PlayCable

PlayCable
Developer Mattel, General Instrument
Type Online service
Launch date 1980
Platform Intellivision
Status Defunct

PlayCable was an online service introduced in 1980 that allowed local cable television system operators to send games for the Intellivision over cable wires alongside normal television signals. Through the service, subscribers would use a device, called the PlayCable adapter, to download the games for play on their Intellivision. It was the first service that allowed users to download games for play on a video game console. PlayCable was not widely adopted, due in part to high costs for users and operators, as well as limitations of the PlayCable adapter. The service was discontinued in 1983.

History

PlayCable was developed as a joint venture between Mattel and General Instrument.[1] The PlayCable service was deep in development even before the Intellivision was widely released. In 1979, tests of the service were announced for several cities, including Moline, Illinois, Jackson, Mississippi and Boise, Idaho.[2] The service was officially launched in June 1980.[3] Subscriptions were available for a monthly fee, allowing users access to a selection of games through cable television providers that supported the service.[1] Up to 20 titles were available each month.[4] Former professional baseball player Mickey Mantle appeared in commercials for the service.[5] According to a CED Magazine article, the service was available in only thirteen cities and in spring 1983 the available market totalled 650,000 households. The less than 3% subscription rate was still higher than the rate of Intellivision sales in markets where PlayCable was not available,[1] and Intellivision Productions reports that PlayCable was popular where available.[6] Cable operators complained about the high cost of the computer needed to run the service as well as the cost of the in-home PlayCable adapters; the adapters proved to be inadequate to run the larger Intellivision games being produced.[1][6] In addition, Mattel Electronics was losing millions of dollars due to the video game industry crash of 1983 and stopped all new hardware development in August that year. Initial estimates by Mattel projected that the service would have 1 million subscribers within five years,[1] however PlayCable was discontinued in 1983, three years after it was introduced. [7]

Implementation and limitations

The PlayCable channel was broadcast through a special data channel within the FM Band of the cable line.[8] Special PlayCable adapters would be connected to the cable line. Users would tune to the PlayCable channel, which showed a menu of titles that could be played and used a keypad to select the desired game. The adapter would wait for the code of the selected title to show up in the data stream, then download the game to the adapter's internal memory for play.[1]

However, in time the 6K[9] of memory inside PlayCable Adapters proved to be insufficient. While this amount of memory was enough for most Intellivision game titles in 1982, soon more complex games were released on larger capacity cartridges, which the PlayCable could not support.[4]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Schley, Stewart. "Look ma, no cartridge!". CED Magazine. Advantage Business Media. Retrieved January 3, 2012.
  2. ↑ Fraser, C. Gerald (May 19, 1979). "Cable-TV System to Enable Viewers to Play Games; ABC-TV Leads Networks In Daytime Emmy Awards". New York Times.
  3. ↑ "No. 9 Games by Wire". Next Generation. No. 29. Imagine Media. May 1997. p. 26.
  4. 1 2 Langshaw, Mark. "The History Of Online Console Gaming". Digital Spy. Hearst Magazines UK.
  5. ↑ Connelly, Sherilyn (August 30, 2011). "TV Ads We Can't Forget: Mickey Mantle Goes to Bat for Archaic Gaming Service Called PlayCable". SF Weekly. Retrieved January 3, 2012.
  6. 1 2 "Intellivision PlayCable". Intellivision Lives. Intellivision Productions.
  7. ↑ Lowensohn, Josh (June 5, 2009). "A brief history of downloadable console games". CNET. CBS Interactive, Inc. Retrieved January 3, 2012.
  8. ↑ Weinstein, Stephen B. (1986). Getting the picture: a guide to CATV and the new electronic media. IEEE Press. p. 92. ISBN 0879421975.
  9. ↑ http://intvfunhouse.com/games/lock.php

See also

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