GTE Sylvania Catalogs

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Mattel Electronics
  Action
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  1983
  PlayCable
INTV Corporation
Blue Sky Rangers, Inc.
Imagic
Activision
Coleco
Parker Brothers
Atarisoft
Dextell, Ltd.
Interphase
Sega
Test
Demo
Independent
  2600 Connection
  5-11under
  Blah Blah Woof Woof
  CollectorVision
  Côté Gamers
  Dr. Ports
  Elektronite
  Freewheeling Games
  Good Deal Games
  Intelligentvision
  Intellivision Collector
  Intellivision Revolution
  Inty‑Home
  Kai‑Magazine
  Left Turn Only
  Zbiciak Electronics
Intellivision, Inc.
Sears
Digiplay
CBS Electronics

Hardware
Mattel Electronics
INTV Corporation
Sears
Tandy
GTE Sylvania
Independent

Overlays
Text Table
Mattel Electronics
INTV Corporation
Imagic
Activision
Coleco
Dextell, Ltd.
Interphase
Intellivision, Inc.

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The GTE Sylvania console variant is one of the more interesting ones. At first blush, it seems to be an odd pairing. What's a company that makes light bulbs and stereos doing putting its name on a game console? Then again, the video game craze of the late 1970's and early 1980's was becoming a cultural phenomenon.

Hazarding guesses is something that's fun to do, so here's some speculation about this console variant. It's probably the very first one Mattel made, given the marketing materials that have been found so far. Of the three original non-Mattel-branded variants (Sears and Tandy being the others), it is the only one that marketed the original Keyboard Component.

UPDATE: Some "new" information has come to light, and the connection between GTE Sylvania and Mattel Electronics is actually more interesting than one may have originally suspected. According to documents at the Papa Intellivision site, Mattel contracted with GTE Sylvania to do the early manufacturing and testing of the Intellivision! Now, it all makes sense!

Below we have the two known flyers from GTE Sylvania. In addition, a service manual is known to exist. The (now defunct) Intellivision Bodega had a copy to download. Frank Palazzolo's site (or a cache thereof), the 2-Bits Web Site, was another location hosting the document.

Sylvania KC Flyer - Cover Sylvania KC Flyer - Page 1 Sylvania KC Flyer - Page 2 Sylvania KC Flyer - Page 3
Sylvania KC Flyer - Page 4 Sylvania KC Flyer - Page 5 Sylvania KC Flyer - Page 6 Sylvania KC Flyer - Back Cover
This is a high-quality—and clearly very early—flyer touting the GTE Sylvania Intellivision with an excellent preview of software for the Keyboard Component. It's especially fun to see the Keyboard Component with the GTE Sylvania faceplate on it. Wonder if there were really any like that, or if they just tweaked a photo of a Mattel Keyboard Component for the pictures? In any case, the Keyboard Component software and info is excellent!
Front and back cover of Sylvania flyer Interior of Sylvania flyer
This appears to have been a small flyer one would find next to a display or at a check-out. The screen shots seem to be the same as the ones in the larger flyer shown above. And how about that 'Power 8 Blackjack'. :-D
Many thanks to Jeremy at the (now defunct) Intellivision Gumbo site for digging up his flyer and contributing the scans.
If anyone out there has one of these (or any other GTE Sylvania Intellivision literature) available, send an e-mail!