Worst Intellivision game is?

[IMBerzerk]

14 hours ago, mr_me said:

This is my issue also.  With fixed shooters you want pixel precise movement.  With these games you tap the disk and your player might jump three or more pixels.  I notice it with Astrosmash and Demon Attack as well and it's annoying.  Intellivision Centipede and Worm Whomper control quite well for comparison. 

 

The other thing is that in 1981/82 when these Intellivision cartridges were coming out, fixed shooters in the arcade were already old fashioned.  Looking back now, the perspective is a little different.  And with Space Armada, if you're expecting Space Invaders, it just doesn't play like space invaders, so it's disappointing in that respect (maybe I already said that).  It would be nice to see a faithful version of Space Invaders on Intellivision.

 

If that's what you did then you didn't play levels two, three, or even level four.  I remember starting with level one and winning, then level two, then level three.  I remember level three being what I generally played, and also trying level four, but I was just a kid.  I just had a quick game at level four to see what it's like, the computer did sixteen moves in 23.5 minutes for an average of under two minutes per move.  Seems like a long time to wait today but not so much back then.

How do you think it compares to modern phone Chess games in move choice?  How is the AI?  It would be interesting to compare because Mattel had put out a pretty good hand-held chess game back in 1981 I owned.  I don't have it now, but I remember it was pretty good.  I used to have my chess book out to learn it's choice of openings and such.  I never owned Chess on Intv, but I do now... unfortunately.. I don't have my books anymore and I can't remember the openings. Lol.  Old age sucks.

 

And I agree with you on Space Invaders.  It would be great to see a legitimate version on the Intv considering it made it to just about every console out there...but ours.

 

This is probably the best modern rendition on old C64 hardware I've come across... I know it wouldn't look like this, but most likely closer than Space Armada.  Toss in all the unique options in Space Armada and you'd have a heck of a Super Pro version.  

 

 

[mr_me]

With the low resolution of an Intellivision, you can't have a game that looks like Space Invaders; you can however have a game that plays like Space Invaders, the aliens will just have to be a lot blockier to get the proportions right.  Too many times, programmers try to get all the graphical details and it throws the proportion way off.

 

I wonder if the Mattel handheld chess used the same algorithm as their Intellivision cartridge.  It would be easy to test Intellivision USCF Chess against modern Chess programs, maybe not a fair comparison.  Not long ago a couple of guys played USCF Chess against Atari 2600 Chess.  Intellivision at level three beat 2600 L3 but lost to 2600 L4.  I think someone could write a better more efficient Intellivision Chess program today.

[+DZ-Jay]

58 minutes ago, mr_me said:

With the low resolution of an Intellivision, you can't have a game that looks like Space Invaders; you can however have a game that plays like Space Invaders, the aliens will just have to be a lot blockier to get the proportions right.  Too many times, programmers try to get all the graphical details and it throws the proportion way off.

Amen!  It's not only the visual proportions, but the mechanical and logical difficulty, relative object velocities, etc., which are affected by them -- and all of which further affect game-play.  When not addressed adequately, this invariable distracts the player from the intended experience.

 

    -dZ.

[Zendocon]

4 hours ago, mr_me said:

With the low resolution of an Intellivision, you can't have a game that looks like Space Invaders; you can however have a game that plays like Space Invaders, the aliens will just have to be a lot blockier to get the proportions right.  Too many times, programmers try to get all the graphical details and it throws the proportion way off.

 

I wonder if the Mattel handheld chess used the same algorithm as their Intellivision cartridge.  It would be easy to test Intellivision USCF Chess against modern Chess programs, maybe not a fair comparison.  Not long ago a couple of guys played USCF Chess against Atari 2600 Chess.  Intellivision at level three beat 2600 L3 but lost to 2600 L4.  I think someone could write a better more efficient Intellivision Chess program today.

Not likely the handheld and Intellivision game used the same AI, but I just thought of something.  Somebody who Twitch-livestreams Intellivision once a week was trying to win at Checkers, and tried using a modern Checkers solver to try to beat it.  The Intellivision game won.  Finally he won after several tries, and got to hear Ride of the Valkyries.

[mr_me]

9 hours ago, IMBerzerk said:

How do you think it compares to modern phone Chess games in move choice?  How is the AI?  It would be interesting to compare because Mattel had put out a pretty good hand-held chess game back in 1981 I owned.  I don't have it now, but I remember it was pretty good.  I used to have my chess book out to learn it's choice of openings and such.  I never owned Chess on Intv, but I do now... unfortunately.. I don't have my books anymore and I can't remember the openings. Lol.  Old age sucks.

I started looking at this a bit.  I found a site that rated the Mattel Electronics handheld chess a USCF 1236.  That's higher than the popular Fidelity Chess Challenger 8 that also came out in 1980.

http://www.spacious-mind.com/html/computer_chess.html

 

In USCF ratings, 1000 is considered a basic player, 1500 an average player, and 2000 a strong player.  Sargon II (1979) has a USCF rating around 1400.  Sargon III (1983) was beating chess masters.

http://wondersmith.com/rants/howfar.htm

 

I can try playing Intellivision USCF Chess against Sargon II, but I'm thinking the Intellivision doesn't have a chance.  I'd like to see how it does against the Mattel handheld.

 

[+Rick Reynolds]

1 hour ago, mr_me said:

I started looking at this a bit.  I found a site that rated the Mattel Electronics handheld chess a USCF 1236.  That's higher than the popular Fidelity Chess Challenger 8 that also came out in 1980.

http://www.spacious-mind.com/html/computer_chess.html

 

In USCF ratings, 1000 is considered a basic player, 1500 an average player, and 2000 a strong player.  Sargon II (1979) has a USCF rating around 1400.  Sargon III (1983) was beating chess masters.

http://wondersmith.com/rants/howfar.htm

 

I can try playing Intellivision USCF Chess against Sargon II, but I'm thinking the Intellivision doesn't have a chance.  I'd like to see how it does against the Mattel handheld.

 

Interesting.  I'm very interested in chess and chess programs, handhelds, etc.  I've actually just started a little project of my own playing Intellivision chess against a modern chess engine in order to try and get a rating for it at the six different skill levels.  We'll see how that goes.  I'll of course bring my findings back here and it will be fodder for a chess episode on the podcast, for sure.

[mr_me]

The thing with computer chess is that with similar algorithms, the computer processing power has a big say in its ability.  So, it would be unfair to play one computer against another that's thousands of times faster.

 

I read that the people that made the original Sargon software in the 1970s, sold it as a listing.  So their algorithm was available to anyone.  The early chess programs, could all have similar below average skill ratings.

 

The Sargon II instructions lists average time per move.  So the slow times with the highest levels in Intellivision USCF Chess are not unusual.

 

Sargon II level, average time per move

0, immediate

1, 20 seconds

2, 1 minute

3, 2 minutes

4, 6 minutes

5, 40 minutes

6, 4 hours

[Games For Your Intellivision]

16 hours ago, Rick Reynolds said:

Interesting.  I'm very interested in chess and chess programs, handhelds, etc.  I've actually just started a little project of my own playing Intellivision chess against a modern chess engine in order to try and get a rating for it at the six different skill levels.  We'll see how that goes.  I'll of course bring my findings back here and it will be fodder for a chess episode on the podcast, for sure.

I was speaking recently to Arnauld C., about his next game. He was thinking of doing a new Chess program, but I didn't think that there would be enough interest. 

[Zendocon]

1 hour ago, Games For Your Intellivision said:

I was speaking recently to Arnauld C., about his next game. He was thinking of doing a new Chess program, but I didn't think that there would be enough interest. 

Didn't he write Kchess a number of years ago?  I thought that was great, even if it was only single-player against the CPU.

[colormesticky]

You guys are killin' me, Smalls. I love Sewer Sam, Frogger, Fathom, and don't *love* DK but don't hate it either.

 

Another hot take: Off the top of my head I'm going with Atlantis, because as far as I can tell you just play till the city falls and you lose, which even as a kid was kind of a bummer. Also the crossword game in Word Fun because it's so disappointing when the other games are actually pretty fun.

[+DZ-Jay]

5 hours ago, colormesticky said:

Another hot take: Off the top of my head I'm going with Atlantis, because as far as I can tell you just play till the city falls and you lose, which even as a kid was kind of a bummer.

 

 

[ZillaRUSH]

Desert Bus sucks!!!!  Bought the cart and played it once...doubt I will ever play it again.  Drive that one into a pole.  LOL

[Intymike]

9 hours ago, colormesticky said:

You guys are killin' me, Smalls. I love Sewer Sam, Frogger, Fathom, and don't *love* DK but don't hate it either.

 

Another hot take: Off the top of my head I'm going with Atlantis, because as far as I can tell you just play till the city falls and you lose, which even as a kid was kind of a bummer. Also the crossword game in Word Fun because it's so disappointing when the other games are actually pretty fun.

I think after 14 or 15 days you win if you have buildings left.

[Intymike]

1 hour ago, ZillaRUSH said:

Desert Bus sucks!!!!  Bought the cart and played it once...doubt I will ever play it again.  Drive that one into a pole.  LOL

That must have been a real surprise.

 

[IMBerzerk]

Swords and Serpents...

 

Loved the game.  Graphics, game-play (well, it was good...too many fireball wizards), and the whole look of the game.

 

BUT IT HAD NO POINT!!!  BDS.. really???  The game was to find the Easter Egg hidden in the Dragon's Den??

 

From a Yahoo Groups (I think the IntvProg Group) post in 1998... sums it up perfectly...

 

BlueLion33

Mar 8, 1998, 3:00:00 AM

Yes, Swords and Serpents does end, but it's not clear at all.
My friend and I beat it a long time ago and I didn't figure it out
until last year or so.

What you do is blast through the serpents lair with destroy walls.
Pick up the last three treasures, then you will see three initials,
which stand for the programmer's name and then warp back to the chest.

That's it, no dramatic ending, and a little disappointing for an otherwise
great game.

[Zendocon]

12 hours ago, colormesticky said:

Another hot take: Off the top of my head I'm going with Atlantis, because as far as I can tell you just play till the city falls and you lose, which even as a kid was kind of a bummer.

It's like most arcade games.  Just keep going until you lose, and get the highest score you can.

 

However, it turns out there's a bug.  If you finish 11 days, the game essentially crashes.  Consider that winning.

 

Honestly, I liked thinking you couldn't win, in a morbid kind of way.  I always thought the idea was that Atlantis once existed, but it no longer does thanks to your own ineptitude in defending it.  Also, imagine being one of the residents in the "Domed Palace" or "Imperial Quarter" when the overhead domes are destroyed, and facing certain death by falling shards and tidal waves, all coming in every direction.

3 hours ago, ZillaRUSH said:

Desert Bus sucks!!!!  Bought the cart and played it once...doubt I will ever play it again.  Drive that one into a pole.  LOL

It was a port from a Sega CD title that was developed as tongue-in-cheek humor.  Given that I had to stretch my imagination as to what constitutes a "game" ever since Tron Maze-a-Tron, I always assumed the 8-hour endurance test was supposed to be the challenge, and that it's a unique gameplay experience.

 

If you meant the port itself, that's another thing.  But the "Arctic Bus" and "Deserter Bus" extra play modes ruin the charm of the original.

[Games For Your Intellivision]

On 1/16/2022 at 3:21 AM, Zendocon said:

Didn't he write Kchess a number of years ago?  I thought that was great, even if it was only single-player against the CPU.

yes, but he wanted to do a new improved chess, with better logic and better everything.

[Rickster8]

On 1/16/2022 at 1:49 AM, colormesticky said:

You guys are killin' me, Smalls. I love Sewer Sam, Frogger, Fathom, and don't *love* DK but don't hate it either.

 

Another hot take: Off the top of my head I'm going with Atlantis, because as far as I can tell you just play till the city falls and you lose, which even as a kid was kind of a bummer. Also the crossword game in Word Fun because it's so disappointing when the other games are actually pretty fun.

Actually the game glitches at the start of Day 12. This is kind of a KILL screen if you will. So if you can survive 11 days (Easy Level) you essentially win the game because it will glitch to start Day 12. A couple guys on Twin Galaxies have done it a bunch of times. I am terrible at the game, I think the farthest I've gotten was Day 8. 

 

Sewer Sam to me is just like Vectron, had potential, but just too damn hard and you get bummed playing it and constantly sucking at it..... ?

Edited January 18, 2022 by Rickster8

[colormesticky]

3 hours ago, Rickster8 said:

Sewer Sam to me is just like Vectron, had potential, but just too damn hard and you get bummed playing it and constantly sucking at it..... ?

Don't climb the walls when there's a snake nearby, and shoot the torpedoes before they're launched with you standing in front of them. ?

[Rickster8]

12 minutes ago, colormesticky said:

Don't climb the walls when there's a snake nearby, and shoot the torpedoes before they're launched with you standing in front of them. ?

I never ever get to the Sub to shoot the torpedoes. I always die before getting to a Sub. Very hard to line up shots in this game..... 

 

BTW - Sewer Sam will be played in this upcoming Intellivision High Scoring Club Season. Can I count on your participation atleast for that game? ?‍♂️?

Edited January 18, 2022 by Rickster8
Added a little more text.

[colormesticky]

3 hours ago, Rickster8 said:

BTW - Sewer Sam will be played in this upcoming Intellivision High Scoring Club Season. Can I count on your participation atleast for that game? ?‍♂️?

I'm a giant slacker here on AA, but if I spot it on one of the Facebook groups I'll jump in. 

[IntyFanMatt]

4 hours ago, colormesticky said:

I'm a giant slacker here on AA, but if I spot it on one of the Facebook groups I'll jump in. 

Facebook groups?  It won’t be there. The High Score club is right here on AA. 
 

https://atariage.com/forums/forum/128-intellivision-high-score-club/

Edited January 19, 2022 by IntyFanMatt

[colormesticky]

15 hours ago, IntyFanMatt said:

Facebook groups?  It won’t be there. The High Score club is right here on AA. 
 

https://atariage.com/forums/forum/128-intellivision-high-score-club/

Didn't realize the Facebook HSC was a whole separate thing, my bad. I always assumed the games were cross-posted in both places. 

[IntyFanMatt]

1 minute ago, colormesticky said:

Didn't realize the Facebook HSC was a whole separate thing, my bad. I always assumed the games were cross-posted in both places. 

All good!  Hope to see ya here on the HSC!!

[carlsson]

15 hours ago, colormesticky said:

Didn't realize the Facebook HSC was a whole separate thing

For most part, the entire AtariAge consists of two different communities: what happens in the Facebook group and what happens on this forum. I don't know about other Intellivision specific groups on FB but I would assume these have even less to do with the Intellivision section here on AA.