In its first year, Mattel sold out its initial 175,000 production run of Intellivision Master Components. There is an advertisement comparing to the Atari 2600, with the slogan "I didn't know". One example compares golf games where the other console's games have a blip sound and cruder graphics, while the Intellivision features a realistic swing sound and striking of the ball, and a more 3D look. One slogan calls Intellivision "the closest thing to the real thing". A series of advertisements starring George Plimpton use side-by-side game comparisons to demonstrate the superior graphics and sound of Intellivision over the Atari 2600. Though the Intellivision is not the first system to have challenged Warner Communications's Atari, it is the first to have posed a serious threat to the market leader. Mattel Electronics became a subsidiary in 1981. It was in stores nationwide by mid-1980 with the pack-in game Las Vegas Poker & Blackjack, and a library of ten cartridges. The Intellivision was also listed in the nationally distributed JCPenney Christmas 1979 catalog along with seven cartridges. On December 3, Mattel delivered consoles to the Gottschalks department store chain headquartered in Fresno, California with a suggested list price of $275. In Fall 1979, Sylvania marketed its own branded Intellivision at $280 in its GTE stores at Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C. A shortage of key chips from manufacturer General Instrument resulted in a limited number of Intellivision Master Components produced that year. At Chicago CES in June, prices were revised to $250 for each component. The Intellivision was introduced at the 1979 Las Vegas CES in January as a modular home computer with the Master Component priced at US$165 and a soon-to-follow Keyboard Component also at $165 (equivalent to $620 in 2021). Graphics were designed by a group of artists at Mattel led by Dave James. In 1978, David Rolfe of APh developed the onboard executive control software named Exec, and with a group of Caltech summer student employees programmed the first games. A team at Mattel, headed by David Chandler, began engineering the hardware, including the hand controllers. After having chosen National in August 1977, Mattel waited for two months before ultimately choosing the proposed GI chipset in late 1977. GI published an updated chipset in its 1978 catalog. The GI chipset lacked reprogrammable graphics and Mattel worked with GI to implement changes. Its consultant, APh Technological Consulting, suggested a General Instrument chipset, listed as the Gimini programmable set in the GI 1977 catalog. Mattel identified a new but expensive chipset from National Semiconductor and negotiated better pricing for a simpler design. It was to have rich graphics and long lasting gameplay to distinguish itself from its competitors. Mattel's Design and Development group began investigating a home video game system in 1977. The Intellivision was developed at Mattel in Hawthorne, California along with the Mattel Electronics line of handheld electronic games. History and development Master Component It remained Mattel's only video game console until the HyperScan in 2006. 14 of the greatest video game consoles of all time. In 2009, IGN ranked the Intellivision No. From 1980 to 1983, more than 3 million consoles were sold. Game development ran from 1978 to 1990 when the Intellivision was discontinued. In 1984, Mattel sold its video game assets to a former Mattel Electronics executive and investors, eventually becoming INTV Corporation. Development began in 1977, the same year as the launch of its main competitor, the Atari 2600. The name is a portmanteau of "intelligent television". The Intellivision is a home video game console released by Mattel Electronics in 1979.
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