Intellivision: Gone But Not Forgotten

One day in 1979, during Christmas break, I sneaked into my parents' bedroom while they were away, hoping to catch a glimpse of what "Santa" might be bringing. I was certain that this was the year I would receive the Atari 2600 I had been begging for every Christmas and birthday over the past two years. I slid open the closet door ever so quietly, paranoid that they might hear me, even though they were miles away at the time.

Among the various shopping bags holding what was obviously Christmas loot waiting to be wrapped, I spotted a large box marked "Intellivision."

It was unlike anything I had ever seen before. Clearly, it was a gaming system – I could tell from the dozens of screenshots adorning the box. However, it wasn't the Atari 2600. "Great," I thought sarcastically. "Mom and Dad opted for the cheap knock-off..."

Click to enlarge

I had no interest in playing it – I wanted an Atari or nothing. However, a few days later, while my parents were out again, curiosity got the better of me. I went back to the closet, carefully noted the box's orientation, and then took it out for a closer inspection. None of the screenshots resembled games I recognized, but the graphics seemed much better than those of the Atari's.

I meticulously peeled back the seal, ensuring I could reseal it, and systematically unboxed it to ensure everything could be returned to its original state. I was determined to try this system out.

To my surprise, I loved it, even though I only got to play the Blackjack game that came with it. During a second secretive session, I had the chance to try out the officially licensed "Advanced Dungeons and Dragons" game. The disk pad controller required some adjustment, but the gameplay completely won me over.

To this day, I still argue with my cousins that my Intellivision was better than their Atari. However, while Atari went on to make other more powerful systems, Intellivision quietly disappeared. What ever happened to the brand that hooked me on console gaming more than 40 years ago?

The mission: To beat Atari

The mission was clear: to outshine Atari. It was the height of the second generation of console gaming, when Mattel launched its Intellivision "Master Component" in 1979 for $275, a steep price at the time (equivalent to $1,246 in 2024 when adjusted for inflation).

Atari had already revived an industry flooded with first-gen Pong knockoffs by releasing the Atari 2600 in 1977. The two-year headstart gave Atari a distinct advantage as it snatched up a large slice of the market. Licensing deals for video games that were hits in the arcades, including Namco's Pac-Man, Space Invaders, and Konami's Frogger, would cement the console's hold in the industry.

That's not to say that the Intellivision lacked great original and licensed games. Mattel licensed Pac-Man and it was far superior on its platform, which we'll get to in a moment. But the console also featured some highly addictive games that kept me playing well past my bedtime.

One of my favorites was Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. As a huge fan of tabletop D&D, the Intellivision video game quickly topped my list. Mattel licensed it from TSR, but the game was essentially an original concept. In fact, it was the first ever D&D video game. I appreciated it for its resemblance to the tabletop version, offering a faster pace without the need for dice rolling.

Astrosmash was another standout original IP. It combined elements of Space Invaders and Asteroids. Despite the chunky graphics, they were still superior to anything available on Atari. The game pace started off slowly, allowing players to get the hang of it, but the difficulty ramped up significantly after about 20 levels. It was the first game I ever mastered and could play indefinitely.

A few years later, Mattel introduced the Intellivoice "voice synthesis module" along with a selection of compatible games. The best of the bunch was B-17 Bomber. It was a straightforward game focused on dropping bombs from the bomb bay. However, the highlight of the game was the voice, which can best be described as a robot with a Tennessee accent. To this day, I can't help but laugh when I think of that voice.

Mattel Electronics began developing a gaming system called Intellivision in 1977, the same year that the Atari 2600 launched. It would take two years before Mattel was ready to release the system and only five more before abandoning the brand. However, it made such an impression that the iconic console was never forgotten and is, in fact, making a comeback.

Atari 2600 Pac-Man

Indeed, Mattel intended to give Atari a run for its money, and the delayed launch allowed it to outshine the 2600 with more refined graphics and better audio.

An example of Intellivision's superior performance is seen when comparing its Pac-Man port with the Atari 2600's (above and below). As you can see, Mattel managed a fairly faithful reproduction of Namco's arcade hit. Atari? Not so much...

Intellivision Pac-Man

What set Intellivision apart from Atari was its processor. The Atari 2600 used an 8-bit MOS Technology 6507 running at 1.19 MHz, whereas Mattel equipped the Intellivision with a 16-bit 2 MHz CP1600, developed in partnership between General Instruments and Honeywell in 1975.

What's surprising is that 16-bit machines wouldn't become widespread until two more console generations had passed. Additionally, the Intellivision featured a three-channel sound chip, allowing for superior music and sound effects. Mattel highlighted these advantages through a series of print and TV advertisements featuring George Plimpton, which provided side-by-side comparisons of the two consoles (see below).

The superior performance of the Intellivision led to its warm reception, with Mattel selling out its entire first-year production run of 175,000 units. The following year, sales reached 200,000 units. In 1981, Mattel increased production and sold over one million consoles. By 1983, sales had exceeded 3 million units – a remarkable achievement for a gaming system that was priced higher than an automatic dishwasher at the time.

The only thing working against the Intellivision, aside from its cost, were the controllers. Most players were familiar with the use of joysticks and one or two buttons, mirroring the arcade experience. Atari stuck with tradition when designing the CX-40, a straightforward single-button joystick. In contrast, Mattel adopted a radically different approach, producing a controller that more closely resembled a television remote than a traditional game controller.

The Intellivision featured two wired controllers that docked on the console's top. Each controller boasted a 16-directional disc at the base, a 12-button keypad on the front, and two side inputs.

While the design allowed developers to add more interfacing options to their games, it also required plastic overlays that slid in over the keypad to display what each button did. These would often get bent and become annoying to insert. The disk was also hard on the thumb as the skin would inevitably rub raw on the raised plastic encircling the pad.

The keyboard component and other bad ideas

What's in a name? Mattel's gaming system was commonly referred to as simply "the Intellivision." However, as the company licensed the console out, it fell under other monikers.

For instance, Sears called it "Super Video Arcade," and Radio Shack branded it "Tandyvision One." However, Mattel's original designation of "Intellivision Master Component" had a significant meaning because it was intended to be the core of a whole other system meant to bring home computers to the consumer.

Ironically, this vision turned out to be part of Mattel's failure in the gaming sector.

The company intended to release a keyboard component shortly after the Master Component launch. Mattel announced the two products during CES 1979 in Las Vegas. The "Keyboard Component," as it was officially called, was massive. Mattel designed it so that the Master Component would attach within it. It was so big that its internal codename was the "Blue Whale."

Mattel wanted to release the Keyboard Component in the summer of 1980 for the same price as the Master Component ($275). However, it was plagued with delays. By December 1979, the company had determined that the manufacturing costs were too high and tasked engineers with completely redesigning the internals.

By late 1980, Mattel finally had an almost completed product to release into a test market in Fresno, California. "Almost completed" because it launched with only the BASIC Programming cartridge rather than the software promised in the television ads it had already run (below). It's unclear how well it performed in that test market, but it likely didn't do well because it would be another year of work before the keyboard would see another trial launch.

In the fall of 1981, Mattel conducted a limited release of the Keyboard Component in Seattle and New Orleans at a whopping $600 – more than twice its initially advertised price. However, the price point was not wholly unreasonable, considering the device was not just a peripheral.

The Keyboard Component had an 8-bit 6502 processor, which gave users a dual-processor computer when combined with the Master Component. The two processors could act independently, creating something like a composite graphical output. That is to say, the 6502 could output a "high-resolution" 40x24 text overlay on top of the CP1610's graphics.

The Keyboard Component also had 16KB of shared RAM, which does not seem like much by today's standards, but considering an average Intellivision cartridge was 4K, it was considerable. The device also had a four-track built-in cassette tape drive with high-speed indexing, two expansion ports for peripherals, a RAM expansion port (up to 64KB), and a microphone jack.

It was an excellent home computing solution at the time, and despite its obscene price point and the lack of software, it could have done well. In fact, many families bought the Master Component intending to pick up the keyboard on release. When Mattel failed to deliver the device when advertised, customers complained. The FTC became involved and opened an investigation into Mattel for false advertising and fraud.

In mid-1982, the FTC ruled that Mattel was to pay a fine every month until the Keyboard Component was fully launched. Mattel then canceled the device. As part of the FTC settlement, Mattel bought back all units it had sold to test markets.

Those who chose to keep the Keyboard Component had to sign a waiver acknowledging they understood no other software would be released for it. They were also given vouchers worth $1,000 in Mattel Electronics products. However, the FTC still wanted to see a released device before easing up on the fines. Fortunately, Mattel had an ace in the hole.

The struggles of the Keyboard Component created a rift in Mattel's upper management. When the division failed to release anything by 1981, they began to worry that the device would never be marketable. So they set up a separate secret division tasked with creating a cheaper and more profitable machine. It was an introductory computer programming system for kids called the "Basic Development System." Designers kept the work secret because management feared that Keyboard Component head David Chandler would try to snuff the work.

Codenamed LUCKI (Low User-Cost Keyboard Interface), the device got rid of the more expensive parts used in its rival system. It lowered the RAM from 16KB to 2KB and ditched the secondary processor and the high-resolution text. It also went with a much simpler cassette and printer interface. It plugged into the side of the Master Component like a cartridge with a pass-through port on the opposite side for game carts (or peripherals like the Intellivoice pictured above).

The result was somewhat like a very unsophisticated Keyboard Component, with a built-in BASIC programming language that was very limited in what it could do. However, it was enough to get the FTC off Mattel's back, so they changed the name to the Entertainment Computer System (ECS). It began marketing efforts during the 1982 holiday season and showed off the system at CES 1983. Before the end of that spring, the ECS launched under a new name, the Intellivision Computer Module, and the FTC stopped the monthly fines.

Unfortunately, management had become disenchanted with offering hardware add-ons and decided to focus solely on software. So before the ECS could even have a chance, Mattel pulled its marketing budget and stopped all further development of upgrades already in progress. In the end, the system only had about six software titles released, with a few others that were completed but never released.

Before giving up, Mattel had had many other irons in the fire where hardware was concerned. For example, it successfully launched a follow-up to the Master Component called "Intellivision II."

It was the same as the original, except for its reduced size and lower manufacturing cost. It also released the Intellivoice module, which added voice synthesis to some games, but it never caught traction. It broke ground on a first-of-a-kind online game delivery service operated through cable TV service providers, but it flopped due to high backend costs and hardware limitations.

The Intellivision III and IV were in various planning and development stages, but neither saw the light of day.

The video game crash of 1983 ultimately led to the shutdown of the Intellivision division. In 1984, Mattel sold the rights and assets to a group of former Mattel executives and investors. This group formed the INTV Corporation, which continued to support and expand the Intellivision brand until 1990. That year, the INTV Corporation declared bankruptcy, and the Intellivision brand was officially discontinued.

Retro revival: Intellivision Lives (on) and the Amico project

Despite throwing in the towel in 1990, that was not the last we would hear from the Intellivision brand. In 1997, former Intellivision programmers Keith Robinson and Stephen Roney bought all rights, including games, and formed Intellivision Productions.

The company ported the games to MSDOS and released Intellivision for PC Volume 1. It was a free download that included three games and an emulator. They followed up with volumes 2 and 3 and expanded the emulation to Windows and Macintosh. The following year the company launched Intellivision Lives!, followed by Intellivision Rocks in 2001. These compilations included over 100 emulated games on CD for DOS, Windows, and Mac.

Consoles also saw various Intellivision compilations. In a licensing deal with Intellivision Productions, Activision released Intellivision Classics for the PlayStation in 1999. Likewise, Crave Entertainment ported Intellivision Lives! to the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and GameCube.

Other publishers brought versions of Intellivision Lives! to the Nintendo DS and the Xbox 360.

The surge in retro gaming also saw a miniature console hit the market in 2014. Called the Intellivision Flashback, the system had 60 on-board games and two full-size controllers that were exact replicas of the original Intellivision.

In 2018, veteran video game music composer Tommy Tallarico announced he had acquired the Intellivision brand and formed Intellivision Entertainment. Later that year, he unveiled the Intellivision Amico, a next-gen version of the beloved console. Make no mistake. The Amico was not meant to compete with the likes of the PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series.

For a time, things appeared to be going very well. The Amico was shown to be a retro system based on budget Android-level hardware (8-core Snapdragon SoC, 2GB RAM, 32GB storage with microSD expansion, 1080p HDMI output), more than capable of running retro games and significantly more advanced than the original Master Component. A slick reimagined design in a smaller form factor with arguably unnecessary but cool LED lighting looked nice. The controllers harken back to the originals, but the disc pad is more advanced, and designers replaced the physical number pad with an LED screen.

The games announced for the Amico, while retro in style, were modern in substance. Classics such as Astrosmash, Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (renamed Cloudy Mountain), Biplanes, and even Missile Command were to be revived with gorgeous new coats of paint and updated gameplay mechanics.

The project raised over $11 million. Initially, the retro games were expected to cost around $8, and the console was to retail for $180 with a launch date in October 2020. But that didn't happen. Nor did subsequent rescheduled release dates. By 2021, updates indicated that the console would pre-order for $250 - $300, and games would cost $20, diverging from the initial promise of exclusivity and affordability.

Ultimately, the Intellivision Amico project encountered insurmountable challenges. In November 2023, Intellivision acknowledged insufficient funds to finance the console's production. Instead, they launched a mobile app called Amico Home, enabling gameplay of few Amico titles on Android devices, with an iOS release planned. However, the application received criticism for its lack of content quality and the requirement for two devices for gameplay – one to act as the display and another as the controller.

Despite initial enthusiasm from over 9,000 people who placed refundable $100 deposits, reviving a classic brand in today's gaming landscape proved to be an overwhelming challenge. If anything, the Amico project's journey is a testament to the enduring love for retro gaming and the community's desire to see beloved classics reborn.