page_title: Intellivision
section_title: Master Component
hierarchical_section_title: Intellivision / History and development / Master Component
caption_attribution_description: The Sear Tele-Games Super Video Arcade, a rebranded Mattel Intellivision that sold exclusively in Sears department stores.
context_page_description: The Intellivision is a home video game console released by Mattel Electronics in 1979. The name Intellivision is a portmanteau of "intelligent television". Development of the console began in 1977, the same year as the introduction of its main competitor, the Atari 2600. In 1984 Mattel sold their video game assets to a former Mattel Electronics executive and investors that would become INTV Corporation. Games development started in 1978 and continued until 1990 when the Intellivision was discontinued. From 1980 to 1983 over 3 million Intellivision units were sold.
  In 2009, video game website IGN named the Intellivision the No. 14 greatest video game console of all time. It remained Mattel's only video game console until the release of the HyperScan in 2006.
context_section_description: The Intellivision was developed at Mattel in Hawthorne, California along with their Mattel Electronics line of handheld electronic games.  Mattel's Design and Development group began investigating a home video game system in 1977. It was to have rich graphics and long lasting gameplay to distinguish itself from its competitors. Mattel identified a new but expensive chipset from National Semiconductor and negotiated better pricing for a simpler design. Their consultant, APh Technological Consulting, suggested a General Instrument chipset, listed as the Gimini programmable set in the GI 1977 catalog. The GI chipset lacked reprogrammable graphics and Mattel worked with GI to implement changes.  GI published an updated chipset in its 1978 catalog.  After initially choosing National in August 1977, Mattel waited for two months before ultimately going with the proposed GI chipset in the fall of 1977.  A team at Mattel, headed by David Chandler, began engineering the hardware, including the famous hand controllers.  In 1978, David Rolfe of APh developed the executive control software (Exec) and, with a group of Caltech summer student hires, programmed the first games.  Graphics were designed by a group of artists at Mattel led by Dave James.
  The Intellivision was test marketed in Fresno, California in 1979 along with four cartridges. It was released nationwide in 1980 with a price tag of US$299, a pack-in game (Las Vegas Poker & Blackjack), and a library of ten cartridges. Mattel Electronics would become a subsidiary in 1981.
  Though the Intellivision was not the first system to challenge Warner Communications's Atari, it was the first to pose a serious threat to the market leader. A series of advertisements featuring George Plimpton were produced that demonstrated the superiority of the Intellivision's graphics and sound to those of the Atari 2600, using side-by-side game comparisons.  One of the slogans of the television advertisements stated that Intellivision was "the closest thing to the real thing"; one example in an advertisement compared golf games. The other console's games had a blip sound and cruder graphics, while the Intellivision featured a realistic swing sound and striking of the ball, and graphics that suggested a more 3D look. There was also an advertisement comparing the Atari 2600 to it, featuring the slogan "I didn't know". In its first year, Mattel sold out its initial 175,000 production run of Intellivision "Master Components". In 1981, over one million Intellivision consoles were sold, five times as many as in 1980.
  The Intellivision Master Component was branded and distributed by various companies.  Before Mattel shifted manufacturing to Hong Kong, Mattel Intellivisions were manufactured by GTE Sylvania. GTE Sylvania Intellivisions were produced along with Mattel's, with the brand name the only differentiation. The Sears Super Video Arcade, manufactured by Mattel in Hong Kong, has a restyled beige top cover and detachable controllers.  The Sears Intellivision modified the default title screen by removing the "Mattel Electronics" captioning. In 1982 Radio Shack marketed the Tandyvision One, similar to the original Intellivision but with the gold plates replaced with more wood trim.  In Japan Intellivisions were branded by Bandai in 1982, and in Brazil there were Digimed and Digiplay Intellivisions manufactured by Sharp in 1983.
caption: Super Video Arcade
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