Keyboard Builders' Digest / Keyboard Spotting
Entertainment Computer System
A rare find posted by Dubis7.
Published June 26, 2021
The Entertainment Computer System (ECS) has a remarkable origin story.
It was an add-on peripheral for the Intellivision by Mattel Electronics, a device to upgrade the Intellivision into a home computer.
It was rushed into production to appease the Federal Trade Commission after they began fining Mattel for false advertising following consumer complaints about the repeated delays in releasing the originally planned Intellivision Keyboard Component add-on.
It was a conciliatory gesture to end FTC fines for false advertising, but quickly discontinued and Mattel repurchased nearly all the units they had sold.
More info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entertainment_Computer_System
Picture of a working system: https://imgur.com/gallery/fglaH2k
Some tidbits: http://papaintellivision.com/pdfs/CCF10232011_00020.pdf
Published on Sat 26th Jun 2021. Featured in KBD #32 (source).
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