Update 05/10/2021: I’ve managed to find both an INTV Super Pro System and a INTV System III. Hopefully one of the contains a 1988 motherboard and I can test this out.
I’ve also read off the mystery EPROM. At the tail end of it I can see a 1986 INTV Copyright notice and little else. An Intellivision GROM was filled with a character set for the Intellivision so that may be normal.
This board is of unknown origin. It’s similar to other INTV 1988 motherboards with the exception of the AMD EPROM replacing the GROM chip. If I find a 68 pin combo chip for the STIC-sound-(controller?) socket I’ll build a power supply for it and test it out.
Other than the EPROM (and that may have been normal on some number of boards, although it’s an odd choice) this board was used in very late model INTV systems. Reportedly the INTV Super Pro System and cancelled INTV Tutorvision.
Since there aren’t many pictures floating around of the Mattel Intellivision successor boards (or indeed, the Intellivision master system I and II 2609 boards) I’ve decided to catalog it clearly.
Brief History of the INTV 1988
In 1984 INTV was created to sell the existing Mattel stock of Intellivision games and consoles. They did so until agreements with other console makers led them to discontinuing production of Intellivision systems in 1990.
At which point the plans to wedge this board into a World Book Encyclopedia “educational gaming” Tutorvision system fell through and the company filed for bankruptcy. And promptly disappeared in 1991.
V-Tech and LeapFrog have been selling ancient systems to kids for ages now. So there was later precedent that the business model is viable.
Given how few late systems must’ve went into production I can’t imagine the expense of designing a whole new board was justified by mail-order Intellivision sales. Especially more than half a decade after the system was a relevant gaming platform.
Specification Sheets:
INTV 1988 System Pro or Tutorvision Board
That’s a Tutor Board.
Minus the STIC.
You have the WEBEXEC chip on the top right rectangle So whoever messed with it obviously didn’t know what they had.
Oh, likely they did. It was probably in a scrap pile for taking off spare parts from the story of where it came from. These wouldn’t even have had the slight cache they do now in the mid 90’s.
The same board is also used in (some) late model InTV Intellivisions as well.
Now, they weren’t all that board… it was probably a case of using up the parts. Here’s a case of someone finding one for reference https://www.videogamesage.com/forums/topic/1462-intellivision-super-pro-system-with-tutorvision-components/
Ah, yep. Apparently I’m blind. Thanks for pointing that out; I hadn’t looked closely enough comparing the boards. Now to find a STIC!