Upon picking an Intellivison at a garage sale...

[joeybastard]

When I was a kid I only knew 1 guy who had an Intellivision and we only played it once in a while because he also had a CV. I remember the INTV was unique and I liked Shark Shark, B17 Bomber and Dreadnaught Factor. My only experience with it since then has been the 25 in 1 controller that sucks ass and emulation thru Bliss. I was hoping the genuine articel would be much much better.

 

I just picked up an INTV 1 at a garage sale yesterday with a bunch of games. Thank god this was only $8. This thing sucks pretty bad. The worst controllers I have ever used and the slowest games in history. I always assumede the slow rate of the games was bad emulation on my old PC but that's not the case. The scrolling on this thing is worse than the CV. The sound is OK and some of the graphics are nice but overall I am not impressed with this thing.

 

The carts I got:

Burgertime: This is a good port of the game but I still porefer the CV version

 

Astrosmash: Does this game ever get hard? I played on the hard level for about 90 minutes before quiting due to extremem boredom.

 

Auto Racing: Worst steering of a race game. Impossible to play.

 

Night Stalker: Ehhh it's OK but nothing special.

 

Donkey Kong: Actually worse than the 2600 version due to the controllers.

 

Microsurgeon: Looks interesting but I can't figure out how to play it.

 

Tron: Maze A Tron: See Microsurgeon

 

Mission X: very crappy shooter made worse by horrible scrolling, bad controllers

 

Pifall: Different button to let go of the vine? Nah. The VCS version with a counterintuitive button combo.

 

Well, that's it for now, thanks for the space to pontificate

 

 

 

 

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[Lost Monkey]

I agree nearly 100%

 

I actually like the INTV Burgertime a lot.. the difficulty ramps at a pace I can handle and the game looks pretty damned good.

 

Otherwise, I can play the INTV games I like (Space Battle and Astrosmash) on the 2600.

 

I sold off my INTV collection almost 10 years ago - out of sheer confusion as to why I was carrying over 90 INTV games which I didn't like..

[christianscott27]

you gotta pick up the games that shine on the INTV

 

try some of their sports titles or casino titles, you have to get baseball. a big part of the INTV appeal were their "dad games". i think its really tricky for anybody to freshly fall in love with a classic system they didnt have as a kid.

 

as for me i kinda like the he-man game.

[HawgWyld]

I think its really tricky for anybody to freshly fall in love with a classic system they didnt have as a kid.

 

Very, very true. I learned that from buying a Bally Astrocade and Odyssey 2 (two systems I wanted as a kid but didn't get because I already had an Atari). Didn't care for either one of them, so I eBayed them and used my excess cash to buy more Atari stuff.

[NovaXpress]

I love the Astrocade. I need to get one. You must not have gotten the best titles (Incredible Wizard, Space Fortress, Galactic Invasion). Another problem is that many Astrocade titles were homebrews sold by mail.

 

Imagic made the best Intellivision games: Dracula, Safecracker, Atlantis, Nova Blast, Microsurgeon. You might want to check out Utopia, which originated the "Civilization" type of game. I really enjoy the asteroids-inspired Star hawk.

 

The M Network games were always better than the Intellivision versions. There are two versions of Space Battle, one moderately easy and one so easy it's insulting.

 

Intellivision also released what I feel may be the worst videogame ever sold: Sharp Shot

[joeybastard]

i think its really tricky for anybody to freshly fall in love with a classic system they didnt have as a kid.

 

I usually don't have that though, kind of just the opposite. Whenever I've picked up a system I didn't own back in the day, I'm usually smitten for a few months and play it constantly, seek out games, etc. I'm going to look for some more INTV games in hopes of finding something more playable but I'm not that hopeful.

[Brad2600]

I will probably end up selling my INTV one day. It's not impressive. Clunky to play.

 

Of course, I've got the best games for it though. The Imagic games that is.

[Numan]

Don't forget World Series Major League Baseball, the game that was the first to feature play by play commentary as opposed to those so-called journalists claiming the Sega games were.

[Lemmi]

i love Beauty and the Beast, Happy Trails, Bump-n-Jump, and Poker and Blackjack

 

when i was 14 i had a girlfriend that had an INTV in the basement, play some games for a few min then make out

as a matter of fact this is the INTV1 she owned, i bought it off her father in 1990

[Brad2600]

Very nice score. She also took very good care of the games as well.

[AtariLeaf]

I don't know. There may not be too many INTV games that aren't available on the 2600 or CV, much better systems. I agree with the comments about the controls though. Probably tied for the worst with the 5200.

 

Here's a question, are there any 3rd party controls for the INTV available? If there are then maybe I'd consider getting one but as it stands, I can't play games using a little circular disc.

[Kialan]

Buzz Bombers rules. Get it.

[Lemmi]

Very nice score. She also took very good care of the games as well.  

 

actually the games mentioned above, plus the boxed DK and DKjr is all they had left that he could find, i think she only had about 13 games total

 

the rest i got in a package deal from the flea market (i wouldnt pick up Math Fun if it was by itself, has to be a package dealy)

 

i hate the controllers as well, but i dont think i will ever get rid of this intelly, the INTV2 has worse controllers IMHO (first time using that abbreviation)

[Brad2600]

You can swap out different controllers with the INTV2 though.

[rsiddall]

Just to name a few of my favorites:

 

Burgertime

Diner

Night Stalker

Dragonfire

Pac-Man

Venture

 

Plus getting something like this (see pic) helps make the controllers handle more like a joystick. You can find these on eBay occasionally.

[Rocko]

Shark Shark and the Horse Racing games always get played when my friend comes over, we played them for about 3 hours straight EACH!

[Lost Monkey]

You can swap out different controllers with the INTV2 though.

 

I would rephrase that as "You can swap out different broken controllers with the INTV2 though."

 

Throughout the 90's I kept buying Intellivisions whenever I found them (and I probably will buy the next one I see ) and I almost always had to use parts from a couple of systems to get one that worked - controllers and all -. All I have now is a non-functional unit with one good controller -

 

I had to fix all the controllers on all the INTV2's I have ever found (~5). I even bought up a bunch on INTV2 controllers from a local guy* and had to fix 3 of the five...

 

The only other system I have had such bad luck with the controllers is the Sega Master System - I bought around 5 controllers before I had a good working one.

 

*("The Garage Sale" - that's for AtariLeaf)

[Lemmi]

 

Plus getting something like this (see pic) helps make the controllers handle more like a joystick. You can find these on eBay occasionally.

 

i have a set of those for my colecovision

[George Gray]

C'mon...Burgertime on the INTV was MUCH better than the 2600 and CV versions! It got harder and harder and was just plain cool. The colors, sound and presentation gave it a unique look and feel. The gameplay was terrific. The CV version had nicer graphics, but I found it lacking in 'personality'. I'm not quite sure what I mean by that, but it just seemed to lack something. Maybe it was the fact the graphics did come closer to the arcade game. I'm not sure. It's ok, but I like the INTV version more. And the 2600 version, what the hell was that? Yuck. It's right there with Coleco's 2600 version of Donkey Kong.

 

Astrosmash for 90 minutes? I quit after 15 and I love the game. Speaking of Astrosmash, has anyone noticed that the pattern on the 25 in 1 Intellivision unit repeats EVERY game you play? There is absolutely nothing random about the first sequence of things falling. I guess it is one more thing to criticize. Hey, it is the first new 'Intellivision' hardware in fourteen years, right?

[jsoper]

I build adapters to play with either PSX or Jag controllers and the system got much more fun. Probably my 2nd favorite classic system after the 5200.

[MegaManFan]

I could go on and on about liking the Intellivision but I'd rather be brief and say this: Bump'n'Jump and Burgertime play better (yes, crappy disc controller and all) on Intellivision than on any other system.

[joeybastard]

Burgertime is good but I think the CV version plays more like the arcade. I find the INTV one too easy. I don't have Bump 'N' Jump for the INTV but I'll look for it. I love it on the CV with the Steering Wheel module. I'm also going to look for Dreadnaught Factor since I liked that one as a kid.

 

I won't sell this thing, just as a collector it's about time I got one. I'm just disappointed in the game playing experience of it. I cannot see why this would be any kind of competition to a VCS, the CV or a 5200.

[Jess Ragan]

The later games on the Intellivision were the best. Don't dismiss the system until you've played Thunder Castle... it's an excellent maze game with power-ups, great animation, and a spectacular soundtrack. Diner's pretty good, too... it's a sequel to Burgertime with impressive isometric graphics. It's much better than the sequels Data East itself released (ie Peter Pepper's Ice Cream Factory and Super Burgertime).

 

Also, in the words of the late, great Ray Charles, "You got the wrong Tron baby, uh-huh!" Forget about Maze-A-Tron and Solar Sailor and head straight to Tron: Deadly Discs. Its intense, omni-directional disc tossin' action makes it one of the best Tron games ever made, rivalled only by the arcade games and the recent FPS by Marathon.

 

JR

[intvgene]

I don't know. There may not be too many INTV games that aren't available on the 2600 or CV, much better systems. I agree with the comments about the controls though. Probably tied for the worst with the 5200.

 

There are tons of great original games, many more than on the CV, IMHO.. such as:

 

Thunder Castle

Body Slam Wrestling

AD&D

Diner

Buzz Bombers

Shark! Shark!

Horse Racing

Dracula

Truckin'

Microsurgeon

Happy Trails

Sea Battle

Thin Ice

Tower of Doom

Utopia

Worm Whomper

 

The Intellivision library is quickly dismissed by many, but look deeper and you can find some excellent games. It's amazing what they were doing with the system in the later years (up until 1989). A lot of the great games require are two-player though.

[King Atari]

You know, I hooked up my INTV to try out Commando yesterday, and when the thing wasn't giving me a blank screen (dirty contacts, no doubt), it was pissing me off with it's controllers. Aside from a few good earlier games, I think most of the truly excellent titles were released in the late-80's. I still like the system, but I like the CV a LOT more.