Intellivision Astrosmash Competition Cart Found [pics]

[IntvGene]

According to the INTVProg newsgroup, a possible Astrosmash Competition cart has been found. Actually, it was found about a month ago, and I just remembered to post this..

This cart was found in Brazil by a collector. Here's his story:

"I bought an Astrosmash cartridge last week (about 15 years looking for it...) and I found something "strange" playing the game: after the title screen, pressing any key, another screen appears (a grey screen with white text) asking for the "Time Limit" for the game (1 - 99). After that, the game begins and a counter appears on the right bottom of the screen (the number of minutes chosen). When this counter goes to zero, the game is over."

http://www.intellivisionbrasil.hpg.ig.com.br/astrosmash/astro1.jpghttp://www.intellivisionbrasil.hpg.ig.com.br/astrosmash/astro2.jpghttp://www.intellivisionbrasil.hpg.ig.com.br/astrosmash/astro3.jpg
http://www.intellivisionbrasil.hpg.ig.com.br/astrosmash/astro4.jpghttp://www.intellivisionbrasil.hpg.ig.com.br/astrosmash/astro5.jpg
http://www.intellivisionbrasil.hpg.ig.com.br/astrosmash/astro6.jpg
http://www.intellivisionbrasil.hpg.ig.com.br/astrosmash/astrocart1.jpghttp://www.intellivisionbrasil.hpg.ig.com.br/astrosmash/astrocart2.jpg

The ROM seems to be from the Astrosmash competition games or the TV POWW games. Nobody knows for sure. But, hopefully more info will come to light later. Thought someone might be interested...

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/intvprog/

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

Interesting. Where would this have been used? I'm not remembering any Intellivision tournaments off the top of my head.

[IntvGene]

INTELLIVISION HISTORY: TV POWW
In the late 1970s, television syndicator Marv Kempner developed "TV POWWW," an interactive TV game show. TV POWWW used Fairchild Channel F game consoles modified to be voice activated and simplified versions of the Channel F games.

Kempner supplied the consoles and games to TV stations nationwide. TV POWWW was designed to be inserted into live TV shows, such as afternoon kids' shows. In its basic form, a contestant in the studio would compete against a contestant at home on the telephone.

The games were mostly simple shooting games - the game would start and the studio contestant would fire by yelling "POW!" After 15 or 30 seconds, the game would be restarted and the contestant on the phone would try to beat the studio contestant's score.

TV POWWW was a success, but in 1980 Fairchild announced they were quitting the video game market. Needing a replacement system, Kempner made a deal with Mattel to use Intellivision.

A number of Intellivision games were modified to fit the TV POWWW format, including Astrosmash, Skiing, and Word Rockets from the Word Fun cartridge. With the Intellivision games, TV POWWW became more popular than ever and more stations signed on. Some stations ran TV POWWW only during children's shows, others targeted teens and adults. In New York City on station WPIX, contestants were instructed to shout "PIX!" instead of "POW!"

TV POWWW spread internationally. Even though Mattel stopped supplying new games to Kempner in late 1983, TV POWWW continued to be popular on some stations till the end of the decade.

Kempner tried to get Nintendo and Sega interested in the show when their new consoles came out, but they both passed. TV POWWW faded into video game history.

I never saw these either though. Of course, there was the Astrosmash shootoff (again courtesy of the BlueSky Rangers (www.intellivisionlives.com)):


From March until August 11, Intellivision owners were invited to send photographs of their TV screens showing their high score in Astrosmash. Just for entering, they would receive an Astrosmash Shootoff patch, and it was announced that 16 regional high-scorers would be flown to Houston to compete for eight cash prizes.

Over 13,000 people entered, and quickly it became obvious there was a problem. First, because of the scoring bug, many of the pictures showed scores made up of seemingly random ASCII characters. John Sohl had to review the photos and, with an ASCII table, decipher the actual scores. Second, it turned out that no one in Marketing realized that Astrosmash, like many Intellivision games, can be played at slower speeds simply by starting the game by pressing 1, 2, or 3 instead of the disc. (This is a feature programmed into the EXEC.) There was no way of telling who had legitimately obtained a high score and who had played at the easiest speed. There were reports of competitors who literally played for days at the slowest speed, pausing the game (pressing 1 and 9 simultaneously, also programmed into the EXEC) to sleep or go to school.

Unable to decide who was legit and who wasn't, instead of the announced 16, Mattel Electronics wound up flying 73 entrants to Houston for an all-expense paid weekend, September 11 & 12, 1982. There, the entrants competed in 1 hour of timed play. 18-year-old Manuel Rodriguez of Stockton, California won the $25,000 top prize with a score of 835,180.

Still unsure.. Was the cart used with the Shootoff? They used timed 1 hour events. The TV shows probably used shorter times. Anyway, as you can tell, more investigative work is necessary to tell where exactly this was used. :)

BTW, PDF.. thanks for the edit. ;)

[MarioAllStar2600]

I have never heard of this. I think the time limit is extremly cool though. I wish all Astrosmashes had that.

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

But they do. When I suck enough to lose all my ships, time's up. LOL

[ArrowFlinger]

I have never heard of this. I think the time limit is extremly cool though. I wish all Astrosmashes had that.

Sound like the correct game cartridge.
I was there and I was also at Los Angeles for the National championship.
There were 3 or 4 of us that made it to Houston who also qualified for the parent child national championship.