Mattel Intellivision II
Developer: Mattel
Year Released: 1983
Generation: 2nd
In 1983 Mattel released the Intellivision II, a redesign of the original Intellivision. It was presented in a new slick case and came with detachable controllers. The controllers were lightly different, with the bubble buttons being replaced with membrane style keys and the paddles being slightly different too. These changes were not popular with many people as the old games did not play as well with these new style controllers. The main selling point was the addition of the System Changer, which allowed users to play Atari 2600 games.
During the game crash in 1983, Mattel Electronics cut the price of the Intellivision II, cancelled all new hardware development, and laid off hundreds of employees, including two-thirds of programming staff. In 1984 Mattel Inc. closed Mattel Electronics, laying off remaining programmers. Mattel was one of the highest profile victims of the crash.