Triple Action

INTELLIVISION CARTRIDGE [Mattel Electronics #3760]

Release #26 October 15, 1981

Working titles: Some of Theirs, 5-in-1 Arcade, 3-in-1 Arcade

Produced by APh Technological Consulting for Mattel Electronics

Design/Program: Rich O'Keefe


Instructions Posted Here

1981 CATALOG DESCRIPTION

It's three classic video games in one!

Racing Cars -- You and your opponent race against the clock down a crowded highway.

Battle Tanks -- It's a duel to the finish between two heavy tanks. One of you will end up as scrap iron.

Biplanes --It's a thrilling dogfight -- biplane style! Watch out for the control tower...don't get lost in the clouds. But most of all, watch out for that blood thirsty baron with a leather cap!


PRODUCTION HISTORY

This started out to be a collection of six games "inspired" by Atari 2600 cartridges, hence the APh working title, Some of Theirs. Space considerations forced this to be dropped to five. A tank battle, a car race, a dogfight, a Breakout-like game and a Pong-like game. Within Mattel Electronics, the cartridge was known as 5-in-1 Arcade.

Shortly before completion, Mattel's lawyers stepped in and decided that Some of Theirs was TOO MUCH like some of theirs. To avoid a lawsuit from Atari, the lawyers asked that Brickout!, the Breakout-like game, and Hockey, the Pong-like game, be dropped from the cartridge. The game was renamed 3-in-1 Arcade, and finally, Triple Action.

FUN FACT: More hours were spent in the programming cubicles playing Biplanes than any other Intellivision game. Although it's one of the simplest, many programmers felt it was the most challenging and fun of the two-person games. The first time you deliberately stall, go into a free fall, then pull out with a backward loop at the last second to blast your opponent at pointblank range is a joy!

FUN FACT: So many hours were wasted on Biplanes, that when a memo was circulated April 1, 1982, ordering Triple Action deleted from programmers' hard disks, Biplanes-addict Steve Montero (Night Stalker) didn't argue; sheepishly, he erased it, only later discovering that the memo was an April Fool's hoax.

FUN FACT: In Biplanes, although the game ends when one player reaches 15 points, bullets in the air at that point are allowed to score. It's possible, therefore, to have a game with a 15-15 tie or to win with 16 points.

FUN FACT: Brickout! was another early programmer favorite. Although cut from Triple Action, the game was available for downloading on a prgrammer's development system and led to a one-person waste of time when an opponent for Biplanes wasn't available.