Intellivision, one-player for ECS, but Marketing insisted on it being unplayable without the ECS module in order to boost ECS sales.
Dave's favorite number is 47 (it's a thing amongst Pomona College alumni), so board 47 reads "DAVE."
David Warhol called the game Mindstrike; he wasn't happy when Marketing changed it to two words.
All the game boards are symmetrical; they look the same when viewed upside-down. So Dave had the name Mind Strike on the title screen designed so that it, too, reads the same upside-down.
Program: John Tomlinson Graphic: Karen Nugent, Mark Buczek Sound: Andy Sells Licence: Based on the Data East arcade game USA launch: 1983
You're flying a top secret bombing raid over enemy territory. Your mission: To wipe out the enemy battleships, tanks, artillery guns and bridges that come into view as you sweep over the country. Watch out for enemy flak and gunfire! Touch down and go at it again. Fly during the day, or attempt a dangerous night mission.
An M Network Atari 2600 version was announced but never completed. APh Technology Consultants started a VIC20 version without authorization, but were informed by VP Gabriel Baum that (a) Mattel hadn't decided to do VIC20 releases and (b) if they did, Mission X would not be included.
Press 6 on the right hand controller, 9 on the left and hit RESET to bring up programmer John Tomlinson's name on the title screen.
Design: Rick Koenig, Rick Levine Program: Rick Koenig Graphic: Joe Ferreira, Rick Levine Sound: Mark Urbaniec Working title: MX USA launch: 1983
Speeding up the long straights, blasting through tight S turns, or hurling across wild jumps, you're meant to eat dirt and claim victory! What a racing bike you've got! The competition is fierce, the terrain is rough. Challenge your toughest adversary, then leave him behind, as you cross the finish line!
Started by Rick Levine in 1981 as his follow-up project to PBA Bowling, Motocross was put on hold when Rick left Mattel. (Tired of commuting from Irvine to Hawthorne, Rick took a non-gaming job. Later, he went to work for Imagic, where he programmed the Intellivision games Microsurgeon and Truckin'). Months later, biker Rick Koenig took a stab at completing the game. After several weeks, he got permission to scrap the existing code and begin from scratch. Only Rick Levine's basic concept and graphics were kept, with new animations by Joe Ferreira.
Rick Koenig approached the game scientifically, writing routines to simulate all the movements of the cycles according to the laws of physics. The result is motorcycles that accelerate, skid and jump realistically.
Although announced in Mattel catalogs in 1981 and 1982 as part of the Intellivision Sports Network, by the time the game was released in 1983 the themed "networks" had been dropped. The Sports Network isn't mentioned on Motocross's final packaging.
Gravity is a factor in the motion routines. During testing, Rick made gravity adjustable to determine the best looking arc when jumping. Several unsuspecting programmers were invited to test the game, not knowing gravity had been set to zero. The first time their cycles hit a ramp, the cycles would sail up-up-and-away off the screen, while the programmers frantically tapped the controller discs, trying to make them come back down.
Rick was able to reuse his basic algorithms from Motocross several times: in Racing Destruction Set, a Commodore 64 game for Electronic Arts (produced by his old Mattel boss, Don Daglow), in Stadium Mud Buggies, an Intellivision game for INTV Corp., and in Monster Truck Rally, an NES game also for INTV.
Design and Programming: Ray Kaestner Graphic: Connie Goldman Sound: David Warhol Art: Steve Huston Production: Realtime Associates USA launch: 1988
Includes code from the previously released US Ski Team Skiing
The thrills and excitement of a day on the slopes! Explore the turns and obstacles of unknown courses or slalom through flags at breakneck speeds to beat the clock! All the fun without the lift lines!
Credits roll automatically if you leave the title screen up long enough.
Licence: Based on the Exidy Incorporated arcade game USA launch: 1982
This unusual maze game puts you in control of a mouse who must be guided through a labyrinth of doors and corridors. As it goes, the mouse eats cheese bits and tries to avoid the ravenous cats. At times, the mouse can transform into a dog and go after the cats! A secret tunnel also offers escape. And you can even open or close groups of doors to change the maze and get the mouse through.
Versions were released for Atari 2600 and ColecoVision as well as Intellivision.
Doesn't work on Intellivision II. (Find out why here).
Design: Design & Development Department USA launch: 1983
An introduction to computers and BASIC programming through the fun of a video game. Control "Mr. BASIC" and capture the "Bits" and "Bytes" in one of three exciting games. Learn to write simple programs on the Computer Keyboard. Or, use the hand controllers just for fun. These programs use our unique color-coded graphics system to make learning programming as easy as a game.
The Entertainment Computer System hardware and internal software was designed and programmed in the Design & Development department headed by Richard Chang. This game was intended to teach users the simplified BASIC language built into the ECS.
This game has the longest instructions of any Intellivision game, consisting of a 72-page spiral bound instruction book
Program: Kevin Miller Art: Jerrol Richardson Licence: NASL Marketing, Inc. Production: APh Technological Consulting USA launch: 09/04/1980 (No. 6) Brazil launch: 11/1983
A well executed drive down the soccer field is a thing of beauty. The man with the ball jukes, whirls, passes to his teammate. The teammate dribbles toward the goal until he attracts a crowd of opponents. Then he passes to a third man who sets up the score.
The game action is as realistic as the excitement of Pro Soccer -- minus the black 'n blue shins.
An M Network Atari 2600 version, called International Soccer, was released.
Program: Ken Smith Art: Jerrol Richardson Licence: NBA Properties, Inc. and the National Basketball Association Production: APh Technological Consulting USA launch: 08/25/1980 (No. 1) Brazil launch: 09/1984
Two teams square off at mid-court. Up they go for the jump ball. It's tipped to your team. You fake, drive, and move in for a slam dunk!
Each three man team of remarkably realistic athletes can dribble. Pass in any direction, jump, block, steal...even take a casual set shot when they've caught the other guys napping.
Four action-packed quarters -- plus overtime when needed!
NBA Basketball was one of the games to be included on the Go For the Gold album cartridge.
Program: Ken Smith, Glyn Anderson (instant replay feature) Art: Jerrol Richardson Licence: National Football League Properties, Inc. Production: APh Technological Consulting USA launch: 08/27/1980 (No. 2)
The whistle blows! The crowd roars! The two teams sprint onto the field and line up for the opening kickoff.
Your ball, first and ten on the twenty yard line. Will you grind out the yardage on the ground...or risk a long bomb for a quick score? You and your opponent can choose from over 180 offensive and defensive plays -- so it's as much a game of strategy as execution.
Two full halves of fun. With all the refinements of passing, punting, end runs and razzle-dazzles. The computer keeps track of time and score, and the crowd lets you know what it thinks of your performance.
An M Network Atari 2600 version, called Super Challenge Football, was released.
Program: Ken Smith Art: Jerrol Richardson Licence: NHL Services, Inc. Production: APh Technological Consulting USA launch: 10/03/1980 (No. 10)
Your opponent has a man in the penalty box, so it's time to push hard on offense. There's the whistle! Time to move down the ice. Your team mows toward the opposing goal in perfect formation, nudging the puck back and forth as defenders move in.
You're across the blue line. You send a pass across the front of the goal, then...wham! a screaming slap shot whips past the goalie and in for the score.
The crowd roars its approval. And the buzzer announces the end of the game. You won! A little practice and you'll be ready for the big time.
NHL Hockey was one of the games to be included on the Go For the Gold album cartridge.
Design and Programming: Steve Montero Graphic: Peter Allen Art: Jerrol Richardson Sound: Russ Lieblich Working title: Attacker USA launch: 05/16/1982 (No. 29) Brazil launch: 10/1984
You're on the run. Your attackers are relentless robots. Destroy one and it's replaced by an even smarter, faster robot. It's a nightmare. Your only defenses are avoidance and weapons found somewhere in the labyrinth. When one weapon empties, you avoid robots to find another. Duck around a corner or go into your safe house. But, be careful. There are also people-size spiders and their webs to slow your escape. Bats also wing their way at you. If either spiders or bats bite you, you're stunned; easier prey for the robot attackers.
Steve Montero is an expert on robotics, so it was natural for him to program Night Stalker. In development late in 1981, the game was a favorite with other programmers, who didn't need their arms twisted to spend hours testing it. Unfortunately, the first time Marketing brought in some 12-year-old kid to try it out, he got further than any of the programmers had. A new, tougher robot had to be added to the game, at the cost of losing one of the best features: the spider's web (the game was only 4K in size). Originally, as the spider crawled around the maze it left a web that would slow you down considerably as you ran through it. You could shoot the web away, but you'd use up bullets. Without the web, the spider became like the bats: just a nuisance.
After Night Stalker was finished, game cartridges began getting larger in size, so Steve proposed Ms. Night Stalker, a 12K sequel that would include the web and all the other features he had wanted, including multiple weapons (bazookas to blast through walls!), multiple scrolling mazes and smarter robots. Marketing shelved the idea and Steve was assigned to program Space Shuttle instead, which may have been a contributing factor toward Steve leaving Mattel and the game industry not long after.
Mattel Electronics released M Network versions of Night Stalker for the Atari 2600, the Apple II and the IBM PC. (The Atari 2600 version was called Dark Cavern.) A version was also released for the Aquarius Home Computer System.
Carefully count how many bullets you have left. It's always wise to kill a robot with your last shot to give you time to get a new weapon.
In the beginning, shooting bats is a good way to rack up points. However, after 5,000 points, remember every bat that you hit turns into a Gray Robot.
Don't just concentrate on robots at higher point levels. The bats and spiders can sneak up on you when you're not watching.
When being followed by the White Robot, don't be afraid to use the bunker. Peek your head out and fire a quick shot at him and then duck inside for cover.
The only sure way to kill the Black Robot is to fire at him from pointblank range. Try ducking around a corner or come out of the bunker and fire off a quick shot. You have to be very close to make a direct hit.
Night Stalker is a favorite of Blue Sky Ranger Steve Roney (Space Spartans, B-17 Bomber). He plays the game with a controller in each hand -- one to run, one to shoot -- since buttons and disk cannot be used simultaneously on one controller.
Steve adds: "Another trick to bagging the later robots has to do with there being only one moving object available for the robot bullets. If you wait just above the place where the robot appears and dangle your feet where the robot can see, the robot will shoot below your feet. You can then safely drop down and quickly get off all three shots to nail the robot before his bullet gets all the way across the bottom!!!!"
Russ Lieblich was proud of his sound effects for Night Stalker, especially the constant heartbeat. Whenever he heard someone playing the game, he'd run into their cubicle, grab the volume control on the TV, and turn it up full.
Design and Programming: Wendell Brown Graphics Assistance: Karen Elliott Sound: Dave Durran USA launch: 1983
Pilot Nova 1 above the Capsuled Cities. Defend 4 cities in your quadrant. Use your radar to detect enemy activity. Race to protect these civilized outposts before their capsules are destroyed! Engage the enemy in galactic dogfights. Locate anti-aircraft guns and destroy them. Beam up fuel as you run low.
This was an original game for Intellivision. Imagic later released a version for ColecoVision.
Program: Mike Winans Graphic: Eric Wels Sound: Russ Haft Licence: Based on the Bally/Midway arcade game licensed by Namco USA launch: 1983
The refinements of dot chomping lead to high scores as hungry Pac-Man avoids ambush by vicious goblins. All the fun and excitement of the real arcade version!
Since Lock 'N' Chase was Mattel Electronics' answer to Pac-Man, it only made sense that Lock 'N' Chase's programmer, Mike Winans, should program Pac-Man when he moved from Mattel to Atari.
INTV Corp. bought the remaining inventory of Pac-Man cartridges after Atari stopped distributing them. Sales were still strong enough that when the stock ran out in the mid-1980s, INTV bought the software rights from Atari, relicensed the game from Namco and manufactured new cartridges, removing the Atari logo from the game's title screen and packaging (right).
On the title screen, press 1 and 9 simultaneously to pause the game (black screen). Press any key to return to the title screen with the Atari logo "blocky".
Program and Graphic: Mike Minkoff, Rick Levine Sound: John Sohl Art: Jerrol Richardson Licence: Professional Bowlers' Association USA launch: 07/31/1981 (No. 21)
Warm up by picking up some tricky spares. Now you're ready for ten frames of championship bowling. Select the bail weight you prefer. Decide how "slick" you want the alley. Take a few deep breaths and...you're up!
Aim carefully allowing for loft and curve. Release nice and smooth, and watch the ball plunge into the sweet part of the pocket. Strike! Keep it up, score 200, and you'll get a rousing fanfare.
PBA Bowling was the first Intellivision game actually programmed by Mattel employees: Mike Minkoff and Rick Levine from the handheld-games department. Since Mattel didn't have development equipment yet (1980), Mike and Rick commuted from Mattel in Hawthorne to APh in Pasadena three days a week. Mike gives Rick, an avid bowler, credit for the many realistic details in the game.
Program: Scott Bishop Art: Jerrol Richardson Licence: Professional Golfers' Association of America Production: APh Technological Consulting USA launch: 11/05/1980 (No. 18)
Stand steady at the tee...head down...slow backswing. Now, drive your tee shot 220 yards down the fairway, splitting a pair of sandtraps. Loft a five iron onto the green. And sink a twenty foot putt for a birdie!
You control the swing and aim throughout 9 championship quality holes. The fairways and greens are beautifully manicured, but the sand traps are deep...and the rough is...rough!
Design and Programming: Bob Newstadt, Minh Chou Tran Graphic: Monique Lujan-Bakerink, Peggi Decarli Sound: Mark Urbaniec USA launch: 1983 Brazil launch: 11/1984
A challenging and exciting video version of the time-honored Pinball machine you find in arcades. You get it all -- five balls, flippers, two- player scores, with all the sounds and action of the real thing. If you've ever "tilted" a real pinball machine, try our Pinball. You're in for some surprises and a whale of a lot of fun.
Pinball was in production longer than any other Intellivision game -- well over two years. Chou Tran, who started the game, could never get the ball motion debugged. Finally, Bob Newstadt was assigned to help her. He got the motion problems worked out, then he and Chou expanded the design from it's original single screen to its final multi-screen layout.
Although originally announced as part of the red-boxed Action Network, the game was released in 1983, after the "network" concept was dropped. Pinball was released in a purple box.
Design and Programming: David Crane USA launch: 1982 Brazil launch: 11/1984
Danger lurks at every turn, as Pitfall by Activision brings a jungle no-man's land to life for your Intellivision. Jump into the shoes of Pitfall Harry, as he leads you on an incredible adventure in search of lost treasures. You'll race against time, through this hostile jungle, fighting off hungry crocodiles! Deadly snakes and scorpions! Treacherous tar pits and quicksand! Run, leap, swing from vines! And with any luck, you might even survive.
Pitfall!, originally released for the Atari 2600, was Activision's first big success (it spawned a sequel - Pitfall II: Lost Caverns - on Colecovision). David Crane, the game's designer, programmed this Intellivision version. Activision later released versions of Pitfall! for Atari 5200 and ColecoVision.
"As you set off on your first adventure with Harry, you'll notice two important features: that the logs always roll from left to right, and that the 'replacement' Harrys (after Harry loses a life) drop from the trees on the left side of the screen. So, to minimize the number of rolling logs to be jumped, and the catastrophic hazards to be retried, simply run to the left.
"Pitfall Harry's trip must be made through a maze of surface and underground passages through the jungle. To capture all 32 treasures in under twenty minutes, Harry will have to use some of the underground passages. I'd suggest that you make a map of the terrain each time you play. Knowing the jungle and planning the best route to all the treasures is the only way to insure success time after time.
"Until you get really skilled at making Harry jump from croc to croc, you might wait until the crocodiles' jaws are closed, jump to the top of the first croc's head, then wait for the jaws to open and close again before jumping to the next one. Soon, you'll be skipping across crocs like they were stepping stones in a stream."
Players who sent a photo to Activision showing a score of 20,000 or more received an "Activision Explorers Club" emblem.
Program: Mark Urbaniec Graphic: Connie Goldman Sound: David Warhol Art: Danny Brauer Licence: Based on the arcade game by Namco Production: Realtime Associates USA launch: 1988
Take the controls and wait for the green light. 3...2...1...YOU'RE OFF! Your engine roars! Shift into high, weave through the pack, and pull out into the open! A tight curve! Tires scream! You start to skid -- and another car is right in front of you! Swerve onto the grass, race ahead, then back onto the track just before smashing into a road sign! Gun it -- seconds count -- and you're across the finish line in record time! But that was just the qualifying lap...
INTV Corporation had the chance to license the popular arcade game Pole Position and asked Dave Warhol if it could be converted to the Intellivision. While the Intellivision is technologically not well suited to a point-of-view driving game, Dave did some experiments and determined that it could be done.
Former Mattel Electronics manager Mark Urbaniec (Vectron) was approached to do the programming. His first reaction was "Pole Position? On the Intellivision? You're crazy." But, seeing the tests Dave had done, agreed to try it. The result was an acceptable translation of the arcade game, but in hindsight everyone agreed that it was a game that probably shouldn't have been attempted for Intellivision.
(An earlier unfinished attempt at Pole Position had been made at Atarisoft; none of that code was used in this version.)
Licence: Based on the Nintendo of America, Inc. arcade game Licence: King Features Syndicate, Inc. USA launch: 1983
Climb aboard and join Popeye as you race him through a crazy maze in pursuit of Olive Oyl's falling hearts. The more hearts you help him catch, the higher your score. Of course, it won't be easy with Brutus and the Sea Hag around! Lead Popeye to his spinach in time and it's curtains for this pesky pair. If not - it's into the briny deep for this sailor! A fast and fun game for all ages!
This game was also released for Atari 2600, Atari 5200 and ColecoVision.
All the action and excitement of the popular arcade game are here! Hop Q*bert up and down a pyramid of cubes, changing colors on each of the cube tops. When they're all the same color, Q*bert moves to a new - and more difficult - pyramid. But strange characters want to stop Q*bert from his fanciful mission. You'll have to do some fast hopping in this quick and "quasy" game!
Parker Brothers also released Q*bert for Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Atari 400/800/600XL, ColecoVision, Commodore Vic 20, Commodore 64 and TI99/4A.
Program: Greg Favor Art: Jerrol Richardson Production: APh Technological Consulting Working title: Othello USA launch: 05/11/1982 (No. 31) Brazil launch: 09/1984
Three levels of difficulty insure you'll be playing Reversi for a long, long time. Your objective is to take control of the board. Your opponent is either another player or the computer. Either way, it's great fun. As the game progresses, the playing pieces switch from black to white or white to black depending on which player takes control. Your score is continuously displayed on the screen.
Reversi is an old board game that seems to make a reappearance every generation or so. In the late seventies, it had regained popularity from one toy company under the trademark Othello.
Atari licensed the name Othello for a video game version, but the game itself was in public domain, so Mattel also did a version. In trying to come up with a title for it, Mattel discovered that the classic name of the game, Reversi, had never been trademarked. So Reversi (TM Mattel) became the name of the cartridge.
Design: Carol Shaw Program: Peter Kaminski USA launch: 1983 Brazil launch: 11/1984
The enemy has positioned a series of bridges across the river to ensure a supply line. Your orders are to destroy those bridges, and demolish choppers, tankers, and jets that patrol along the waterway. As you advance, the canyon narrows and the enemy gets smarter. Stay alert, the enemy never sleeps. And any mistake you make could be your very last. River Raid. Can you make it?
Carol Shaw originally designed and programmed River Raid for the Atari 2600. Peter Kaminski programmed this version for Intellivision. Activision later released versions of River Raid for Atari 5200 and ColecoVision.
From designer Carol Shaw and programmer Peter Kaminski in the Pitfall! instruction manual:
"The River of No Return holds many special challenges and dangers for would-be River Raiders. You'll not only have to know your assault jet, but you'll need to have a good idea of your basic flight plan before you start.
"By knowing the river, pinpointing areas with the highest concentration of enemy, and the most fuel depots, you'll have a much better chance of surviving. We suggest you use the river banks and islands to your advantage, since you can fly over them, while the helicopters and ships can't.
"Fuel is also a critical factor. When you're far up the river, fuel is scarce. Hence, flying to the next fuel depot should be your top priority. Also, you'll find you can actually blow up a fuel depot right in the middle of refueling. That way, you can gain points and refuel at the same time.
"The really advanced player should practice flying through the trees. Not only is it a lot of fun, but winging it through the forest might get you out of a tight spot sometime."
Players who sent a photo to Activision showing a score of 35,000 or more received an "Activision River Raiders" emblem.
Program: Rich O'Keefe Art: Jerrol Richardson Production: APh Technology Consultants Working titles: Cards, Card Fun USA launch: 1982 (No. 37)
If you don't always have someone to play cards with and you're not challenged enough by Solitaire, this cartridge introduces you to three players and three different card games: Hearts, Rummy and Crazy Eights. Your computer deals the cards and keeps score. You can choose to play against one, two or three players.
While a fairly minor release (36,000 initial shipment), Royal Dealer had a major effect on the development cycle inside Mattel Electronics. Long overdue from APh, when the game was finished it went straight into production with only brief playtesting by a few other programmers. When it was too late, it was discovered that the cartridge contained a major -- and easy to come across -- bug that crashed the game. Because of the low sales expected, Marketing decided to ship the cartridge anyway with an errata slip, but they were furious.
The Quality Assurance department, which had frequently been bypassed on late games such as this one and B-17 Bomber, was immediately given life-or-death authority over all future games: nothing was allowed to be released until the official game testers Traci Roux and Dale Lynn had signed off on it. They were merciless: stomping on a game then gleefully showing the videotaped results to the programmer when they found a bug. But it paid off; to this day, we haven't seen any reports of bugs in games they approved.
Recreating the bug discussed above was outlined in a September 30, 1982 memo from game tester Traci Roux to Joel Crain, head of Quality Assurance:
The following steps lead to the problems with Royal Dealer. They occur in all four games.
1. You are rearranging your cards and have a card out of the deck. Then one of the players lays down her final card and that round ends.
2. The new round starts and you hit the disk. The card from the last hand appears. Depending on how you rearrange and throw your cards, different errors can occur. (If you hit rearrange first, the game will progress normally, and the errors never occur.) The errors that occur are:
a. You can rearrange the blank cards that are displayed. If you rearrange enough times,the program gets confused and the screen blanks out. You have to hit reset to start over.
b. Sometimes when you lift up a card to rearrange, you see it where the card was. This usually occurs if this is one card by itself.
c. If you have to draw 15 cards and they are all in a row, it usually will not let you pass. The result is that you have to hit reset to start over.
d. In Rummy, if you win the round the music plays and the card screen comes up. The screen doesn't show "GIN" by your hand and a card shows up in your final hand that wasn't there before. Results are that you can't continue to the next hand, and you have to hit reset to start over.
e. If a gap appears between your cards, you cannot get to the cards on the left side of the gap. The gap will go away if you can discard your cards on the right of the gap. If you need a heart, for example, and you draw until you have 15 cards, you may have to pass. If there is a heart on the left side of the gap, you cannot get to it, the program sees the heart, and will not allow you to pass. The result is you have to hit reset to start over.
Because of this bug, the following errata slip was added to the packaging: "Please correct your instruction booklet on Page 2 to read: You can only rearrange your cards each time it is your turn before playing or discarding a card from your hand. Once you have played or discarded, you must wait until your next turn before rearranging your cards."
Design and Programming: Marvin Mednick Sound: Dave Durran USA launch: 06/1983
You're the super spy and your mission - recapture sensitive stolen documents, top secret equipment, and gold! Cruise the city streets in your limousine but watch out - enemy secret police are on the hunt...for you! Keep an eye peeled for the building where the secrets are stored then slip inside.
Can you crack the combination? Maybe you should blow it open, or would that bring enemy agents down on you? Run for it! The chase is on. Can you keep ahead of them? Your gunfire says maybe so. But watch out! Your car careens mighty close to one curb...can you pull it off, or will you do time in a foreign prison?
Design and Programming: Mark Kennedy Graphic: Connie Goldman, Mark Buczek, Monique Lujan-Bakerink Licence: Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. Working titles: Three Blond Mice, Three Blind Mice USA launch: 1983
You're Scooby-Doo chasing ghosts through a baffling maze. When suddenly you discover you're the one being chased -- by the evil skull and crossbones. Drop magic obstacles to slow the Jolly Roger's pursuit. Choose from 10 preprogrammed mazes. Or, use the computer keyboard to create your own.
This was an original game called Three Blind Mice designed by Mark Kennedy (actually Mark named it Three Blond Mice, but it wound up on Marketing schedules as Blind). But Marketing was looking for games to drop the expensive cartoon licenses they had obtained into. Thus, Three Blind Mice became Scooby Doo's Maze Chase.
Program: Ken Smith Art: Jerrol Richardson Production: APh Technological Consulting USA launch: 10/03/1980 (No. 14)
Destroyers, battleships, submarines, minesweepers, and aircraft carriers! You're the Admiral, and your mission is to rid the seas of the enemy fleet.
Start by setting a strategy. Lay invisible minefields where you think the big enemy ships will travel. But be careful, because the other Admiral is laying mines to foil you...
Battle stations! Now you slug it out with shells, torpedoes, and naval tactics. Sleek battleships are waiting to pounce on sluggish minesweepers. You can't relax for a minute.
But who worries about the torpedoes, you say. Full speed ahead!
An M Network version of the game - called Sea Battle in some catalogs, High Seas in others - was announced for the Atari 2600 and completed, but never released. An Aquarius version was also announced, but never completed.
Design and Programming: Stephen Willey USA launch: 1983
One or two players compete to guide Sewer Sam through myriad mazes of danger-filled tunnels searching for...beep, beep, beep...three enemy submarines that have invaded the city's sewer system. But watch out for subterranean dangers, as Sam dodges and shoots snakes, crocodiles, bats, rats, web-spinning spiders, and more! Enough to make even the stout-hearted shudder...as Sam searches through wet and dry tunnels for the ultimate showdown!
This game was also released for ColecoVision, along with a sequel, Squish 'Em Featuring Sam. Advertised versions for Atari and Commodore 64 were not released.
Design and Programming: Ji-Wen Tsao Sound and Music: Andy Sells Art: Jerrol Richardson Working titles: Shark USA launch: 12/06/1982 (No. 42) Brazil launch: 11/1983
It's survival of the fittest in the deep, dark waters of the ocean. And you're just a little fish! You must eat smaller fish to stay alive and grow. But you're not the only one struggling for survival. Bigger fish are out to eat you. Beware, the most feared predator of all is on your tail. Shark, Shark! One or two-player action.
Marketing totally dismissed Shark! Shark! as an inconsequential kiddie game and was reluctant to release it. It had one of the smallest initial shipments of any Intellivision game -- only 5,600 copies in 1982 (compared to nearly 800,000 for the heavily advertised Star Strike). So, of course, there were almost no copies in the stores when Shark! Shark! went on to become one of the best reviewed Intellivision games ever ("Shark! Shark! is an original. A must cartridge for Intellivision owners...positively delightful...certainly one of the finest cartridges for this system." -- Videogaming Illustrated, June 1983).
Designer Ji-Wen Tsao got the idea for the game from the Chinese proverb "Big fish eat little fish."
In animating the sea creatures, Ji-Wen was unsure how a crab moved. After she was unable to find a real or videotaped one, cubicle neighbor Steve Sents (TRON Deadly Discs) brought his pet tarantula into the office for her to use as a model. We aren't sure if it was any help as a crab model, but it sure creeped out the other programmers.
Everyone thought it would be a great gag to use the song Mack the Knife ("Oh, the shark, babe, has such teeth, dear...") for the "game over" music. Andy Sells put together a hilarious arrangement of the song which was used in the prototype version, while the Mattel crack legal team looked into getting clearance to use it. We had never licensed a song before, so they weren't used to tracking down rights, but they finally found the owner: Warner Communications...parent company of Atari. Andy wrote an original tune to use instead.
Due to a timing error in the Intellivision II, the bubble sounds don't have their full effect when the cartridge is played on that system.
Program: Frank Evans Art: Jerrol Richardson Production: APh Technological Consulting Working titles: Poww, Zzap! USA launch: 10/28/1982 (No. 42)
An exciting new target shooting game specially designed for children. There are four different shooting ranges for one or two players. Hit the pass receiver. Shoot down the spinning spacecraft. Bomb Navy ships. Fire at the maze monsters. Challenging action for video game beginners.
These four single-button games were originally programmed by APh for a TV game show -- contestants controlled the single fire button by saying "Pow!" With no advance notice, APh sent over these four games stitched into one with the intention that Mattel release it as a children's cartridge. Since Mattel by contract had to buy a certain amount of product each year from APh, Marketing agreed to release the cartridge, over the objections of Gabriel Baum, VP of Application Software.
Gabriel particularly objected to the packaging. In a memo to Marketing (August 31, 1982), he wrote: "...the packaging and instructions do not in any way indicate that the game and graphic content of the cartridge is extremely simplistic...I believe that Mattel Electronics is going to be exposed to very unfavorable comment when consumers discover that the quality of the cartridge is in many ways reminiscent of early Atari games." In answer to this memo, Marketing had a label added to the front of the package reading, "Specially designed game for children over 4."
An M Network Atari 2600 version of the game was also submitted by APh. It was rejected.
Design and Programming: David Warhol, Steve Ettinger Graphic: Connie Goldman Sound: David Warhol Art: Adam Yurman Production: Realtime Associates USA launch: 1987
The Only Sport Game Cartridge That Lets You Own and Manage a Pro Team, and Play Every Position!
As owner:
Assemble your team from a pool of 70 players!
Player stats based on real major league players!
Check out salaries -- you have to stay within budget!
As Manager:
Decide when to put players in and when to take them out!
Keep track of the other team's substitutions.
Watch for your players getting tired!
As Player:
YOU run with the ball!
YOU decide when to pass!
YOU make the SLAM DUNK!
Play against a friend or battle the computer!
5 different play levels.
Fouls & Free throws!
3 point half-court shot!
Call time outs!
24 second clock!
The speed of the on-screen players and their shot percentages are influenced by the players' statistics. Steve Ettinger compiled the stats from real pro players, using fake names (many borrowed from INTV and Mattel employees) to avoid licensing issues.
One group of Intellivision fans in Chicago became so addicted to Slam Dunk that they started searching in phone books from across the country for the names listed in the game credits, finally tracking down Steve Ettinger over a year after the game was released. They wanted to commission a custom version of Slam Dunk, using their names and playing statistics. Taken by the group's enthusiasm, Steve and Dave Warhol complied, providing them with a special prototype cartridge. Last Steve heard from them, they were still holding regular tournaments on their Intellivision.
Program: Ray Kaestner Production: Realtime Associates USA launch: 1987
Includes code from the previously released NHL Hockey
INCREDIBLE ACTION, SPEED, AND SOUNDS PUT YOU RIGHT ON THE ICE!
Play against a friend or take on a tough computer-controlled team!
Full control of ALL your team's players to pass and shoot!
Special SLAP SHOT button for a screaming shot into the goal!
Penalty box!
Face offs, trapping, interceptions!
Unlike some of the other Super Pro titles, which included enhanced features such as choosing individual computer players of different abilities to make up the teams, Slap Shot: Super Pro Hockey is essentailly just the original Intellivision NHL Hockey cartridge with a one-player mode.
Ray Kaestner made the additions to the original APh Technological Consulting code.
Credits automatically display if no action is taken on the title screen.
Programmer Ray Kaestner points out that, probably because there are so few differences from the original over 5-years-old NHL Hockey cartridge, one magazine reviewer called Slap Shot: Super Pro Hockey the worst Intellivision game ever. The same reviewer had, in an earlier magazine, called BurgerTime the BEST Intellivision game ever. Ray is amused at being the programmer (according to at least one person) of both the BEST and WORST Intellivision games.
Program, Graphic and Sound: Mike Minkoff Music: Russ Lieblich Art: Jerrol Richardson Working titles: Blockade+Snakes, Ssssnakes! USA launch: 10/05/1981 (No. 24) Brazil launch: 11/1983
You each start off with little lines that start to grow.
They grow fast, tangling, weaving, writhing like magic beanstalks. And you're at the controls, trying to completely enclose the other guy so he can't grow any more.
This is a game of lightning quick strategic decisions. Hesitate...or slip...and you'll find yourself surrounded.
Developed under the working title Blockade+Snakes to reflect the two basic versions of the game. In the first, inspired by the board game Blockade, opponents try to surround and trap each other. In the second, inspired by a handheld LED game in development at Mattel but never released, opponents bite at each other's tails until one is reduced to nothing.
Mike liked the name Ssssnakes! and started using it on the title screen; he fought for it to be the final name. Marketing instead chose Snafu, from the military acronym "Situation Normal -- All Fouled Up" (actually, most veterans use a different word than "Fouled"). Mike hated the name since it had nothing to do with the gameplay.
From Intellivision Game Club News, Issue 2, Winter 1982 (credited to "Mike, another Intellivision programming specialist")::
Practice steering -- Get a good feel for the action of the direction disk.
Anticipate -- Concentrate on the moves of the opposing snakes as well as your own.
Plan ahead -- Press the direction disk JUST SLIGHTLY ahead of when you want to turn. If you wait too long, you won't be able to turn until the next avenue.
For the "trap" games -- try getting in front of the opposing snakes forcing them to the outside. If you're clever, you can create channels around the perimeter from which the opposing snakes cannot escape. Allow a snake back into the middle and you make it easier for it to double back to trap you.
For the "bite" games -- learn to read the rebounds. Be careful not to bite off your own tail by doubling back on yourself. Alternate between the horizontal, vertical and diagonal modes to cross up your opponent. Go on the defensive when you have only a few links left. This will give your snake time to grow new links. For a twist in strategy, go on the defensive right from the start. Grow extra links before you attack.
Program: John Brooks and Chris Hawley Art: Jerrol Richardson Production: APh Technological Consulting USA launch: 10/15/1981 (No. 25) Brazil launch: 09/1984
You're defending Planet Earth against the unrelenting attack of alien warlords.
At first they throw their light brigades at you. If you're quick and careful, you should be able to elude their bombs, moving out of the way or taking refuge behind a bunker.
But when you wipe out the first couple of brigades, they'll launch a more deadly attack, dropping faster, more lethal bombs. Clear the battlefield once more, and they'll resort to guided missiles and even more fiendish devices.
You've got your hands full -- of excitement and aliens!
Space Armada is a clone of the arcade game Space Invaders. According to Mattel lawyers, the copyright of the original game hadn't been properly protected. Any other company could make their own version as long as they changed the name ("Space Invaders" is a trademark).
Space Armada was the first Intellivision game to take advantage of "sequencing GRAM" to create the illusion of more than eight moving objects (sprites) on-screen at one time.
Press 4 and 6 on the first control, the lower buttons on the second control and press RESET to play the Spaz Armada version.
Press CLEAR and ENTER on the first control, the lower buttons on the second control and press RESET to play the Space Beasties version.
From Intellivision Game Club News, Issue 3, Summer 1982:
Start to the right. Knock off vertical columns to delay the armada from advancing down another rank. The fewer columns left in the armada, the better your chances of clearing the screen as the armada approaches the bottom.
Hit the saucer. It's difficult but well worth it. Not only do you get points, a bunker will be rebuilt as well.
Don't get hit. Stay mobile or hide behind the bunkers. You'll need every "life" possible late in the game.
Remember the red spiral missiles don't need a direct hit to cause damage. If you're too close when the missile hits bottom, your base will be destroyed.
Outmaneuver the red homing missiles. Lead them into a bunker. They will crash and self-destruct. Or, lead them along to one side, quickly double-back underneath and fire.
Concentrate. Remember the structure of the invisible armadas. Many good players suffer early defeat because they forgot the presence of just one alien.
Program: Hal Finney Art: Jerrol Richardson Production: APh Technological Consulting USA launch: 08/25/1980 (No. 4) Brazil launch: 10/1984
The alien squadron is closing in on your Mother Ship. You're awesomely outnumbered, and they attack and attack...
Flick on the situation map and analyze your position. Dispatch a fighter squadron toward the closest alien cluster.
You're smarter, a little faster, and you're going to let these aliens know they've got a fight on their hands.
Flick back to a cockpit close-up view. Here they come! Aim lasers...fire!
Computerized situation map
Close-up attack viewer
Computerized and manual battle modes
An M Network version of the game, called Space Attack, was released for the Atari 2600.
From Intellivision Game Club News, Issue 2, Winter 1982 (credited to "Hal, one of our creative programmers"):
Strategy Mode (radar screen)
Fight your own fights -- when the computer fights for you, you will probably lose more ships than if you fought the battle yourself. Rotate through your squadrons if more than one is engaged.
Stagger dispatches -- if you carefully time your squadron dispatching, you may be able to complete the first battle before your second squadron engages.
Don't let the radar screen fool you -- make your dispatch decisions based on the actual distances from the aliens to your mother ship. The rectangular layout on the game screen may cause you to misjudge the distance.
Win the battle but don't lose the war -- the instant one of your squadrons defeats an alien squadron, dispatch your squadron to another alien group or return it to base. Don't waste valuable time by leaving a squadron drifting aimlessly in space.
Hit them where it hurts -- if an alien squadron penetrates your home base territory, send in one of your squadrons. Keep the alien squadron busy and they'll have less striking power to use against your home base.
Battle Mode
Practice aiming -- lead the ships with your cursor for best results.
Keep moving -- after firing, it's not necessary to keep your cursor on target. Your lasers will blast the spot at which they were fired. Move on to a new target, and keep mobile to avoid enemy lasers.
Avoid target fixation -- keep switching back to the radar screen to track alien progress.
Design and Programming: Bill Fisher, John Sohl Graphic and Sound: Bill Fisher Art: Jerrol Richardson USA launch: 04/19/1982 (No. 28)
You're equipped with a jetpack for directional avoidance control, a blaster for protection and 5 force shields. If you get hit, you lose a shield. Not only that, you're sent into a space spin that could be disastrous. While you're regaining control, UFOs and comets scream past you. Of course, you can use hyperspace to get out of a super-tight spot. That'll put a few million light years between you and danger. But, watch out. You could wind up in an even hotter spot. If you want to find out how good you are, invite a friend over, compare scores.
Most new programmers started their first day with a copy of a simple training game called Killer Tomatoes. They were expected to spend a few weeks playing with it and modifying it to get a feel for how the Intellivision system worked before being assigned to a real game.
Bill Fisher, however, had a different training game. On his first day in June 1981 he was given John Sohl's original Asteroids version of Astrosmash. He was told to modify it into a game that would still be like Asteroids, but different enough that the Mattel lawyers would allow it to be released. Space Hawk was the result. (And while he was at it, he fixed the bug in displaying the score.)
While testing the game, Bill came across a bug: every now and then, the game would, seemingly at random, hyperspace you. He and his boss, Mike Minkoff, went over the code with a fine-tooth comb before realizing what the problem was: the Intellivision hand controllers encode button presses in such a way that an action (side) key pressed at the same time as particular directions on the disc will be interpreted instead as a numeric key being pressed. There was no software way around this; shooting while moving would occasionally be interpreted as pressing 9 -- the hyperspace button.
After several days of puzzling over a solution, the bug was ultimately "fixed" by including the following note in the instruction manual:
"Every once in a while, your space hunter will move near a 'black hole,' and the computer will automatically put him into HYPERSPACE. This will cost you the same number of points as if you had pressed the HYPERSPACE key yourself. On the other hand, it will save your hunter."
This led to an axiom frequently heard around Mattel: If you document it, it's not a bug -- it's a feature. Anytime a game in development crashed -- no matter how badly or bizarrely -- witnesses would invariably turn to the frustrated programmer, shrug, and calmly say "document it."
Design, Programming and Graphic: Bill Fisher e Stephen Roney, Mike Minkoff, Brian Dougherty Sound: Bill Fisher, Bill Goodrich Voice of the computer: Keri Tombazian USA launch: 06/29/1982
You are the commander of a spaceship. Suddenly, your ship's under attack. "Shields destroyed, Battle Computer one-third down," the ship's computer warns. You've got to hold them off until you can hyperdrive to a Starbase for repairs. "Starbase Two under attack!" The aliens have you in their clutches -- "The battle is over." Four different voices, two screens.
Space Spartans, the first Intellivoice game, was begun in mid-1981 by Brian Dougherty, who only worked on it a short time before leaving to join the startup company Imagic. Mike Minkoff took over the project and developed it further. When Mike was promoted to manager, he passed it off to the team of Bill Fisher and Steve Roney, who really defined the game and made it more than just Space Battle with voice.
At the time the game was in development, all Intellivision cartridges were 4K in size. To accommodate the voice data, Space Spartans was the first to be given a seemingly generous 8K. This turned out to be woefully inadequate; dialogue had to be cut to a minimum, and the sampling rate was dropped to the point where it's difficult to distinguish the male voices from each other. Luckily, dropping these to a very mechanical sound added to the sci-fi feel of the game. Only the female computer voice was kept at a higher rate, since it adds a strong note of personality. (Check out a sample of her voice below.) All the voice games that followed were allocated 12 or 16K; even the foreign versions of Space Spartans (Gli Spartani Dello Spazio, Les Spartiates De L'Espace and Spartaner Aus Dem All) were given 12K each.
Most of the sound effects were written by Bill Fisher, but Bill Goodrich contributed the explosions; this was fortunate, since it helped find a bug in Intellivision II. While playing Space Spartans on an Intellivision II, Bill Goodrich was distressed to discover his explosions sounded "thin." Comparing other released cartridges, he discovered similar loss of sound quality in the bubbles in Shark! Shark! It was too late to fix the bug in Intellivision II, so subsequent games were tested and reprogrammed to get around any sound problems.
The level counter is not checked properly -- it allows you to reach one higher level than it's supposed to. On that "level," you can reposition the alien bases as if they were your own.
Design and Programming: Steve Ettinger Graphic: Connie Goldman, Steve Ettinger Sound: David Warhol Art: Keith Robinson Production: Realtime Associates USA launch: 1989 (relaunched in 2019 by Blue Sky Rangers)
Fast action, intense competition -- it's SPIKER! -- SUPER PRO VOLLEYBALL. Here comes the serve...just beyond reach! Dive! BAM -- got it! The ball's in play...set it -- it seems to hang above the net -- run and SMASH! Spike it over! All the fun and excitement of a real volleyball match!
Realistic game play, animation and sound effects put you right on the court!
ALL volleyball moves -- serves, sets, leaps, spikes, blocks, digs, even dives -- are under YOUR control!
YOU direct every member of your team!
Requires quick reflexes and sharp wits!
Play against a friend or against a computer-controlled team!
Special option lets two players work TOGETHER to battle the computer!
"Smart" controls are easy for beginners, a challenge for experts!
6 difficulty settings let players of different skill levels compete evenly!
As with Chip Shot: Super Pro Golf, this game was a labor of love for designer/programmer Steve Ettinger. Steve had played intercollegiate volleyball in school and suggested the sport to producer Dave Warhol as an Intellivision cartridge. Dave, whose office at the time was in his living room overlooking a volleyball court on the sand at Hermosa Beach, California, readily agreed and sold the idea to INTV Corp.
Steve worked hard to replicate the speed and power of a real game, with particular attention to "pass-set-spike" play. By this time, 1988, Steve had been programming Intellivision code for over five years and knew how to get the most out of the system. He quickly completed an excellent adaptation of the sport.
But along with Stadium Mud Buggies, Spiker: Super Pro Volleyball sat on the shelf for a year while INTV Corp. raised the money to release them. Finally introduced in late 1989, they were the last games released for the Intellivision system.
To display the credits, press 0 (zero) on either hand controller while the title screen is displayed.
Design and Programming: Rick Koenig Graphic: Connie Goldman Sound: David Warhol Art: Keith Robinson Production: Realtime Associates Working title: Monster Truck Rally USA launch: 1989
Gear-grinding, teeth-jarring excitement -- it's STADIUM MUD BUGGIES! Get behind the wheel and floor it! Take that first hill -- you're airborne! SMACK! Bad landing -- you stall -- your opponent passes you! Jam it into gear -- your wheels spin, throwing mud everywhere -- finally some traction! You're back in the race! A car in your way? Crash over it! You're catching up! Drawbridge ahead...and it's rising! Use it as a ramp -- gun it! -- take off and YES! A perfect landing as you zoom first across the finish line!
Realistic graphics, animation and sound effects put you right on the track!
9 events pit you against merciless obstacles: Hill Climb! Drag Race! Bog! Tug-O-War! Car Crush! Donuts! Drawbridge! Combo Course! And the MONSTER RALLY -- all events combined into one ironman challenge!
Compete alone, against a friend, or against the toughest computer driver ever!
Essentially, this is a super-enhanced version by Rick Koenig of his own Motocross game for Mattel Electronics. Developed as Monster Truck Rally (and announced with that name in the Fall 1988 INTV catalog), the decision to change it to Stadium Mud Buggies was made after the game was complete.
Christmas 1988 was bad for INTV Corp. The video game resurgence was in full swing, led by Nintendo. Mail orders were down, and the stores that had still been carrying Intellivision cartridges cut way back or stopped stocking them altogether, freeing up more shelf space for Nintendo games. As cash flow slowed, cartridge production of the completed Monster Truck Rally and Spiker! Super Pro Volleyball was put on hold and over a year went by without a new INTV game or catalog released.
In 1989 INTV moved into Nintendo cartridge production, with the first release to be a conversion of Monster Truck Rally, also produced by Realtime Associates and again programmed by Rick. Apparently by using the completed Nintendo version of Monster Truck Rally as proof of INTV Corporation's promising new direction, INTV President Terry Valeski was able to raise enough cash or credit to put the two finished Intellivision games into production, and to mail out a Christmas 1989 catalog (which would turn out to be the last).
Thinking that it might hurt the Nintendo Monster Truck Rally's chances if it was seen as based on an Intellivision game, Valeski had the name of the Intellivision version changed to Stadium Mud Buggies. The title screen name was changed, but the graphics remained the same -- the vehicles still look like trucks, not buggies.
Ultimately, instead of releasing it themselves, the failing INTV Corporation sold the Nintendo Monster Truck Rally to another distributor to raise cash.
Design and Programming: Bob Whitehead USA launch: 1982
Yahoo! Stampede by Activision is bringing some kind of fun to your Intellivision. And some kind of challenge! The object of this tough little video trail drive is to lasso as many stampeding calves as possible. But hold on there, Pilgrim! Those little "dogies" are right clever, and they'll do their darnedest to outsmart you! So, ride hard, rope fast, and hold on to your hat! You're in for the truest test of the wild, wild West!
Stampede was one of the first Activision cartridges. The designer/programmer of the original Atari 2600 version also programmed this Intellivision version.
From designer Bob Whitehead in the Stampede instruction manual:
"If you are really a savvy cowboy, you could probably play Stampede till the cows come home. Strategy, patience and smart herding and roping are what really count.
"First of all, keep in mind the particular sequences in which the dogies appear. My advice is to establish a priority for roping the stampeding herd.
"One strategy is to lasso the high-point dogies first, while keeping the darker (low-point) ones herded in front of you.
"Herding is the most important part of the game. But remember, a dogie that is repeatedly herded will get tired and become more difficult to herd, because he won't run as far ahead on the screen.
"You'll notice that the dogies appear in rows. When you rope the last one of a group of dark red Herefords...get set for some fast action, 'cause there's trouble ahead!"
Players who sent a photo to Activision showing a score of 3,000 or more received an "Activision Trail Drive" emblem.
Program: Brett Stutz, Hal Finney Art: Jerrol Richardson Production: APh Technological Consulting USA launch: 12/22/1981 (No. 27)
For action fast and furious, take command of a rocket-powered fighter-interceptor flying a few hundred feet off the deck. Your mission: attack and destroy alien silos defended by several squadrons of alien rocket-craft. You must react instantaneously. You are a few hundred feet above the terrain in a narrow canyon. That's where the aliens have dug in. Maneuvering room is severely limited. Meanwhile, earth is slowly coming into target position for the silos. Remember, you alone can save earth. Don't miss.
Inspired by the Death Star trench sequence from the movie Star Wars, Star Strike is actually a very simple game; most players quickly learn the timing of it to consistently win. But visually it was stunning, with a 3-D effect (accomplished by sequencing GRAM) not seen before in a home videogame. Heavily promoted, it was the top-selling Intellivision game of 1982, with nearly 800,000 units shipped that year.
An M Network Atari 2600 Star Strike was also released.
From Intellivision Game Club News, Issue 3, Summer 1982:
Stay mobile. Keep moving up, down, left and right when the aliens are behind you. Don't give them a stationary target.
Practice firing at the aliens. Line up the alien ship between you and your laser's vanishing point.
Try shooting down both aliens. Doubling up on targets will give you a little extra time to align your ship for bombing before a new wave of aliens appear. You'll add extra points to your score.
Stay on the deck. It's much more difficult to bomb the alien's silos from a high altitude. Stay low and score higher.
Keep a mental scorecard. Keep track of alien silos destroyed. Don't risk damage by going after a "dead" silo.
Be aware of damage. Keep a careful record of your ship's capabilities. Damage reduces control. Don't ask your ship to do something it can't in emergency situations.
The Star Strike TV commercial became probably the most notorious of all videogame commercials of its era, with Mattel Electronics spokesperson George Plimpton bragging about "our most amazing visual effect ever: the total destruction of a planet!" while the earth is seen being blasted to pieces. Comedians, cartoonists and politicians all jumped on this as an example of the glorification of violence in videogames.
Hold down the left controller disk in a single position while simultaneously pressing one of the top action keys. The fighter will soon remain in a fixed position on the screen. Release the disk to unfreeze the fighter.
Based on the classic scene from THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, you battle gigantic IMPERIAL WALKERS on the ICE PLANET HOTH. Quick reflexes and nerves of steel are needed to halt the WALKERS before they blow up the power generator at the Rebel base.
This game was also released for Atari 2600 and Atari 5200.
Program: Tom Loughry Art: Jerrol Richardson Production:APh Technological Consulting Working titles: Submarine, Submarine Battle USA launch: 05/06/1982 (No. 30)
You're at the periscope of a Nautilus class nuclear submarine, the last line of defense between the enemy and the fleet. Enemy PT boats drone around seeking you out. Meanwhile, enemy destroyers constantly jockey for depth-bombing position. You must keep you head to control depth, speed, direction and torpedoes. You have simultaneous periscope and satellite horizon displays with compass readings to keep you afloat and the enemy at bay. If you do it, you should be immediately commissioned an Admiral in the U.S. Navy.
Set off on a high flying, dangerous gunship mission to destroy the enemy's base. Fly your helicopters through mazes, caves, and cities filled with tall buildings. The enemy tries to shoot your helicopter down with missiles, tanks, meteors, and even flying saucers! 1 or 2 players.
This game was also released for Atari 2600, Atari 5200 and ColecoVision.
Design, Programming and Graphic: Scott Robitelle Animation: Connie Goldman Sound and Music: David Warhol Art: Steve Huston Production: Realtime Associates USA launch: 1988
The winner of the Decathlon is often called the Greatest Athlete in the World -- competitors must show world-class skill in 10 different events! Speed and endurance on the track. Form and timing on the jumps. Strength and determination on the throws. Now put yourself to the test with 10 tough contests that will challenge you like never before! Don't be surprised if you find yourself out of breath and your heart racing!
10 Complete Events! 100 Meter Dash! Hurdles! Long Jump! High Jump! Pole Vault! Discus! Shot Put! Javelin! Triple Jump! 400 Meter Run!
Compete in the full Decathlon, or practice individual events.
Super Pro Decathlon was the only new title released by INTV Corp. not done by one of the original Mattel Electronics programmers. Scott Robitelle was a friend of Dave Warhol's who had done the hardware design of the development systems used by Realtime Associates. Dave gave him a shot at designing a game. (A later game programmed by Scott, Choplifter!, was never finished.)
Super Pro Decathlon was timed for release with the 1988 Summer Olympics.
For the title screen music, Dave Warhol recycled the fanfare he wrote for the unreleased Mattel Electronics cartridge Go for the Gold.
INTV used the successful "Super Pro" designation, despite the fact there are no professional decathlon competitions.
Design: David Warhol, John Tomlinson, Ray Kaestner Program: David Warhol, John Tomlinson Graphic: Connie Goldman Sound: David Warhol Art: Steve Huston Production: Realtime Associates USA launch: 1986
Includes code from the previously released NFL Football
Realistic Action & Sound Effects
REAL LIVE ACTION -- Just Like Sunday Football!
Super Pro Football -- One & Two Players
You are the Coach & Quarterback
Full Football Rules & Play, including running, passing, punts, interceptions...Even 2 point safeties!
You and your opponent call & control the play
The challenge is to outwit your opponent or play against the Computer
Never Before So Real!
David Warhol, who had programmed Thunder Castle at Mattel, had helped prepare the Thunder Castle cartridge for its INTV Corporation release. Terry Valeski, President of INTV, approached Dave a short time later. Would he be interested in programming an enhanced one- or two-player version of the original NFL Football cartridge?
This was quite a challenge. So far, the "new" INTV titles -- Thunder Castle, World Championship Baseball, Thin Ice -- had simply been unreleased Mattel Electronics product and had already existed as EPROM prototypes. Preparing those games for release had essentially involved getting the files into the proper format for General Instruments to manufacturer ROMs. An enhanced football cartridge, though, would require new programming.
It was now 1986, over two years since Mattel Electronics had closed. All of the development equipment had long since been sold off. Valeski could supply the NFL Football source code on 8-inch floppy disk, but nothing else -- including any startup money.
Taking a big risk, Dave put his own money into having a custom card designed and built (by his friend, hardware expert Scott Robitelle) that would interface an IBM PC and Intellivision Master Component. He put his own time into writing a cross assembler and linker to develop 1610 games on the PC.
He then hired former Mattel programmers Ray Kaestner (BurgerTime) and John Tomlinson (Mission X), plus former Mattel graphic artist Connie Goldman (Thunder Castle) to help put together the enhanced football game.
The risk paid off. INTV Corp. bought the completed game, Super Pro Football, introducing it for Christmas 1986. The cartridge was so successful that INTV used the "Super Pro" designation on all of their later sports titles, and Dave Warhol's company -- Realtime Associates -- was hired to do all of INTV's subsequent games.
To display credits, press 0 (zero) while the title screen is displayed.
Dave hedged his bet by having Connie put a couple of sports announcers on the statistics screen -- and having them look like Terry Valeski and INTV Vice President Dan Stout. Dave was counting on Valeski's ego -- figuring he wouldn't pass on a game he appeared in. He was right; Valeski went nuts upon seeing the screen. Dave feels it clinched the deal.
The announcers are programmed so that Terry (the balding one) and Dan (the bespectacled one) keep interrupting each other, just like they did in real life.
In Intellivision II, the quarterback only appears on the screen after the ball is kicked (errata in the manual).
Design and Programming: Brian P. Dougherty Sound: Dave Durran USA launch: 1982
You are the White Knight, exploring a maze-like dungeon...discovering silver, diamonds and gold! But will you live to enjoy them? Black Knights attack, swords rend armor...you stagger on alone. A friendly wizard joins you. Can you protect him until he learns the spells that may save you both? Coming soon!
This was an original game for Intellivision. Designer Brian P. Dougherty learned Intellivision programming while working for Mattel Electronics. He was the original programmer on the Intellivoice game Space Spartans; he left early in the development of that project to join Imagic.
Program: Gavin Claypool Art: Jerrol Richardson Production: APh Technological Consulting USA launch: 12/10/1980 (No. 19) Brazil launch: 11/1983
Thunk! You send a screaming serve across the net. Your opponent races to intercept it and returns a lofty lob into your deep backcourt. You get to it in time to send a smashing ground shot just out of reach of your opponent's outstretched racquet.
Play an entire three set match, and each game will be different and exciting. You control ball placement, velocity and strategy. And it's a game of wits as well as of dexterity. Even the crowd gets in the act by turning their heads to follow the ball -- and cheering at just the right time.
Design and Programming: Tom Loughry Production: Cheshire Engineering USA launch: 1983 Brazil launch: 11/1984
It's the most terrifying space siege ever to rock the universe! The dreadnaught's approach is awesome to the eye - 10,000 times the weight of your tiny hyperfighter, 100 times its size. Your mission is to stop it before it enters your stargate and destroys the planet Terra. And, if you succeed, 100 other dreadnaughts loom on the horizon. Strategy now. Courage forever with the Dreadnaught Factor.
The Dreadnaught Factor was an original Intellivision game programmed at Cheshire Engineering under contract to Activision. Activision later released a version of The Dreadnaught Factor for Atari 5200.
From designer Tom Loughry in the Dreadnaught Factor instruction manual:
"I have found that there are several strategies you can use to destroy the Zorban Dreadnaughts. In fact, your attack plans should vary depending on the class of the approaching dreadnaught and the stage of battle. Here are some tips to help you through any phase of the game.
"First of all, no matter what the circumstances, never attack a dreadnaught head-on. Their fire rate is too overwhelming at any game level. I strongly suggest either continually zigzagging back and forth over the dreadnaught during your attack passes, or dipping in from above or below the dreadnaught. Fire your weapons and accelerate away from its direct line of fire.
"Also, it is critical to keep track of the dreadnaught's distance from the stargate. If it's closer than 50 parsecs, then try to bomb as many engines as possible to slow it down, and if it's closer than 30 parsecs, then immediately destroy its silos. That way, Terra is safe even if the dreadnaught reaches the stargate - unless you lose all your hyperfighters.
"Find out which dreadnaught weapons give you the most difficulty and eliminate them first. But, remember, the only way to ultimately defeat a dreadnaught is to bomb all of its energy vents. Don't waste time or attack passes trying to destroy every target.
"One final tip: your laser bolts destroy dreadnaught artillery that is blue or yellow, and your strontium bombs destroy the artillery that is black or red."
The Dreadnaught Factor was a favorite game of Bill Fisher's over at rival Mattel Electronics. He was so good at the game that he started getting bored playing through the early easier levels. To solve the problem, he hacked the game code to create a harder version of the cartridge. That version, variously called The Dreadful Factor and The Dreadnaught Fracture became popular with a number of the other Mattel programmers.
Players who sent a photo to Activision showing that they had destroyed the entire dreadnaught fleet on level 4 or above received an "Activision Dreadnaught Destroyer" emblem.
Program: Kimo Yap Art: Jerrol Richardson Production: APh Technology Consultants Licence: Children's Television Workshop, Inc. Working title: Math Fun USA launch: 10/16/1980 (No. 15) Brazil launch: 11/1983
Who would guess that learning basic arithmetic skills could be this much fun!
To solve the math problems, two players race their clever gorillas along the river bank, ducking past obstructing animals.
The math gets more challenging when the players are ready for it. Addition, subtraction, multiplication and division -- all are more fun with Math Fun.
Accommodates wide range of learning levels
One or two players
Developed in conjunction with The Children's Television Workshop
Although it has a higher production number than Word Fun, Math Fun was released first -- it was one of the original four cartridges test marketed in 1979.
Initially, the solutions for math problems had to be entered ones column first. For example, when subtracting 5 from 24, the solution, 19, would have to be entered as 9, then 1. While this was designed to duplicate how people solve problems with pencil and paper, many customers complained; intuitively, they wanted to simply press in 1 then 9. A running change was ordered so that later copies of the cartridge use this intuitive method of entry, instead.
The Electric Company Math Fun was recycled as the game Math Master on the Learning Fun I cartridge from INTV Corporation.
Program: Kevin Miller Art: Jerrol Richardson Production: APh Technology Consultants Licence: Children's Television Workshop, Inc. USA launch: 11/05/1980 (No. 17)
How those little monkeys love to learn! Watch them swing through the jungle, capturing letters with their tails and making words.
Three great learning games. Find A Word has little learners weaving words in and out of each other. Word Hunt sends them into the jungle looking for missing letters.
And Word Rocket has them blasting vowels into the sky to make words out of clouds of consonants. It's the fun and easy way to improve vocabulary skills.
Find A Word was renamed Crosswords between the printing of the catalogs and the release of the cartridge.
The three games in the Word Fun cartridge were recycled in the Learning Fun II cartridge from INTV Corporation.
The fact that Word Fun didn't work with Intellivision II allowed one group of kids to get copies of every Intellivision game for $1.95 each. Ringleader Mark Thompson wrote to explain the scam:
"When the Intellivision II came out, we found out that Word Fun didn't work on the new version and so we called Mattel to see what was going on. When we found out that Mattel was offering to replace the Word Fun cartridges with any other game we wanted, we went down to their place in Hawthorne.
"One day I went to Kay-Bee Toys for new games and saw that Word Fun was only $1.95. To make a long story short, every Kay-Bee store in the LA area was able to sell completely out of Word Fun! We would get a carload of our friends (I was 14 at the time) and make a field trip of going down to turn in our Word Fun cartridges for new games. We'd have about 6 people in the car and each of us would turn in two Word Fun games at a time about once a week (a self-imposed limit because I didn't want to ruin this). The fact that we were able to do this for about six months surprised me. Plus I made a lot of money selling the newest cartridges for about $25 apiece."
The game won't work when plugged into an Intellivision II. A feature to keep early Coleco-produced Intellivision cartridges from working in the Intellivision II inadvertently keeps Word Fun from working also. Marketing didn't feel Word Fun was important enough to hold up release of Intellivision II to fix the problem.
Design, Programmming, Sound and Music: Joshua Jeffe Graphic: Donna Fisher Educational content: Pamela Dong Licence: Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. USA launch: 1983
Experience the world of words with the Jetsons in a colorful and action-packed video game. It's easy to improve your spelling, reading and word recognition skills when you're having fun doing it. Especially when your instructors are the Jetsons. The programs progress through grade levels, from preschool on up.
With the introduction of the Entertainment Computer System, a new department was added to Applications Software - Educational Product - to develop educational games for the system. Of the three games they helped design - Jetsons, Number Jumble and Flintstones Keyboard Fun - this is the only one that was released.
Parents may have been wary of selecting this game to teach their children. In promising that the game develops vocabulary skills, "develops" is spelled incorrectly on the box as "developes."
Design: Julie Hoshizaki, Keith Robinson, Monique Lujan-Bakerink Program: Julie Hoshizaki Graphic: Monique Lujan-Bakerink Sound and Additional Music: David Warhol Music theme "Carnival of the Penguins": George "The Fat Man" Sanger Art: Keith Robinson Production: Quicksilver Software Licence: Based on the Data East arcade game Disco No. 1 Working titles: Arctic Squares, Duncan's Thin Ice, Iceman, Voochko on Ice USA launch: 1986
More Challenging! More Fun!
OH NO! DUNCAN IS ON THE LOOSE!
Duncan is a Penguin who loves to skate on thin ice, much to the dismay of the other Penguins. As Duncan skates, he weakens the ice; if he skates completely around another Penguin -- KER-PLASH! -- the ice collapses and the penguin falls into the pond.
Duncan has only two worries: the Seal that loves to bounce him on her nose and the Polar Bear who likes to bat him around.
You control Duncan; help him gobble shrimp cocktails for extra speed!
You have got to try this game to truly appreciate the indescribable fun and challenge!
As described on the Arcade Network page, Mattel Electronics had a first-look deal with Data East for their arcade games. One day, Data East brought in a new game called Disco No.1 in which a roller-skating Disco Boy moved around a dance floor, trapping Disco Girls by skating squares around them.
Everyone agreed that the game was original and fun, but they also agreed that the theme was dated and sexist and that, technically, it probably couldn't be done for Intellivision.
Keith Robinson (TRON Solar Sailer), a fan of the game, wrote a proposal, dated May 28, 1982, for a new premise: Thin Ice. A mischievous penguin would skate around other penguins on a frozen lake. By completing squares around them, those sections of the ice would fall into the lake, dunking the victims. Between levels, a Zamboni would drive out to repair the ice.
In addition to writing the proposal, Keith programmed a demo showing that the game was feasible by limiting the skating penguin's movements to the borders of the screen's background cards.
Based on the proposal and demo, Thin Ice was given the go-ahead. After programmer Julie Hoshizaki completed the revised Lock 'n' Chase in August, she and graphic designer Monique Lujan-Bakerink began work on the game. Everything went smoothly, except for a brief fight with someone in Marketing who wanted to change the name to Arctic Squares, a play on Arctic Circle. (He lost, but not before some literature was released to the public using that name.) The game was completed on schedule in mid-May, 1983.
While Thin Ice was in the game testing process, the Marketing department suddenly got excited about heading in a new direction. Instead of going outside the company for cartoon licenses, they wanted to start developing original characters for the games, then spinning off those characters to other products. And they wanted to start with the penguin from Thin Ice.
From June 17 to June 30, a penguin-naming contest was held, with the winning name, Duncan, submitted by David Warhol (Mind Strike). The game officially became Duncan's Thin Ice and the cartridge size was increased from 8K to 12K so that Monique could add special animated title screens introducing Duncan and his penguin pals, Bobo, P.J., Minky and Norman.
Just as this new version was nearing completion, though, there was major upheaval in the management structure of Mattel Electronics. President Josh Denham was out, replaced by Mack Morris, who came to Mattel from Teledyne- Waterpik (and, earlier, from Breath Savers mints). Unfamiliar with video games, Morris brought in Jeff Rochlis, a former Mattel executive who had been instrumental in launching Intellivision, as a consultant. On July 15, 1983, sweeping through the Applications Software department like the Black Death through Europe, Rochlis briefly reviewed each game in development and gave it a thumbs up or down on the spot.
Luckily, he liked Thin Ice, but he thought the penguin was too cute. He ordered it replaced with a fisherman (Fishin' Sam) chopping at the ice with an ax. He also recommended changing the name to Iceman. Julie and Monique, less than thrilled, set about changing the animations.
But Rochlis's morale-crushing performance hadn't gone over well. The VP of Application Software, Gabriel Baum, told Mack Morris that Rochlis was no longer welcome in his department, and forbade Rochlis having any further direct contact with the programmers. Not long afterward, Rochlis was gone. Word was that Morris felt Rochlis was trying to grab too much power.
Once Rochlis was out, so was Fishin' Sam. Julie and Monique returned to completing Duncan's Thin Ice.
And, of course, as soon as it was done, Marketing came up with yet another brilliant idea. They had spent millions for the rights to the 1984 Winter Olympics license, yet, through bad communication, an original game using the license hadn't been developed. (An album of old sports titles was rushed into production as Go For the Gold.)
But why not change Duncan into Voochko the Wolf, the mascot for the Winter Olympics, and release Thin Ice as an official Olympics cartridge? Suddenly, with Go For the Gold, Mattel would have two official Olympics titles. The change was ordered on October 17; Duncan's Thin Ice would become Voochko on Ice. [Julie and Monique changed the "penguin pals" to Cossack dancers Ivan, Oskar, Misha and Bobo.]
Everyone connected with Thin Ice was disappointed; they had grown to love Duncan. So an unprecedented move was made: although Easter eggs in cartridges were forbidden -- you could be fired if found out -- VP Gabriel Baum gave permission for Duncan's Thin Ice to be hidden within the Voochko On Ice cartridge without Marketing's knowledge, even though it meant increasing the size from 12K to 16K. He said that if Marketing complained about the size increase, he would tell them it was necessary because of the last-minute nature of the change they had ordered. "They'll believe it," he explained, "none of them understand the technology."
[Gabriel had a low opinion of most Marketing personnel, and was particularly derisive of the deals they had made to obtain character and movie licenses. "When these people go to a meeting," he said, "they pull down their pants and walk into the room backwards."]
Julie, along with Group Leader Steve Ettinger (Hover Force), put together two versions: Voodun, in which Duncan was hidden within Voochko; and Dunvoo, in which Voochko was hidden within Duncan. Voodun was the one scheduled to go into production; Dunvoo was the version the programmers took home for themselves. To switch between Duncan and Voochko in either version, you pressed ENTER on the left hand controller, CLEAR on the right one, and pressed RESET.
But in January 1984, six months after the original Thin Ice had been completed, just as Voochko on Ice was about to manufactured, Mattel Electronics was closed down.
Finally, in 1986, INTV Corporation released Thin Ice. They went with the original 8K version -- no introduction screens, no hidden Voochko -- to save production costs. (The title screen still says "Mattel Electronics presents...") The game was introduced in the Fall 1986 INTV catalog.
Early in production, David Warhol came to Keith Robinson, who was manager on the game, and said he had a friend who wanted to break into the video game field as a composer and was willing to write a theme for Thin Ice for free. Keith told him no; it was against Mattel policy to use freelancers, even if they were literally free. Following Keith's authority about as much as anyone at Mattel did, Dave had his friend write the music anyway. Dave coded it for Intellivision and Julie linked it into the game.
The theme, "Carnival of the Penguins," was so addictive and perfect for the game that Keith agreed it had to be used. He contacted Mattel's crack legal department and suggested they buy the rights for $100. They probably could have, but they procrastinated for months. By the time they got around to contacting the composer, the game had been demonstrated at a number of trade shows using the music; the composer was able to negotiate a payment of $1200 for the 15 second theme.
Thus George Alistair Sanger sold his first video game melody. He has gone on, under the nickname The Fat Man, to become the most famous composer of music for interactive media. He and his Team Fat have provided the music for Loom, Wing Commander, The 7th Guest and many other computer games.
In 2000, George "The Fat Man" Sanger recorded the Thin Ice theme in a rock surf arrangement. "Surfing on Thin Ice" is available as a free MP3 download at mp3.com/intellivision.
Richard Zamboni, president of Frank J. Zamboni & Co., gave permission for his company's trademark to be used in the Thin Ice instruction book. He sent over a series of photos - the history of the ice-repairing machines invented by his father - so that Monique could accurately depict a Zamboni in the game.
The penguins Norman and Minky were named after Julie and Monique's boss Keith Robinson (who only reluctantly admits that his rarely-used first name is Norman) and his boss Mike Minkoff (Snafu).
By 1986, when INTV Corporation was ready to release the game, Keith had started his own graphic design business, Strand Cruisers. Because of his connection to Thin Ice, INTV hired Keith to write the instructions and illustrate the package. This led to Keith designing the packaging and writing all of the copy for most of the subsequent INTV releases.
Collector's note: There are two versions of the box. On the original, the game title was yellow-orange. This was changed to white in the second run to make the title stand out more.
Design: Connie Goldman, David Warhol Program, Music and Sound Effects: David Warhol Graphic: Connie Goldman Production: Quicksilver Software Working titles: Magic Castle, Mystic Castle USA launch: 1986
A whimsical new medieval fantasy game. You're the knight in shining armor on your quest for survival. Your journey takes you through the enchanted forest where three dragons wait with heated breath. Then, through a castle maze with three wicked wizards. Finally to a dark and dreary dungeon where the three demons present your final challenge.
On January 22, 1982, Vice President of Application Software Gabriel Baum announced a competition for the best game idea with a magic theme. The reason was never announced -- probably Marketing had an idea for a promotional tie-in somewhere -- but whatever it was must have fallen through, since Gabriel didn't bother picking a winner until April.
The winner was Connie Goldman. Connie had been hired as a programmer, but it quickly became apparent that her strength was character animation. She started work on the game, originally titled Magic Castle, but she was continuously pulled away from it to do graphics for other, higher priority games and to put together demos for Marketing. (She did excellent animations of Peanuts, Garfield and McDonalds characters, among others, when Marketing was trying [unsuccessfully] to obtain those licenses.)
Whenever she had time she would return to her game, which had begun appearing in Mattel Electronic catalogs as Mystic Castle, but it was further delayed when Bill Goodrich got permission to use half of the animated characters from it in his own, higher priority, Intellivoice game Quest.
After completing his own game, Mind Strike, and overseeing the programming of Bump 'n' Jump, David Warhol was given the task of helping Connie finish Mystic Castle. They strengthened the game play and, after the cancellation of the voice games, reinstated the animations stolen for Quest. Under the new name Thunder Castle, the game was completed, well over a year after Connie had first started working on it.
Mattel Electronics was closed shortly thereafter, before the game went into production; Thunder Castle was finally released by INTV Corporation in 1986. (Strangely, in the Spring 1986 INTV catalog it is listed under its old name of Mystic Castle; in the Fall '86 catalog it was, and remained, Thunder Castle.)
Press 0 (zero) on either hand controller while the title screen is displayed to see game credits.
If the painting on the Thunder Castle box cover seems scarier than the game, it's because it was painted for the ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS TREASURE OF TARMIN Cartridge magazine ads. When Mattel Electronics closed down, no artwork for Thunder Castle had been completed, so when INTV Corporation released the game, they simply used the Treasure of Tarmin painting.
Design and Programming: Dan Bass, John Tomlinson Graphic: Connie Goldman, Karl Morris, Monique Lujan-Bakerink Sound and Music: David Warhol, Joshua Jeffe Art: Ultimatte Corporation Production: Realtime Associates Working titles: Arcade D&D, AD&D REVENGE OF THE MASTER Cartridge, D&D III USA launch: 1987
Started at Mattel Electronics as ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS TOWER OF MYSTERY Cartridge [#4692]
Monsters. Magic. Good. Evil. Strength. Cunning. Traps. Mazes. You are about to face the greatest challenge any mortal has ever known -- the Tower of Doom.
Requires quick reflexes and quicker wits -- some monsters can only be defeated in battle, others must be bribed with treasure!
Select one of 10 characters! Different characters have different abilities to fight, bargain, and endure! You must make the most of your character's skills!
Select one of 10 adventures! Some require more strength, some require more brains! Choose a tower where the mazes are always the same, or a tower where the mazes are different every time you enter!
With the success of the first Dungeons & Dragons cartridge, Marketing wanted a continuing series of D&D games. They were a bit concerned that the second release, ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS TREASURE OF TARMIN Cartridge, was a bit too complex, so when adding a third D&D game to the schedule, they took to calling it Arcade D&D. "Arcade" was their code word for more action, less brains.
After completing Loco-Motion, Dan Bass took up the challenge of defining what Arcade D&D would be. He designed a screen layout with scrolling text instructions that made the game easy to follow, but would still allow the complex, strategic play that D&D fans expected. Battle scene close-ups provided the action Marketing wanted.
A limited demo of the game appeared at one trade show with the name ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS REVENGE OF THE MASTER Cartridge (once again, the bizarre capitalization and inclusion of the word "cartridge" in the title was demanded by contract), but by the time it appeared in Mattel Electronics catalogs it had been renamed ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS TOWER OF MYSTERY Cartridge.
The game was only half-completed when Mattel Electronics closed its doors in January 1984. Over two years later, INTV Corp. expressed an interest in releasing it. Dan, working full-time in Massachusetts by this time, was not available to finish it, so John Tomlinson (Mission X) was hired for the job. Connie Goldman (Thunder Castle) completed the graphics started at Mattel by Monique Lujan-Bakerink and Karl Morris.
Not wanting to pay for the Dungeons & Dragons license, INTV released the cartridge in 1987 under the new name, Tower of Doom.
Mattel Electronics had an M Network Atari 2600 version and an Apple version of the game in development when Mattel Electronics closed.
Press 0 (zero) on either hand controller while the title screen is displayed to view game credits.
Design and Programming: Rich O'Keefe Art: Jerrol Richardson Production: APh Technological Consulting Working titles: 3-in-1 Arcade, 5-in-1 Arcade, Some of Theirs USA launch: 10/15/1981 (No. 26) Brazil launch: 11/1983
It's three classic video games in one!
Racing Cars -- You and your opponent race against the clock down a crowded highway.
Battle Tanks -- It's a duel to the finish between two heavy tanks. One of you will end up as scrap iron.
Biplanes -- It's a thrilling dogfight -- biplane style! Watch out for the control tower...don't get lost in the clouds. But most of all, watch out for that blood thirsty baron with a leather cap!
This started out to be a collection of six games "inspired" by Atari 2600 cartridges, hence the APh working title, Some of Theirs. Space considerations forced this to be dropped to five: a tank battle, a car race, a dogfight, a Breakout-like game and a Pong-like game. Within Mattel Electronics, the cartridge was known as 5-in-1 Arcade.
Shortly before completion, Mattel's lawyers stepped in and decided that some of Some of Theirs was TOO MUCH like some of theirs. To avoid a lawsuit from Atari, the lawyers asked that Brickout!, the Breakout-like game, and Hockey, the Pong-like game, be dropped from the cartridge. The game was renamed 3-in-1 Arcade and, finally, Triple Action.
A sequel, More of Theirs, was started by Rich O'Keefe but never completed.
More hours were spent in the programming cubicles playing Biplanes than any other Intellivision game. Although it's one of the simplest, many programmers felt it was the most challenging and fun of the two-person games. The first time you deliberately stall, go into a free fall, then pull out with a backward loop at the last second to blast your opponent at pointblank range is a joy!
So many hours were wasted on Biplanes, that when a memo was circulated April 1, 1982, ordering Triple Action deleted from programmers' hard disks, Biplanes-addict Steve Montero (Night Stalker) didn't argue; sheepishly, he erased it, only later discovering that the memo was an April Fool's hoax.
In Biplanes, although the game ends when one player reaches 15 points, bullets in the air at that point are allowed to score. It's possible, therefore, to have a game with a 15-15 tie, or to win with 16 points.
Brickout! was another early programmer favorite. Although cut from Triple Action, the game was available for downloading on a programmer's development system and led to a one-person waste of time when an opponent for Biplanes wasn't available.
You can send your tank off the screen. Place your tank against the opponent's, tilt it about 45° or 135° and give a slight touch to the bottom button (see the video in the 'Description' tab).
Program: David Warhol Art: Keith Robinson Production: Realtime Associates USA launch: 1987
Includes code from the previously released USCF Chess, Checkers and ABPA Backgammon
Announcing a major software breakthrough! Three complete games -- Chess, Checkers, and Backgammon -- now together on ONE game cartridge! YOU get the savings!
Complete rules! Not "simplified" or "abridged!"
Play against a friend or against the computer!
Different play levels! Play any game at "Beginner" level, or crank it up for a real challenge!
Three different games and their variations keep the action fresh!
Three classic games of strategy on one cartridge!
CHESS
Seven levels of difficulty! It's chess for beginners, intermediates and very serious players alike!
Three ways to play! You against the computer, challenge another player or watch the computer play against itself!
Basic chess features! Capturing, castling, pawn promotion, en passant, check, checkmate, and stalemate!
Unique playing features! Take back the last move! Replay moves! Let the computer take your move!
Set up special board situations for study!
CHECKERS
"Bail Out" Button -- COMPUTER SUGGESTS MOVE, when you're stumped against the computer.
CLEAR button lets you change your move!
BACKGAMMON
Computer rolls dice...dice fall randomly, just like real game!
Computer keeps track of pip count!
Triple Challenge began as a quadruple challenge: the original concept was to put the four board games from the Mattel Electronics Strategy Network onto one cartridge. At the last minute, Reversi was cut to save money.
This idea almost died due to cost -- Chess requires 2K of RAM onboard the cartridge, which was found to be too expensive for INTV. Then INTV's executive in charge of procurement, Roger Rambeau, found a company that was stuck with thousands of defective 4K RAM chips. The chips did each have 2K of usable contiguous RAM. Roger bought them for a song, making the cartridge possible.
Design and Programming: Steve Sents Graphic: Eric Wels Sound: Bill Goodrich Art: Jerrol Richardson Licence: Based on the Walt Disney Productions motion picture TRON Working title: TRON I USA launch: 1982 (No. 36) Brazil launch: 11/1983
Our hero, TRON, is locked in battle against the Evil Blue Warriors. Score points by knocking out the computer-controlled attackers with flying discs. Your task is to bring your man safely through battle after battle. The attacking warriors are also armed with destroyer discs, and they'll come after TRON in wave after wave. You get them, or they'll get TRON!
TRON Deadly Discs was in production at the same time as TRON, the Disney movie; the design for the game was based on storyboards and production stills from the film.
Mattel Electronics bet a lot of dough that the movie would be a phenomenon. A state-of-the-art special effect film about video games, the hottest trend in the country -- how could it miss? Well, it did. The lukewarm reception the movie received did little to boost interest in the six TRON games Mattel released (four originals, two conversions). TRON Deadly Discs, though, was a strong enough game in its own right to garner good reviews and word-of-mouth; it went on to sell over 300,000 copies -- a respectable number, but only about a third what Marketing was hoping for.
Ironically, the original production run was planned to be 350,000, but at the last minute it was increased to 800,000. "The reason for the increase," explained Marketing man Dick Baumbusch in a June 1, 1982 memo, "is due to the anticipated popularity of the Tron film and the fact that we will feature it in a commercial this Fall. Also, the international demand for Tron will limit any downside risk." It was this type of forecasting that put Intellivision where it is today.
In answer to a frequent question, there was no connection between the production of Mattel's TRON video games and the arcade games TRON and Discs of TRON. A separate company had licensed the arcade rights to the movie and there was no communication between them and Mattel.
Early catalogs listed TRON Deadly Discs (under its working title TRON I) as a Space Action Network cartridge; it was actually released as part of the Action Network.
An M Network Atari 2600 version and an Aquarius version were also released.
Keep moving because a moving target is hard to hit. Try to line up a shot where the Warrior is in front of an open door. That way you can de-rezz the attacker and jam open the door with just one disc.
When a leader Warrior appears (dark blue), concentrate all of your shots at him since the Warriors become quicker and more accurate when he is on the game grid.
To knock out the Recognizer, run to the very top center of the grid. From this position, you have a good chance of making a direct hit on his eye. However, in this position, you are very vulnerable to the Paralyzer Probe. Take aim, throw your disc quickly, and run out of the path of the Probe.
This is the favorite Intellivision game of Blue Sky Ranger David Warhol (Mind Strike). He plays with one controller in each hand -- one for maneuvering (thumb on disc), one for throwing (thumb on keypad). "If you like Deadly Discs with one hand controller, you'll love it with two," he says. "Try it now and thank me later."
Deadly Discs fan Dave Warhol put together his own private version of the game, replacing the enemy warriors with the hot dogs from Burgertime. He called the result Deadly Dogs. If you want to play it, it's hidden in the INTV Corporation release of Dig Dug: press 47 (4 and 7 simultaneously) on both hand controllers and press reset. The Deadly Dogs title screen will appear.
There is a trick that pretty much lets you rack up unlimited points, as first pointed out in a letter Mattel received November 3, 1982 from Steven M. Little, an Intellivision owner in Minneapolis: "Once you are able to open the top left and top right doors, which enables you to go in one door and out the other...just step out the right top or left top door and stay there...90% of the enemy discs go through you and your man is not hit or destroyed. If you stay at that position, you can reach a score of 1,000,000 very easily by just breaking the enemy's discs and...throwing your disc just enough to keep only one enemy on the board at all times. Once you reach close to a million points, don't destroy any more warriors. Just hold your disc in the block mode and break discs. If you do get hit just go back and forth for repair. (Never throw disc to destroy warrior for you may get a replacement that carries the stick.) I went from 1,000,000 to 10,000,000 with no problem."
Design and Programming: Russ Haft Graphic: Eric Wels Sound: Andy Sells Art: Jerrol Richardson Licence: Based on the Walt Disney Productions motion picture TRON Working titles: Mazatron, Maze-A-Tron, TRON II USA launch: 10/06/1982 (No. 39)
Based on the Disney movie TRON, this is a great action game for 1 or 2 players. You are engaged in a deadly struggle to penetrate the inner circle of the Master Control Program. Watch out for the deadly "bits." You've got to destroy them to reach your goal and accumulate the most points.
Like TRON Deadly Discs, this game's production paralleled the production of the movie. And like TRON Deadly Discs, the movie's less-than-enthusiastic reception didn't help sales.
Note: Despite what the above early catalog description says, TRON Maze-A-Tron is a one-player game.
An M Network Atari 2600 version was developed, but the results were so different from the original that the release name was changed to Adventures of TRON.
Design: Keith Robinson, Don Daglow Program: Keith Robinson, Gene Smith Graphic: Keith Robinson Sound: Mark Urbaniec Music: Arranged by Andy Sells from the TRON themes by Wendy Carlos Voices: Cory Burton, Diane Pershing, Patti Glick, Brian Cummings, Joannie Gerber, Fred Jones Licence: Based on the Disney motion picture TRON Working titles: Solar Sailor, Voice Tron USA launch: 1983
A nightmare numbers game based on the Disney movie, TRON. Your challenge is to first seek out and then to decode the evil Master Control Program. The voice of TRON's girlfriend Yori helps you find the MCP as an electronic voice gives you the secret code to remember. The rest is up to you alone. "Energy low, We've been hit...end of line." Five different voices and two screens.
TRON Solar Sailer was started by Don Daglow, but it was almost immediately put on hold when he was promoted to manager. A couple of months later, Keith Robinson picked up the project. As the drop-dead deadline of October 15, 1982 approached and the game was 25% oversize, Gene Smith was assigned full time to optimize the code while Keith (to Gene's dismay) continued to add features. The day before deadline, they finished a version that both fit into 12K and was pronounced bug-free by Traci Roux in Quality Assurance.
French, Italian and German translations of the dialog were recorded but never used.
When you enter the access code on track one, append Keith's birthday -- 991955 -- to the code before pressing enter. He'll wish you luck before the next phase of the game.
In early releases about the game, Marketing spelled it Solar Sailor, with an or. It took months to convince them that the proper spelling was Sailer. (A sailor is a person who sails, a sailer -- as in this case -- is something a person sails on.)
Keith wanted to use music from the film, but the Mattel legal department wasn't sure if our license with Disney included to rights to use Wendy Carlos's score; they said they'd check on it. They never did get back to Keith, so he just went ahead and used it. If you're reading this, Wendy, your check's in the mail.
While testing the game, Keith's boss Mike Minkoff kept getting access codes that ended in "69." Mike accused Keith several times of skewing the random numbers for an adolescent joke. Tired of being unfairly accused, Keith put the data stream 01000101 (the binary representation of 69) in the game's opening demo screen. He then told Mike, "Look, if I was going to put a '69' in the game, I'd put it right on the title screen!" and waited to see how long it would take Mike to notice. He never did; the game went out that way. 01000101 appeared on the demo screen, in the advertising, on the back of the box and in the instructions. When Keith finally pointed it out, Mike said, "But that's 45!" Mike is such a dedicated programmer, he saw the number in hexadecimal (base 16); he never made the final calculation that 45 (base 16) is 69 (base 10).
Keith and Gene felt that the digitized word "can't" in the MCP's line "I can't allow this" sounded...well...obscene, even though Deidre Cimarusti from the Voice Department insisted it had tested fine. To prove their point, Gene edited the voice file to isolate the word. They then altered the Space Spartans title screen so that it read and said "Mattel Electronics presents Space......" Well, you get the idea. This title screen became so popular among some programmers that a game was inevitable. They tacked the screen onto a version of Astrosmash with new graphics: the missile launcher, the missiles and the flying saucer were replaced with...c'mon, do we have to spell this out? (You can check out the word for yourself; it was left as-is in the game.)
Design and Programming: Steve DeFrisco Graphics Assistance: Karen Elliott Sound: Dave Durran USA launch: 1982
Clarence and Doris have been shipwrecked on a lonely South Sea island. All alone, completely isolated. A huge Beach Bruiser appears suddenly and whisks darlin' Doris away. Clarence must get her back!
Bounding boulders, flying coconuts, man-eating clams, vicious ferns and bubbling fields of lava block his way. Doris leaves a trail of white hankies to give Clarence strength. Help Clarence rescue her while there's still time!
Design and Programming: Rick Levine Sound: Dave Durran USA launch: 1983
Ride your rig to the four corners of the USA! Deliver the goods on a tight schedule. Make strategic decisions about what cargoes to carry and which routes to take. Radio ahead. Find out what loads are needed, and where. Then power down that ribbon of highway.
Keep an eye peeled for turnouts - and for other truckers! You've got to get where you're goin' - and get there first! You'll earn big bucks as you cover the map from sea to shining sea! One or two players compete against time - and each other. Go for it!
This was an original game for Intellivision. The programmer, Rick Levine, first designed video games at Mattel Electronics, programming the Intellivision Bowling cartridge with Mike Minkoff.
EXPERTS CLUB PERFORMANCE STANDARD: Game 1: by 9 A.M., June 2. Game 2: 10 days/$9,000.
Licence: Based on the Sega Enterprises, Inc. arcade game USA launch: 1982
This is a fast-paced racing game in which you control a high speed car and drive it through city streets, tunnels, down country roads and over bridges. Accelerate - change lanes! While controlling the car's speed and direction, you must pass speeding cars, avoiding treacherous obstacles that come your way - and still come in on record time!
Versions were released for ColecoVision and Intellivision. An announced version for Atari 2600 was not released.
Wander King Tut's tomb in search of fabulous treasure! Keys are used to unlock the passageways to the treasure. But snakes, griffins, and beetles will guard the tomb at all costs. With lasers and flash bombs, try to defeat these protectors of the tomb and escape with the loot.
This game was also released for Atari 2600 and ColecoVision.
Program: Scott Reynolds Art: Jerrol Richardson Production: APh Technological Consulting Licence: United States Ski Team, Inc. USA launch: 12/10/1980 (No. 20)
Re-released by INTV Corp. as Alpine Skiing [INTV #1817]
Take a deep breath, dig your poles hard into the snow, push off...and you're speeding down a world class skiing course.
Stay low and glide gracefully through the turns because you're in a race against the clock. But don't cut the comers too sharply or you'll go tumbling! All the excitement of the Winter Olympics on a beautiful video snowscape.
U.S. Ski Team Skiing was one of the games to be included on the Go For The Gold album cartridge.
A couple years after the game was finished, a Mattel programmer needed to take a look at the original APh source code. He was startled to find that all variables and subroutines were named with the vilest (and most creative) obscenities.
User interface programming: Russ Ludwick Heuristics programming: Teletape, Inc. Graphic: Dave James, Peggi Decarli Art: Jerrol Richardson Licence: U.S. Chess Federation USA launch: 11/23/1982 (No. 41)
A great new way to play the ultimate game of strategy, whether you're a novice, intermediate or expert. Pit your skill against the computer or an opponent. Select from eight degrees of difficulty and a time limit on moves. Move up in skill as you improve.
A good Chess program was beyond the capabilities of the both the Intellivision hardware and the Intellivision programmers, but Marketing felt that it was a must-have title to establish the Intellivision as more than a toy.
Money was authorized to produce the Chess cartridges with 2K of RAM on board to bolster the insufficient 147 available bytes in the Master Component. No other Mattel Intellivision cartridge was released with onboard RAM.
The gameplay programming was farmed out to Teletape, Inc., a company with experience in Artificial Intelligence. In-house, Russ Ludwick programmed the on-screen display and user interface.
Although on the schedule from early on, the technical difficulties (including a record 19 weeks of testing and debugging) held up release of the cartridge until 1983. When finally released, it did receive the good reviews Marketing was looking for.
The program code was recycled in the Triple Challenge cartridge released by INTV Corporation.
Russ tested the program by playing countless games against the cartridge at all levels. He found that when playing at the highest levels, the cartridge was good, but slow. He got in the habit of making a move, then going home and letting the Intellivision think about a response overnight. Because of this, three features were added: (1) the normal Intellivision time-out feature was disabled, (2) a feature letting you switch to an easier level in the middle of a move was added, and (3) a warning that moves at higher levels could take hours -- or days --was put into the instruction book.
Although announced in the 1984 Digiplay catalog, the game was not released in Brazil.
Design and Programming: Don Daglow Graphic: Don Daglow, Kai Tran Sound: Russ Lieblich Art: Jerrol Richardson Working title: Island USA launch: 06/03/1982 (No. 33)
You and your opponent each have an island to rule. Points are accumulated based on the welfare of your island people. You can choose to be a benevolent ruler or an aggressive dictator. Your people need food, housing, and industry for clothing and other essentials. What you cannot manage are natural disasters. A single hurricane could wipe out your crops, sink your fishing fleet, destroy all the homes and factories you've built. Rebels may automatically appear should the welfare of the people drop. They could attack. Classic dilemmas in a game that is sure to become an absorbing classic in its own right.
In college, Don Daglow had been a fan of mainframe computer simulation games, so it was only natural that he would try a simulation game for the Intellivision. His result, Utopia, was hailed by reviewers for its originality: it wasn't another arcade rip-off, and it wasn't just a video version of an existing game or sport. It was even educational without being boring.
Although Marketing didn't put much of a push behind the game (they preferred graphically splashier, no-brainer games like Star Strike), the reviews (Playboy Magazine put it in their "Video Game Hall of Fame") and word of mouth pushed sales to a respectable 250,000.
Today, Utopia is one of the best-remembered Intellivision game, with some people referring to it as Civilization 0.5, a reference to Sid Meier's later breakthrough computer simulation game.
Design, Programming and Sound: Mark Urbaniec Graphic: Connie Goldman Art: Jerrol Richardson Working titles: Vectrix, Vortex USA launch: 1983
Hungrees, G-spheres, splits, sweeps and prizums -- the nasties are out to stop you from building your energy bases. Use your Vectron to build the bases level by level to increase your score. Or, use Vectron to shoot down or stun the nasties with energy blasts. But don't run out of energy, the nasties are nibbling away at your score.
Mark wanted to capture the speed and color of the arcade game Tempest in an Intellivision title. The challenge was that Tempest used vector graphics, while the Intellivision used TV's standard raster graphics. To reflect that the game would have a vector graphics look and feel, Mark chose the name Vectrix. Unfortunately, late in the development of the game, the Vectrex Arcade System from General Consumer Electronics (later bought by Milton Bradley) was announced -- a self-contained home game system that used true vector graphics. Mattel briefly considered fighting for the name, then decided to let it go. The game was briefly titled Vortex before the final name -- Vectron -- was chosen.
With the right combination of maneuvers with the energy block, you can get Mark's name to appear on screen. Since Mattel forbid hiding names in games, Mark made sure that the combination was so complicated that no one would stumble across it by accident. Well, he did such a good job hiding it, that he can't quite remember anymore how to do it. He's trying to recreate the combination; we'll post it here as soon as he finds it.
Michael Hayes discovered the trick for the easter egg hidden in Vectron: 1. On the initial screen (number of players), press 9 (will start as 1 player); 2. Finish the 7 levels with your "Energy Block" in the position indicated below. Positions are counted from left to right, with the left most being 0 and the right most 8: Level 1: 0 Level 2: 5 Level 3: 1 Level 4: 5 Level 5: 5 Level 6: 8 Level 7: 7 3. On the summary screen (indicating your result and waiting for a key to be pressed), press the number corresponding to the sequence above (after level 1, press 0; after level 2, 5 and so on).
After completing this long and crazy sequence, you will see Mark Urbaniec's message to take care of your goal.
Mark and Keith Robinson, who was programming TRON Solar Sailer at the same time Mark was programming Vectron, both disliked the built-in Intellivision font, and they both hated that the "at" sign (@) was used as a copyright symbol on the title screens. They developed custom fonts for their games and made a special point of including a true c-in-circle copyright symbol in the character sets. They proudly showed off their custom title screens to Management, pointing out that for the first time Intellivision games would have correct copyright symbols.
Management vetoed their use. The argument: if there was ever a court fight over the legitimacy of the copyrights on the old games, Mattel could argue that the "at" sign should be accepted in context as a copyright symbol, since the Intellivision can't generate a true one. Ah, but Vectron and TRON Solar Sailer would show that the Intellivision could generate a true copyright symbol, thus jeopardizing the copyrights of all previous Intellivision games. Mark and Keith were ordered to use "at" signs, instead.
Feeling that this was about the stupidest thing they had ever heard, Mark and Keith went directly to Roy Ekstrand, head of Mattel's legal department, and presented their case. His decision: Mattel could argue that technological advancements since the earlier games now made it possible to use correct copyright symbols, where previously it wasn't. It would be safe to use the real copyright symbols.
Gabriel Baum, VP of Applications Software, was furious that Mark and Keith had gone over his head, and told them to "never do it again." Then he told them to use their real copyright symbols.
They later wondered: Was it worth risking their jobs over something as trivial as having the correct copyright symbol on their title screens? Their conclusion: "Damn right it was."
According to the instruction book, if you beat the top level, #99, you will be rewarded with "a special little visual treat." The treat? Due to space constraints, there was only room for a message reading "Congratulations. You are very good." The difficulty increases so much, though, that it is impossible to beat level 99. Or at least, Mark hopes it is. "If I went through all that to see the 'special visual treat' and all I got was, 'You are very good,'" Mark notes, "I'd sure be pissed."
Licence: Based on the Exidy Incorporated arcade game USA launch: 1983
In this unique game, you control Winky - the heroic adventurer - who is off on an expedition to claim the treasures that lay hidden in the dungeon. Each treasure is in a chamber - protected by dangerous monsters. He must use his bow and arrow to ward off the monsters and claim the treasures. The more he ventures - the more he gains!
Versions were released for Atari 2600 and ColecoVision as well as Intellivision.
Doesn't work on Intellivision II. (Find out why here).
Design and Programming: Douglas A. Fults Sound: Dave Durran USA launch: 1983
Deep in the thick green jungle, you'll hear the roar of a wild river. White Water! the challenge proves irresistible! And the treasures to be found are boundless! Race to the river and tempt fate. You pilot the raft with two other passengers on board. Boulders, plants, whirlpools - the obstacles on this savage waterway threaten your every move!
Production: APh Technological Consulting (Mattel) Production: Quicksilver Software (INTV Corp.) Working titles: All-Star Major League Baseball, Baseball II USA launch: 1986
Includes code from the previously released Major League Baseball
You're the home team in blue, engaged in the most realistic home video baseball game around. You've got to hit the fast-breaking curve balls or smoking fastballs. But don't pop up, this game features fly balls as well a grounders. You can also steal bases and kick up a cloud of dust as you slide into the bag. Nine innings of action-packed fun, for one or two players. Play ball!
During 1981, APh started work on Baseball II and Basketball II -- one-player versions of the original games. These were not high priorities since the original versions continued to sell well. In 1982, when the Keyboard Component was killed, Marketing wanted to produce a series of Super Sports cartridges for the Entertainment Computer System (ECS) to help push that system, so work was ordered halted on the non-ECS sports games.
Baseball II, however, was a favorite of baseball-fanatic Mike Minkoff (Snafu). The game had been essentially completed, but regularly crashed, despite weeks of debugging at APh. Mattel didn't want to put any more resources into the game, but Mike, although now a Director in charge of Intellivision, Aquarius and M Network development, volunteered to debug the game himself after hours. Since the game had already been announced in several catalogs and press releases (as All-Star Major League Baseball), Mattel kept the title on the schedule and let Mike work on it, on and off as he had time, throughout 1983.
Mike managed to clean most of the bugs out of the game, but the cause of one occasional crash eluded him. He linked in a debugging module written by Rick Koenig (Motocross) that displayed the contents of registers and status words on screen when a game halted. Mike was still trying to trace the problem when, in January 1984, Mattel Electronics was closed.
INTV Corporation ultimately released the game; it first appears in their Spring 1986 catalog. They were able to use packaging and instructions already completed for the game at Mattel, with the change of the name to World Championship Baseball so that they wouldn't have to pay for the Major League trademark. The title screen, however, still says "Mattel Electronics presents All-Star Major League Baseball."
INTV Corporation released the game as is, including the fatal bug and the debugging module. The game occasionally crashes, displaying the debugging screen. To explain this, INTV added the following notice to the instruction book: "Due to the sophisticated and complex nature of this game, at times interference may appear on your T.V. screen. If this happens simply return to start."
Program: Armand Barraud, Mark Grant Production: Nice Ideas (Mattel Electronics, France) Working title: Super NASL Soccer USA launch: 1985
Includes code from the previously released NASL Soccer
The ball is yours...now move it down field. Teamwork and footwork are the name of this game. The defense is pressing...pass to a teammate! Get the ball in close to your opponent's goal. Move quickly...evade the defense...keep the ball in bounds. You're in the goal area. Fake out the goalie and shoot. It's a score!
World Cup Soccer is an advanced version of the original, successful Soccer. It enables you to play with an opponent or against your Intellivision unit. It offers more real life-like gameplay with such added gameplay features as heading the ball, tackling, the option of changing players during game play, and direct or indirect kicking after penalties are called. It's so life-like that you have a full team of players.
Technically this was a Dextell Ltd. release, the company which distributed it in Europe. But since it was introduced to the United States through the INTV Corporation catalog, we've included it as an INTV release.
It still qualifies, though, as a Blue Sky Ranger game since it began life at Mattel Electronics as a one- to four-player game for the Entertainment Computer System (ECS). Development was assigned to the French office.
The nearly-complete cartridge, called Super NASL Soccer, was shown at the January 1984 Consumer Electronics Show, but Mattel Electronics closed two weeks later. An agreement with the French office, which stayed together under the name Nice Ideas, gave them the rights to the game.
Nice Ideas completed the game as a one- or two-player, non-ECS cartridge, which was released in Europe by Dextell Ltd. INTV Corp. negotiated the rights to distribute the cartridge in the United States, introducing it in Spring 1986.
Mattel Marketing tried to interest several companies into advertising in the cartridge. A version was produced with brand names, such as Coca-Cola, appearing on banners around the stadium. No deals were made before Mattel Electronics closed, but a photo of the game showing the advertising banners was inadvertently used in one of the INTV Corp. catalogs.
Design and Programming: Eddie Dombrower Sound and Music: David Warhol Voice Implementation: Steve Ettinger Voice Processing: Mattel Speech Lab USA launch: 1983
It's just like playing baseball in front of national TV! The TV cameras catch different angles of the game. Pan across the playing field. Even pick up the baserunners on a split screen. Be the manager by programming in batting and pitching statistics for your team. Program Hall of Famers to play against each other. Imagine Fernando Valenzuela pitching against Babe Ruth! Truly the next generation of video games.
Major League Baseball launched the Intellivision; Marketing hoped a super-Baseball cartridge would do the same for the Entertainment Computer System. This was to be the most complex Intellivision game yet, using both the ECS and Intellivoice.
Programming started as a team effort of Ken Elinger and Eddie Dombrower, but it quickly became a solo effort of Eddie's.
The results were spectacular. Eddie designed the screen views as if the game were being covered by multiple television cameras there were even insert shots appearing in the corners.
And the gameplay, based on real ball player statistics, was beyond any other video game sports cartridge.
Unfortunately, by the time the game was released, Mattel Electronics management had changed and the ECS had dropped to a low marketing priority. The system - and the game - received little support. Few people ever saw the game.
Ten years later, a new generation of "virtual reality" baseball games hit the computer market. Reviewers raved about their multiple-TV-camera viewpoints and statistics-based game play, features World Series Major League Baseball pioneered in 1983.
Eddie Dombrower used historic and current ballplayers' names and stats to create the players in his game. The original marketing even advertised this, as in the catalog description above. But at the last minute, the legal department told him he couldn't use the real names. So Eddie changed their last names to those of the Mattel Electronics programmers. The first names - nicknames - are inside jokes about the programmers. (He slipped in a few personal references, too, including Paul Jule, his brother's first and middle names, and Joe "Pug" Menosky, his best friend from college.) The stats, though, are still those of the real players. Any true baseball fan can look at the stats and tell who the players are.
Steve Ettinger continually annoyed Lynn [Lilliedahl] Fordham by calling her "Babe." Finally, one day she turned on him and said, "That's MS. Babe to you." So for the game a player was named Babe Lilliedahl. The legal department, though, made Eddie take it out - they wouldn't allow any of the NICKNAMES to be those of real ballplayers.
This may have been the first integrated video game - Eddie had designed the animated players to be black or white depending on the real players they were based on. When the names were changed to those of the programmers, he left the skin colors as they were. At least one programmer, though, came to Eddie and asked for "his" skin color to be changed, not wanting to be black in the game.
Design and Programming: Tom Loughry Production: Cheshire Engineering USA launch: 1983
Welcome to Felton Pinkerton's farm where corn grows high at harvesting time. But, wait! Wave after wave of horrible corn huskers are slithering, sliding, oozing toward your corn crops. The corn must be saved! The worms must be whomped! Run to the shed, grab your B-U-G pesticide and spray, Spray, SPRAY! Worm Whomper. Watch what crops up!
Worm Whomper was an original Intellivision game programmed at Cheshire Engineering under contract to Activision.
From designer Tom Loughry in the Stampede instruction manual:
"As you will undoubtedly discover, protecting corn from invading bugs can be a full-time chore. And even then, there will always be at least one hungry bug that will survive the battle. Here are some pointers to help you control the number of bugs and increase the productivity of your crop.
"First of all, remember to spray the larger bugs first. They move the fastest and take the most spray to destroy.
"Also, it is especially important to exterminate the moths as soon as they appear. Although they don't actually destroy the corn themselves, they do lay eggs that mature into hungry caterpillars. If moths have the chance to lay their eggs close to the corn, the caterpillars will only have a short distance to travel and feast.
"Another strategy is to save your plough balls for the later waves of attack. All of the bugs will be moving much faster and that's when you'll need the plough balls most.
"Finally, only defend those sections of the field that have the corn growing on them. Don't even worry about the sections of the field that have lost their corn, unless new stalks appear."
Players who sent a photo to Activision showing a score of 75,000 or more received an "Activision Worm Whompers" emblem.
Licence: Based on the Sega Enterprises, Inc. arcade game USA launch: 1983
This fantastic three dimensional space battle game puts you in control of a futuristic spaceship. The ship zooms through the sky, diving down to bomb the enemy fighter planes and to attack the enemy's installations. The ship must avoid hazardous walls, devastating force fields and the enemy's fire to survive and score. Can you do it?
Versions were released for Atari 2600 and ColecoVision as well as Intellivision.
Program: Chris Kingsley Production: APh Technological Consulting
Learn a second language the same way you learned yours - by listening and speaking! You pronounce the French word into the microphone and compare your pronunciation with the audio! It helps you to master the French conversation so that you can apply it in practice in many situations. Work at home at your own pace. No artificial grammar!
Do crosswords electronically! The computer gives you the tips, draws the spaces, keeps the score - and when you're done, someone else can solve the same challenge! 3 levels of difficulty. You don't need an eraser - just the keys!
Available in 1 K7 tape. Requires the BASIC cartridge.
The challenge is a little tougher in this game than in CROSSWORD I. The computer still draws spaces, gives hints and keeps the score, but it will be more difficult for you. Crossword addicts will really enjoy this tape.
Available in 1 K7 tape. Requires the BASIC cartridge.
Ideal for true crossword experts. Have fun while learning new exotic words. The computer will keep the score, draw the spaces and give you hints. The rest is up to you. A real test of knowledge of words.
Become a master of the crosswords!
Available in 1 K7 tape. Requires the BASIC cartridge.
Where the money goes! Control family finances with this program. You can have a graphical analysis of a wide spectrum of categories to help you balance your expenses and keep your finances organized. It's like having an accountant at home! This is a K7 that will pay for itself.
Available in 1 K7 tape. Requires the BASIC cartridge.
Have a geography class for up to 6 people. Three fascinating quiz games. The computer controls the tests of the state capitals, natural resources, history and identification of the map. See how many family members get an "A".
It is a delightful way to learn facts about America.
Available in 1 K7 tape. Requires the BASIC cartridge.
Program: Hal Finney Production: APh Technological Consulting
Develop a conditioning program adapted to your needs. Just enter personal statistics, do a physical test and the computer will give you a personalized program recommended by the famous conditioning expert Jack LaLanne.
The whole family can have a spelling bee with words chosen for each age and level of difficulty.
Pre-record the words on the audio tape or use the words already included in the K7. It's a lot of fun.
If you've never been good at spelling, this K7 can help you do that.
Format: CD Program and Intellivision emulator: Mike Livesay Additional programming: Chris Robbers, Jason Maynard Sound emulation: Dan Zahn Music: Tom Kathelin Art: Jody McMurrian
Collection of 30 games created by Activision for Intellivision.
Available for Sony PlayStation.
Apple Mac
Microsoft Xbox
Nintendo DS
Nintendo GameCube
PC
Sony Playstation 1
Sony Playstation 2
Format: CD Program: Ed Higa, Xheryl G. Durham Production: Karen Lequeux Production assistant: Chris Weeks 3D Art: Connie Goldman, Caleb Sawyer Art direction: Karen Lequeux Engineering and tools: Farsight Studios Inc.
Collection with more than 60 Intellivision games, plus interviews and curiosities.
Available for PC, Mac, DS/Gamecube (Nintendo), PlayStation 1/2 (Sony) and Xbox (Microsoft).
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