Bacteria's new handheld project: IntelliBacvision

[bacteria]

Thought this an apt name for the project - "IntelliBacvision"

There has not been a handheld portable Intellivision system made so far to my knowledge so I plan to rectify that!

The Intellivision is one of the only systems that is badly emulated and no-one vaguely intelligent can say "why not play that on a PSP or (insert emulator here)" system. The reasons are down to these reasons:

* The Intellivision uses a 16 way d-pad, with each of the 16 points referencing multiple contacts, I managed to make a home-made 8 way d-pad but not 16 way; too difficult to be reliable. Some games play on 4 way, some playable on 8 way but 16 is needed for all games to work well. A joystick could potentially emulate 16 way but not likely.

* The Intellivision uses a 3x4 keypad for controlling a game and even action buttons. The GP2x and similar could only have a keypad showing if you manually selected a pop-up keypad, but that is totally useless for playing a game with; the NDS could do this with the touchpad, however unfortunately as with the Intellivision (Blue Ranger) games the games are NOT the same as the original and don't even feel the same, or as fun; so whilst the NDS can be close with controls the gameplay isn't. For some reason the official Blue Ranger games are a mimic of the original games and a poor cousin.

That means the only way to play Intellivison games as they were first crafted is with original hardware, not emulation; as you either have fine emulation but using hardware that doesn't work right, or hardware that is acceptable but not the gaming experience.

That is what makes this project unique....

So about the project:

* The system will use the original controller modded into a custom case, to give authentic experience and full gameplay

* The system will aim to look similar in style to the original hardware console style, all be it a bit loosely like a distant cousin

* RGB video rather than crappy composite quality from the Intellivision which looked as bad as it did with RF; most consoles look great with composite, the Intellivision looks bad, loads of horizontal bars, bad colours, colour bleeding, etc. RGB is crisp

* use an 8" 4:3 screen for quality gaming

Challenges of the project

* The Intellivision needs modding to work RGB

* The console needs 12v, 16v, 5v and also -3v. This is a real pain, FOUR voltages. Also the system has no voltage protection so if the voltages are not stable the console will fry

* Probably only about 1/6 consoles still work, at least that's my experience of them. The controller electronics on the motherboard fails, the chips fail, the RF fails (that doesn't matter). I have 3 Intellivision consoles, one I know works (did a composite mod on it a while back) and two consoles untested so could be ok or not. I also have a box of old boards for the system from dead Intv consoles, used some to get the working Intv working in the first place!


Why not just get an RGB Intellivision you ask? Well, the only ones you can get these days are rare and cost around £300+ and only from France. These are not true RGB but RGB ok; whereas there is a chap in Italy who makes RGB boards for PAL Intv consoles. I bought one, and intend to install it, and also review the board. The board is quite key to this project as RGB is the only video output suitable for my screens.

http://www.nightfallcrew.com/30/11/2013 ... llivision/

First job will be to install the mod onto my untested consoles and see if the old consoles work, they will need video modding anyway as the RF will be toast on them. I can then compare the quality of the video to the composite mod, directly; and make a video.

[bacteria]

Turns out all three of my Intellivision consoles, all PAL, and even a couple of busted boards I have stored, are all the last version of the Intellivision 1 hardware made and do not have the LS1886 chip which is needed for this mod. The mod was supposed to work on all PAL Intv consoles, obviously not able to. What the inventor of the mod says is the PAL board I gave him a picture of was PAL/NTSC board and not just PAL. I know the Intv was supposed to be region free, so that may be what this is about, in which case it might mean the UK PAL boards will not work.

If the provider of the mod can provide me with an older PAL board that the RGB mod will work with, then i'll be happy as can continue this project; if not, then this project will end - no point as RGB output on the Intv is the only chance for quality image quality! If he has a board available, I will be asking the inventor of the mod about which PAL ones work and which not, as I want to review his mod when it is working in my system; if not, as mentioned, this project will end before it started and i'll make a portable with a different console.

[ninjainspandex]

Make a handheld CPS2 for the LULZ