Ryan Kinnen's
Intellivision Programming Page

In my spare time, I collect and tinker with old 1980's video game systems. My specialty has been in the collecting of Mattel Electronics' Intellivision stuff. I currently have 107 of the 126 commercially released game cartridges for the system.

I have been working on developing entirely new Intellivision games. One of these has been completed and has been sold as a real packaged product. I have a few other Intellivision projects cooking, but they've been coming along slowly due to my time being spread too thin lately.

Programming an Intellivision game is especially challenging due to the limitations of technology when the Intellivision was first manufactured in 1978...

• There were only around 300 bytes of RAM memory to work with (That's "bytes", not "kilobytes"!).
• Game cartridges could only hold 4k to 8k of program data. Only some of the latest releases were lucky enough to have more than 8k to work with.
• Due to the above restrictions, games can only be programmed in assembly language. The code generated by languages like C is too large!

For more information about the Intellivision video game system, you can explore these links:

INTV Funhouse
An Encyclopedia about all of the hardware and software ever made for the Intellivision.

Intellivision Productions, Inc.
Some of the original Mattel programmers have put together this site featuring behind-the-scenes accounts of the production of many of the original products.

For more information about programming the Intellivision, check out the following:

SDK-1600
Joseph Zbiciak's Intellivision development kit.

INTVprog
E-mail discussion list for Intellivision programmers

How to use the software provided on this page:

The games and programs downloadable from this page contain cartridge ROM data which is meant to be run on a real Mattel Electronics Intellivision console. To do this, you will need a special "reloadable" cartridge that works with your computer. Two such cartridges are available: The Intellicart, and Cuttle Cart 3.

Alternatively, you can run these programs directly on your own computer using an Intellivision emulator. Some of these emulators are very good, but I personally feel that simulating old video game systems on anything other than the original equipment loses a lot in the translation.

Some Intellivision Emulators:
Nostalgia • jzIntv • Bliss

MINEHUNTER
released 2004

This is an Intellivision version of the addictive classic computer game "Mine Sweeper". MineHunter was the 2nd game cartridge manufactured and sold by Intelligentvision, the first company to release new games for the Intellivision since INTV Corp. released it's last games in 1989.

You can buy the game cartridge here...

Download MINEHUNTER
(see "how to use this software" elsewhere on this page)

This was the first Intellivision game ever to utilize a modernized "pointer cursor"!

For those who may be exploring Intellivision programming, I welcome you to download and examine the source code for MINEHUNTER:

Download the source code for MINEHUNTER

INTERACTIVE BLOB ART
developmental concept

This is a component from an Intellivision game that I had been working on slowly over the past several years. By itself, it does not play as a game. However you may find it interesting as an abstract art toy to doodle with. Eventually, the game will feature a variety of creatures following along the edges of the blobs.

Download BLOB ART DEMO
(see "how to use this software" elsewhere on this page)

PSG TINKERER
a development tool for creating sound effects

In the process of working on my game projects, I programmed a utility that allows a person to experiment with the chip that generates the Intellivision's sound effects - the "General Instrument AY-3-8914 Programmable Sound Generator". By using this program, you can alter the values contained in the sound chip's registers, creating a large variety of tones and sound effects.

This program can be run on any of the handful of Intellivision emulators that are available, or by using the Intellicart - a development device that lets you download games onto an actual Intellivision console.

Download PSG TINKERER (Includes documentation.)
(see "how to use this software" elsewhere on this page)