I didn't get much of an opportunity like I hoped for after my first entry to continue working with my Mattel Aquarius collection through this past weekend, but I did get the stuff cleaned up, a bit better organized, and also cataloged, which I'll share in this post. I'm now at least at a good point where I can dive right in, and thanks to suggestions from some of our members, like Rowdy Rob, I also have something of a plan of how I want to share videos and other content that give a sense of working with the computer before I move on to other stuff.

The software...

Here's the full list of the items presently in my collection (as always, I'm interested in selling or trading any duplicates):

In my ongoing quest of late to make more profound use of my collection, I broke out the Mattel (Radofin) Aquarius stuff last night. In the opening to the Aquarius chapter in my as-yet unpublished book, "Videogame and Computer Entertainment Systems: The First 15 Years," I describe the computer as follows:

The Mattel Aquarius is another “quaint” entry in the encyclopedia of home computers. The April 1985 edition of Compute! magazine declared it the computer “with one of the shortest life spans” in history, and indeed, only 20,000 units were ever sold outside of liquidation centers. Production ran for only four months, from June to October 1983. The Aquarius became an unmitigated disaster for Mattel’s Mattel Electronics division because the system was sadly obsolete even before it arrived in stores. With Mattel’s Intellivision videogame console (discussed elsewhere in this book) hosting two failed computer add-ons of its own, these events did nothing to help steel the company heading into The Great Videogame Crash.

• “WHEN MATTEL DEMONSTRATED THIS COMPUTER AT A TRADE SHOW IN 1983, EMPLOYEES HAD TO CONCEAL ONE OF THE KEYS WITH MASKING TAPE. FOR SOME BIZARRE REASON KNOWN ONLY TO MATTEL ENGINEERS, THE AQUARIUS HAD A CONVENIENT KEY THAT INSTANTLY REBOOTED THE COMPUTER AND WIPED OUT ALL YOUR DATA.” —FROM BYTE MAGAZINE, SEPTEMBER 1995

So, yeah, not exactly inspiring tech, but the system and its accessories are certainly lookers, even if the hardware inside is lacking.

Here are some views of my Aquarius collection, spread out:

INTV Corporation's Spiker! Super Pro Volleyball just sold on eBay for a remarkable $1,826.00 plus shipping and handling. This was one of the last cartridges released by INTV (along with Stadium Mud Buggies, known as Monster Truck Rally on the NES) circa late 1989 and is obviously extremely sought after by hardcore Intellivision collectors (though rarely reaching anywhere near what it just sold for, particularly unsealed). The limited releases of both Spiker! Super Pro Volleyball and Stadium Mud Buggies marked the end (1990) of the Intellivision's remarkable 10 year old original commercial run, even though Mattel had given up on the platform less than halfway through.

Check out the video below from "ed1269" to see how all those years of experience with the system paid off in the quality of the late-life games:

There's a nice new video update courtesy of Beeslife on the upcoming Rick Dynamite platform game for the Mattel Intellivision from homebrew impresario Arnauld Chevallier. Based on the video, there's a heck of a lot to look forward to in 2011 for fans of the classic system:

Be sure to check the Beeslife Website for more information.

I thought I would pass along this note from Intellivision Productions. For a limited time you can order a Keith Robinson-signed copy of Intellivision Lives! for the Nintendo DS direct from the Intellivision rights holders, and they'll even throw in a free running man DS button, as well as a $5 off coupon good for a future purchase. All this for $19.95 plus shipping and handling, but the catch is there will only 200 of these available, so get cracking! Official announcement below:

New Donkey Kong Intellivision (WIP)Anyone remember the mediocre Donkey Kong conversion from Coleco for the Mattel Intellivision? It was a bookend to the awful Atari 2600 version. While I firmly believe there's zero legitimacy to the theory that Coleco intentionally crippled these releases to make their ColecoVision pack-in look all the better, there's no denying that the programmer could have done a better job. Want proof? Thanks to this thread on AtariAge for the reminder, it looks like Beeslife, of stunning Moon Patrol port and update, Space Patrol, fame, just may be at it again with an equally impressive Donkey Kong conversion (NOTE: As of writing this, there's no word of Beeslife involvement, if any, or if this is simply just a proof of concept, since it's still built off of the original Coleco version, despite the addition of the missing screens). Check out the animated screenshot to the left and be sure to visit the Beeslife Website for more of them. Let's hope it gets finished up (whoever that task falls to) and makes it to a release on cartridge! It would be an excellent companion to the upcoming Opcode Games Donkey Kong conversion for the ColecoVision.

Hello, everyone. I'm debuting a new regular video series entitled, "Armchair Arcade TV". The first one, with the surprising name of "Episode 1" is on little known Centuri arcade game, Route 16 (Route-16), from 1981, with feature coverage of its first home translation for the Emerson Arcadia-2001 and its family of systems. Other games and systems are also featured. This is my first time on Adobe Premiere and on a new computer system, so the usual issues cropped up in the creation of this, but naturally these will improve in all ways over time, including the host segments. In the mean-time, enjoy the first episode. The full transcript follows the video.

Microsoft Game Room ImageAccording to a Microsoft Press Release and confirmed at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Microsoft will be releasing something called the "Microsoft Game Room" some time this spring, and, within three years, will see the release of over 1000 classic videogame titles, including arcade, Atari and Mattel Intellivision games, the latter of which was confirmed by Facebook friend Keith Robinson of Blue Sky Rangers fame as one of the available launch systems (other systems TBC). Apparently this area will be avatar-based, where your Xbox avatar will roam an arcade-like setting to find and play games (a bit like Sony's Home on PS3). There's a two-tier price structure, with one being an outright purchase of the game in question, and the other being a low cost, single play option, just like putting a quarter in an arcade machine in the days of old. We'll keep you posted as more news develops, but this is great news for those of us - like the readers of Armchair Arcade - who are passionate about classic gaming. The more love the current three consoles give (and each already has given a lot) to gaming's past, the better it is for all us as gamers, particularly since it looks like this is going to be a long generation with the big three. It's unclear how this will work with the PC as of this writing, but the fact that PC gamers are being invited to the party just makes it all the better, as well as the fact that owning it on one gives you access to it on the other.

Today's casual iPhone photos are of 1979's Checkers by Mattel Electronics for the Mattel Intellivision. It was programmed by David Rolfe and produced by APh Technological Consulting. This game was also rebranded by Sears (as Super Video Arcade Checkers), as they were wont to do with Intellivision and Atari Video Computer System items at the time so they could pretend they were their own, and also renamed by Mattel as Draughts in Great Britain because they probably wouldn't have known what a "Checkers" was over there (Warning: They also like to incorrectly call soccer "football" and the Sega Genesis the Sega "Mega Drive" as well apparently, so it's probably best to avoid that region entirely). Not surprisingly for such a hot commodity, there was a fourth version of Checkers released on the platform through INTV Corporation in 1987, this time as part of Triple Challenge. Though it's unclear from the title, Checkers was actually one of three games included in the Triple Challenge cartridge, with the other two being previously released as well, Chess and Backgammon, which were originally in the form of the licensed USCF Chess (1983) and ABPA Backgammon (1979).