Intellivision

The Intellivision is a second generation video game console made available in 1980 in North America.

Background
Development of the Intellivision started in 1978, less than a year after the introduction of its main competition, the Atari 2600. Over 3 million Intellivision units were sold and a total of 125 games were released for this console.

Online Capability
The Intellivision had the capability for online video game streaming through the PlayCable. Gamers could stream up to 20 games a month (with a fee). The PlayCable channel was broadcast through a special data channel within the FM Band of the cable line. Special PlayCable adapters would be connected to the cable line. Users could tune to the PlayCable channel, which showed a menu of game titles that could be played and used the keypad to select a game. The adapter would wait for the code of the selected title to show up in the data stream, then download the game to the adapter's internal memory for play.