[4] Subscriptions were available for a monthly fee, allowing users access to a selection of games through cable television providers that supported the service.

[2][7] In addition, Mattel Electronics was losing millions of dollars due to the video game industry crash of 1983 and stopped all new hardware development in August that year.

This adapter contained an FM radio receiver, digital interface, 512 word firmware ROM and 8K of RAM for game storage.

Having chosen a game, the menu program would request that the adapter firmware re-tune the receiver to the channel broadcasting the selected title and wait for the start of its code.

Once the title was found in the data stream and downloaded to the adapter's internal memory, control was passed to the game, starting play.

Compatibility fell with the introduction of 12K and 16K titles, such as Pinball and Bump N Jump, and the release of games dependent on the Intellivision Entertainment Computer System (ECS).