52 replies to this topic

[Room 34]

I am beginning to think that nothing but raw childhood nostalgia can make a person pine for the Intellivision. (And naturally, this makes me question my OWN love and devotion to the Atari 2600.) Having never owned an Inty as a kid (but I played them occasionally at friends' houses), I don't feel that same pang. But now I DO own one, and about 30 games.

Just a few minutes ago I decided to experiment with alternative controllers. I actually own a Sears Super Video Arcade, which has detachable controllers, and since they have the standard 9-pin plugs that 2600 controllers have, I figured why not try some Atari controllers on it? My test game was Astrosmash.

CX-40 JOYSTICK: No effect, whatsoever.

VIDEO TOUCH PAD: Merely PLUGGING IT IN caused the game to start. I found that if I pushed two buttons simultaneously in the 1st row or 3rd row, I would move left AND shoot (once). Pushing two buttons simultaneously in the 2nd and 4th rows likewise moved right and shot once.

Then I gave up the research and decided to just play a few games with the regular crap disc controllers that come with the system. Here were my observations of the games I played:

ASTROSMASH:
Nice concept. Jerky motion (owing to the 20 Hz sprite refresh we've been discussing in another thread). The way the bonus lives are awarded makes this game too easy, even if you're barely trying. It's really hard to have a game end unless you just put down the controller.

ROYAL DEALER:
Graphics are clearly superior to Atari 2600 in detail, but another case where the Intellivision's limit of 16 on-screen colors is really obvious. Nice to have a console version of Hearts for a very laid-back playing experience. This game definitely could not exist with this level of detail on the 2600, but at the same time... ehh... not too exciting.

LADY BUG:
I used to love playing this in the arcade. It's a fairly good adaptation, and again something that would be difficult/impossible to recreate on the 2600. But still, the sound shredded my eardrums and the motion was kind of jerky.

LOCK 'N' CHASE:
Ugh. What a piece of crap! The fact that this was proudly marketed as a superior alternative to 2600 Pac-Man shows just how bad 2600 Pac-Man really is. Ugly, stupid, and incredibly awkward to play.

That's where I ended this little adventure. Unfortunately Lock 'n' Chase left a perhaps unfairly bitter taste in my mouth. The Intellivision definitely has its strengths, but the idea that it's on-paper technical superiority wins out hands-down against the 2600 is pure bunk!

[birdie3]

I don't think I will ever seriously persue one of those. If I find one for dirt cheap - yeah, why not? Otherwise.. as my 1 year old son says: PPLBPLBPLBPLBPBSSSTT!!!

[Room 34]

Well let's put it this way. At one point I owned 2 Intellivisions. I traded one to oesii for an NES. Maybe the Intellivision is worth more as a collector piece, but the NES gets played 100 times more than the Inty does!

[Sharky]

I never liked Intellivision keypad controllers. The system's games were impressive, but being 6 or 7 years old at time, the controllers to me were confusing as ever. So i can hardly call it a "Family Machine".

[icbrkr]

Room 34 said:

I am beginning to think that nothing but raw childhood nostalgia can make a person pine for the Intellivision.  (And naturally, this makes me question my OWN love and devotion to the Atari 2600.) Having never owned an Inty as a kid (but I played them occasionally at friends' houses), I don't feel that same pang.  But now I DO own one, and about 30 games.

It's definetly not a "twitch" system like the 2600 - it's not all about fast paced arcade games. If that's what you were looking for, you might as well give me your INTV now.

Excellent games to try:

Utopia (duh.. I'm working on rewriting it for the 5200 - read my description in the 5200 group).

Burgertime - More fun than the original arcade version IMO.

B17 Bomber - Flight sim where you shoot down planes and bomb stuff with a talking crew...

Diner! - Sequel to Burgertime

Nightstalker - Slower paced run and shoot, but very fun.

Bump n Jump - Very close to the arcade version.

Tower of Doom - definetly need the manual for this one - an action RPG.

AD&D Cloudy Mountain - not quite D&D but maze exploration is quite fun

Microsurgeon - kill disease in an awesomely rendered body... sweet!

Safecracker - drive around, break open safes, get the combo to the embassy.

Shark! Shark! - be the biggest fish in the pond.

River Raid - sorry, I like it better than the 2600 version.

Dreadnaught Factor - blow up huge spaceships

Hell.. even Pac-Man is very decent (especially compared to the 2600 version)

I really don't understand the complaints of the disc controller. Maybe it's because I grew up with an INTV I don't have a problem with it? I always found the original Atari joysticks quite handcramping, and always used a 3rd party joystick. Sure, it's not the easiest thing to get used to, but most older users in here probably remember the shock of going from the Atari 2600 style joystick to the NES gamepads when the Nintendo came out. I couldn't figure out why Nintendo would make such a lame thing, and it took me a bit to relearn how to use something like that. Now it's second nature and I like em.

Brian

[oesii]

The controller works well for only a handful of games. My favorite game to play on the Intv is Beauty and the Beast (Shark is a close second). The disc pad is actually enjoyable going up and down ladders too bad they messed up that Donkey Kong port

[Lost Monkey]

Isn't the Intellivision limited to only 4 colors on screen?

There are many fun games on the INTV, but not enough for me to have wanted to keep one around. All I would ever play on it was the first D&D game, Burgertime (which was excellent) and Astrosmash.

[Sharky]

I found playing Pitfall on Intellivison will the controllers was a real "bugger".

A directional joystick and 1 Fire button was good enough for me, so mostly played Atari 2600, Atari 800, Commodore 64, then later Amiga.

I go totally confused with a control pad with more than 1 fire button. The NES controls pads I got used too after a while, but still cant get used to a PS1 or PS2 control pad even today with its multipe fire button, side firebuttons, and not to mention the SELECT/START buttons also sometimes used for other commands.

[desiv]

My favorite bit about the Inty???

When people were bragging about the newer 16 bit systems!! SNES/Genesis/TG16....

I'd throw out.. First 16-bit system (I think anyway, I always said it..)..

Intellivision!!!!

Now, it was a 500Khz (That's a K, not a M ) 16bit CPU, but still...

:-)

I did have problems with the controllers tho.. But I think it's because I was an Odyssey II joystick biggot! :-) I loved those sticks!!!

desiv

[King Atari]

All you need is Burgertime .

[Christophero Sly]

icbrkr said:

Diner! - Sequel to Burgertime

Wow...I didn't know there was a sequal to Burgertime. Is this an INTV exclusive? Was 'Diner!' in the arcades?

[ubersaurus]

Diner is INTV exclusive, and very sweet. I wouldn't say its better then intellivision burgertime, but it's worth your time and effort to play.

I loved Beamrider on the intellivision. The goony INTV sound effects worked better then the 2600's.

Thin Ice is another top notch title. Addictive gameplay, and cruelty to penguins. I love it.

Demon Attack is sweet on the system, as well..boss stages are awesome. Pretty much all the Imagic titles are worth checking out.

Dig Dug is Dig Dug. You can't mess that one up. And I love Pac-man on INTV...it's a good version.

River Raid is alot more involved then the 2600 ones...since the river curves around in this one, you have to pay more attention to that.

Stadium Mud Buggies, beyond being a pain in the ass to find a copy of, is sweet. Although it also came out on the NES under a different name, the intellivision version is no less awesome.

Personally, I had no trouble adapting to the disc. It takes some time to get used to, but once you get the hang of it, it's not really an issue.

[Bryan]

I never liked the Intellivision either. It seemed blocky and slow and not enough of an upgrade to make it worth ditching the huge library of 2600 titles. Not until the Colecovision did I get "new system envy."

-Bry

[MichaelJMcKernan]

Intellivision was my first system as a child, and I will always be biased towards it.

Kick ass games for it were:
Burgertime
Diner
Shark Shark
Major League Baseball
Pac Man
NFL Football {a real marathon, you had to program ever play in beforehand}
Astrosmash
Space Armada {Space Invaders clone}
Most of the Activision games were direct copies of the Atari carts
Space Battle {Kicks much ass}

and many, many, many more
Dude, I'll take an Intellivision off your hands at any time...
Now if I could just get hands on some off the Intellivision ECS games, I would be one happy camper.

[Brad2600]

I own over 50 INTV games and there are a few that I enjoyed:

Pitfall
Night Stalker


Well..I don't play it often enough but I have so many games that I can play nowadays.

It's a nice system for sure.

I have almost all of the Imagic games boxed for it.

I noticed that Stampede and Pitfall don't look too different on the INTV.

[MichaelJMcKernan]

But to be fair, here are some things as an Intellivision fanatic I don't like.

Tron Deadly Discs....lame, lame, lame
Night Stalker.....the running man from all the sports games now has a gun, but it only has five bullets. I would rather have accupuncture in my eye for twelve hours than play this game for five minutes.

The ECS lies from my childhood. That thing never even made it to this part of the country as far as I know.

And last but not least, the morons who paid the licenses to have such games as PBA Bowling, USGA Chess, USGA Checkers, and other worthless sponsorship money.

[Brad2600]

I want PBA Bowling but haven't come across a boxed copy yet.

In my experience, bowling games on classic consoles are NEVER boring to me.

[sku_u]

birdie3 said:

I don't think I will ever seriously persue one of those. If I find one for dirt cheap - yeah, why not? Otherwise.. as my 1 year old son says: PPLBPLBPLBPLBPBSSSTT!!!

That was my mentaity until I gave in and bought one then got copies of Diner and Staium Mud Buggies.

The sports games are excellent and there are a number of unique 3rd party titles for the Inty I like.

Still searching for sticklers.

[Brad2600]

If you don't have them already, I'd recommend any of the Imagic titles sku.

They play pretty well and I'm sure if I had an INTVII and better controllers, I'd be able to enjoy almost all of the games to the max.

I can't say the same for INTV Donkey Kong though...

[A2600]

All I neeed is a system changer and my inty will be good to go!

[JB]

ubersaurus said:

Demon Attack is sweet on the system, as well..boss stages are awesome. Pretty much all the Imagic titles are worth checking out.

The 99/4a version had boss stages too.
It also looked better(the moon was gray, the Earth had clouds, and your tank was multi-colored).
And it had a spiffy background music tune.
And it was SUPER Demon Attack. Yes, it had that little superlative pinned on to demonstrate that it was superior to all other Demon Attacks.

[Christophero Sly]

And the TI was 16-bit too (well sort of).

[jsoper]

I have a complete intv library and just love the system. Two great games people haven't mentioned are Beauty and the Beast and Atlantis (it has a nice gunsight feature). The Demon Attack "phoenix-style" mothership stage really made that game fun too.
Deathskull labs has an adapter circuit to use either genesis or 2600 sticks (still use the normal controller for the keypad), and my own site has an psx to genesis adapter, so it's actually possible to play an intv with a psx dual shock.

[JB]

Christophero Sly said:

And the TI was 16-bit too (well sort of).

Yah.

I just wanted to say that, contrary to popular belief, the INTV version of Demon Attack ISN'T the best.



Anyways, I like the INTV.
I've proven remarkably adaptable to bad controllers, which may have something to do with it.

[moycon]

I always had a soft spot for Beauty and the Beast as well.
I thought it was extreamly well done. I was hoping Imagic would have released a 2600 version. One game that always interested me on the INTV was Dracula, I can recall seeing a faverable review of the game in one of the gaming mags at the time. To this day I've never played it, Actually I sold off all my INTV's about 6 years ago Is the game as good as it sounded?