Blue Sky Ranger Connie Goldman, creator of the game Thunder Castle, celebrates her birthday today, July 30. Connie was hired by Mattel Electronics to be an Intellivision game programmer in 1982. It quickly became apparent that her strength was in creating animated characters. Her own game, originally called Magic Castle, was filled with wonderfully rendered trolls, dragons, knights and other creatures. Her animations were so good, she was repeatedly asked to provide graphics for other games and game proposals. For example, she did sample animations of the characters from the Peanuts and Garfield comic strips to demonstrate to their publishers how well they could be represented on Intellivision.
She was pulled off of Magic Castle so frequently that programmer David Warhol was asked to join the project, renamed Thunder Castle, to help get it done. The partnership worked so well that it has survived 25 years: Connie has done video game artwork at Dave's company Realtime Associates since 1986, including for most of the INTV Corporation Intellivision releases. She continues to create there today. Write Comment (1 Comments)
Last Updated ( Thursday, 31 July 2008 )
Meet Keith Robinson at Comic-Con, Get Exclusive Intellivision Print!
Wednesday, 23 July 2008
Blue Sky Ranger Keith Robinson will be at Comic-Con this week in San Diego signing prints of his artwork for the box cover of the Intellivision game Thin Ice.
The original 1986 gauche-and-ink painting is reproduced actual size, approximately 8.5 inches wide and 9 inches high on heavy 11 by 14 paper. This is a numbered limited-edition of 150, exclusively for Comic-Con. The prints will be available in the National Cartoonists Society (NCS) booth (1307/1309) for $15 each. Keith will be in the booth Thursday through Sunday (July 24 - 27) to sign them.
Keith started at Mattel Electronics in 1981 as a programmer, creating the Intellivoice game TRON Solar Sailer. Soon he entered management. He came up with the idea for Thin Ice and supervised its development. Although the game was finished in 1983, it was still unreleased when Mattel puled the plug on Intellivision production in early 1984.
Keith turned to cartooning, launching the weekly newspaper strip Making It and doing cartoons for Playboy, Cat Fancy, Dog Fancy and other magazines.
He returned to video games in 1986 when INTV Corp. finally released Thin Ice and contracted Keith to do the cover. He went on to design most of the Intellivision boxes through the rest of the decade.
Today, Keith is president of Intellivision Productions, Inc. Stop by the NCS booth and say "hello." Keith will be happy to sign any of your Intellivision items.
Speaking of which, Chris Folino, writer/director of the movie Gamers, is the writer of a new comic book series, Sparks. He will be in the Illusive Arts booth (2109) at Comic-Con autographing the books. Folino is a life-long Intellivision fan; a couple Intellivsion T-shirts appear in his Gamers. In Sparks, there is a full-page ad for Intellvision. It is essentially a smaller version of the poster [link] we sell here on our web site. After you have Folino sign the book, why not bring it on by the NCS booth and have Keith sign the ad? He'll give you a free cartoon bookmark, while they last! Write Comment
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 23 July 2008 )
Gene Smith - In Memoriam
Tuesday, 22 July 2008
Blue Sky Ranger Gene Smith, programmer of the Intellivoice game Bomb Squad, was born this day, July 22, in 1950. He passed away much too young just short of his 52nd birthday on July 14, 2002. Please join us in taking a moment to remember Gene. Visit the memorial page where we have posted a biography, softwareology and stories from other Intellivision programmers about working with Gene.
Today, July 15, we celebrate the birthdays of two Blue Sky Rangers: Julie Hoshizaki and David Warhol.
Julie programmed the Intellivision game Thin Ice, featuring a fun-loving penguin who dunks other penguins in a frozen lake. In the excerpt below from a mockumentary made by the programmers in 1983, Julie pokes fun at a true situation in the Intellivision offices: programmers commonly became identified with the subject of the games they were working on. Other well-meaning programmers would bring in pictures, toys, whatever they would come across that was related to the game's theme. A programmer's cubicle could quickly become stuffed with these gifts.
(Also appearing in the video are Blue Sky Rangers Mike Sanders, Josh Jeffe, Keith Robinson, Mike Minkoff and, as the interviewer, Mark Urbaniec.)
At Mattel Electronics, Dave created the games Thunder Castle (with Connie Goldman) and Mind Strike. After Mattel sold the Intellivision rights to INTV Corp. in 1984, Dave went on to produce close to two dozen new games for the Intellivision console, including Commando, Diner and the Super Pro sports series.
But Dave's first love is music; his college degree is in Music Composition. For Intellivision, he wrote a number of fun and complex themes, squeezing the most out of the console's three-note sound processor. We particularly love his crazy theme for Mind Strike, so for his birthday we have made it available as a ring tone. You can preview it (click on the speaker icon) and download it below.
Each year at the Classic Gaming Expo, women come into the Intellivision booth and ask if we have any T-shirts designed specifically for the ladies. In response, we created this shirt featuring the catchphrase "Once You Compare...You'll Know" from one of the famous George Plimpton TV commercials (below) plus a small Intellivision Running Man. Previously we have only sold this shirt in the Intellivision booth at shows. Now it is available in our web site store.
The shirt is a 100% cotton women's ribbed T-shirt made by American Apparel sweatshop-free in the USA. The image is silk-screened pink on pink on the front.
The shirt is available in women's small, medium and large sizes, $17.95 plus shipping and handling. Order it here.
Modeling the shirt is JoAnn from Good Deal Games, who wandered into the Intellivision booth during the 2007 Classic Gaming Expo in Las Vegas. She was looking for a handful of Running Man M&Ms; she left with a T-shirt. That's how we sell stuff at the shows: "Psst, little girl, want some candy...?"
Watch the classic Intellivision commercial that introduced the phrase "Once You Compare...You'll Know":
The Torrance, California, Daily Breeze newspaper featured a story on the front of its business section today about Intellivision Productions, Inc. and President Keith Robinson:
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...
Blue Sky Ranger Connie Goldman, creator of the game Thunder Castle, celebrates her birthday today, July 30. Connie was hired by Mattel Electronics to be an Intellivision game programmer in 1982. It quickly became apparent that her strength was in creating animated characters. Her own game, originally called Magic Castle, was filled with wonderfully rendered trolls, dragons, knights and other creatures. Her animations were so good, she was repeatedly asked to provide graphics for other games and game proposals. For example, she did sample animations of the characters from the Peanuts and Garfield comic strips to demonstrate to their publishers how well they could be represented on Intellivision.
Blue Sky Ranger Keith Robinson will be at Comic-Con this week in San Diego signing prints of his artwork for the box cover of the Intellivision game Thin Ice.
Today, Keith is president of Intellivision Productions, Inc. Stop by the NCS booth and say "hello." Keith will be happy to sign any of your Intellivision items.
Blue Sky Ranger Gene Smith, programmer of the Intellivoice game Bomb Squad, was born this day, July 22, in 1950. He passed away much too young just short of his 52nd birthday on July 14, 2002. Please join us in taking a moment to remember Gene. Visit the 
Julie programmed the Intellivision game Thin Ice, featuring a fun-loving penguin who dunks other penguins in a frozen lake. In the excerpt below from a mockumentary made by the programmers in 1983, Julie pokes fun at a true situation in the Intellivision offices: programmers commonly became identified with the subject of the games they were working on. Other well-meaning programmers would bring in pictures, toys, whatever they would come across that was related to the game's theme. A programmer's cubicle could quickly become stuffed with these gifts.
At Mattel Electronics, Dave created the games Thunder Castle (with Connie Goldman) and Mind Strike. After Mattel sold the Intellivision rights to INTV Corp. in 1984, Dave went on to produce close to two dozen new games for the Intellivision console, including Commando, Diner and the Super Pro sports series.
Each year at the Classic Gaming Expo, women come into the Intellivision booth and ask if we have any T-shirts designed specifically for the ladies. In response, we created this shirt featuring the catchphrase "Once You Compare...You'll Know" from one of the famous George Plimpton TV commercials (below) plus a small Intellivision Running Man. Previously we have only sold this shirt in the Intellivision booth at shows. Now it is available in 
