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The Atari 10-in-1 isn't exactly news - it's been released last year, and the games are changed in subtle ways - it's possible that the games have been re-coded or ported rather than emulated or running on identical hardware.

If you really want NEWS (should I submit this as a story?) Check out the 10-in-1 and 25-in-1 Intellivision systems.

One thing I'd like to see, but I doubt it will happen is Nintendo throwing the entire NES/SNES library on a GameCube disc for like $50-100, and you could play them all, just choose your game from a menu. That alone would make the 'cube worth purchasing.

You can do exactly that with a Dreamcast. Just mail Nintendo a check for $50 (or buy 1-2 games you wouldn't have bought otherwise?).

Realistically, this kind of thing can't be done legally because just the attorney fees to figure out who owns the copyrights for what games would be overwhelming (ask the Blue Sky Rangers about trying to license 20 year old games).

I have an ECS, sans music keyboard for my Intellivision. Unfortunately I bought the system a couple of months after the last Intellicart was sold, so I missed out.

Be forewarned though, playing those games will shatter your fond memories. You really are much better getting MAME and playing the arcade versions which hold up a little better.

Are you sure you're not remembering the PlayCable module for the Intellivision? It was available in limited areas and allow subscribers to play a number of games that were downloaded from cable TV onto the system.

An Intellivision contains a General Instruments CP1610, which is a 16-bit microprocessor. More details available here. The Intellivision contained a rather powerful processor for it's day, which is probably why this is possible. You could buy a keyboard for it (which contained additional RAM) that allowed you to program it in BASIC.

> The outfielders moved in unison

Are you sure you didn't confuse this w/ Atari 2600 baseball? On the Inty, you used the keypad to select an outfielder in order to move it. Only one moved at a time. Once a player had the ball, you pushed the corresponding keypad button to throw it to another position.

Later, they released World Championship Baseball, which added fly balls, sliding into base, and probably a couple other things.

They also had World Series Baseball for their later computer add-on. You could save and load rosters, IIRC, and stats were based on real players - though the names were changed. It also used their voice add-on to have 'play-by-play' calling, an attempt at 3D presentation, multiple camera angles, and even picture-in-picture! Sure the graphics were lame (even compared to the Colecovision) but it had a lot of cool features for its time.

The initial Intellivision sports lineup totally blew away all the other console sports titles that had been released to that point.

(can you guess I'm a fan of the system? ;)

> The outfielders moved in unison

Are you sure you didn't confuse this w/ Atari 2600 baseball? On the Inty, you used the keypad to select an outfielder in order to move it. Only one moved at a time. Once a player had the ball, you pushed the corresponding keypad button to throw it to another position.

Later, they released World Championship Baseball, which added fly balls, sliding into base, and probably a couple other things.

They also had World Series Baseball for their later computer add-on. You could save and load rosters, IIRC, and stats were based on real players - though the names were changed. It also used their voice add-on to have 'play-by-play' calling, an attempt at 3D presentation, multiple camera angles, and even picture-in-picture! Sure the graphics were lame (even compared to the Colecovision) but it had a lot of cool features for its time.

The initial Intellivision sports lineup totally blew away all the other console sports titles that had been released to that point.

(can you guess I'm a fan of the system? ;)

I never had an Intellivision, but my cousin did, so I played quite a bit. In the early 90s or so, a friend of mine was going through his attic and found his Intellivision, so we plugged it in and played Major League Baseball. The game was atrocious--there are no fly balls, so you can't catch the ball to make an out, but they did have home runs. The outfielders moved in unison. After playing for a few minutes, we went back to playing Baseball Stars for the Super Nintendo.

The nostalgia value is neat, such as hearing the Intellivision say "Yer Out" but it wears out quickly. And anyone who didn't play the game growing up (People under 28 years old or so) will not care about this ancient history.

Intellivision Lives has the entire history of the console, official CDs with the roms and bundled PC/Mac emulators, and several games available for free download. The site is maintained by some of the original Intellivision developers.

Not in any order, but these ones cames to mind quickly...

1) Intellivision II coming out and being non-backwards compatible with some of its own library in an effort to break Coleco's Intellivision releases.

2) John Romero's magazine ad that ran pre-Daikatana that said "John Romero's going to make you his bitch." (I can't find the image, but I know it's kicking around somewhere on the net)

3) Sega's "blast processing" commercial in which they claim Sonic the Hedgehog's fast scrolling is due to some neat-o feature in the Genesis' processor which the SNES lacks.

4) Making a movie that's basically one huge commercial for the NES, the Power Glove, and Super Mario 3 (shamelessly savvy moment?).

Those are about all that come to mind...

The emergency medicine game you were thinking about is called "Microsurgeon. There's nothing new under the sun.

You're probably thinking of Kool-Aid Man , released in 1983 by Mattel Electronics for Intellivision and Atari 2600. There were some others, like a Chuck Wagon dog food game for Atari (that is apparently now a hugely prized collector's item).

Radial discs for user input are not exactly a new idea; that said, they didn't take off in earlier incarnations.

Anybody remember Intellivision?

The #2 competitor to the Atari 2600, the Intellivision had a controller with a disc very similar to that described on this patent application (see the picture shown at the above link). The radial dial controller (along with a phone-like keypad and a couple 'action' buttons) was used rather than a joystick or a mouse.

The Intellivision controller is described at the bottom of this page, and the problems with it are aluded to in this video game history, notably that:
Unfortunately, the control discs are not a huge hit with players, along with the fact that their flimsy design leads to frequent controller breakdowns. Hardwired right into the system, this becomes a big problem for owners who have to slog the whole machine back to the dealer for repair.

I'd imagine Apple will avoid these mistakes; mice aren't integrated and I don't see why they can't insure higher quality. Personally, I found the disc an acceptable substitute for a joystick after playing with it a bit at a friend's house.

So I think there's a fair bit of prior art. I searched for 5 minutes for Intellivision and Coleco patents and found it described in
Patent 4,486,629, 4,470,012, 4,462,594, and 4,439,648. I didn't see that prior art cited in the Apple patent.

That said, the new patent does A) control scrolling actions rather than main-locus-of-control actions, and B) as the patent application says, "pressing down on the disc for clicking does not cause the disc to rotate" which seems like an advance to me over the Intellivision controller.

I guess the question comes down to: how well is the usability testing going?

--LP

P.S. For a Slash-based forum on post-PC UI issues, see Nooface.

Radial discs for user input are not exactly a new idea; that said, they didn't take off in earlier incarnations.

Anybody remember Intellivision?

The #2 competitor to the Atari 2600, the Intellivision had a controller with a disc very similar to that described on this patent application (see the picture shown at the above link). The radial dial controller (along with a phone-like keypad and a couple 'action' buttons) was used rather than a joystick or a mouse.

The Intellivision controller is described at the bottom of this page, and the problems with it are aluded to in this video game history, notably that:
Unfortunately, the control discs are not a huge hit with players, along with the fact that their flimsy design leads to frequent controller breakdowns. Hardwired right into the system, this becomes a big problem for owners who have to slog the whole machine back to the dealer for repair.

I'd imagine Apple will avoid these mistakes; mice aren't integrated and I don't see why they can't insure higher quality. Personally, I found the disc an acceptable substitute for a joystick after playing with it a bit at a friend's house.

So I think there's a fair bit of prior art. I searched for 5 minutes for Intellivision and Coleco patents and found it described in
Patent 4,486,629, 4,470,012, 4,462,594, and 4,439,648. I didn't see that prior art cited in the Apple patent.

That said, the new patent does A) control scrolling actions rather than main-locus-of-control actions, and B) as the patent application says, "pressing down on the disc for clicking does not cause the disc to rotate" which seems like an advance to me over the Intellivision controller.

I guess the question comes down to: how well is the usability testing going?

--LP

P.S. For a Slash-based forum on post-PC UI issues, see Nooface.

To my knowledge, this is the first time an ISP offers this kind of service.

Well, for limited versions of "ISP", it's actually a pretty old idea. The Blue Sky Rangers' site notes PlayCable, a service for playing Intellivision games across your cable TV line.

Of course, no geek story about the PlayCable would be complete without noting the story of how the Intellivision's version of Bump 'n' Jump was developed.

To my knowledge, this is the first time an ISP offers this kind of service.

Well, for limited versions of "ISP", it's actually a pretty old idea. The Blue Sky Rangers' site notes PlayCable, a service for playing Intellivision games across your cable TV line.

Of course, no geek story about the PlayCable would be complete without noting the story of how the Intellivision's version of Bump 'n' Jump was developed.

Isn't that what happened with Astrosmash? Intellivision had a Asteroids-clone completed, and then at the last minute changed it to the "Asteroids-Space Invaders" hybrid which was supposed to be a sub-game of the cartridge.

See Astrosmash history at the Blue Sky Rangers site.

Best.

Sports Game.

Ever.

Intellivision was HUGE! It was the second major console to appear on the market (Atari 2600 being the first). It boasted way better graphics (16 colours and 8 sprites), a 16-bit processor, more memory, and the promise of a "keyboard component" which would turn the Intellivision Master Component into a full-blown home computer!

Intellivision first appeared in 1978, and by 1982 when the Keyboard Component never surfaced, Mattel Electronics faced legal trouble for misleading consumers, and released the "Entertainment Computer System" which did not deliver nearly what the original Keyboard Component promised.

So much info about this system is at the "Intellivision Lives" web site.

By 1983 my brother and I had collected about 40 cartridges for this system. The controllers... well... you either loved 'em or you hated 'em. The controllers which appeared later on the Intellivision II were absolutely awful, but the original controllers were fine once you got used to them.

okay, you got me. It was 5: The three you mentioned and Space Spartans, and a baseball game.

googe is your friend.

You know, people have been saying this since at least the Intellivision. Try #1 Try #2 (And something for the 2600 is niggling at my brain... there might have been something for that, too.)

After 20+ years of this line... I'll believe it when I see it. Not one second sooner. And with Microsoft fighting this tooth and nail... frankly, the Dreamcast had a much better shot here (what with most or all of them able to run custom CD-ROMs with no modifications to the unit), and it didn't happen either.

You know, people have been saying this since at least the Intellivision. Try #1 Try #2 (And something for the 2600 is niggling at my brain... there might have been something for that, too.)

After 20+ years of this line... I'll believe it when I see it. Not one second sooner. And with Microsoft fighting this tooth and nail... frankly, the Dreamcast had a much better shot here (what with most or all of them able to run custom CD-ROMs with no modifications to the unit), and it didn't happen either.

Astrosmash on my phone...very very cool.

Astrosmash on my phone...very very cool.

>What would be better than this obviously one-use controller is something like that with several joysticks and lots of buttons, switches, etc...--basically a console with many controls but not designed for one purpose. There could be like a 15x5 grid of buttons, and games come with inserts to cover them.

Oh, you mean an Intellivision gamepad, circa 1979?

Does anybody else remember the Tron games for Intellivision? They were some of the best ever games for that system.

Tron Deadly Discs was my favourite. It wasn't like the arcade game Discs of Tron, instead you and the enemies ran around a playfield throwing discs at each other. Eventually the Recognizer would come and you'd have to hit it in just the right spot to disable it. It was pretty easy but still lots of fun.

Tron Solar Sailer was the coolest Intellivoice game. It was a pretty weird concept that I can't really describe too well, but it actually had quite a bit to do with the movie.

There was another game, Tron Maze-A-Tron which I didn't think was very good. Basically you just ran around a maze doing stuff.

Of course the arcade games were a lot of fun too but for a youngster with very little money it was a lot nicer to have something to play at home.

Does anybody else remember the Tron games for Intellivision? They were some of the best ever games for that system.

Tron Deadly Discs was my favourite. It wasn't like the arcade game Discs of Tron, instead you and the enemies ran around a playfield throwing discs at each other. Eventually the Recognizer would come and you'd have to hit it in just the right spot to disable it. It was pretty easy but still lots of fun.

Tron Solar Sailer was the coolest Intellivoice game. It was a pretty weird concept that I can't really describe too well, but it actually had quite a bit to do with the movie.

There was another game, Tron Maze-A-Tron which I didn't think was very good. Basically you just ran around a maze doing stuff.

Of course the arcade games were a lot of fun too but for a youngster with very little money it was a lot nicer to have something to play at home.

Does anybody else remember the Tron games for Intellivision? They were some of the best ever games for that system.

Tron Deadly Discs was my favourite. It wasn't like the arcade game Discs of Tron, instead you and the enemies ran around a playfield throwing discs at each other. Eventually the Recognizer would come and you'd have to hit it in just the right spot to disable it. It was pretty easy but still lots of fun.

Tron Solar Sailer was the coolest Intellivoice game. It was a pretty weird concept that I can't really describe too well, but it actually had quite a bit to do with the movie.

There was another game, Tron Maze-A-Tron which I didn't think was very good. Basically you just ran around a maze doing stuff.

Of course the arcade games were a lot of fun too but for a youngster with very little money it was a lot nicer to have something to play at home.

First: Turn console switch ON... and LEAVE EVERYTHING ALONE.

Please refer to this for additional instruction.

And I can not repeat this enough: Watch out for the grid bugs!

Or, if you want to go back even farther, the Intellivision console in 1981 had the "PlayCable", which was a system that offered new games every month (over CABLE, no less) for you to play. Check out the linkage here.

Ah yes, nothing quite like the familiar "TCH! sssshhHHHHhhhh!" of sending a disc through one of the bad guys. I actually asked Keith Robinson (one of the Mattel Programmers) during a panel at CGExpo why the bad guys were blue and the good guys red in Tron. He dismissed the question as the geekiest question he'd heard. :-) (scroll down the page to see the paragraph mentioning the question.)

I found out later from a friend that apparently Disney had dithered back and forth right up until the end on what colors the good guys and bad guys would have. Apparently, the Mattel folks had worked from a pre-screening which had the good guys in red and the bad in blue. (I tried to find a link to the article my friend sent me, but Dave's Videogame Classics seems to have gone away.)

<plug type=shameless> Speaking of Intellivision, I'm actively developing games for it. I've released one game called 4-Tris and I'm presently working on another. I've even made cartridges! :-) </plug>

Eric

I need to get another Intellivsion ...

Or order Intellivision Lives! for the PC or Mac, or Intellivision Classics for the PlayStation.

While you're at it, check out intellivisionlives.com's history section. I found reading the stories of the development of the games and programming for those darn disc/keypad controllers quite nostalgic.

Now there's a real classic system for you, when most people don't even remember it. But man, it rocked. Well, http://www.intellivisionlives.com/ someone remembers it, anyway. Check out the cable network interface it had http://www.makingit.com/bluesky/hardware/playcable _tech.html. Playstations don't even have stuff like that now.

Ahh... memories.

:wq!

Slightly off-topic, but while we're talking about old consoles, I picked up the "Intellivision Lives!" CD from http://www.intellivisionlives.com

What a time trip! I was very young when the IntelliVision was popular, and my oldest brother and I wasted *many* hours on their sports games like Baseball and Football. In many ways, the Intellivision was ahead of its time, and the multiplayer games were the best for the era. We had the IntelliSpeech module (B-17 bomber was awesome!) and most of the big games.

The CD is great. It contains an emulator and ROM images for many of the classic games (AstroSmash, etc..) some games that were never released, and all kinds of information on the development of the IntelliVision and the internal politics at Mattel and the rise and fall of the system.

Some of the old developers put the CD together, so it's much more interesting than the typical "100 classic games on a CD!" type packages.

It's too bad the software industry came down so hard on the emulation scene. Stuff like the intellivisionlives project is critical in providing a context and history for computer gaming. Without deep background like this, console developers and game developers will keep making the same mistakes over and over.

-Twid