(Keith Robinson, 1995)
Both games were created specifically for the Kool-Aid tie-in; in fact, they were the result of an in-house contest. The reason the two games are different is the result of a philosophical difference between the programmers and Marketing.
Since every game system had its strengths and weaknesses, any game originally developed for one system (or for the arcades) would suffer when adapted for another. For the most part, the programmers wanted every game to be an original, designed for a specific system and taking full advantage of that system’s strengths.
Marketing wanted games that would be on as many systems as possible, with game play and graphics that were recognizable across those systems. They argued for simplifying Intellivision graphics on some games to make them more like the 2600 versions. (This led to many heated discussions, particularly between myself and Marjorie Brent, a marketing person who had been a friend of mine from before we both wound up at Mattel.)
Anyway, Marketing had made a deal with Kool-Aid, then presented the deadline to Programming. No game idea was presented to us, just that it had to use Kool-Aid Man. It was, of course, a rush job. We argued that the only way to meet the deadline, which required an Intellivision and 2600 version to be ready at the same time, was to allow the programmers to develop different games for the two systems; designing to the strengths of a system is faster than adapting something around its weaknesses.
We hoped that the result would be two good games instead of one good game and a lame adaptation or two passable versions of one game and that it would lead to more games in which the Intellivision, 2600, Colecovision or whatever versions could differ greatly to take full advantage of each system. But Marketing HATED that the two games were different and never let us do it again. They said consumers would be confused and angry. And you know, based on the e-mail we’ve received and the posts to this newsgroup about Kool-Aid Man, looks like they were right. After 12 years, I guess I owe Marjorie an apology.
Source Links:
intellivisionbrasil.com.br/en_Menu-Soft-Oficiais.html