It was obvious that Mattel was at a disadvantage in doing arcade game conversions: Atari, through its coin-op division, created and owned many of the most famous arcade titles. Mattel had to go shopping at other arcade game companies, trying to license whatever popular games were left over.

There was an alternative which many programmers and a number of Marketing people favored: create good, original arcade-type games for Intellivision, promote them, then license those titles to outside coin-op companies; the companies would get the benefit of Mattel's advertising, and Mattel would benefit from a line of Intellivision coin-op machines in the arcades. Thus was born the Arcade Network.

However, while the first Arcade Network game, Vectron, was in development, Mattel Electronics signed a deal with Data East for the first option on their arcade games. Data East became, in effect, Mattel's coin-op division and Marketing lost interest in the idea of developing original arcade titles in-house. Aside from a big push in the Intellivision Game Club News (Issue 5, Spring 1983), Vectron was released with no promotion and no attempt was made at licensing it to outside companies. There was no second Arcade Network game.

The Arcade Network box color was burgundy.