While the Aquarius computer is incompatible with Intellivision cartridges, Mattel also promises that hit software for that system, such as Astrosmash, the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons games, Tron Deadly Discs, Football and Lock ‘n’ Chase, will get Aquarius versions. In all, thirty-two titles are planned for the first half of 1983, all in cartridge format, with more to follow by the end of the year. They will fall into delineated categories to make things clear for consumers, including Education, Home Management, Personal Improvement and Entertainment. These plug-in cartridges are inserted into the Aquarius via a slot at the rear of the device, protected by a dust cover when not in use. Into this slot can also be inserted the Mini Expander, which can accept program cartridges, the memory expansion modules, or a combo of the two. It also offers two hand controllers (similar to the design of those of the Intellivision, but incompatible with the console) and two additional sound channels.

Click button to play Aquarius computer version of Night Stalker

Several additional peripherals are touted for the computer. Since it contains a Z80A CPU, it can also handle the vast library of CP/M software, via a the Master Expansion Module promised for late 1983 that would add dual floppy drives to the Aquarius. This module would also allow 16K memory expansion boards to be added. An Aquarius Modem is also to be made available, and can be used to an online service dubbed Aquarius Home Services. Getting in on the 80’s home automation craze, a device called the Command Console will be sold for the Aquarius, allowing modules to be programmed to control aspects of the household such as a coffee maker and light fixtures. Further productivity products Fileform and Finform are announced with the system; the former is a file system and word processor, the later being a spreadsheet program.

At the Summer 1983 CES in Chicago, Mattel boldly announces that a “higher-end” version, the Aquarius II, is to be released later in the year. It is to sport 20K of RAM expandable to 64K, and a real keyboard with fully-travelling keys. Fully compatible with software for the first Aquarius, the later model is to offer 12K ROM and 20K RAM expandable to 64K. Its screen resolution is pegged at 320×192 and will sell somewhere between $130-$175.

Mattel Aquarius Computer: Jupiter Definitely Doesn’t Align With Mars

On April 21, 1983, the initial Aquarius is advertised and sold in a four-city roll out: Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit, and Atlanta, and is eventually offered nationwide. The COM/PAC bundle is also made available, including all current peripherals and the keyboard, retailing at $340. To the press, Mattel Electronics VP and general manager of home computer systems William F. Gillis makes some bold predictions of Aquarius penetration into the crowded market – a minimum of 200,000 computers are expected to be sold, equating to around a 5% market share. Making a softer pitch in TV spots is actor Mason Adams, probably known by most viewers as Lou Grant’s editor from his titular TV spin-off from The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Adams’ calm, friendly voice will definitely be familiar, since it features in voiceovers for practically every other ad on television. Mason’s ads are a result of what Mattel defines as the largest advertising campaign budget they’ve ever assigned to a product, although they don’t reveal the exact value of it.

Despite the big budget ad campaign and the friendly exultations from Mr. Adams, Aquarius tanks badly upon release, perhaps because of its extremely obsolete specs in the context of home computers of the era. While the official slogan for the Aquarius is “Truly Simple”, Mattel programmers appropriate the advertising slogan used by Atari for their newly introduced XL line of home computers (The Home Computers for the 80’s) by loathingly suggesting “The System for the 70’s” as the advertising line for Aquarius. Mattel gets the cane out for spokesperson Adams, and other advertising support for the computer, a mere four months after its release. It is announced in October of 1983 that Mattel has dropped the price of the Aquarius to $59, a prelude to handing marketing rights back to manufacturer Radofin.

Heads start rolling at Mattel Electronics in early July, with 260 administrative employees let go. This is followed by a further 400 axed a month later, along with a culling of top executives. This constitutes around 37% of the workforce. The price slashing in November fails to improve matters for the Aquarius. It is little surprise, to dealers and everyone else, when Mattel bins plans for the sequel computer Aquarius II and officially hands their home computer line to Radofin in January of 1984. Surplus computer hardware and software ends up being sold to Odd Lot Trading Inc., an outfit out of New York City that specializes in selling discontinued merchandise.

Mattel Intellivision: Impaired Vision

These expensive projects, along with the collapse of the videogame industry, are the beginning of the end of Mattel Electronics. Even with the company adapting their original games and arcade licenses to the expanding computer game market, second quarter sales for 1983 have sagged to $3.5 million, a staggering decline from $125 million the same quarter the previous year. Tandy, having purchased Intellivision units for their branded Tandyvision One consoles at a set price at the beginning of the video game craze, watch as Mattel steadily offers discounts and rebates on their own machines, effectively cutting the legs out from under their version of the console. With Radio Shack dealers paying more than what consumers are for Mattel’s units, Tandy dumps their inventory and games and discontinues the Tandyvision line within six months of its debut in Radio Shack stores.

Click button to play late-stage Intellivision game Sewer Sam

Mattel Electronics reports a loss of $166.7 million for the first six months of 1983, leading to division head Joshua Denham stepping down. Marketing whiz William Mack Morris is installed in the position in the summer of that year. He is famous in marketing circles because, as the president of LifeSavers, Inc., he came up with the idea of putting a simple blue-coloured dot in the centre of the company’s Breath Savers mints, greatly increasing their sales. Soon, a particularly catchy hook in a game that sets it apart from the others becomes known as its “blue dot” to Mattel employees. Morris lacks the magic touch here, however, with reports that Mattel has put its electronics division up for sale, and production scaled back dramatically to help clear their massive inventory pileup. Total losses for the company also pile up, to the tune of $229.3 million for the year. With Mattel saddled with almost 400 million dollars of short-term debt, Morris lays off practically all the staff in hardware development, and another round of layoffs in the fall decimate the Blue Sky Rangers. While it had vowed to the press that its support for the Intellivision would continue in the new year, on January 20, 1984, Mattel Electronics closes its doors.

TV commercial featuring Mattel Intellivision head Mack Morris’ former big idea: the blue dot in Breath Savers mints, 1981

Hitting the Reset Button on the Mattel Intellivision

But the mighty Intellivision refuses to go down with the ship. On February 3, 1984, Mattel announces that it has signed a letter of intent to sell all existing stock and rights to the Intellivision division of Mattel Electronics to Terrence E. Valeski, former sr. vice president of marketing and sales at Mattel Electronics, for 16.5 million dollars. Bankrolling the purchase with Valeski is Tangible Industries, Inc., a division of the Revco drug store chain, the largest such franchise in the U.S.. While the team face stiff penalties from Mattel if they fail to continue the Intellivision line, they float such ideas as using the Intellivision brand on other appliances like hair dryers and VCRs. Valeski insists that he is committed to continuing the Intellivision line as a viable game console, going so far as announcing a 3-D games for the Intellivision, via a licence for technology developed by Richard Steenblik of the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. The first such game for the Inty is to be Hover Force 3-D, a game developed by Mattel as a bid to save their withering console.

Click to play non-3D version of Hover Force on the Intellivision

Valeski subsequently incorporates a new company called Intellivision, Inc (changed to INTV in November 1984, when he takes over Revco’s share of the company). They release the INTV System III (aka the Super Pro System) in the fall of 1985, priced around $60. The System III‘s method of sale is partly retail, and partly through direct mail marketing by an outfit out of San Francisco called Triton Products Company. Taking a cue from the same-old Intellivision II, the “new” System III  is nearly an exact replica of the original Intellivision Master Component, both inside and out, but with new labelling and game pack-ins. As a cost-saving measure, none of the licenses for the sports games are renewed, and a game like NFL Football is demoted to simply Super Pro Football. INTV forms an agreement with Mattel to continue service of Intellivision equipment, as well as assemble new carts via a one-year contract. Prices for System III games are cheap: between $10 – $20 each or less, and one can pick up an Intellivoice for $19.95. The “new” system brings in $6 million worldwide in sales over Christmas 1986, prompting INTV to hire back many of the original Blue Sky Rangers to finish unreleased games and create new ones. Between 1985 and 1990, when INTV closes its doors and the Intellivision is finally laid to rest for good, over 35 new games are released for the System III. This makes a total of 125 games released for the Intellivision system over 10 years. The Blue Sky Rangers currently have exclusive rights to publish  Intellivision system and games, granted to them by Ultimatte Corporation, purchasers of the Intellivision rights from Valeski in 1997.   Via Intellivision Productions,  a company set up by former Mattel programmers Keith Robinson and Stephen Roney, they continue to keep the system alive today, with Intellivision emulation packs for the Mac, PC  and various mobile platforms.

Click to play non-Dungeons & Dragons version of Tower of Doom on the Intellivision

Its roller-coaster ride through the videogame industry nearly sinks Mattel itself. But its divestment of the Intellivision division of Mattel Electronics in February of 1984 is met with a positive response from the stock market, with shares in the company rising 50 cents on the news, to $7.25 a share. Through restructuring, the company eventually claws its way back to the top of the toy heap, and in 1996 re-enters the videogame industry with a vengeance under the Mattel Media label. They release the Barbie Fashion Designer CD-ROM for the PC that year, going on to sell 15.5 million dollars worth and breaking previous CD-ROM sales records. E.J., the 9-year-old daughter of Mattel Media’s Vice President of Design Andy Rifkin, is one of the designers. In the program, clothes are created and modeled by Barbie on-screen and then the designs can be printed out on special cloth-backed paper and assembled to be worn by real Barbie dolls. It retails at $44.99 USD and spawns a lucrative Barbie line of computer programs, such as Barbie Magic Hair Styler. It is hypothesized that Mattel has broken into the untapped female market for videogames, but others figure that the success has more to do with Mattel’s marketing and the fearsome Barbie brand-name.

Lasting Intelligence of the Mattel Intellivision

Out of the ashes of the Intellivision system has come an amazing amount of quality product by spin-off companies, not the least of which is the continuing emulation work of the Blue Sky Rangers. In 1998 they release two emulation CD-ROMs, Intellivision Lives! for the PC and Mac, and A Collection of Classic Games From the Intellivision for the Sony PlayStation console. Both feature plenty of perfectly emulated original games, including some never seen outside of the development labs, along with historical information on their creation. Keeping the love alive for classic Intellivision games for continuing generations of video gamers, further Intellivision Lives! packages are released for the subsequent later generation consoles such as Sony’s PlayStation 2 and Microsoft’s XBox. Outside of emulation, some software companies created by former Intellivision programmers include Quicksilver Software – Castles I(1991) & II(1994), Conquest of the New World(1996), Star Trek: Starfleet Command(1999); Realtime Associates – M:TG-Battlemage(1997), Crusader: No Remorse(console versions-1997); and Stormfront Studios né Beyond Software, headed by Don Daglow of Utopia fame – Gateway to the Savage Frontier(1991), Tony LaRussa Ultimate Baseball(1991), Madden 97(1996), Byzantine: The Betrayal(1997), NASCAR Revolution(1999), NASCAR 2000(2000).

Click to play A Collection of Classic Games From the Intellivision on Playstation

As pointed out previously, the Intellivision‘s unique control disc could be seen as a precursor to the modern D-Pad control scheme, pioneered by Nintendo in their Game & Watch handhelds and Famicom home console.  In 2013, the influence can also be seen when venerable video game developer, publisher, and distributor Valve Software introduce the Steam Controller, for use on PCs and presumably their Steam game console.  With two flat, round touch surfaces, Valve’s product is met with about the same acrimony from gamers as Mattel’s original controllers.

Carving out 15% of the video game market during its heyday (compared to 80% for Atari’s 2600) and selling around 3 million units across its production life (and another 3 million as the System III), the Intellivision may have come up second-best against Atari in the heated battle for videogame supremacy during the early 1980’s. But the Master Component, its varied sequels and components, and its thoughtful and sophisticated library of games continue to be highly appreciated by videogame enthusiasts. With continued support through emulation, Intelligent Television lives on.