Intellivision stories and memories

[JayWI]

Anyone have any good stories from their experiences growing up with this system? I don't mean the "I once found a CIB copy of Stadium Mud Buggies for $5 at a thrift shop" type of stories, I'm thinking more like this:

 

I can't remember the year but my dad went out and purchased Mouse Trap soon after it was released. He played the arcade version and thought I'd enjoy it. I sat and played it quite a bit and got pretty good with the game for being about 6 or 7 years old. One night I was playing and my dad suggested we try to get 1 million points. We'd switch off playing each board, working out strategies. We decided to stockpile the bones that turned you from a mouse into a dog for the later levels. We knew the cats would move quickly at that point and we'd have to stay in dog form in order to complete them. I don't remember how long we played but we did make it. 1,177,600. My dad wrote the score on the back of the box. While some may cringe at the idea of writing on a box and ruining it's value, this box is priceless to me. I'll never forget the hours we spent with this game and really wish I could get my copy or any copy working so we could play it again.

 

Here's some pics of the box.

 

 

Sappy story? You bet. I got others though.

[the-topdog]

Makes the box worth more in my opinion... anytime a story is connected to any particular game, anything written on the manual or box at the time is priceless... without the story, it depreciates the value to a collector.

[Rev]

One of my great memories is playing pitfall on INTV and getting to the alligators with no vine and having my older brother jump on their heads so i could pass them! i still get scared when i get to that board.

 

 

Another good memory is getting up super early before school to play River Raid on the 2600. A few times i missed the bus.

[jaybird3rd]

No, unfortunately ... I didn't see an Intellivision for the first time until I was in my thirties.

 

My great-grandmother did get me an Intellivision game once, though. In 1989 or 1990, she gave me a copy of Night Stalker for Christmas. She must have gotten it from some clearance bin somewhere, and I'm sure she picked it up thinking that it would work with one of my Atari or TI 99/4A machines. Instead, it was for this funny video game system called the Intellivision, which I hadn't heard of before.

 

I was intrigued by the overlays, and I think I wrote my own simplified version of the game for the 99/4A based on the description in the manual. But I didn't have an Intellivision and had no means to acquire one, so the cartridge went into my pile of stuff.

 

Years later, after my great-grandmother was long deceased, I expanded my collection to include an Intellivision, and I was finally able to make use of her gift. It has since been joined by about 90 other Intellivision games. I've picked up several other copies of Night Stalker along the way, of course, but that original one is the one I will always keep.

[JayWI]

One of my great memories is playing pitfall on INTV and getting to the alligators with no vine and having my older brother jump on their heads so i could pass them! i still get scared when i get to that board.

 

That part always frustrated me! I always wanted to be exact so the gators wouldn't have Pitfall Harry buffet. I'd tap the disc to move over and fall into the water LOL.

[Rev]

i actually do not have any of the games or systems we had as a kid. i have re-bought everything in the last few years.

[JayWI]

i actually do not have any of the games or systems we had as a kid. i have re-bought everything in the last few years.

 

No biggie. I guess I should have clarified that whenever the memory or story is from doesn't matter. It's just that the collecting stories seem so cold and not in a "I love playing these games" type of feel.

[OldSchoolRetroGamer]

Thanks for sharing JayWI I love hearing stories like that.

[JayWI]

Thanks for sharing JayWI I love hearing stories like that.

 

I got more! LOL However some of them aren't Intellivision related and should be in a different thread. I assume others also have some stories and I'd love to read 'em.

[roberto]

I remember once playing Tropical Trouble with a couple of my friends at their place. I think we were around 9 or 10 years old. Then something in the game happened (can't really remember what, but I was innocent for sure! ) and one of my friends started screaming at the other "you son of a .....!!!". Our moms were in the nearby room... needless to say we moved from a "tropical" into a much more "real" kind of trouble!

Edited October 12, 2010 by roberto

[JayWI]

AD&D (Cloudy Mountain) We were getting something repaired, a TV I think, and right next door was the local Radio Shack. At the time they sold a few Intellivision games. So while we were waiting we had a look. I was fascinated by the box art. $30? Wow that was expensive but we bought it anyway. Well actually my Dad bought it, I just picked it out. We went back and sat in the car and I opened the box and read everything inside. I remember seeing the "Coming Soon" pictures for AD&D and thinking that's not what the box and instruction pictures show at all! I must have played dozens of games in my head before we finally got home. I plotted out which mountains in which order to go in. Gray, followed by a red, perhaps a blue.

 

We got home and I popped the game in. Entered a gray mountain. A rat killed me.

 

I guess I should have started off on an easier level instead of just hitting the disc.

 

I just played again a few nights ago. Once again just hitting the disc was a mistake, but at least I made it to the Cloudy Mountain before losing.

[IntellivisionDude]

Nice stories. I have a lot of memories and i could probably go on all day.

 

I remember when i first got my Intellivision II and how blowed away i was at the graphics of Burgertime. At the time i had only played a small handful games on the 2600 at a friends house (Outlaw, Combat, Superman, Pac Man). I was young and didn't have any other gaming knowledge, so i thought that was probably all the 2600 could do graphic wise. So i knew right off the bat the Intellivision was the better system in my eyes and was happy to own it.

 

I remember the trips to a store called Odd Lots which sold Intellivision games. And if i remember correctly most of the games there didn't cost a lot. Can't remember exactly how many of the games i owned came from there though. Only one i can remember for sure was Lock N Chase.

 

I have a better memory of the games my mother bought me from Toys R Us. This was during the INTV period. I can for sure remember getting, Slam Dunk, Slap Shot, Chip Shot, Body Slam, Super Pro Football, Centipede, Diner, and maybe a few others.

 

I also have this faint memory that some of the Imagic games i owned came from Meyer's. I think Meyer's may have been where my mother bought my Intellivion II in the first place.

 

I can't count how many times and how many great memories i had of my best friend coming over to play Intellivision. Sometimes he'd stay the night and we'd play games all night. I remember having lots of fun with Boxing. We played the crap out of Slam Dunk. I was so obsessed, i kept track of stats and records we broke while playing it. I wish i kept those stats. At one time or another we played almost every game i had and i had about 30-40 games. On most games my friend was always just a little better than me. He even broke my Burgertime score. lol

 

And speaking of Burgertime, you know sometime back in the late 80's/early 90's is when the controllers on my Intellivision II died and i thought i was screwed. I had already moved on and got a Genesis and never thought i'd be able to play the games again so it all got sold at a yard sale. (How much i regret that now). But when i finally got me an Intellivision again this year and Burgertime, i broke my childhood record on my first attempt playing. I kind of shocked myself since i hadn't played it in over 20 years. Level 7 was as far as i ever got back then. It's funny how stuff like that happens. But i'd say i'm worse at Slam Dunk now. I used to be a passing machine back then, now everything gets picked off. lol

 

And if anybody is wondering why i haven't been participating in the recent high score challenges, i just haven't been feeling my best. Hurt my back a few months ago and i am rarely in the gaming mood anymore. I feel like i should be participating more and sort of feel bad for not. Maybe i'll try soon.

 

 

 

 

 

[Scrabbler15]

You mean there were others who stayed up all night playing Intellivision besides me and my uncles?

 

This is one of my favorite stories, probably because it was hilarious to me and tragic at the same time. We literally played the guts out of the controllers. The disc wore down the internal plastic circuitry until it went completely through. We would be playing Baseball, when, for no apparent reason the first baseman would take off running for the stands (I guess to get a hot dog.) The game would end with a big "There he goes, again!"

[IntellivisionDude]

I also remember when Toys R US sold spare Intellivision II Controllers in the store. But it never dawned on me that it would be something to invest in. Especially since after my controllers died, Toys R Us stopped selling Intellivision Stuff. I even remember seeing an INTV System III in the display case at Toys R Us. But at the time i had no idea what was different with it, if anything. I also believe Toys R Us is where i got my Joystick Adapters that snapped over the Model II controllers. They never really did work as well as i hoped. Even the Sticklers i bought this year are not as responsive as i thought they'd be. I guess nothing is better than the Disc.

 

I just remembered that my original Intellivision II that i got for Christmas in 83 died on me mysteriously a year or 2 after i had it. I think it had some problem where the reset light kept flashing so it wouldn't turn on all the way. One day when i got home from school i noticed my Intellivision looked slightly different. (They made one with a red stripe around it and one without). I spotted the difference right away. My Mother replaced it for me. She never gave me details about that. I was just grateful i was able to play my games again.

[IntellivisionDude]

You mean there were others who stayed up all night playing Intellivision besides me and my uncles?

 

This is one of my favorite stories, probably because it was hilarious to me and tragic at the same time. We literally played the guts out of the controllers. The disc wore down the internal plastic circuitry until it went completely through. We would be playing Baseball, when, for no apparent reason the first baseman would take off running for the stands (I guess to get a hot dog.) The game would end with a big "There he goes, again!"

 

The side buttons on the model II were not made as well as the model I. We wore those side buttons out. I was not smart enough to figure out a way to fix them. Now that i think back, it may not have been that hard to do some kind of amateur fix to them. We had those buttons so jammed up in there, games had problems like you mentioned above. Eventually none of the games were playable anymore. The only thing i was able to do after the controllers died was Sim matches on Body Slam. Simming matches in wrestling games is something that's popular nowadays, but i was doing it back in the 80's on my Intellivision. LOL

[+save2600]

I have fond memories of one of my best friends having an Intellivision. When we'd have the occasional "sleep over", we'd quietly play that thing until the wee hours of the night. My friend's Mom was so cool... she'd take us to Burger King for dinner and then we'd be left to our own devices afterwards. Families back then were either Burger King or McDonald's. Our family was more McDonald's (even worked there in my youth) and we had an Atari. My friend Joel and his Mom (parents divorced young) had an Intellivision and liked Burger King. lol That kind of change I can live with and besides, going out to eat in the 80's was a really BIG deal. Hamburger (not a double or a triple), small fries and a small chocolate shake - what a treat! There was no such thing as "super sizing" back then. Regular drinks back then would be kiddie sized today. Once a month or longer, if we were "lucky" is when we'd eat out. And that's partly what made the sleep-overs so much fun and never on a school night either of course.

 

Anywho... Triple Action, Snafu, Donkey Kong, Burgertime, Kool-Aid Man, Star Strike (bought it for my friend for one of his birthdays), Utopia, Locomotion, Beauty and the Beast and Baseball were all games we thoroughly enjoyed in the early to mid 80's.

 

Great times!

Edited October 12, 2010 by save2600

[Rik]

Watching the George Plimpton commercials was hilarious back in the early 80's.That one where he compared 2600 baseball to INTV baseball was pretty comical.But i love all the classic systems, they all have/had something great to offer, none were bad IMO. I didn't own an Intv back then, couldn't afford one, couldn't have them all since the stuff was pricey back then.But i do remember going to my friends house and playing Star Strike and the various sports titles.I love the 2600, but back then Intv's sports games ruled supreme IMO.

Edited October 13, 2010 by Rik

[gotroot801]

My first Intellivision memory is that my cousin got the original wood-panel beast for Christmas one year (probably 1979). As soon as I walked into their house for Christmas dinner I saw my cousin playing Astrosmash; I blew off my aunts, uncles and grandmother and sat about 6 inches from the TV for about three hours straight.

 

I had the family record in Lock 'N' Chase until my brother apparently found a glitch and broke my score. But without any pictures or proof other than my mother saying so, I refused to acknowledge it.

 

And somewhere in a photo album in my parents' old house is a Polaroid of me sitting in front of what seemed like a really high Astrosmash score at the time. I think I flipped the screen back to black (what's that, 200K?), and at 8 years old that was an accomplishment.

[dougy76]

I didn't have an Intellivision but I always wanted one. One of my friends had one and my favorite memory was playing Dragonfire. For some reason, we both were so entertained by deliberately dumping the adventurer into the water in the first stage. I don't know why, but we just enjoyed sending him to his doom in new and creative ways. We'd wait until the top and bottom fireballs were even and then run him into both of them. Or we'd get right in front of the entrance and pretend that he was all smug that he made it that far and then he'd get his face burned off by the next fireball.

[IntellivisionDude]

I didn't have an Intellivision but I always wanted one. One of my friends had one and my favorite memory was playing Dragonfire. For some reason, we both were so entertained by deliberately dumping the adventurer into the water in the first stage. I don't know why, but we just enjoyed sending him to his doom in new and creative ways. We'd wait until the top and bottom fireballs were even and then run him into both of them. Or we'd get right in front of the entrance and pretend that he was all smug that he made it that far and then he'd get his face burned off by the next fireball.

 

 

That sort of reminds me how me and my friend would play Auto Racing. Instead of just racing the whole track, most of time right at the start of the race we would try and ram each other off the road and make each other crash, then start over and do it again. I like games where you can make your own rules and just have fun.

 

That's like once in a while, while playing Beauty & the Beast i would climb all the way up to the top of building and purposely fall to my death. That fall seems to take forever.

[maximebeauvais]

Here is my intellivision memory:

 

I was probably 7 years old at the time of that story.

 

My brother was 12-13 years old and he went baby sitting somewhere. The lady like him and he was doing a good job with the kid. They had an intellivision. So the next time that he had to go there, I went with him. So we played baseball and astromash most of the evening. I still can remember that brown looking console with those weird controller. That same year, we got our atari 2600.

 

One of my friend had an intellivision and I played a few time with him but atari was way better to me

[ddaniels]

Here's my sappy Intellivision memory.

 

I remember seeing a comic book ad that talked about getting the Kool-Aid game for free (plus shipping & handling) by sending in points off the back of the Kool-Aid packages. I remember you had two options for this promotion, 1 - the game could be obtained for free by mailing in 125 proof of purchase points or 2 - Collect 75 points and the game was like $10.00. My best friend family drank Kool-Aid back then like it was water so I asked if they wouldn't mind saving the points. It took them maybe two months to save those points and they kindly gave it to me. Eight weeks later it came in the mail.

 

My friend whose family gave me these points came to visit me this past weekend and while discussing the good ole days he mentioned this little trivial event. I had to laugh because it was so long ago but we both recalled it like it was months ago.

 

Good times back then.

[OldAtarian]

Anyone have any good stories from their experiences growing up with this system? I don't mean the "I once found a CIB copy of Stadium Mud Buggies for $5 at a thrift shop" type of stories, I'm thinking more like this:

 

I can't remember the year but my dad went out and purchased Mouse Trap soon after it was released. He played the arcade version and thought I'd enjoy it. I sat and played it quite a bit and got pretty good with the game for being about 6 or 7 years old. One night I was playing and my dad suggested we try to get 1 million points. We'd switch off playing each board, working out strategies. We decided to stockpile the bones that turned you from a mouse into a dog for the later levels. We knew the cats would move quickly at that point and we'd have to stay in dog form in order to complete them. I don't remember how long we played but we did make it. 1,177,600. My dad wrote the score on the back of the box. While some may cringe at the idea of writing on a box and ruining it's value, this box is priceless to me. I'll never forget the hours we spent with this game and really wish I could get my copy or any copy working so we could play it again.

 

Here's some pics of the box.

 

 

Sappy story? You bet. I got others though.

 

*sniff* your sappy story has touched me so here you go *blows nose into hanky*

 

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