Icons for your favorite Intellivision games

[Gernot]

I showed them off,

why shouldn't i upload them here?

 

It's a set of 181 icons, some games have alternate versions

The idea is, resp. i use them to start the games from a shortcut i.e. to JZINTV

 

The size of the icons is 256x256, big enough to be showed nicely as "large" or "extra large" icons in the explorer window.

I feel it's a not only nice also a neat way to run Intellivision emulated on a PC, which emulator you might prefere ever.

 

Of course it leaks of overlays get shown, best solution to this was imo "INTV Win" which showed the overlays at right side of the playfield in "INTV Win"

But "INTV Win" is obsolate, it runs only in XP compatibility mode on recent machines.

 

A far better solution, if one needs the overlay at all and if neither a original controller or original overlays are at hand, is to print them out,

in this way you can play the game using your favorite joypad (i.e. a playstation pad or similar) and place the printed out overlay somewhere on your desk

or stick it on the monitors border.

 

If you are very common with a game you won't need them at all and starting them from a shortcut is something nice.

 

intyicons.zip

 

I'm aware it's a lot of work to make all the shortcuts to the games,

a hint: create a template shortcut and enter all commandline options even the path to the bin's but don't call a specific bin or rom with it,

also i suggest to select already a default icon for this template, i.e. "runningman.ico" (present in the "Intyicons.zip").

this template shortcut you can copy into a folder named i.e. "MyIntellivision" and edit the left missing name of the bin which is to call as well to select

the proper icon from the icons folder which is fortunately already selected in the template.

finally rename the shortcut to the games name.

 

certainly one doesn't have to use them all, maybe one likes to start only his favorites in this way, it's a good solution for this.

 

It could look like this:

 

Sometimes it's simply the boxfront image, sometimes i took a little effort to fit them better to the square size of a icon, certain ones are cutout (i.e. all intellivoice games).

Some could be made better, like the "Atari" and some "Coleco" releases they didn't look good to me and i will change them once.

 

You might have noticed in the picture above a "Inty Jukebox" it's nothing else as a shortcut to a simple batch which will call JZ's Songplayer demos one after the other.

"Oldskool" and "Partyline" are not ideal, but even this can still be changed.

 

It's relatively easy with GIMP to create the icons, just cutout the image, scale it i.e. to 512x512 pixels, scale it down to 256x256 pixels

(why so complicated? if you scale the non square images directly down to 256x256pixels the result isn't as good as if you scale the image larger as it will be finally,

downscaling later in the same aspect is better)

set a alpha channel and convert the image to 8bit + alpha channel, use either no or a ordered dithering this gives the best results when used later in the explorer,

because they won't probably appear in the full size and if scaled down by the explorer a "Floyd-Steinberg" dithering won't look good.

make a rectangular selection but this time specify "rounded corners" 15 to 25 pixels depending on the original is usually fine,

inverse the selection and erase the spare rounded corners,

export the icon as .ico in GIMP, GIMP will ask you in which format, if it's a 8bit one it will be preselected.

 

I converted all to 8bit, it saves some bytes and the result is as good as a 24bit icon if you use no or a ordered dithering for 8bit depth.

 

[vprette]

good job!

[Hyperboy]

Nice job, Thank you!

[HunterZero]

Where's Bump 'n' Jump?

[Gernot]

in the zip file

 

thanks folks, sure it was a sneeze to make them.

 

Besides, Bump 'n Jump, hmm... i like the game, oh yes, but it was the cause that i smashed my first Intellivision on the Wall

-

no, it wasn't a satisfying feeling.

 

aged 17:

i must have played it for more as 36 hrs, i can't tell how long for real, overall "Jürgen" & me was playing since 16 hrs, mostly Tennis.

he wen't home to sleep and when he came to visit me next day i was still playing... maybe bump 'n jump astrosmash or vectron,

however we played until i don't know, he wen't home again...

i was still playing.. bump 'n jump this time, this i remember well, i got worse and worse in it, no wonder i haven't slept since aeons.

it went to my head and - crash

then silence

am i nuts wat have i done?

at least i fell asleep.

 

next day jürgen came around he couldn't stop from laughing "typical gernot - your'e nuts"

 

but i guess right that day i ordered one from a classified ads

as a positive side effect i owned a couple of "new" games, phew.

 

hint, never force glitches with the power switch, this can kill your console

that's how i lost the second one

unbelievable me

 

what to do now? no offers in the classified ads, hrmpf

traveled to the electronic store near my hometown, i bought no1 there.

fortunatly he had one left, a display item complete with circuit layout and everything which lurked around in his repo

couple of "new" games again

 

this was used up, we played a lot like i said,

controllers broke, i guess this i posted already once, one i fixed myself,

but finally i stored it, "maybe i will fix the second controller when i'm in the mood" (already aged 21)

but no "mood" came along

except the "mood" to change my life completely

i became member of a new evangelic church,

games records everything was not of interest anymore, fortunatly mom kept a eye on it

"no you certainly don't gift that to someone you don't know, gift it to me"

i left home, for about two years we had no more contact.

after i survived this brainwashing and returned to normal state

i liked to get my stuff back

"pops where is my inty?"

"i disassambled it, i thought it's broken and anyway you had no more interest in it"

"you disassambled it? thanks"

"yeah ok i'm not mad about you, you preserved at least my vinyls"

 

 

That's the story of "Bump 'n' Jump"

a lot of bump

and

some jump

 

some hints:

- never play longer as 24h certainly not 36h

- don't abuse the power switch to force glitches, also "steckerlen" (to wiggle the power cable plug) we used this often to force glitches on slot machines,

it can work, but usually the owner won't appreciate such. no even heatened iron wires don't belong into a slot machines slot, she dind't likes that & suddenly she vomits, you might like that.

besides this works only with old electromechanical slot machines, with the later electronic genereration it didn't works.

- stay clear of radical religious cults

- have phun

Edited January 29, 2015 by Gernot

[Gernot]

some updates to the icons

 

 

intyicons_new1.zip

[Gernot]

addition of the new soccer icons and a revisited zaxxon icon

 

 

intyicons_new2.zip