Intellivision

The "Intelligent Television" system was made by Mattel Electronics ca. 1979, and they gave Atari's 2600 a run for its money. It had better graphics (sort of like comparing EGA to CGA in early PC days) and sound. All told, this was a nice, new look in vid-gaming. It also gave gamers two systems to choose from...and the video game wars began! 

This system was different from the 2600 right down to its control unit; unlike Atari's joystick, Intellivision's controller was a small disc which was pushed down in the direction you wanted (an old ancestor of game pads used to this very day). In addition, Atari's single red fire button was upstaged by two pairs of fire buttons on either side of the controller, as well as a numerical keypad. This led to over a dozen possible control buttons for games! In truth, this controller had only one flaw : it was soldered right onto the main unit itself. To have even one controller break meant taking the entire system to the repair shop! However, when working, with over a dozen buttons possible, this controller made gaming incredibly fun.

So many buttons required a way to keep track of them all, leading to one of the nicest parts of owning an Intellivision. Games included a slipcover of sorts which fit into a slot over the numerical keypad buttons, telling what each of the keys were for that game. This was a cute idea, to be "borrowed" (ahem) by other game companies for later game systems, including the Atari 5200 and Colecovision. These two game systems went one better than Intellivision, however, with depressions in the game cartridge to store slipcovers when not in use. On the other hand, the original game pad covers for Intellivision games were always more colorful and unique, and are still a worthwhile collector's item.

Which brings us to the games. This system's Dungeons & Dragons games were the first of the best (to me, anyway). Movies-turned-games included Discs of Tron. Activision was also on the scene, with The Dreadnaught Factor, a game which put you against, for all intent and purpose, a Star Wars Star Destroyer. Although they didn't have the license to call it that, it was still fun to any Star Wars fan. Last of all, were the infamous Intellivision sports games, which many feel were a real hoot in their day. How good is good...? The Blue Sky Rangers, once the proud programmers of all things Intellivision, have their own web site, and make several collections of classic Intellivision games, now playable on your PC or Macintosh computer!

Many other Intellivision games I owned were from Imagic, whose games for this system were unique classics. Beauty and the Beast was sort of a Donkey Kong on steroids; you had to climb a skyscraper's outer walls to make it to the top and save your girlfriend from said beast. Microsurgeon was like the movie "Innerspace"; your remote-controlled micro-vessel defended organs from illnesses. The graphics were colorful enough to make your eyes hurt, though it was still pretty fun to enter via a membrane, save the patient, and "charge your fee"...!

 Add-ons for the system included a voice module that allowed games to speak. For its time, this was a spectacular technological addition, not unlike the "MacinTalk" utility on early Macintoshes; very audible and clear (though also very artificial-sounding). The game designers could even make voices "different" via special audio FX. As a result, some unique games were available for Intellivision, several years before similar games were available on even high-end computers.

Believe it or not, there was an Intellivision 2, although gamers were hardly waiting with baited breath; it was merely the exact same system in smaller casing. On the other hand, this smaller system had controllers that could be unplugged and replaced, making these the better systems to search for on eBay, IMO. Whichever Intellivision you bought mattered even less at the time, however, when both fizzled in the video game "crash" of the mid 80's...and nearly took toy giant Mattel along with them! Too bad; at the extreme least, it was a unique system which in some ways was ahead of its time...

"How good is good...? The Blue Sky Rangers, once the proud programmers of all things Intellivision, have their own web site, and make several collections of classic Intellivision games, now playable on your PC or Macintosh computer!"