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Intellivisionaries: Questions For Keith Robinson


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  • 4 weeks later...

If you're still taking questions-- can you ask Keith what would be involved for a 3DS eshop release of something like Intellivision Lives? I imagine that if it were easy, it would have already happened by now. What are some of the challenges involved, and what are some lessons learned from the DS collection?

 

It is amazing that he's kept this fire burning for so long! Thanks!

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OK, two more --

 

1. Why was the Intellivision Lives "classics" collection pulled from the Xbox Live Arcade store? Is it because of the Game Room versions? Does Keith have opinions about any of that stuff, and working with Microsoft in general?

 

2. How about a Gen 2 remake of Cloudy Mountain, Treasure of Tarmin, or Tower of Doom for iPhone? They're simple little adventures that would travel well.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...
  • 4 months later...

Will Keith do a new websight? Intellivisionlives.com looks a bit… not up to date? :skull:

It should be the gateway to all things Intellivision and is due for a remake in my opinion…


There is not even an Intellivision logo, just the game club logo.

Perhaps he could also add “forums” to the menu with links to AA Intellivision Forums, Intellivision.us Forums, and Intellivision Revolution Forums.

When you click on “store” there is no information about where to get the flashback, no t-shirts etc.
Links there to flashback retailers, Cafépress and TVStoreOnline would be a good thing.
Also when you click on “home” you don’t get back to the main page, just the store.

I hope I am not stepping on anybody’s toes here, just pointing things out and think it is important that this webpage looks good. ;-)

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Will Keith do a new websight? Intellivisionlives.com looks a bit not up to date? :skull:

It should be the gateway to all things Intellivision and is due for a remake in my opinion

There is not even an Intellivision logo, just the game club logo.

Perhaps he could also add forums to the menu with links to AA Intellivision Forums, Intellivision.us Forums, and Intellivision Revolution Forums.

When you click on store there is no information about where to get the flashback, no t-shirts etc.

Links there to flashback retailers, Cafépress and TVStoreOnline would be a good thing.

Also when you click on home you dont get back to the main page, just the store.

I hope I am not stepping on anybodys toes here, just pointing things out and think it is important that this webpage looks good. ;-)

He would NEVER link to any of those other sites or forums.

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The site could definitely use a 2015 refresh. There are probably a dozen reasons it looks like it does, but the bottom line is that decent CMS products are a commodity in 2015. The site needs new life. I don't think it should have links to other sites or things, especially if they produce not-properly-licensed/copyrighted stuff. But it should look and feel and operate like it represents awesomeness, because it does.

 

 

 

[snip]
There is not even an Intellivision logo, just the game club logo.

Perhaps he could also add “forums” to the menu with links to AA Intellivision Forums, Intellivision.us Forums, and Intellivision Revolution Forums.

[snip]

 

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Thanks for the recent input, guys. I've gotten a little behind on my Atari Age participation, partly due to the podcast, partly due to my real job, and partly due to the fact the Tap-A-Talk has been broken on Atari Age for quite some time and no one seems to care. Once you use and participate with forums on your smartphone with Tap-A-Talk, going back to a browser seems pretty inefficient.

:skull:

 

Anyway, I'm trying to schedule another Q4K session this month to address previous questions, and to get answers about some of the recent issues with the Flashback, overlays, website, etc.

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I thought the next question for Keith was going to be a 45 minute segment about whatever happened to Eric's overlays...

 

More seriously, I'd also be curious if he has any interest in re-releasing some of the Mattel/INTV Corp games. He could probably team up with several of the publishers here to get materials, etc.

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With the Intellivision Flashback selling well, what are the chances of an Intellivision Flashback 2 with any of the following games added to them:

 

Bump N Jump
Burgertime
Commando
Super Soccer
Swords & Serpents
Tutankham
I know these were all under license and a deal wasn't worked out, but I'm hoping the next time will be different!
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With the Intellivision Flashback selling well, what are the chances of an Intellivision Flashback 2 with any of the following games added to them:

 

Bump N Jump
Burgertime
Commando
Super Soccer
Swords & Serpents
Tutankham
I know these were all under license and a deal wasn't worked out, but I'm hoping the next time will be different!

 

Based on what we saw with Colecovision Flashback (which did contain some 3rd party and some homebrews,) anything Intellivision Productions doesn't currently own would have to be licensed by ATGames in order to be included on the Flashback.

If anything the license ATGames got from Intellivision Productions to use the Intellivision trademark may prevent ATGames from going after/including other licenses and/or homebrews.

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I just want to know why Intellivision Productions isn't more involved in releasing games (re-releases and new games). I can totally understand staying far away from the Ms. Pac Mans and Donkey Kongs due to legal issues, but you'd think they'd be interested in keeping interest in the platform alive by joining forces with all the incredible talent making new games, let alone filling the demand for rare oldies by re-releasing some games. That's better for the Intellivision legacy than Christmas ornaments, playing cards, and Cafe Press crap.

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I, um, would like to ask whether the current lack of free shipping on the Intellivision Productions' FB overlay sets is intentional or the result of a glitch with the online store. Someone in the main overlays thread said they thought the free shipping was announced to have been temporary, but no, the announcement was that the $12 price was temporary for Cyber Monday and that free shipping was staying even after Cyber Monday.

 

Yes, it's a very mundane question, I know. How about a more interesting follow-up? I'm curious about how much lower the Intellivision's drag coefficient is with the controllers stored as opposed to with the controllers fully deployed. Has that been asked before? It's a useful thing to know for when you go skydiving or swimming with your console.

 

onmode-ky

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I just want to know why Intellivision Productions isn't more involved in releasing games (re-releases and new games). I can totally understand staying far away from the Ms. Pac Mans and Donkey Kongs due to legal issues, but you'd think they'd be interested in keeping interest in the platform alive by joining forces with all the incredible talent making new games, let alone filling the demand for rare oldies by re-releasing some games. That's better for the Intellivision legacy than Christmas ornaments, playing cards, and Cafe Press crap.

 

Realistically, count up how many A-list games have come from the current homebrew scene that are not ports, clones, remakes, or otherwise potential license problems. Offhand, I can only think of maybe 2-3 truly original homebrew games for this platform that have actually been released. This may change in the future, but with the community's current preference towards ports and remakes, from Keith's perspective the entire homebrew scene might as well be "tainted". Better to steer clear entirely.

 

It also wouldn't surprise me if the homebrew scene just irks him in general, because we're not paying some sort of "license" to INTV Productions in order to release these games. Remember, he comes from an era where the market basically collapsed, and a lot of people at the time were convinced (and many still are) that it was because of 3rd party publishing. The M Network stuff came along *after* 3rd parties had published for the INTV, if memory serves. Kind of a "what the hell, everyone else does it" situation. But Mattel, just like Atari, would have loved complete control over this. It's quite possible that Keith's views on the situation carry over from those days.

 

As for re-releases, I suspect he's just not interested in the effort involved with selling 200 copies of something. I think it's a pretty safe bet that damn near everyone who's involved in it today makes little to no actual profit here (or if they do, it's a tremendous and frustrating effort). The Flashback sold thousands, and almost certainly tens of thousands. There just isn't the market to sell 5000 copies of Spiker by itself, no matter how much we all may want a dozen :) Sure, one of the existing publishers could license a game(s) from Keith, but the association with "Intellectual Property Rights Infringers" may not be worth it to him just to make a few hundred bucks.

 

That's not to say people aren't trying :)

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Realistically, count up how many A-list games have come from the current homebrew scene that are not ports, clones, remakes, or otherwise potential license problems. Offhand, I can only think of maybe 2-3 truly original homebrew games for this platform that have actually been released. This may change in the future, but with the community's current preference towards ports and remakes, from Keith's perspective the entire homebrew scene might as well be "tainted". Better to steer clear entirely.

 

Perhaps.

 

It also wouldn't surprise me if the homebrew scene just irks him in general, because we're not paying some sort of "license" to INTV Productions in order to release these games. Remember, he comes from an era where the market basically collapsed, and a lot of people at the time were convinced (and many still are) that it was because of 3rd party publishing. The M Network stuff came along *after* 3rd parties had published for the INTV, if memory serves. Kind of a "what the hell, everyone else does it" situation. But Mattel, just like Atari, would have loved complete control over this. It's quite possible that Keith's views on the situation carry over from those days.

 

I have to disagree with this. Obviously, I cannot speak for Mr. Robinson, but I can repeat an anecdote I've mentioned before: when I was at CGE 2012 for the release of Christmas Carol, Joe Z. and I had a rather candid chat with him, and he was absolutely impressed by the quality of the packaging and production values.

 

More to the point, he was impressed by the fact that it was an original title, and that we took special care in respecting his brand by mentioning expressly that the "Intellivision" trademark is owned by Intellivision Productions, Inc., and that the product nor the producers were affiliated with that organization.

 

I can't overstate how significant this was in establishing good will, and how important Mr. Robinson expressed it was to him and his enterprise.

 

We even discussed openly the possibility of future collaboration, though of course, it was a most informal conversation, so no concrete plans were made.

 

To me, it shows that if he had shunt the home brew community in the past, it was precisely for the reasons freeweed mentioned at the top: lack of respect or cavalier disregard for other's intellectual property.

 

His concern was strictly legal: he said his lawyer advised him to not communicate, liaison, or interact in any way with such home-brewers, lest his own reputation is tarnished by association, which could impact any current or future negotiations with licensors, or attract legal action against himself.

 

Again, this is the impression I had when speaking to him: he seemed genuinely interested in collaborating and supporting home-brewing efforts--yet, he was disappointed that they all seemed to involve disregarding somebody else's intellectual property rights.

 

dZ.

 

As for re-releases, I suspect he's just not interested in the effort involved with selling 200 copies of something. I think it's a pretty safe bet that damn near everyone who's involved in it today makes little to no actual profit here (or if they do, it's a tremendous and frustrating effort). The Flashback sold thousands, and almost certainly tens of thousands. There just isn't the market to sell 5000 copies of Spiker by itself, no matter how much we all may want a dozen :) Sure, one of the existing publishers could license a game(s) from Keith, but the association with "Intellectual Property Rights Infringers" may not be worth it to him just to make a few hundred bucks.

 

That's not to say people aren't trying :)

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His concern was strictly legal: he said his lawyer advised him to not communicate, liaison, or interact in any way with such home-brewers, lest his own reputation is tarnished by association, which could impact any current or future negotiations with licensors, or attract legal action against himself.

 

Again, this is the impression I had when speaking to him: he seemed genuinely interested in collaborating and supporting home-brewing efforts--yet, he was disappointed that they all seemed to involve disregarding somebody else's intellectual property rights.

 

And this is yet another issue with him that I didn't delve into - his lawyers are some of the most paranoid on the planet. Homebrew titles appear on the other Flashbacks and I haven't seen the Atari or Coleco rights holders attracting unwanted legal attention as a result. Hell, most companies have to some degree embraced homebrew/hobbyist efforts; Keith (or his lawyers) acts like a holdover from another time when you absolutely did not ever discuss Fight Club. Witness Microsoft and their Open Source aversion for years. Turns out the lawyers were almost entirely wrong on that front.

 

I detect a certain amount of Jekyll and Hyde with Keith - in one conversation he seems interested in and happy for homebrewers and the modern hobbyist community, and in another, he's advising people to steer clear of emulation *almost as a concept* presumably because it might possibly somehow violate someone's IP rights. In one interview, he gets a bit pissy that Imagic and others dared to release games for "his" platform, and in another, he brags about putting the screws to Atari with M Network. It's hard to tell when it's Keith talking, when it's his lawyers, and when it's his memories from 1983.

 

It'll be interesting to see when (or if) he actually allows co-mingling of IPI property with anything new. Christmas Carol on the Flashback should have been a slam dunk if you ask me, if IP infringement is his only concern. I may be in the minority, but the presence of some homebrew on the CVFB gives it a leg up for me, at least in terms of content (the hardware is a different discussion). Given that neither had much in the way of licensed titles, it really helped get me excited about it. The INTVFB was awesome because of its controllers and Spiker/SMB/etc, but most of the games are things I already own 30 copies of.

 

But yeah - with practically zero original content for this platform (seriously, someone with more knowledge than me needs to put together a list someday; I'm sure there are more than I realize) it's impossible to actually determine where Keith is coming from, nor what he'd be willing to collaborate on. Early rumours were that Blix was a possibility for the FB2, but that's more than a little underwhelming.

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