Intellivision doesn't display graphics properly. :-(

[midnight magicman]

So,

 

I've had an Intellivision (1979 model) for nearly a year now & I couldn't figure out what all the hype was about it being superior graphically to the 2600. So I decided to get some of the newer release games thinking that the later titles must've been the ones that used the system's capabilities (I only had 11 games up to that point). I also looked @ the inside of the manuals & the back of the boxes & thought to myself (yeah right! the game doesn't look THAT good!).

 

So, I just got a large lot from Australia & was trying the games out to see if all were compatible. The colors were right, but i was still unimpressed with the graphics.

 

As I wound down, I put in Vectron. Immediately I knew something was wrong. I could see that the title screen should've been knockout cool & I could make out what the letters were supposed to say (something like, Vectron Copyright 198* Mattel). I kinda assumed that it wasn't compatible with my system. Then I put in Safecraker. Woah! the car graphic was fine, but the buildings were just globs of pixels & colors, the only thing you could make out clearly is where the streets were & the diamonds on the embasies. Again, I assumed it was incompatible.

 

So I get up this morning & after I do all my work stuff I sit down & try out the last few games. One of them was Draughts (Checkers) & when I play it, the Checkers look like 2 messed up triangles one on top of the other & immediately I thought of my Reversi game which had the same shapes for pieces & @ the time my wife & I were playing Reversi I remember telling her "how hard could it have been to make a round graphic for the pieces?".

 

So I go on youtube to look @ gameplay vids. The 1st one I compare with my Intellivision is Poker & Blackjack. Sure enough, the graphic of the dealer is nice looking on the youtube vid & mine is missing the top of his head & is shaped funny. Also, there are several white dashes where there should be just a solid line. So I immediately think of last night when I was playing Burgertime & couldn't really make out where I could walk off the ladders cuz there were lots of dots all over the place. Check the youtube vid & sure enough, the floor is supposed to be solid.

 

I've been doing some digging online & found a couple places that'll do repairs (leaning towards fourjays) & I plan on calling them tommorow.

 

Tonight I got bold & took the sucker apart thinking I could give it a good cleaning, but you can't get the the thing because of all the metal shielding. I did the best I could & put her back together but nothing improved. Although, I did make it a bit WORSE for a brief period of time. lol.

 

Anybody else have graphics problems with their Inty? Anybody figure out what the problem was & was it an easy fix? Any other people you can recommend for a fix up? I want to keep this system going as I found it @ a local flea market & I love all my retrogaming stuff to have a significant "history", if you will.

 

Damn, wish I could play safecracker & see the nice graphics. :-(

 

Peace

[chrisbid]

i had an intellivision that displayed a dollar sign at the bottom of the screen on every game. I'm hardly an expert, but I suppose these things happen due to a software failure in the system's built in OS.