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Keyboard Builders' Digest / Keyboard Spotting

Entertainment Computer System

A rare find posted by Dubis7.

KBD.news
Published June 26, 2021
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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

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Published on Sat 26th Jun 2021. Featured in KBD #32 (source).


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