Intellivision Lives!

Back when I was a kid, we didn’t have these fancy-schmancy games with 3D graphics and pumping techno soundtracks, we had games with big blocky pixels, no music at all, and simple controls, and we LIKED IT!

There, now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, I can actually get something accomplished. The 1980’s were known for many things. Punk music, big hair, the beginnings of electronic music, Ronald Regan, cocaine, cell phones the size of a briefcase, etc. Another thing the 80’s were known for were video games. Many of you older gamers will fondly remember sitting Indian-style, in front of your wood-grained 70’s era TV, and playing video games on your respective machines. For a lot of my friends, this includes memories of playing Asteroids or Adventure on their Atari 2600. For me, those days involve me playing on my Intellivision.

For those of you who need a history lesson, the Intellivision was a system which competed with the Atari 2600 during the early 80’s. The machine came out in the late 70’s/early 80’s, with graphics which were (at the time) vastly superior to the 2600’s, and games which were also technically superior to the blocky graphics of the 2600. The system also promised add-ons, which would turn the gaming console into a full-fledged 80’s computer. Many people still remember the Intellivision commercials and print-ads, which starred George Plimpton, as he haughtily compared the graphics of the 2600’s baseball game with the Intellivision’s vastly superior looking version.

Let’s just get this out of the way; this game has taken a few cues itself from the recent Activision Anthology (AA) compilation, so I will be comparing it to various parts in that game, as anyone who’s played both versions would. Although the original PC version was sort of kitschy, the XBox and PS2 versions have been completely redesigned, and contain fewer games, and less information about the old system. Still present are the original video interviews (which look kind of pathetic with their heavy compression on a regular TV), and a short video history on the Intellivision and interviews with the original game designers, which is all very interesting, if you have any sort of interest in retro gaming history.

The game puts you into a virtual 3D environment, this one places you into a virtual pizza parlor “where the 80’s never left”. Honestly, it does look a lot better than the cramped screen of AA, with games divided amongst several different arcade machines, each with a different theme, such as one for sports, one for kids games, one for space games, etc. This does make it much easier to find a specific type of game you want to play, and a lot faster than searching for games seemingly randomly placed in the racks in AA.

Sound, however, is a different matter. While AA had a soundtrack made up of various songs from the 80’s which most people remember, and bring them back a nostalgic feeling, Intellivision Lives! has a collection of cheesy 80’s-sounding tracks with sampled music and sounds from various Intellivision games. Some of these are very annoying, and had to be turned off, for the sake of my own sanity. On the XBox version, there is also no option to use your own soundtrack, something which should have been easy enough to do, and would have improved the game’s sounds immeasurably. Luckily you can turn all the music off.

As far as the games, most of them are almost spot-on with their grumblings and beepings, although I seem to remember some of the games sounding a little bit different. As for the controls, they have tried to set up the system as reasonably as possible on the current systems. One of the unique aspects of the Intellivision was its 16-button controller, which consisted of 4 side buttons (rather hard-to-press ones, as I remember), and a phone-like number pad. They have included the ability to press the number buttons with the right control stick and one of the shoulder buttons/triggers. It does take some getting used to, but it’s manageable. They also include the ability to bring up a virtual keypad on the screen, complete with insert-overlay artwork, if available. Unfortunately this virtual keypad takes up around 1/3 of the screen, so it’s not useful for regular play. If there are frequently used buttons, they will be mapped to the normal face buttons as well as they can be. The control scheme does try to emulate the Intellivision’s unique pseudo-analog disk control with the left control stick, which works well most of the time, but I have noticed some problems in various games, which I am convinced is the control’s fault, and not the fault of an aging gamer.

But, you may ask, how are the games? The games are as good as you remember, that is, if you remember. Of the 60 games, most included are sports games, as was the large majority of the Intellivision library, and many require two people to play, but the games are fun, accessible, and easy to pick up and play for a short time. My personal favorites, Astrosmash and NightStalker are both included, however other licensed titles, such as the various Dungeons & Dragons, or TRON titles are not, which is disappointing. Not much else can be said for the titles on this compilation. If you knew and enjoyed the games which were made by Mattel Electronics for the Intellivision, you will find games on here which will bring back those old times and make you remember shag carpeting, big collars, and Tab soda.

I have noticed some various bugs in the games, which have made playing some of the games impossible, and that is rather sad, since some of the games I have had problems with on the XBox version are games which you are required to play in order to unlock various secrets. These secrets, if you are able to unlock them, range anywhere from unreleased games to original television spots, so you can actually watch Mr. Plimpton trash the Atari 2600 all over again.

Finally, the question of if you should buy this game. Well, that really depends. If you at one time owned an Intellivision console, the games on this system will bring back all sorts of fond memories. But, for people who’ve never actually even seen an Intellivision, unless they’re retro-gaming fans, they may get tired of this game fairly quickly. I give this game 3 Disks of Tro… no, wait, that’s not in here. Ok, 3 Drago… no, that’s not in here either… Fine, 3 slick card dealers, out of 5, with a personal +1 bonus for retro-factor.