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View Full Version : Intellivision II and Coleco cart incompatibility



Pantechnicon
06-20-2006, 08:28 PM
I just found out the hard way that the Intellivision II console was designed to deliberately prevent Coleco-manufactured cartridges from operating on it. According to Intellivision Lives (http://www.intellivisionlives.com/bluesky/hardware/intelli2_tech.html), Coleco eventually figured out a way around this, incorporating the workaround into subsequent releases of titles like Donkey Kong, Venture etc.

Given that none of the Inty Coleco-made games in my posession seems to work in my Inty II, I'm wondering if there's some way of distinguishing the compatible from the non-compatible? I'm looking to get rid of my Intellivision I and just keep the II but don't want to be stuck with a particular system that can't play some titles, or conversely titles that can't play on a particular system.

Pantechnicon
06-21-2006, 01:08 AM
I don't know of any way to tell the difference between the 2 versions, other than trying them on an Inty II (unless they're marked as being Inty II compatible?)

Sure. The boxes for the compatibles were apparently marked as "Now for Intellivision I and II!" or something like that. But my collection is predominantly loose, so I'm looking for a possible way to identify loose carts "in the field", so to speak.

I imagine there's probably some distinguishing feature inside the cart on the rom or whatever, but it's not like you get to open them up in the shops. In my experience shopkeepers tend to look with both fear and hatred on customers who pull out screwdrivers and ask to look inside the wares.

Quick B&S tangent: If anybody has some confirmed INTY II compatible Coleco games please send a PM. I'll either pay guide value or will trade straight across for my INTY I versions, which do all work.

Jibbajaba
06-21-2006, 01:12 AM
Surely there must be a compatibility list somewhere...

Chris

GarrettCRW
06-21-2006, 02:28 AM
The Intellivision FAQ on GameFAQs has a game list with compatibility notes.