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---
title: INTV Corp. System III
categories:
- Consoles
params:
name: System III
image: /media/museum/photos/intvsystem3_s.jpg
company: /companies/intv-corp
company_name: INTV Corp.
tabs:
- photos
- adverts
- hardware
- emulators
- links
- docs
forum_thread: 1177
photos:
- title: INTV SYSTEM III
subtitle: ''
text: Thanks to [www.computercloset.org](http://www.computercloset.org) for this picture
image: /media/museum/photos/intv_system3_1.jpg
- title: ANOTHER PICTURE
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: /media/museum/photos/intv_system_3_2.jpg
- title: BOX
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: /media/museum/photos/intv_system_3_box_1.jpg
adverts:
- title: US ADVERT
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: /media/museum/pubs/intv_system3_pub_1.jpg
hardware:
- title: COMPUTER ADD-ON
subtitle: White version
text: Mattel was in a bind to compete with the increasing amount of game systems and computers entering the market so they set up competing internal engineering teams, each trying to either fix the Keyboard Component or replace it. The result was a new component system dubbed "the Entertainment Computer System" that proved to be was much smaller, sleeker, and easier to produce than the original Keyboard Component. Users who opted to keep their old "Keyboard Components" were offered the new system in exchange. In the end, however, the "ECS" was a retail flop. Although the original Keyboard Component offered some promise if it could have been fixed, the new one was designed to be cheap, not functional and simply could not compete with the likes of computers like the Commodore 64, never mind that it was totally incompatible to the older "Intellivision Keyboard Component".
image: /media/museum/hardware/mattel_intellivision_white_ecs.jpg
- title: RIGHT SIDE
subtitle: ''
text: Thanks to this connector it's possible to connect other Intellivision expansions
image: /media/museum/hardware/mattel_intellivision_ecs_r-side.jpg
- title: LEFT SIDE
subtitle: ''
text: The ECS is attached to the Intellivision master console thanks to this interface
image: /media/museum/hardware/mattel_intellivision_ecs_l-side.jpg
- title: KEYBOARD
subtitle: White version
text: ''
image: /media/museum/hardware/mattel_intellivision_ecs_keyboard.jpg
- title: OPENED LID
subtitle: ''
text: The connectors are used to attached the keyboard via a special "Y" cable.
image: /media/museum/hardware/mattel_intellivision_ecs_opened.jpg
- title: BOX
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: /media/museum/hardware/mattel_intellivision_ecs_box.jpg
- title: PROMOTIONAL PICTURE
subtitle: Brown version
text: ''
image: /media/museum/hardware/mattel_intellivision_ecs_1.jpg
- title: ITALIAN PROMOTIONAL LEAFLET
subtitle: featuring also the music synthesizer
text: ''
image: /media/museum/hardware/mattel_intellivision_ecs_ita_1.jpg
- title: ITALIAN PROMOTIONAL LEAFLET
subtitle: featuring also the music synthesizer
text: ''
image: /media/museum/hardware/mattel_intellivision_ecs_ita_2.jpg
- title: DOWNLOAD GAMES
subtitle: ''
text: 3rd party developer Schell Electronics during the late 1990's developed the Intellicart to transfer Intellivision games from selected Internet sites and play them directly on their Intellivision unit. It connected via a 9pin serial connected to the back of a PC via a wire while it remained connected to the Intellivision via it's cartridge port. The device is no longer made.
image: /media/museum/hardware/mattel_intellivision_intellicart.jpg
- title: LET YOUR CONSOLE SPEAK !
subtitle: ''
text: |-
The "Intellivoice" was launched in 1982 to much fanfare when it was introduced as the second voice synthesis system ever made for video games (The first was Magnavox's voice module for the Odyssey). Innovative for the time, "Intellivoice" produced speech when used with certain games, most of which would not work without the add-on component. The VSM was a large, brown cartridge that could be plugged into the Intellivision, at which point games specifically designed for the device could be inserted like a normal cartridge into the right side of the module.
More information available in the [READ MORE](/museum/mattel-electronics-intellivision/) section.
image: /media/museum/hardware/mattel_intellivision_intellivoice.jpg
- title: TURN YOUR INTELLIVISION INTO A REAL COMPUTER !
subtitle: ''
text: Sometime before the failed Aquarius home computer scheme was hatched by Mattel, the Intellivision team had attempted to expand Intellivision into the growing home computer market by turning it into a full fledged computer dubbed as the "Intellivision Keyboard Component", much in the same way Coleco was soon to do with their Adam computer. The unit featured a built-in cassette tape drive for loading and saving data. The Keyboard Component would plug into the cartridge slot on the Intellivision, and had an additional cartridge slot of its own to allow regular Intellivision game cartridges to be played in the usual way. It used the famous 6502 microprocessor as its base. This device was a promise made by Mattel way back in 1979 when they claimed the Intellivision could be upgraded to become a 64K computer.
image: /media/museum/hardware/mattel_intellivision_component-keyboard.jpg
- title: PROMOTIONAL PICTURE
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: /media/museum/hardware/mattel_intellivision_component-keyboard_2.jpg
- title: PROMOTIONAL PICTURE
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: /media/museum/hardware/mattel_intellivision_component-keyboard_3.jpg
- title: PROMOTIONAL PICTURE
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: /media/museum/hardware/mattel_intellivision_component-keyboard_4.jpg
- title: PROMOTIONAL PICTURE
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: /media/museum/hardware/mattel_intellivision_component-keyboard_5.jpg
- title: KEYBOARD & BOX
subtitle: ''
text: |-
The Intellivision Music Synthesizer was a real music keyboard providing 49 keys, 6 polifonic notes (it can play 6 notes at the same time). The keyboard demands the ECS component in order to work: it would be connected through a double 9 pin connector to the controller doors of the Mattel adapter.
The Music Synthesizer could be found in the traditional but rare color brown color typical of the first Intellivision model, or in the gray color of Intellivision II.
Unfortunately Mattel created only one game to take advantage of the musical add-on, that being "Melody Blaster".
image: /media/museum/hardware/mattel_intellivision_piano-keyboard_2.jpg
- title: ITALIAN PROMOTIONAL LEAFLET
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: /media/museum/hardware/mattel_intellivision_synthe_1.jpg
- title: ATTACHED TO THE INTELLIVISION
subtitle: ''
text: The Intellivision was the first system to feature downloadable games (though without a storage device the games vanished once the machine was turned off). In 1981, General Instrument (manufacturer of the Intellivision's CPU) teamed up with Mattel to roll out the "PlayCable", a device that allowed the downloading of Intellivision games via cable TV using what we would now call a primitive "Cable DSL Modem". This device of course assumed the user had Cable TV, as in the Early 1980's most people still did not.
image: /media/museum/hardware/mattel_intellivision_playcable.jpg
- title: 'PICTURE #2'
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: /media/museum/hardware/mattel_intellivision_playcable_2.jpg
- title: SCREENSHOT
subtitle: ''
text: This screenshot is what appears when you turn the unit on since the Playcable service doesn't exist anymore (you bet!). This all you get...
image: /media/museum/hardware/mattel_intellivision_playcable_ss.jpg
- title: LABEL
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: /media/museum/hardware/mattel_intellivision_playcable_label.jpg
- title: PLAY ATARI 2600 GAMES !
subtitle: ''
text: 'The System Changer plugs into the Master Component and lets the owner play Atari VCS games. This new add-on is actually a VCS clone in a box complete with Atari joystick ports and game select/reset buttons. Spurred on by the System Changer, as well as Coleco''s Expansion Module #1 Atari adapter for their own ColecoVision, Atari starts to threaten lawsuits. It is helpfully pointed out that clones of the Atari machine are legal due to the off-the-shelf components and un-copyrighted software contained in them. Atari backs off, opening up the floodgates for various versions of the VCS by other manufacturers.'
image: /media/museum/hardware/mattel_intellivision_system-changer.jpg
- title: PLAY 8 DIFFERENT GAMES
subtitle: without changing cartridges
text: Third party developer Compro created an Intellivision device knoiwn as "Videoplexer", a gamer could plug in up to 8 games at a time at the same time instead of pulling each cartriudge out when finished. Very few of these units were ever made. The device would sit connected to Intellivision's cartridge port with the games pluggged into any or all of the 8 cartridge slots, and the user would push a button corresponding the the game they wished to play.
image: /media/museum/hardware/mattel_intellivision_videoplexer_1.jpg
emulators:
- title: Nostalgia
url: http://www.shiny-technologies.com/nostalgia.php
platform: Windows
text: many features including ECS, Intellivoice,CGC support, network play, menu system, box/overlay display and text manual reader
- title: Bliss
url: http://bliss.kylesblog.com/
platform: Multiplatform
text: Intellivision emulator for Windows and PalmOS
- title: IntellivisionWorld
url: http://www.intellivisionworld.com/Download/List.asp?iwCat=1
platform: Multiplatform
text: More emulators at IntellivisionWorld
- title: jzINTV
url: http://spatula-city.org/~im14u2c/intv/
platform: Multiplatform
text: Good emulator for Unix, Windows and MacOS
links:
- title: Intellivision Exhibition
url: http://www.hotcom.com/intellivision
text: Overlays and screenshots for more than 100 games!
- title: Intellivision FAQ
url: http://www.intellivisionworld.com/FAQ/#_Toc140592017
text: Excellent FAQ. Very complete and good quality
- title: Intellivision Gaming Network
url: http://intvgn.roarvgm.com/
text: News, emulators and downloads
- title: Intellivision Gumbo Website
url: http://home.earthlink.net/~classic-videogames/intellivision/
text: At this site you'll find a tasty Intellivision stew, with pictures of rare Intellivision hardware, games, catalogs and fanzines
- title: Intellivision Hot Spot
url: http://www.intellivision.org/HomePage.asp
text: custom overlays, hardware, software, rarity and more
- title: INTELLIVISIONlives.com
url: http://www.intellivisionlives.com/
text: Must see site from the Blue Sky Rangers, original Intellivison programmers
- title: IntellivisionWorld.com
url: http://www.intellivisionworld.com/
text: Excellent website full of info. Wonderfuly designed.
- title: INTV Funhouse
url: http://intvfunhouse.com/
text: Intellivision fun, facts, tips & pics
- title: Wikipedia - Intellivision entry
url: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellivision
text: Nice article from Wikipedia
docs:
- title: INTELLIVISION MASTER COMPONENT - OWNER'S MANUAL
url: http://www.intellivisionlives.com/bluesky/games/instructions/console.shtml
cover: /media/museum/docs/couvs/mattel_intellivision_owner-manual.jpg
text: |-
[**INTELLIVISION MASTER COMPONENT - OWNER'S MANUAL**](http://www.intellivisionlives.com/bluesky/games/instructions/console.shtml)written by Mattel
 compiled/archived by www.intellivisionlives.com\
 type of document : HTML\
 source : [www.intellivisionlives.com](http://www.intellivisionlives.com)
related:
- /museum/mattel-electronics-intellivision
- /museum/mattel-electronics-keyboard-component
- /museum/world-book-tutor-vision
oc_id: 1209
source:
url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230606204205/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=1209
date: '2023-06-06'
---
On the close of business, January 20th 1984, Mattel Electronics, a subsidiary of Mattel the famous toy company, was shut down and sold to a liquidator after loosing $300 million US that past year on the [Intellivision](/museum/mattel-electronics-intellivision/) line of game consoles. But even the liquidator had troubles selling the remaining stock of consoles and game cartridges.
After much of the inventory had been sold, former Mattel marketing executive Terry Valeski with an investment group bought all rights to the Intellivision for $6.5 Million US in March of 1984, and started a new venture. The new company, INTV Corp., continued to sell old stock via retail and mail order.
By October of 1985 the old stock of Intellivision II consoles had ran out so they introduced a new console dubbed INTV III (later renamed “Super Pro System”). This unit was actually a cosmetic rebadge of the [original Intellivision console](/museum/mattel-electronics-intellivision/) and was 100% compatible to it.
In addition to manufacturing new consoles, INTV Corp. also continued to develop new games, releasing a few new titles each year. Eventually, the system was discontinued in 1991 with the realization that competing video game technology had finally caught up to the Intellivision design.
NOTE: The INTVIII should not be confused with “Intellivision III”, an upgrade to the Intellivision II that was cancelled by Mattel in favor of the unfinished “Intellivision IV” featuring a 68000 CPU (same as Amiga and Macintosh computers) with higher graphics to compete with ColecoVision.
---
Contributors: "Skel" (Derek McDonald)
<table> <tr> <td></td> <td>We need more info about this console ! If you designed, used, or have more info about this system, please send us pictures or anything you might find useful.</td> <td></td> </tr> </table>