Saturday, July 19, 2025

My Road to 55 - small steps in 2024

 In 2024, I got Imagic Swords & Serpents for <53 total> from ebay.

 

I picked up some overlays and rules for another <31 total> from ebay.  This covered the rest of the missing overlays I needed, as well as giving a nicer copy of the Boxing rulebook.

 

I ended the year by picking up Roulette from ebay for <51 total>.  This finished off the last one I needed for the 1980 set.  It also had a top number, and a full color manual.

 

I finished the year with 46 of the original 55 as well as 11 of the next 41.  I don’t have any of the 29 from Dextell, INTV, or ESC.

Of the original 55, I was missing ABPA Backgammon, and The Electric Company Math Fun from 1979. Shark! Shark! from 1982, and Bump ‘n’ Jump, Buzz Bombers, Kool-Aid Man, Motocross, Pinball, and Tron: Solar Sailor from 1983.  I had 9 of the 19 top number games.

Saturday, July 5, 2025

My Road to 55 - good first steps

 After all the delving into the old games, I played some on the Intellivision Flashback.  It has 60 games built in from both Mattel Electronic as well as INTV.  They also have some of the unreleased games.  The console itself is a bit smaller but the controllers are the same as on the original system. 

 

I ordered a new RF connection to be able to play the old consoles.  This ended up costing about $~15 from ebay.  When it came and I went to hook it up, I was gutted to see that our original Intellivision was open, missing four of the six screws that hold it together.  I was unable to get it to work. I was able to find another one locally for $30 which does seem to work fine except for the reset button, which is intermittent.

 

When I first decided to go back and fill in the gaps on the Intellivision collection, I started checking local places as well as online on ebay and facebook marketpace for lots.  Starting with 28 cartridges, or slightly over half of the original 55, I had a way to go. 

I also had 4 of the next 41.  I had Pitfall, Carnival, Ladybug, and Donkey Kong.

 

My first find was from facebook marketplace for $80.  It included NBA Basketball, NASL Soccer, The Electric Company Word Fun, Boxing, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Royal Dealer, Sub Hunt, AD&D: Treasure of Tarmin, Mission X, and B-17 Bomber (with a piece missing on the cover).  It also had Beauty & the Beast, and Demon Attack from Imagic.

It also included the ‘first 19’ copies of Las Vegas Poker & Blackjack, as well as The Electric Company Word Fun.

 

 

I was able to find a copy of Masters of the Universe: The Power of He-Man on ebay for $40 (plus $25 shipping).  It is in good condition and even includes the comic.

 

 

At a local flea market, I was able to get some more games beyond the original 55.  I got Imagic’s Atlantis, and Parker Brothers’ Frogger for $10 each.

 

 

I also won a lot on ebay for $55 (plus another $45 in shipping).  This included Checkers, Horse Racing, NHL Hockey, PGA Golf, Frog Bog, and Loco-Motion.  It also included the ‘first 19’ copies of Checkers, Horse Racing, Las Vegas Poker & Blackjack, Major League Baseball, NASL Soccer, NSL Hockey, and Sea Battle.

 

 

From a local store, I picked up the cartridge only of Atarisoft’s Pac-Man for $10.  While I will try to get a complete copy later, I could not pass it up for that price.  I was able to pass up the cartridge only copies of Sewer Sam and Blockade Runner for $20 each.

 

 

In 2023 I preordered some of the newer games.  It was a bit pricy, but it contained Time Pilot, which was one of my favorite arcade games.  This ended up taking about a year and a half to fulfill though, and cost me some momentum towards the 55.