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Intellivision Operating System Revealed
Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to the IntyOS site, which has released Version 0.2 Alpha of a "multitasked operating system for the Intellivision console." According to the site, IntyOS "..includes a powerful GUI which handles a mouse pointer, windows, menus, icons, etc", and was "..written from scratch in CP-1600 assembly language in order to fit exactly to the hardware specificities of the Intellivision. Its main goal is now to see how far it's possible to go with today's technologies on such a limited system from the early 80's" There's also a site mirror available, and the demo ROM is viewable in a Java applet.
Bye Bye IntOS. Slashdotted in 0.33 seconds.
As a rock-in-roll Physicist once said, No matter where you go, there you are.
Can I still use my old intellivision games with this?
Gibble: Descriptive of an emotional state in which one's mind is scrabbling for some purchase on reality
Sounds like it was fun to develop. Hehe now some people need to code lots of apps for it like P2P ;)
And so how long before someone ask can the OS be used for a beowolf cluster?
can Doom run on it yet?
Why do this? Because it's there? I have a Tandy 102 without a working "P" on the keyboard someone could have. Maybe it would be neat to write a OS without using any P's.
The best way to do is to be.
http://intyos.spatula-city.org/
Secession is the right of all sentient beings.
Burgertime! Yeah! That was COOL game. Until I got a job in fast food anyway. :)
:)
Was that released on Intellivision? I remember playing it on ColecoVision, but I suppose since they were contemporaries it could have been released on Intellivision.
My journal has hot
whats next, getting linux to run on an abacus?
The old Intellivisions didn't need a fan right? Just take the guts and stick it into a l33t case. It already has video out right, as well as audio. This could be a sweeet part of your home entertainment system or in your car. If you had a big enough cluster of them in your trunk, you might even be able to play a 8kbps mp3! I bet VIA is shaking in their boots, expect a lawsuit from them on these guys any minute now!
I swear, this is still more proof that *BSD is dying.
sulli
RTFJ.
YOU GUESSED IT! INTELLIVISION!! You win the right to GO OUTSIDE!
o manycaps
lamefiltersuxlamefiltersuxlamefiltersuxitsnotto
If someone can fit a GUI'd, multitasking OS in such a small amount of physical memory, why does Windows have to take up so much, or even Linux for that matter? I realize that programming in assembly is a bitch over C++, but surely Microsoft, with it's paid developers, could accomplish something streamlined like this.
I wish Gates would hold off on innovation for a couple of years to produce such a beast. I, for one, would gladly pay for an Assembly-optimized, thoroughly bug-fixed version of Windows.
My first console was the Intellivision. Bought it so that I could program it when they released the keyboard. Still waiting.
... there is no way to make your own Intellivision cartridges. I still have my Intellivision I and II (the brown one and the gray one) and they're still working! I'd be nice to try this on a real Intellivision.
So wait, someone's installing an OS on a retro system... it isn't Linux... yet it's being posted on Slashdot?
What's going on here?
http://mediagoblin.org/
... a Beowulf cluster of Intellivision running IntyOS ! w00t !
:wq
The local cable TV system in Dubuque Iowa did an experiment with Intellivision, back in the day. Intellivision users could get a special cable adapter and play other users across the cable net. This was the first networked multiuser video game system in the world. The system also offered text chat. It was a short-lived experiment, IIRC it only lasted a year or two, then Group W Cable discovered it wasn't making any money on it, so they pulled the plug. Still, it was an awesome precedent.
then what? Inty office? How long until vi is ported? emacs? Mozilla likes to run on everything, is Sun now obligated to write a virtual machine FOR the Intellivision?
The preceding post was not a Slashvertisement.
Curious about more this system has to offer? He's a Top 25 thread from Digitpress.com, one of the greatest retrogaming sites out there: Some other great INTV Games.
A big one is hardware abstraction. Sure, you can produce a 100% optimised 100% assembly program for a given system configuration. However I for one value the ability to have different hardware. For that you need abstraction. The Os needs to present a unified API for a given function (like OpenGL for graphics) and then handle the abstraction to the driver layer.
Another bigge is features. So great, they got a multi taking OS that runs a clock and such on an old system. Show me one that does the same things Linux or Windows does (like have a full featured web browser, 3d graphics, sound, etc) and then I'll jump on the bloat train.
Then there are others like maintainability, expandibility, portability and so on. Go ahead and write a major application, like something on the order of Office or Mozilla in pure assembly. Supposing you can even tackle that task, then try and maintain it. For even more fun, try porting it. You'll quickly see why C++ is a plus.
Yes, modern stuff does tned to suffer form some bloat since hardware allows it, but there are plenty of legitimate reasons to use the extra power available.
Now THAT's computational power...complete with crappy 8-bit music. I love it! I'm always impressed when people go out of their way to write OS's for obsolete hardware of such small footprint. Makes my LC III running Linux look..so..ordinary.
...because it's possible
___________________________________
www.32bitwonder.org
www.brownsauce.org
All those man hours...could probably be better spent in any number of ways... Sorry, but I just don't see the value in a project such as this one.
...
And my time could be spent far better than by responding to your obnoxous flamebait post, but I just couldn't let it slide -- I despise this attitude, every time it pops up in technology, government, education,
There are smart and creative people out there. Every day, these people do things for no particular reason other than their own curiosity, education, and betterment. This is the human spirit at its finest. Sometimes these things become the foundation of new discoveries, sometimes they just get written up and provide inspiration, information, or amusement for others.
But the fact is, it's none of your business how these people you don't know spend their time. And since we're sharing our personal opinions here anyway, mine is that your time would be better spent learning HTML and doing something productive rather than posting anonymous ignorant criticisms of people who accomplish more than you could ever dream of.
AFAIK, Intellivision was the first system to have a RTS/SimCity-ish game: Utopia. You controlled a couple of islands, and had to collect resources and such. Very fun and innovative game for the day.
NO CONSOLE to me has ever matched the ease and useability of the Intellivision controller. Modern football games are just eye candy and very confusing to me. With the Intellivision you had to understand plays and you could enter them privately without the other guy seeing them on the screen. If someone can see what you are about to run, what's the point? (No, I haven't forgotten that one could run backwards 70 yards and throw the ball the length of the field) Also, Utopia was true HOURS of fun between my brother and I as well as Triple Action Biplanes and Tanks. It was simple but took skill and thought.Games also required imagination. So these consoles also have historical value in the quality of games they had. The Intellivision was truly the Apple Computer of Consoles. Superior product/better graphics/easier to use & underdog.
Yell & scream & rant & rave... it's no use... you need a shaaaave ~ Bugs Bunny
could probably be better spent in any number of ways: #
improving open source software that people will actually *use*
raising money for your favorite charity
mentoring a kid who needs a role model
This post comes up every time somebody does a crazy project. Sorry for Karma-whoring, but I post the same reply every time.
This project is being done for fun. We people are odd beings - we do not want to spend all our time raising money for charity and writing useful code for somebody else. We like to spend both some time and money on having fun. It would be a great world if everybody was constantly productive... or maybe not.
Instead of complaining on the odd guy who actually is really creative with his leisure time, why don't you take a crack at all the people who are only sitting on their butts and watching TV or reading Slashdot.
Tor
It looks like it can be ported to a lot of other platforms as well, if this is any indication.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
Don't know much about the Intellivision HW because I went and bought a TI which HAD a keyboard, but, yes, MOBS are the same thing.
First time I remember hearing the term 'sprites' was with my TI-99/4A, but the concept's the same. Moveable Object Blocks in case no one else has de-acronymed this yet. I would suspect 'sprites would have been the term used on the Vic-20 which had come out sometime around then or slightly earlier.
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.
BOBs are Blitter OBjects. Not hardware sprites.
How small a thought it takes to fill a whole life
Note the date that project was released... :-)
This sounds like an Ig Nobel Prize candidate to me. To quote the website, "Every Ig Nobel Prize winner has done something that first makes people LAUGH, then makes them THINK. Technically speaking, the Igs honor people whose achievements 'cannot or should not be reproduced.'"
Sounds like we have a real winner, unless they've ported NetBSD to a toaster yet.
They keyboard was released in limited test markets. 4000 were made and sold (at $600 a pop!), but Mattel recalled them all for a full refund (and those who kept theirs actually had to sign a waiver).
a re /
http://www.intellivisionlives.com/bluesky/hardw
Not neccessarily. Good C optimization algorithms in a compiler (GCC3 is capable of some slick stuff) will produce smaller and faster code than most assembly coders, simply because it will perform optimizations coders may miss or not think of.
A simple example: It's faster to clear a register on x86 hardware by XOR'ing it with itself than it is to MOV a zero into it... even though the MOV might seem to a coder to be the most obvious thing to do.
Okay.. nostalgia time for all you techie fuddy-duddies out there. (Hmmm.. +90% of the Slashdot community? :))
http://www.obsoletecomputermuseum.org/
!@#$% whole-grain cereal. When I want fiber, I eat some wicker furniture. - G. Carlin
Like my venerable Megadrive [Genesis]. This machine has not too bad at all processor, one that I believe Linux has already been run on, the question I have to ask myself is why no one has done anything with the last generation of 16 bit consoles?? Ive googled around and didnt really find anything interesting.