Make it an Intellivision Christmas! Last Chance for Several Items!
Wednesday, 05 November 2008
Bring back fun memories this Christmas with the gift of Intellivision for yourself and your childhood Intellivision opponents: your dad, your brother, your sister, your best friend. Play the games again. Put an Intellivision poster in your game room. Give an Intellivision T-shirt. Challenge your kids to the games YOU grew up with. Introduce them to Intellivision with plug-and-play units.
But hurry! This will be the last Christmas for a number of our most popular items! Here are a few that will be going away soon:
Intellivision Lives! for PlayStation 2. Our publishing partner Crave Entertainment has discontinued this collection of over 60 classic Intellivision games because retailers now only stock products for PlayStation 3. Even though this collection plays fine on PS3, it's admittedly a PS2 product, so out it goes. We still have some, but once they're gone, they're gone. The Xbox and GameCube versions have already sold out; don't miss your last chance for PlayStation! Only $19.99 in our web store.
Intellivision Second Edition Plug-and-Play. In the last five years, nearly 4 million Intellivision plug-and-plays have been sold. Kids love them and they make great gifts. But retailers feel the plug-and-play market is, well, played out, so our partner Techno Source USA has stopped manufacturing them. We are limited to the remaining inventory of Intellivision Second Edition. The battery-operated controller has ten games built in. Plug into your TV and play! Only $12.99 in our web store.
Las Vegas Lounge Trio. For the last Classic Gaming Expo in Las Vegas we put together this numbered, limited-edition 3-pack of Intellivision products: the Intellivision Lives! and Intellivision Rocks PC/Mac game collections plus the Intellivision in Hi-Fi music CD. We had some left over which we made available in our web store, but we expect to run out of them during this Christmas sales season. You really shouldn't miss this! First for its collector's value: we only made 500 packs, each with a colorful wraparound cover and a reproduction of the 1980s Intellivision Game Club Membership Card, and second for the savings: these items purchased separately in our web store would cost $75. The Trio is priced at only $39.95!Get them while you can! (Intellivision Lives! and Intellivision Rocks play on Windows 98 or XP and on Macs that can run in Classic Mode. Not for Vista or Intel-based Macs.)
Find these and many other Intellivision items in our web store! Christmas is just around the corner so get your order in today! Write Comment
Last Updated ( Thursday, 06 November 2008 )
Happy Birthday Stephen Roney and Steve Ettinger
Monday, 03 November 2008
Blue Sky Rangers Stephen Roney and Steve Ettinger celebrate birthdays this week - Mr. Roney on the 4th and Mr. Ettinger on the 5th.
Stephen Roney started at Mattel Electronics in 1981 and was involved in several landmark games: he and Bill Fisher developed Space Spartans, the first game for the Intellivoice speech module, then he and Bill joined John Sohl in developing the voice game B-17 Bomber. He ported the game Utopia to the Aquarius Computer and worked on several unreleased games, including Space Shuttle and translations of Space Spartans into Italian, German and French.
(Video and audio clips of Space Shuttle and the foreign voice games are included in the museum section of Intellivision Rocks for Windows and Mac, available exclusively in our web store.)
In 1997 with fellow Blue Sky Ranger Keith Robinson, he founded Intellivision Productions, Inc. He wrote the Macintosh emulation software for Intellivision used in their first Intellivision Lives! release. That software, written in transportable C code, has been the basis for the Windows, PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube and cell phone versions of the Intellivision emulator.
Steve Ettinger joined Mattel Electronics in 1982, where he had some bad luck with his games. His first project was Magic Carousel, a children's game for the Intellivoice module. After the game was finished, Mattel decided there wasn't a big enough market for a kids' voice game and killed it. His next was Hover Force 3-D, planned to be the first game using a new 3-D glasses technology. The game received a high-profile launch at the January 1984 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Two weeks later, Mattel shut down Intellivision production.
Hover Force was eventually released in 1986 as a non-3-D game by INTV Corporation.Magic Carousel had to wait until 2001 to see the light of day in the Intellivision Rocks collection for Windows and Mac.
Steve had better luck creating new games for INTV Corp. from 1987 to 1989. In addition to Hover Force, INTV published his games Body Slam: Super Pro Wrestling, Chip Shot: Super Pro Golf, Slam Dunk: Super Pro Basketball and Spiker! Super Pro Volleyball. All five are included in the Intellivision Lives! collections for Windows/Mac and for PlayStation 2/3 available in our web store.
Both Steves are on view in this home video shot by the programmers at Mattel in 1983; Steve Ettinger as himself and Steve Roney as 60 Minutes commentator "Andy Roney.":
Blue Sky Ranger Creates New Game Genre with "Soul Catcher" for iPhone
Friday, 31 October 2008
Blue Sky Ranger David Warhol, co-designer of the Intellivision cartridge Thunder Castle, has created not only a new game but a new genre with the release today of Soul Catcher for the iPhone. Available on the iPhone AppStore, Soul Catcher is the first Realtime Audio Adventure from Dave's company, Realtime Associates.
As "Audio Adventure" implies, players have to rely on their ears, not eyes, to progress through Soul Catcher. Clues are provided through narration, dialog, sound effects and music. Navigating requires paying attention to where sounds are placed in the stereo spectrum. Only static graphics and simple controls are displayed on the iPhone screen; Dave recommends playing the game mostly with eyes closed.
Soul Catcher follows paranormal private investigator Kane Pryce as he hunts down, catches and banishes ghosts. The game is divided into 23 chapters, each taking about five to fifteen minutes to solve its puzzle and move on to the next, for a three to four hour total experience. An audio sample can be heard on the Soul Catcher web page.
More Kane Pryce mysteries are planned, as well as hard-boiled detective stories, romantic thrillers and even an interactive version of Tom Sawyer.
Dave Warhol majored in music composition in college, so when he came to Mattel Electronics in 1982, it was natural for him to bring a new level of attention to music and sounds in Intellivision games. Thunder Castle features excerpts from numerous classical pieces with arrangements that belie the three-note limit of the Intellivision sound chip. After Mattel, Dave produced all of the new games released by INTV Corporation for Intellivision, personally creating nearly all of the music and sound effects for the games.
Dave's Realtime Associates has developed titles for nearly every game platform of the last two decades. With Realtime Audio Adventures for iPhone, he comes full-circle back to his first love of creating audio art.
Blue Sky Ranger Rick Levine celebrates his birthday October 28. At Mattel Electronics, Rick, along with Mike Minkoff, programmed the Intellivision cartridge PBA Bowling. Later, at Imagic, Rick designed and programmed the Intellivision cartridges Microsurgeon and Truckin'. He was one of the original Mattel Intellivision programmers; he had previously designed handheld games for Mattel Electronics.
You can play Rick's Bowling on the Intellivision Lives! collection. The Windows and PlayStation 2 & 3 versions are available on our web store. The Xbox version can be downloaded through the Xbox Live Marketplace for play on your Xbox 360.
Microsurgeon and Truckin' are available exclusively on the Intellivision Rocks collection on our web store. If you haven't played these unique games you owe it to yourself to get this collection!
You can get both Intellivision Lives! and Intellivision Rocks for Windows in our special Las Vegas Trio 3-Pack. This limited, numbered edition was created for the last Classic Gaming Expo in Las Vegas. We still have some left - fewer than 100. This is a great deal - both Intellivision game collection CD-ROMS, plus our Intellivision in Hi-Fi music CD. A $75 value for only $39.95, exclusively on our web store. Don't miss it! [Note: Disks play on Windows XP and Macs that can run in Classic Mode. Not for Vista or Intel Macs.] Write Comment
Last Updated ( Tuesday, 28 October 2008 )
Belated Birthday Greetings to Peggi Decarli Fiebig and David Stifel
Wednesday, 22 October 2008
We were remiss in not wishing Happy Birthday to a couple of Blue Sky Rangers earlier this month - Peggi Decarli Fiebig on October 4, and David Stifel on October 9.
Peggi was the first graphic artist hired by Mattel Electronics to work on Intellivision. Previously, programmers were expected to develop their own artwork for their games. It quickly became obvious, however, that some programmers were better at graphics and animation than others. These pixel-savvy programmers would spend so much time helping others with artwork that their own games would fall behind schedule. In 1982, the company finally started hiring specialists. Peggi was the first; she provided the graphics for the Intellivision version of Lock 'N' Chase, the map of Europe in the Intellivoice game B-17 Bomber, and many others.
David designed and programmed Game Factory for the Intellivision Entertainment Computer System module. Game Factory incorporated several of the actual software tools used by the game designers to develop graphics and sounds, allowing the player to feel what it was like to create an Intellivision game. Unfortunately, David finished Game Factory the same week that Mattel shut down Intellivision production in January 1984. The game remained unseen by the public until the release of the Intellivision Rocks collection in 2001. [You can order Intellivision Rocks here on our web site.]
In addition to programming, David is an actor. He appeared as Tom Cruise's drug dealer in the film Minority Report and as one of the pirates in the live-action opening of The Spongebob Squarepants Movie. He recently achieved what may be the geek pinacle for a programmer/actor: he was turned into an audio-animatronic robot for Disneyland's Tom Sawyer's Island. His voice and likeness are used for the shackled pirate in Dead Man's Grotto.
If you're in the Los Angeles area, come see David appearing in The Grapes of Wrath, Saturdays and Sundays at the Knightsbridge Theatre now through November 23. For more information go to knightsbridgetheatre.com.
P.S. And a happy belated birthday to Vickie Dahlgren (Oct. 1), Executive Secretary to Intellivision Director Don Daglow and later to Vice President Gabriel Baum. We love you, Vickie! Write Comment
Last Updated ( Saturday, 25 October 2008 )
Video Games Live Music CD Available Now!
Friday, 26 September 2008
The Video Games Live concert has been performed all over the world. Now, by popular demand, the first of a planned four CDs has been released. Conductor Jack Wall leads the Slovak National Symphony Orchestra and Crouch End Festival Chorus through many of the most popular video game themes of all time. Video Games Live Volume One includes music from Kingdom Hearts, World of Warcraft, Myst, Medal of Honor, Civilization IV, Tetris, God of War, Advent Rising, Halo and Castlevania. Of course, we here at Intellivision have a soft spot for the TRON montage.
Here is a video clip of the TRON scherzo from the Video Games Live concert, performed in Los Angeles last year:
Order Video Games Live Volume One from Amazon.com now by clicking the link at left.
Blue Sky Ranger and Intellivision Productions President Keith Robinson has been honored to be invited three times to attend Video Games Live and sign autographs for the fans. See Keith's photos and read his blogs about the concerts here:
The youngest Blue Sky Ranger was Eric Del Sesto, hired in 1983 when he was 17 years old. He started work at Mattel Electronics days after his 18th birthday.
The question I'm asked most frequently is "When is the DS version coming out?" Excellent question. It has been over three years since we first showed Intellivision Lives! for DS at the 2005 E3. Dozens of publishers have evaluated the product, and all have passed. The problem isn't the quality of the collection itself; we've received nothing but enthusiastic feedback. The problem is the bean counters for these publishers. In August, one company told us in an e-mail, "We intend to publish this game..." In September, they reversed themselves because "...the projected return did not justify the capital expenditure..." My frustration is that we have to find a licensed Nintendo publisher to get the DS version released; Nintendo does not have a path that would allow us to distribute Intellivision Lives! ourselves directly to the public.
That is changing soon. Nintendo is planning on releasing the successor to the DS, the DSi, in Spring 2009. The DSi will be able to upload complete games - including Intellivision Lives! - through a service similar to Wii Ware and Xbox Live Marketplace (which now carries our Xbox version). We are still trying to find a publisher for the current DS, but I am excited that even if that doesn't happen, you will all finally be able to play the DS version with the DSi.
Nintendo hasn't yet released details of how publishing to the DSi is going to work, so none of this is official; that's why I'm talking about it here in a blog instead of in the News column. But we have opened communication with Nintendo and I hope we can make an official announcement soon. Thanks for your patience; it looks like in 2009 it will be Springtime for Intellivision!
I'd like to thank all of the Intellivision fans who stopped by the National Cartoonists Society booth at Comic-Con to say Hello! It's always great to meet those of you who grew up with Intellivision and to hear the stories of playing the games under the Christmas tree with your brother or sister of dad, even if it does make me feel about 120 years old.
Here's a slideshow of photos from the booth... Write Comment
Earlier today, Tuesday, June 10, we posted a birthday greeting to Blue Sky Ranger John Sohl. John sent us an e-mail this afternoon thanking us for the birthday wishes and, by the way, pointing out that his birthday is actually June 20. Whoops. We've taken down the item and deleted the RSS link. They'll be back on the 20th.
I'm very sorry for the error. Luckily mistakes like this are extremely, extremely rare. Well, except for when we got Mike Minkoff's birthday wrong in the Intellivision Update e-mail last week. His birthday is May 30, not 15.
John says he is particularly looking forward to his birthday this year, as he'll be eligible for the 55+ meals at Denny's! Congrats, John (10 days early)!
Those of you who used to receive the Intellivision Newsletter should have received an “Intellivision Update” last weekend. (If not, please check your Spam folder and add us to your address book.)
If you want to sign up for the Updates, here's the form:
But, many of you have asked, Whatever happened to the Intellivision Newsletters? Here's the scoop...
Intellivision Lives! for PlayStation 2.
Intellivision Second Edition Plug-and-Play.
Las Vegas Lounge Trio.
Stephen Roney started at Mattel Electronics in 1981 and was involved in several landmark games: he and Bill Fisher developed Space Spartans, the first game for the Intellivoice speech module, then he and Bill joined John Sohl in developing the voice game B-17 Bomber. He ported the game Utopia to the Aquarius Computer and worked on several unreleased games, including Space Shuttle and translations of Space Spartans into Italian, German and French.
Steve Ettinger joined Mattel Electronics in 1982, where he had some bad luck with his games. His first project was Magic Carousel, a children's game for the Intellivoice module. After the game was finished, Mattel decided there wasn't a big enough market for a kids' voice game and killed it. His next was Hover Force 3-D, planned to be the first game using a new 3-D glasses technology. The game received a high-profile launch at the January 1984 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Two weeks later, Mattel shut down Intellivision production.
Blue Sky Ranger David Warhol, co-designer of the Intellivision cartridge Thunder Castle, has created not only a new game but a new genre with the release today of Soul Catcher for the iPhone. Available on the iPhone AppStore, Soul Catcher is the first Realtime Audio Adventure from Dave's company, Realtime Associates.
Soul Catcher follows paranormal private investigator Kane Pryce as he hunts down, catches and banishes ghosts. The game is divided into 23 chapters, each taking about five to fifteen minutes to solve its puzzle and move on to the next, for a three to four hour total experience. An audio sample can be heard on the 
Blue Sky Ranger Rick Levine celebrates his birthday October 28. At Mattel Electronics, Rick, along with Mike Minkoff, programmed the Intellivision cartridge PBA Bowling. Later, at Imagic, Rick designed and programmed the Intellivision cartridges Microsurgeon and Truckin'. He was one of the original Mattel Intellivision programmers; he had previously designed handheld games for Mattel Electronics.
You can get both Intellivision Lives! and Intellivision Rocks for Windows in our special 
Peggi was the first graphic artist hired by Mattel Electronics to work on Intellivision. Previously, programmers were expected to develop their own artwork for their games. It quickly became obvious, however, that some programmers were better at graphics and animation than others. These pixel-savvy programmers would spend so much time helping others with artwork that their own games would fall behind schedule. In 1982, the company finally started hiring specialists. Peggi was the first; she provided the graphics for the Intellivision version of Lock 'N' Chase, the map of Europe in the Intellivoice game B-17 Bomber, and many others.
David designed and programmed Game Factory for the Intellivision Entertainment Computer System module. Game Factory incorporated several of the actual software tools used by the game designers to develop graphics and sounds, allowing the player to feel what it was like to create an Intellivision game. Unfortunately, David finished Game Factory the same week that Mattel shut down Intellivision production in January 1984. The game remained unseen by the public until the release of the 
In addition to programming, David is an actor. He appeared as Tom Cruise's drug dealer in the film Minority Report and as one of the pirates in the live-action opening of The Spongebob Squarepants Movie. He recently achieved what may be the geek pinacle for a programmer/actor: he was turned into an audio-animatronic robot for Disneyland's Tom Sawyer's Island. His voice and likeness are used for the shackled pirate in Dead Man's Grotto.
P.S. And a happy belated birthday to Vickie Dahlgren (Oct. 1), Executive Secretary to Intellivision Director Don Daglow and later to Vice President Gabriel Baum. We love you, Vickie!
The Video Games Live concert has been performed all over the world. Now, by popular demand, the first of a planned four CDs has been released. Conductor Jack Wall leads the Slovak National Symphony Orchestra and Crouch End Festival Chorus through many of the most popular video game themes of all time. Video Games Live Volume One includes music from Kingdom Hearts, World of Warcraft, Myst, Medal of Honor, Civilization IV, Tetris, God of War, Advent Rising, Halo and Castlevania. Of course, we here at Intellivision have a soft spot for the TRON montage.