The History of Intellivision

Intellivision Console and Hardware 

The Intellivision (a combination of television and smart phone) was released in the US by Mattel in 1979. Mattel Electronics was a classic toy manufacturing company. It decided to enter the home gaming market in 1977, the year its main rival was released. The console was released with a processor of less than 1 MHz, losing out to all its second-generation competitors if it weren't for one detail. It was a 16-bit processor, while all other competitors worked with 8 bits. It was the first console to use this innovation. Its processor was from General Instrument, the CP1610, accompanied by 1kB RAM, considerable for the time, AY-3-8900 video chip with 16 colors, 8-bit video memory and GI AY-3-8914 sound chip with 3 audio channels. The console had some milestones, such as being the first to use tiles, which was the basis for many RPG games for consoles such as SNES and others. It was the first to distribute games over the network, also the first to allow games via voice command and the first to bring a 3D perspective. Another milestone was remaining active even during the great electronic games crisis of 1984 in the USA. 

Intellivision Games

Like its competitors, its games were third-party ports made for arcades, consoles and computers of the time. Among them were Burgertime, Bump 'n Jump, Major League Baseball, River Raid, Nightstalker, Pitfall, Atlantis, Pac-Man, Demon Attack, Astrosmash, Donkey Kong, Beamrider, Locomotion, Treasure of Tarmin, Spiker, Beamrider, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons I and II, Night Stalker, Qbert, Dig Dug, Space Battle, Skiing, Pinball, Thundercastle, Horse Racing, Chess, Atlantis, Diner, Thin Ice, among others. As for games that were new to the console, we had Boxing (a different version from the Atari 2600), Intellivision World Series Major League Baseball, Shark! Shark!, Motocross, Sea Battle, Sharp Shot, Buzz Bombers, Space Hawk, Mattel's Triple Action, Happy Trails, Activision's Worm Whomper, Beauty and the Beast, Dracula, Ice Trek, Microsurgeon, Swords & Serpents, Tropical Trouble, White Water! and Truckin' from Imagic and other companies such as Chip Shot: Super Pro Golf and Stadium Mud Buggies.

Intellivision II

In 1983, Mattel launched the Intellivision 2, the second model of its console, which was cheaper and more compact. Perhaps because Mattel was well established in Brazil, this was the only country besides the USA and Canada that saw the launch of this model of the console. The Intellivision was discontinued in 1990.