Stadium Mud Buggies
INTELLIVISION CARTRIDGE [INTV #9100]
Release 1989
Produced by Realtime Associates for INTV Corporation
Design/Program: Rick Koenig
Graphics: Connie Goldman
Sound: David Warhol
Package Illustration: Keith Robinson
DEVELOPMENT HISTORY
Essentially, this is a super-enhanced version by Rick Koenig of his own Motocross game for Mattel Electronics. Developed as Monster Truck Rally (and announced with that name in the Fall 1988 INTV catalog), the decision to change it to Stadium Mud Buggies was made after the game was complete.
Christmas 1988 was bad for INTV Corp. The video game resurgence was in full swing, led by Nintendo. Mail orders were down, and the stores that had still been carrying Intellivision cartridges cut way back or stopped stocking them altogether, freeing up more shelf space for Nintendo games. As cash flow slowed, cartridge production of the completed Monster Truck Rally and Spiker! Super Pro Volleyball was put on hold and over a year went by without a new INTV game or catalog released.
In 1989 INTV moved into Nintendo cartridge production, with the first release to be a conversion of Monster Truck Rally, also produced by Realtime Associates and again programmed by Rick. Apparently by using the completed Nintendo version of Monster Truck Rally as proof of INTV Corporation's promising new direction, INTV President Terry Valeski was able to raise enough cash or credit to put the two finished Intellivision games into production, and to mail out a Christmas 1989 catalog (which would turn out to be the last).
Thinking that it might hurt the Nintendo Monster Truck Rally's chances if it was seen as based on an Intellivision game, Valeski had the name of the Intellivision version changed to Stadium Mud Buggies. The title screen name was changed, but the graphics remained the same -- the vehicles still look like trucks, not buggies.
Ultimately, instead of releasing it themselves, the failing INTV Corporation sold the Nintendo Monster Truck Rally to another distributor to raise cash.
In 2021, Blue Sky Rangers, Inc, rereleased Stadium Mud Buggies.