Review by: Valter Prette
Intellivision for the 21st century
We just got two modded consoles and we have tested them to share with all of you our impressions.
The modification of the console is done adding RCA out connections for composite video and audio stereo. Weldings on the motherboard and holes on the chassis are necessary for this to work.
By means of these outputs you will be able to connect Intellivision to standard RCA of the television set that you usually find on the front. If you do not have such inputs, you will sure have one SCART connection, then you need a simple adapter, similar to those supplied with modern consoles such Playstation.
The modification is available in two versions, for the European Master Component or the American Intellivision II. The difference is due to the way of welding, well documented in the manuals you can find also in this website.
The customer interested in this modification can send his console for the treatment, or buy directly a ready one, or buy the modding kit, by getting in touch with Oliver Puschatzki.
Testing the difference
So let’s speak about the result of this modification. For this review we have received two European consoles with RCA video + audio out.
The console had been connected to RCA in of a Toshiba 26", a Panasonic 32" 100 Hz and an Acer 26" LCD HDTV.
The first impression is pleasant: turn on the console and you will see the title of your game immediately, without needing for a search of the right channel or, worse, having to begin tuning in case it is the first time the television connect to Intellivision. This is a relief we assure to you.
The important parameter here is anyway the video quality: with this connection you will eliminate definitively disturbs of tuning due to the adiacent channels. Those disturbs vary from television in function of the quality of the tuner, but are generally present. Sometime you see waves of glares, or simply shadings on the colors around the contours of the sprites. On some low cost TV I personally experimented to have the channel in black/white only (not depending on PAL/NTSC format)!
You forget all of this thanks to the composite connection! You finally got a stable and balanced image, with clean details. The Quality of pixel and the cleanness of colors still vary in dependency of your television set, in particular on the Toshiba the result was not brilliant, but we have had the confirmation on the Panasonic that this does not depend on the job done by Oliver.
The modification should work with any Intellivision system, even the clones. It was initially tested with a original Master Component (PAL) and an INTV II (NTSC). Since any of the Intellivision consoles uses an ASTEC RF-modulator (and this is where the video and audio signal is derived from), it should be possible to connect the mod to any other console, too. Two installation manuals are available because the wiring of the power cables is different between these models.
A must have!
If you are a user of Intellivision and your console does not sleep in some closet, our opinion is that you need this exceptional modification!
The only doubt is you to agree on touching the original motherboard. If you are jalous like I am, you may order a complete console+mod set, the price is however very reasonable.
The modded consoles offered by Oliver are available in the USA and in Europe. The US-ones are shipped from Michigan, therefore US collectors do not have to worry about overseas shipping.
Good job Oliver!
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