I tried to hide my disappointment, but I couldn't. It was Christmas, 1983 and I wanted a ZX Spectrum. All my friends either had one, or were also desperately hoping one would be sitting under the tree. Instead, for reasons which my parents have never satisfactorily explained (it was probably on special offer), I got a Mattel Intellivision console. In the four years since between its release in 1979 and that fateful yuletide morning, the Intellivision had already played out its own rise and fall.
While I pined for a Speccy, in truth the Intellivision's chief opponent was another console entirely. Not that there was much competition - the Atari VCS was an all-conquering behemoth of a console, its shadow drawing long and wide across the world of videogames. It revolutionised home gaming. But the popularity of the VCS didn't scare away other manufacturers, and one eager outfit was veteran toy company, Mattel.
Mattel - the name a compound of the names of owners Harold Matson and Elliot Handler - had been founded in 1945, and in an era keen to forget the horrors of World War 2, proved successful, especially with its range of Barbie fashion dolls. But by the mid-70s, Mattel's younger executives were pushing for the company to branch into electronic toys, initially handheld LED games such as Auto Race and Baseball. These early efforts met with mixed results while development of an interchangeable cartridge-based system began in earnest in 1978.
from Eurogamer.net http://bit.ly/2M7srgK
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