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Intellivision
The Intellivision (a portmanteau of intelligent television) is a home video game console released by Mattel Electronics in 1979. It distinguished itself from competitors with more realistic sports and strategic games. By 1981, Mattel Electronics had close to 20% of the domestic video game market, selling more than 3.75 million consoles and 20 million cartridges through 1983. At its peak Mattel Electronics had about 1800 employees in several countries, including 110 videogame developers. In 1984, Mattel sold its video game assets to a former Mattel Electronics executive and investors, eventually becoming INTV Corporation. Game development ran from 1978 to 1990, when the Intellivision was discontinued. In 2009, IGN ranked the Intellivision No. 14 on their list of the greatest video game consoles of all time. History The Intellivision was developed at Mattel in Hawthorne, California. By 1969, multiple research and development groups came together as the Preliminary Design departme ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Second Generation Of Video Game Consoles
In the history of video games, the second-generation era refers to computer and video games, video game consoles, and handheld game console, handheld video game consoles available from 1976 to 1992. Notable Video game#Platform, platforms of the second generation include the Fairchild Channel F, Atari 2600, Intellivision, Odyssey 2, and ColecoVision. The generation began in November 1976 with the release of the Fairchild Channel F. This was followed by the Atari 2600 in 1977, Magnavox Odyssey² in 1978, Intellivision in 1980 and then the Emerson Arcadia 2001, ColecoVision, Atari 5200, and Vectrex,Barton, Matt and Loguidice, Bill. (2007)A History of Gaming Platforms: The Vectrex, Gamasutra. all in 1982. By the end of the era, there were over 15 different consoles. It coincided with, and was partly fuelled by, the golden age of arcade video games. This peak era of popularity and innovation for the medium resulted in many games for second generation home consoles being Port (video gam ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
PlayCable
PlayCable was an online service introduced in 1980 that allowed local cable television system operators to send games for the Intellivision over cable wires alongside normal television signals. Through the service, subscribers would use a device, called the PlayCable adapter, to download the games for play on their Intellivision. It was the first service that allowed users to download games for play on a video game console. PlayCable was not widely adopted, due in part to high costs for users and operators, as well as limitations of the PlayCable adapter. The service was discontinued in 1984. History PlayCable was developed as a joint venture between Mattel and General Instrument. The PlayCable service was deep in development even before the Intellivision was widely released. In 1979, tests of the service were announced for several cities, including Moline, Illinois, Jackson, Mississippi and Boise, Idaho. The service was officially launched in 1981. Subscriptions were available for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
General Instrument CP1600
The CP1600 is a 16-bit microprocessor created in a partnership between General Instrument and Honeywell, introduced in February 1975. It is one of the first single-chip 16-bit processors. The overall design bears a strong resemblance to the PDP-11. Honeywell used the CP1600 in a number of industrial control system, process control computers and related systems, but its most widespread use was the CP1610 version in the Intellivision video game console. The system saw little other use due to General Instrument's marketing philosophy of seeking out customers only with very large orders and ignoring smaller customers. They also did not pursue a second source arrangement, which in the early days of microprocessor designs was a requirement for most potential customers. Description Physical implementation The CP1600 was implemented in Depletion and enhancement modes, enhancement mode MOSFET, nMOS and required +12, +5, and −3 V power supplies; I/O connections except for the clock ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Baseball (Intellivision Video Game)
''Baseball'' (released as ''Major League Baseball'', ''Super Challenge Baseball'', and ''World Championship Baseball'') is a sport video game produced by Mattel and released for the Intellivision home video game console in 1980. As the best-selling game in the console's history, with more than 1 million copies sold, ''Baseball'' put players in control of a nine-man baseball team competing in a standard nine-inning game. When first released, Mattel obtained a license from Major League Baseball, though the only trademarked item used is the MLB logo on the box art. No official team names or player names are in the game. Gameplay The game consists of nine innings on a simplified baseball diamond. The team that scores the most runs wins. Player 1 is always the visiting team and bats at the top of the innings, with Player 2 as the home team and batting at the bottom of the innings. The pitching player selects a pitch by pushing the controller in one of eight cardinal directions, each ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Home Video Game Console
A home video game console is a video game console that is designed to be connected to a display device, such as a television, and an external power source as to play video games. While initial consoles were dedicated units with only a few games fixed into the electronic circuits of the system, most consoles since support the use of swappable game media, either through game cartridges, optical discs, or through digital distribution to internal storage. There have been numerous home video game consoles since the first commercial unit, the Magnavox Odyssey in 1972. Historically these consoles have been grouped into generations lasting each about six years based on common technical specifications. , there have been nine console generations, with the current leading manufacturers being Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo, colloquially known as the "Big 3". Overview A home video game console is a pre- designed piece of electronic hardware that is meant to be placed at a fixed location a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Standard Television Interface Chip
The Standard Television Interface Chip or STIC is a video encoder chip produced by General Instrument as AY-3-8900/AY-3-8900-1 and used on the Mattel Intellivision. The chip provides all the display functions on the machine, and works as an internal timer. Resolution is 167 × 105 pixels in NTSC and 168 × 104 pixels in PAL, over which movable objects (MOBs) can be placed. These are restricted to a visible area of 159 × 96 pixels. Other objects, such as a 20 × 12 matrix of 8×8 background cards can be used to create scenery or provide game information. The STIC also computes collision information between the objects and screen borders. There are multiple display modes depending on how objects are handles, such as ''Color Stack'', ''Colored Squares'' and ''Foreground/Background'' mode. Characteristics *operates at 4 MHz or 3.579545 MHz (NTSC) *14-bit multiplexed data/address bus shared with CPU *20×12 tiled playfield, tiles are 8×8 pixels for a resolution of 159×9 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Home Video Game Console
A home video game console is a video game console that is designed to be connected to a display device, such as a television, and an external power source as to play video games. While initial consoles were dedicated units with only a few games fixed into the electronic circuits of the system, most consoles since support the use of swappable game media, either through game cartridges, optical discs, or through digital distribution to internal storage. There have been numerous home video game consoles since the first commercial unit, the Magnavox Odyssey in 1972. Historically these consoles have been grouped into generations lasting each about six years based on common technical specifications. , there have been nine console generations, with the current leading manufacturers being Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo, colloquially known as the "Big 3". Overview A home video game console is a pre- designed piece of electronic hardware that is meant to be placed at a fixed location a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
General Instrument AY-3-8910
The AY-3-8910 is a 3-voice programmable sound generator (PSG) designed by General Instrument (GI) in 1978, initially for use with their 16-bit computing, 16-bit General Instrument CP1600, CP1610 or one of the PIC microcontrollers, PIC1650 series of 8-bit computing, 8-bit microcomputers. The AY-3-8910 and its variants were used in many arcade games—Konami's ''Gyruss'' contains five—and Bally pinball machines as well as being the sound chip in the Intellivision and Vectrex video game consoles, and the Amstrad CPC, Oric-1, Colour Genie, Elektor TV Games Computer, MSX, Tiki 100 and later ZX Spectrum home computers. It was also used in the Mockingboard and Cricket sound cards for the Apple II and the Speech/Sound Cartridge for the TRS-80 Color Computer. After GI's spinoff of Microchip Technology in 1987, the chip was sold for a few years under the Microchip brand. It was also manufactured under license by Yamaha Corporation, Yamaha (with a selectable clock divider pin a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mattel
Mattel, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational corporation, multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment company headquartered in El Segundo, California. Founded in Los Angeles by Harold Matson and the husband-and-wife duo of Ruth Handler, Ruth and Elliot Handler in January 1945, Mattel has a presence in 35 countries and territories; its products are sold in more than 150 countries. It is the world's second largest toy maker in terms of revenue, after the Lego Group. Two of its historic and most valuable brands, Barbie and Hot Wheels, were respectively named the top global toy property and the top-selling global toy of the year for 2020 and 2021 by the NPD Group, a global information research company. History Origins and early years Businessman Harold "Matt" Matson and the husband-and-wife duo of Elliot and Ruth Handler, Ruth Handler founded Mattel as Mattel Creations in January 1945 in a garage in Los Angeles. The company name chosen is a portmanteau of the surname of Mat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
General Instrument
General Instrument (GI) was an American electronics manufacturer based in Horsham, Pennsylvania, specializing in semiconductors and cable television equipment. They formed in New York City in 1923 as an electronics manufacturer. During the 1950s, the company began a series of acquisitions under the direction of Moses Shapiro. Among the more notable purchases was General Transistor in 1960, which led to GI becoming a major producer of transistors, and later, integrated circuits (ICs). By the late 1960s, the company was mostly depending on sales into the television industry, which was further bolstered by the 1967 purchase of Jerrold Electronics. The company changed markets continually. Through the 1970s they focused mostly on the off-track betting market through their purchase of American Totalisator, but this market faced significant competition in the late 1970s. At this time, GI became well known for their ICs including the CP1600 used in the Mattel Intellivision game con ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mattel Auto Race
''Mattel Electronics Auto Race'' was released in 1976 by Mattel Electronics as the first handheld electronic game to use only solid-state electronics; it has no mechanical elements except the controls and on/off switch. Using hardware designed for calculators and powered by a nine-volt battery, the cars are represented by red LEDs on a playfield which covers only a small portion of the case. The audio consists of beeps. George J. Klose based the game on 1970s racing arcade video games and designed the hardware, with some hardware features added by Mark Lesser who also wrote the 512 bytes of program code. From a top-down perspective, the player controls a car on a three-lane track and moves between them with a switch. Opponent vehicles move toward the player, in an effect similar to vertical scrolling, and the player must avoid them. A second control shifts gears from 1-4, with the speed increasing for each. ''Auto Race'' was followed by other successful handheld sports game ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
ROM Cartridge
A ROM cartridge, usually referred to in context simply as a cartridge, cart, cassette, or card, is a replaceable part designed to be connected to a consumer electronics device such as a home computer, video game console or, to a lesser extent, electronic musical instruments. Read-Only Memory, ROM cartridges allow users to rapidly load and access programs and data alongside a floppy drive in a home computer; in a video game console, the cartridges are standalone. At the time around their release, ROM cartridges provided security against Software copyunauthorised copying of software. However, the manufacturing of ROM cartridges was more expensive than floppy disks, and the storage capacity was smaller. ROM cartridges and slots were also used for various hardware accessories and enhancements. The widespread usage of the ROM cartridge in video gaming applications has led it to be often colloquially called a game cartridge. History ROM cartridges were popularized by early home ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
