{"product_id":"intellivision-isbn-9780262549509","title":"Intellivision","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe engaging story of Intellivision, an overlooked videogame system from the late 1970s and early 1980s whose fate was shaped by Mattel, Atari, and countless others who invented the gaming industry.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eAstrosmash\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eSnafu\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eStar Strike\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eUtopia\u003c\/i\u003e—do these names sound familiar to you? No? Maybe? They were all videogames created for the Intellivision videogame system, sold by Mattel Electronics between 1979 and 1984. This system was Atari’s main rival during a key period when videogames were moving from the arcades into the home. In \u003ci\u003eIntellivision\u003c\/i\u003e, Tom Boellstorff and Braxton Soderman tell the fascinating inside story of this overlooked gaming system. Along the way, they also analyze Intellivision’s chips and code, games, marketing and business strategies, organizational and social history, and the cultural and economic context of the early US games industry from the mid-1970s to the great videogame industry crash of 1983.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhile many remember Atari, Intellivision has largely been forgotten. As such, \u003ci\u003eIntellivision\u003c\/i\u003e fills a crucial gap in videogame scholarship, telling the story of a console that sold millions and competed aggressively against Atari. Drawing on a wealth of data from both institutional and personal archives and over 150 interviews with programmers, engineers, executives, marketers, and designers, Boellstorff and Soderman examine the relationship between videogames and toys—an under-analyzed aspect of videogame history—and discuss the impact of home computing on the rise of videogames, the gendered implications of play and videogame design at Mattel, and the blurring of work and play in the early games industry.Contents\u003cbr\u003eSeries Foreword\u003cbr\u003eNotes on Orthography, Terms, Abbreviations, and Style\u003cbr\u003eAcknowledgments\u003cbr\u003eIntroduction: Intelligent Visions\u003cbr\u003ePart I: Formations\u003cbr\u003e1   From Toys to Technology at Mattel\u003cbr\u003e2   The Master Component\u003cbr\u003e3   The Keyboard Component\u003cbr\u003e4   Mattel’s Marketing Magic\u003cbr\u003ePart II: Practices\u003cbr\u003e5   Ladders of Game Production\u003cbr\u003e6   Becoming a Videogame Programmer at Mattel\u003cbr\u003e7   Constraints, Trade-Offs, and Affordances\u003cbr\u003e8   Boom\u003cbr\u003ePart III: Extensions\u003cbr\u003e9   Intellivoice\u003cbr\u003e10   The ECS\u003cbr\u003e11   PlayCable\u003cbr\u003e12   Transplatform\u003cbr\u003e13   Crash\u003cbr\u003eAftercrash\u003cbr\u003eAppendix: Intellivision Hardware Timeline\u003cbr\u003eNotes\u003cbr\u003eIndex“Fantastically researched and interestingly written.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e—BoingBoing\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“[Boellstorff and Soderman] conducted a whopping 150 interviews with people involved in every aspect of Intellivision’s creation, life, and death. Plus, they dug through private and academic archives to unearth history and data that’s been forgotten for nearly 40 years. The authors wisely spend much of the book exploring this overlap between games and children’s disposable novelties—and how decisions made at this moment would harden the foundation for the gaming industry to come.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Polygon\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Boellstorff and Soderman note that the Intellivision system is often a footnote in home video game and computing histories, which usually focus on competing systems. In this well-researched book, they correct this oversight by illustrating the impact, design, marketing, expansion (and overexpansion), and decline of the Intellivision.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Choice\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e“As field officers, we often engage in skirmishes and battles. Boellstorff and Soderman superbly portray our elemental precursor in the nuanced context and depth of the broader games war.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Bill Gillis, President, WF Gillis \u0026amp; Associates; former Marketing VP, Intellivision \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Through a rich investigation of Intellivision, this book beautifully weaves together an attention to both the technical and the social components of producing computational gaming. A must read for all scholars of media.” \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—T. L. Taylor, Professor of Comparative Media Studies, MIT\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Boellstorff and Soderman balance the heroic and the tragic stories of Intellivision's business, technology, and people. \u003ci\u003eIntellivision\u003c\/i\u003e takes readers deep inside the confidential silos within the secretive toy industry of the 70s and 80s.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Don Daglow, Director of Intellivision Game Development, Mattel\u003c\/b\u003eTom Boellstorff is Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Irvine, and the author of \u003ci\u003eThe Gay Archipelago\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eA Coincidence of Desires\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eComing of Age in Second Life\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBraxton Soderman is Associate Professor in the Department of Film \u0026amp; Media Studies at the University of California, Irvine, and the author of \u003ci\u003eAgainst Flow: Video Games and the Flowing Subject\u003c\/i\u003e (MIT Press).","brand":"The MIT Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46304966181093,"sku":"NP9780262549509","price":60.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780262549509.jpg?v=1767730103","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/intellivision-isbn-9780262549509","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}