The 2008 Classic Gaming Expo (CGE), originally announced for August in Las Vegas, has been canceled. On the CGE web site, the organizers explained that they were unable to find an appropriate venue for the show this year. Intellivision Productions has been a proud sponsor of the CGE since 1998 with a number of the Blue Sky Rangers attending over the years, speaking at the seminars and talking with the fans.
The organizers promise that CGE will return to Las Vegas in 2009, and Intellivision will be there. We hope you'll be there, too. We love meeting everyone who grew up with Intellivision!
Here's a slideshow of photos from last year's Classic Gaming Expo, held in late July at the Riviera Hotel on the Las Vegas strip:
And here are some video highlights from the Blue Sky Rangers panel discussion at the 1999 Classic Gaming Expo:
Blue Sky Ranger John Tomlinson, programmer of the Intellivision cartridges Mission X and Commando, celebrates his birthday today, June 4.
If there's any doubt John programmed Mission X, you can check out this Easter egg he hid in the cartridge: press 9 on the left hand controller and 6 on the right and press the reset button. "PROGRAMMED BY: JOHN TOMLINSON" appears on the title screen.
It's easier to find his name in Commando: press 0 while the title screen is displayed to see the game credits. (While Mattel Electronics, which released Mission X in 1983, forbid programmers putting their names in the cartridges, INTV Corp., which released Commando in 1987, had no problem with it.)
The commercial below for Mission X aired only in Great Britain; the box shown is the European version (white instead of blue).
Blue Sky Ranger David Warhol, the programmer of Mattel Electronics’sMind Strike and Thunder Castle who went on to produce dozens of Intellivision titles for INTV Corporation before founding the independent studio Realtime Associates, has started a new company, Music Video Games, LLC. The company will bring the music synchronization genre, similar to hits such as Guitar Hero and Rock Band, to the growing online casual market.
Music Video Games marks a logical progression to Dave’s video game career. After graduating with a degree in Music Composition from Pomona College, Dave became an Intellivision game designer at Mattel Electronics. In addition to programming his own games, Dave helped other programmers with the music and sound design for their projects. He became an expert at pulling complex scores from a sound chip that could only produce three notes at a time. His highpoint may be the classical arrangements in a game he designed (with Connie Goldman), Thunder Castle, which incorporated themes from Schubert, Moussorgsky and Beethoven, among others. (These and more of his scores can be heard on our music CD Intellivision in Hi-Fi.)
Blue Sky Ranger Mike Minkoff celebrates his birthday today, May 30. Mike designed and programmed the classic Intellivision games Snafu and (with Rick Levine) PBA Bowling. As Director of Application Software, he oversaw the production of many other favorites, including Space Spartans, B-17 Bomber, Night Stalker and Shark! Shark!
Mike was one of the first programmers at Mattel Electronics, starting on hand-held games in the late-1970s, and he was the last, staying after all the other programmers had been laid off in 1983 and 1984 to archive the Intellivision games in development.
(Those archives allowed INTV Corporation to pick up Intellivision production nearly two years later.)
In the video below, Mike talks about his favorite project, Snafu.
Intellivision fan Ken McKenzie writes: "While playing Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness my brother found an Intellivision in a pawn shop [above]. Have you seen this? There's also an Atari 7800 on the shelf. Which do you think Lara would prefer?"
First, no, we hadn't seen this. Thanks for the sighting report!
Second, which system would Lara Croft prefer? Probably the one with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Treasure of Tarmin, Tower of Doom, Swords & Serpents and, oh, yeah, its own version of Pitfall! But she should probably pass on that Intellivision on the shelf: it appears to be missing a hand controller [see close-up below].
By popular demand, we now have an Intellivision RSS news feed! Get the latest updates from the Intellivision web site directly on your desktop via your web-based or stand-alone RSS reader. You can also add the feed to your web site, MySpace, Facebook or other profile page using one of the many free embedable readers you can find online, such as the one below.
The URL of the news feed is: www.intellivisiongames.com/rss.xml.
Duncan the Penguin of Thin Ice was changed to Voochko the Wolf, mascot of the 1984 Winter Olympics, so that Mattel Electronics could sell the game as an official Olympics cartridge. Mattel never released it; Voochko was changed back to Duncan for the game’s 1986 release by INTV Corp.
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 John Tomlinson, programmer of the Intellivision cartridges Mission X and Commando, celebrates his birthday today, June 4.
Blue Sky Ranger David Warhol, the programmer of Mattel Electronics’s Mind Strike and Thunder Castle who went on to produce dozens of Intellivision titles for INTV Corporation before founding the independent studio Realtime Associates, has started a new company, 
Blue Sky Ranger Mike Minkoff celebrates his birthday today, May 30. Mike designed and programmed the classic Intellivision games Snafu and (with Rick Levine) PBA Bowling. As Director of Application Software, he oversaw the production of many other favorites, including Space Spartans, B-17 Bomber, Night Stalker and Shark! Shark! 
