Thanks to Mustapha for pointing out the new additions.

Remember the Kool-Aid Man character and ad campaign from the 70s and 80s? Oh, Yeeeaaahh. By the early 80s, General Foods had started spreading the character beyond their own advertising, first into comic books. In 1983, Mattel's M-Network software division created videogame versions of Kool-Aid Man for the Atari 2600 and Intellivision. This was a more complex process than the Johnson & Johnson and Purina games I mentioned earlier.

General Foods did a lucrative deal with Mattel. There were two ways to get the game. One was by mailing in proofs of purchase, just like Tooth Protectors. The amount of Kool-Aid you would have had to drink was irrational, over 60 gallons by my count. Another was just to buy it the game at retail.

Even by 1981 third-party publishers were creating games for multiple platforms. Imagic in particular, which was founded by ex-Atari developers, started creating their titles for VCS and Intellivision, as well as VIC-20, Colecovision and Odyssey 2. But these were always ports of the same game.

The Intellivision and Atari versions of Kool-Aid Man, however, are completely different. Not just slightly different graphics and sound to account for the different machines, but totally different games. Both games pitted the player (as the Kool-Aid Man) against the evil Kool-Aid stealing Thirsties while collecting the fixings for a refreshing pitcher of Kool-Aid. In the VCS version, Thirsties are drinking all the contents of a swimming pool. The player must touch the Thirsties' straws to stop them. In the Intellivision version, player, Thirsties, and kids are trapped in a haunted house. The player must help the children avoid the Thirsties.

Making two different versions of the same title hadn't happened before and, perhaps unfortunately, didn't really happen again.

The reason for making different versions of the same game is actually quite compelling. Platforms differ. The Atari and the Intellivision in particular are very different machines. The ̄Atari has no frame buffer and requires the programmer to synchronize graphics to the scanline of the television. The Intellivision has an operating system, a lot more RAM, and a video graphics system based on "cards" (or what we'd now call "tiles").

The M-Network programmers made the argument that each game should be different to take advantage of the different capabilities of the systems. Marketing reluctantly agreed, partly because of the limited development time allotted for the campaign.

It's an interesting lesson in an age when games are rarely developed for a single platform. Titles that appear for all three current consoles are usually developed atop middleware that makes targeting easier. Of course, this can also change how the titles are designed and developed — the middleware is the platform as much as the end machine. Unfortunately, console exclusive titles are often marketing ploys more than they are attempts to take full advantage of a specific platform.

Kool-Aid Man Ads [Toy Adz]

Jack LaLanne is a fitness and nutrition expert. He was born in 1914, and at 93 years old he's still going strong. His accomplishments are many. He started one of the first health club chains, which he later licensed to Bally (they became Bally Total Fitness). He hosted "The Jack LaLanne Show," the first television exercise show. He set a number of world records, mostly by swimming irrational distances with large weights shackled to his body.

As part of their image of "intelligence" (remember the George Plimpton commercials?), Intellivision promised a Keyboard Component for the device, to be released soon after the console's 1979 launch. It was a disaster. The device was delayed again and again, and disgruntled consumers who had bought the Intellivision "Master Component" specifically in anticipation of the promised Keyboard filed complaints with the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC launched a fraud investigation. After finding the complaints valid, the FTC began fining Mattel $10,000 per day for the violation. Mattel finally canceled the Keyboard Component and introduced the Entertainment Computer System add-on instead.

The Keyboard Component was to have a cassette drive for loading and saving data, and a number of games were advertised in the 1980 catalog on cassette. Most were educational titles, including Conversational Spanish, Stock Analysis, BASIC Computer Language, and this one, Jack LaLanne's Physical Conditioning. From the catalog:

Now that you've stimulated your mind, let the Jack LaLanne Physical Conditioning program help shape your body. With an exercise program custom-tailored to fit your needs. And your goals. It even gives you progress reports. In a few short months, you'll be ready for any beach, including St. Tropez.

Intellivision 1980 Brochure [Intellivision Lives]
Official Jack LaLanne Website [JackLaLanne.com]

Who says game programmers don't have a sense of humor? Well, you might after watching this little clip circa 1983 made by Intellivision programmers for their own amusement. Well, thanks to YouTube, now we can all enjoy this little gem from years gone by that includes a naked guy, a guy in drag, a guy in a fairy outfit, smoking jokes, a shockingly realistic representation of a marketing person and lots and lots of large glasses.

As a follow up to last week's Intellivision ad featuring George Plimpton and E.T.'s Henry Thomas I bring you this little clip. Featuring the same two actors, this commercial was obviously from the same ad campaign as the last one with Henry Thomas calling Mr. Plimpton "Mr. Intellivision" and babbling about random games he loves while Mr. Plimpton agrees. At the end we get another take on the joke of Mr. Plimpton not recognizing the arguably more famous at the time Henry Thomas. So, essentially this is the same commercial as last week. The same only different... and blurrier. But certainly worth a watch if you're an old game commercial aficionado. Flynn De Marco

Back in the day, I didn't realize that George Plimpton, author, actor and humorist was the guy in all the Intellivision commercials. I will qualify that by saying it wasn't so much not knowing as not really caring, being a youngster and all. Well, it seems Henry Thomas (E.T.) didn't know who Mr. Plimpton was either according to this 80's Intellivision ad in which he refers to him as "Mr. Intellivision." This is essentially an ad for Lock n Chase but it's certainly different from other video game commercials of this era in it's strange presentation. And the ending is nothing short of bizarre... "My name?" Flynn De Marco

Answer: "The PS3 is 128 bit." That settles that. Wait... "but it is more 128 bit than the others." Oh... crap.

Read on for explanation why, according to Sony, how many "bits" a system "has" is not a good indicator of its power. It's all about the flops and cores these days! There's even some handy equations that will help you figure out how many Intellivisions it takes to match the processing power of the PS3. Invaluable! Michael McWhertor

Shock: The number of bits in the PS3 [Insert Credit]

Here's a great little pair of Intellivison Burger Time commercials from 1983. This first one is a live action affair complete with people dressed in wiener and pickle costumes. The second uses a slightly different voiceover script, and animated sequences replace the live action ones. Thankfully it retains that catchy Burger Time theme remix music from the fist commercial. I don't particularly remember seeing these commercials when they were on, but I do remember plugging ridiculous amounts of quarters into this game as a kid and it's still one of my favorite classic arcade games. Note the great list of systems it's available for at the end.

To check out the second commercial, make the jump! Flynn De Marco

Now this is what I call a commercial. No weird baby dolls crying, no nonsensical images that don't make any sense to my muddled mind. When you see this ad for the awesome Intellivision Game System, you know exactly what you're getting, even down to the shining sparkle on the ultra modern controller buttons! And I think we can all agree that that football game really puts Madden to shame. All this fancy gadgetry is available for you to purchase at Hills. I love shopping at Hills because I know when I buy that Intellivision, I'm helping to fight our nation's terrible inflation problem. Flynn De Marco

Mattel, the folks behind Nintendo's Power Glove and the Intellivision game console of yore, is back in the gaming saddle. The company is releasing a new game console called the Hyper Scan, which aimed at the "tween" (between 8 and 12 years old) market. Apparently, this bracket isn't quite ready for real hardware and needs training consoles. Um, okay. Sure.

The 32-bit system is CD based and merges paper card games with scanning technology. The discs go in the left side, while the cards are scanned over the red light on the right side. Players scan cards during play to update characters or save data. The system combines rewritable intellicards tech with "the fast-paced, button-mashing action of video games." It's about time! Because what's button-mashing with out writable cards? Nothing!

The game machine is packaged with an X-Men fighter and six game cards. The console boasts two controller ports, but includes only one joypad. Cough up that lunch money for an extra game cards and controller, kiddos. (Come this October, the Hyper Scan ships for US $70.) Me, I love the Hyper Scan. It's so bad! Brian Ashcraft

More Here [Insert Credit]

Holy! Unheard of gadgety toy maker Techno Source just announced that they're going to start selling two new retro plug-and-play systems. Btoth the Intellivision 10 2nd Edition and Activision 10 will sell for $15 and sport, you guess it, ten games.

Man, I sure hope they don't still come built into those cruddy generic controllers. They really need to take a cue from the Atari Playback and build the Intellivision dealio in a little mock-up of the original console. Brian Crecente

Reader DBW wrote us in response to our More Retro Baking post, Kotakuite DBW pointed out that Rakka Deer — that sweetly-scented exotic blossom who baked the Centipede string of cupcakes and opium-like entranced us — did him the favor of baking him an Intellivision cake to help promote his book >Lucky Wander Boy... which is also frostily edible.

With my junta of velvet-clad friends swirling brandy goblets about in musty libraries while smoking latakia in ponderous meerschaums and politely chuckling over quotations from Trollope, I have clearly been gallavanting about in the wrong social circles. - Florian Eckhardt

as finished as it's gonna' get! [Flickr]
Previously: More Retro Baking

Academic Gamers linked to an I-Mockery review of White Water! for the Intellivision. Great screens and gifs and some wit make the piece pretty funny. I suppose this is what people feel like when they go back and look at retro Playboy? "Man, we used to think this was awesome!"

Great Review of Intellivision Game - White Water!
White Water for the Intellivision! [I-Mockery]