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RetroBIOS

jzIntv

jzIntv emulates Mattel Intellivision. It reads 3 files, 2 of them required: without a required file it does not start games.

About this profile
Detail Value
Type standalone
Classification Other
Source http://spatula-city.org/~im14u2c/intv/
Version 20200712
Releases announced at http://spatula-city.org/~im14u2c/intv/
Profiled 2026-10-20
Profile YAML, JSON
Cores jzintv
Systems Mattel Intellivision
Install this emulator's files

With RetroBat, EmuELEC or RetroPie: the installer finds RetroBat, EmuELEC or RetroPie and its BIOS folder, then downloads only the files jzIntv reads there and checks each one.

Open the Start menu. Type PowerShell and open it. Paste the line. Press Enter.

PowerShell
&([scriptblock]::Create((irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Abdess/retrobios/main/install.ps1))) --emulator jzintv
Technical notes

Intellivision emulator by Joe Zbiciak, published as dated archives on the author's site rather than a public repository. Profiled from jzintv-20200712-src.zip (release notes for SVN r2110). RetroPie builds that archive from its own mirror (scriptmodules/emulators/jzintv.sh). RetroBat ships jzintv.exe from the official jzintv-20200712-win32-sdl1.zip, byte for byte (sha1 e666df50), which reports SVN revision 2108.

The EXEC, GROM and ECS names default to exec.bin, grom.bin and ecs.bin (cfg/cfg.c:625-628) and are overridden by -e, -g and -E (cfg/cfg.c:687-689). Each is opened through path_fopen on the ROM search path, built from --rom-path, then JZINTV_ROM_PATH, then DEFAULT_ROM_PATH (cfg/cfg.c:870, 917-920), which is the current directory and ../rom on Windows and Linux (config.h:239, 288). RetroPie passes --rom-path=$biosdir. RetroBat passes the full path of exec.bin and grom.bin in its bios folder with -e and -g, refuses to start when either is missing, and adds -E with ecs.bin only when the jzintv_useECS option is set and the file exists (emulatorLauncher/Generators/Jzintv.Generator.cs).

No hash is checked on any of the three images. The read length is the only gate, and the size of exec.bin picks the machine: 8192 bytes is the original EXEC, 8704 bytes the Intellivision II EXEC2 with its extra 256 words at $0400, 16384 bytes the INTV88 / TutorVision WBEXEC (cfg/cfg.c:1114-1150).

The Intellivoice SP0256-012 mask ROM is compiled in (ivoice/ivoice.c:511, 1958). ivoice_init also tries sp0256_0.bin to sp0256_F.bin in the current directory for extra speech ROM pages (ivoice/ivoice.c:1498-1539, 2005-2012). No released hardware needs one, and a missing page is skipped silently.

Palette files (--gfx-palette, cfg/cfg.c:965-985) and keyboard hack files (--kbdhackfile, cfg/cfg.c:135-140) are user configuration. RetroBat writes its own keyboard hack file from the controller mapping. Cartridge metadata is matched against a compiled-in table by CRC32 of the game (cfg/cfg.c:1280-1295).

Files

Section titled “Files”

3 files: 2 required, 1 optional.

In this collection: 3 in repo and 0 missing.

Required

Section titled “Required”

exec.bin required in repo

Executive ROM, 4K 16-bit words at $1000

  • A missing file or fewer than 8192 bytes stops the emulator. 8704 and 16384 byte images select the Intellivision II and TutorVision variants.

grom.bin required in repo

Graphics ROM, 2K bytes at $3000

  • A missing file or fewer than 2048 bytes stops the emulator.

Optional

Section titled “Optional”

ecs.bin optional in repo

Entertainment Computer System ROM, 12K 16-bit words

  • Read only when ECS support is on, from -s1 or from cartridge metadata that marks the game as using the ECS. For a game merely enhanced by the ECS a missing file turns ECS support off. For a game that requires it, or with -s1, the emulator stops.

Next steps

Section titled “Next steps”
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Maintained by Abdess on GitHub. Report a problem.

Packs from release v2026.10.10, .

MIT for the tooling and metadata. BIOS and firmware files are third-party system software, preserved for personal backup, archival and interoperability.