The IntelliVision Collective
I was about nine years old. We were in J.C. Penny’s at the Aurora Mall. My parents and my sister were off in a different part of the store doing I-don’t-know-what, and I was lingering in the store’s nascent video game department, coveting the wares.
I knew the landscape of the early-80s console industry: there were a few old, pong-only dedicated units (my Uncle Mike had one, I think an extra-cool Heathkit); there was the phenomenally successful but technologically Spartan Atari 2600; and there was the object of my present affection: Mattel’s foray into the market, the IntelliVision.
IntelliVision had a much more sophisticated controller than the Atari, and vastly superior graphics, sound, and game play. (It was powered by a 16-bit processor, which was pretty hip at the time.) I stood there in Penny’s, lusting after this machine, playing the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons game in the store’s demo unit, and staring up dejectedly at the $199 price tag. (That’s roughly $400 in 2003 dollars, and was 33% off of the debut price. Times and console business models have changed.)
I knew no way were Mom and Dad going to part with $200 to get me this thing. Dad was just a few years out of graduate school, and while he was eventually a strong beneficiary of 80s upward mobility, he was still earning his spurs as a young exploration geophysicist in 1981. If I remember correctly, Mom worked part time at a clothing store at the mall, presumably to make ends meet. This thing was so out of my range, I thought Why? Why must it cost so much?
Of course there are materials involved in producing the thing. Plastic, and my dad told me something about sand to make the “microchips.” (That word is now more quintessentially early 80s than rad.) Metal for the solder, expensive fake wood paneling laminate for the console’s front surface…you know, raw materials. Somebody had to produce them, and you had to pay people to do that work. And why did they need money? Because they were hungry, that’s why! My nine-year-old mind quickly followed the supply chain from the product I wanted back to the stomachs of hungry workers. If only farmers could be persuaded to grow food for free! I realized in astonishment. Then, free IntelliVisions for all! Especially, well, me.
You laugh, but that year before I reasoned that the entire planet should be under a single, global government. And this, somewhere between the fifth and tenth printings The Late Great Planet Earth! I don’t recall anyone in particular disabusing me of my incipient Marxism; I guess I just sort of grew out of it. Pity some adults haven’t yet.
Anyway, why am I telling you this? Because I got to relive it all a few nights ago with my kids. While shopping at Super Target with my four-year-old, she said, “I wish everything was for free.” I brought this bit of cuteness up a half-hour later at the dinner table, and my nine-year-old took up the challenge. He went through pretty much exactly the same thought process I did. Why not force people to do the work necessary to mine ore? he asked. Because oppression is bad. Why can’t people volunteer to design X-Boxes? Because the have other things to do with their time and money. Maybe you could have a single X-Box free day every year, but charge for them the rest of the time. Then nobody would buy one the rest of the year. Maybe you could try that with things people need to buy more often, like food. (He was giving up on a free X-Box by this point.) Then food prices would just rise to compensate during the rest of the year. We went on like this for ten or fifteen minutes, whereupon his little-boy Marxism died. He was happy to see it go.
Like father, like son.
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- Posted by Tim on Wednesday, March 3, 2004 at 6:55:55 am PST
- Category: Miscellany
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9 Responses to “The IntelliVision Collective”
Nice approach. I usually smile, say, “Well, it doesn’t work quite that way,” and figure a few years (along with the realization that THEY won’t want to work and not get paid) will do the trick.
Comment Permalink | Posted on March 3rd, 2004 at 7:48 am |Nice to disabuse the lad of any Marxist inclinations, but there is a lesson there in global exoconomics. How is it that we can buy so much decent stuff so cheaply? Do we think that our standard of living/consumption should be normative to all working people? Even if its not free, what forces are at work to make my 3# bag of bananas @ Sams Club $.01 CHEAPER now that it was 4 years ago?
Marxism dehumanizes our work, making our hands merely part of a state machine. But what does the current system to for those farmers on the bottom?
Give those kids some global priorities, eh?
Comment Permalink | Posted on March 3rd, 2004 at 8:45 am |Ahh… you’ve just got my memory machine going.
I was one of the most fortunate to actually have one of those hot-off-the-press Intellivision consoles, and yes, I had the Advanced D&D game (circa 1981). I was about 13 at the time. I still can recall the almost Godzilla-like ‘Raawr, Raawr’ sound the thing made when you came across a reddish-purple blob they called a dragon.
Eventually, we aquired the voice simulator. Two games of note were available with it- Space Spartans and B-17 bomber. My dad and I would play the Space Spartans game together, with me as pilot and gunner and he as immoral support (doing the ‘other than fire button’ pushing). Ahhh, the memories…
Theognome
Comment Permalink | Posted on March 3rd, 2004 at 5:17 pm |pentamom:
I’m sure you’re approach works too, given the intentional, in-the-background worldview inculcation you were talking about the other day.
Adeodatus:
Global priorities good, but as you know I’m not really sure where to take that phrase economically. The line between oppression and market-driven wages (if that’s where you’re going) is not so easy to draw. My inclination is to give markets more latitude rather than less, which I suspect many third-world workers we would think of as underpaid would appreciate. After all, it’s a step up for them, and wage inflation is a reality everywhere. (Mexico’s not The Place for manufacturing anymore.)
Theognome:
Ah, what I would have given…
Comment Permalink | Posted on March 5th, 2004 at 6:03 am |End of Week Roundup
Constitutional Exegesis Owen from Southern Appeal explains how Liberals and Conservatives interpret the Second Amendment. The Sincerest Flattery James Joyner has an interesting article on “Link Policy.” At least I found it interesting, but then that ma…
Comment Permalink | Posted on March 5th, 2004 at 3:30 pm |I worked for Mattel Electronics in the early 80s and was involved in the production of the Intellivision. It was a lot of fun and a job I greatly enjoyed but you’re right, I wouldn’t have done it for free.
Comment Permalink | Posted on March 9th, 2004 at 12:01 pm |Bob:
It’s an honor to have an original Intellivision team member commenting here! Thanks for dropping in.
If you don’t mind me asking, how did you find out about this post? Are you a regular reader?
Comment Permalink | Posted on March 9th, 2004 at 12:50 pm |Well, I wouldn’t be too honored. I was merely a Sr. Buyer in the procurement department sourcing and purchasing parts, qualifying suppliers etc.
Comment Permalink | Posted on March 10th, 2004 at 1:24 pm |I saw Intellivision on another web site, I’m not sure which one, clicked and here I am. No, I am not a regular reader but I thoroughly enjoyed reading about your Intellivision love affair. I happened to be living and working in the So Cal area at the time it was in its infancy and I jumped at the chance when Mattel was hiring. I remained with the job until market saturation of video games happened (Coleco and Atari were out there also) and then went on to other things. Intellivision has always been a good memory for me. It was a great machine in its time.
End of Week Roundup
Constitutional Exegesis Owen from Southern Appeal explains how Liberals and Conservatives interpret the Second Amendment. The Sincerest Flattery James Joyner has an interesting article on “Link Policy.” At least I found it interesting, but then that ma…
Comment Permalink | Posted on July 17th, 2004 at 5:47 am |