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Intellivision Lives!
(Offered since 1999, online, by former Intellivision
programmers!)
 This
product is iMac-friendly!!!
Play 50+ Intellivison Classics on your PC or Mac!
The Intellivision
is probably the classic game system I miss the most. From
sports games galore to AD&D dungeon searching to movie/TV
tie-in games like Tron Deadly Discs and He-Man;
this system had it all. Even so, copyrights make it hard for
anyone to resurrect the system in any way. While brand-new
Atari 2600's and Colecovision-clones are available via online
merchants like Telegames,
any Intellivisions you can find online are often half-working
antiques sold on eBay. That is, until now...
Intellivision
Lives! is the product of some of the original game designers
for Intellivision! For years, they have tried to keep the Intellivison
spirit alive, and this is the highlight of their work (it also
serves as an archive of information about the Intellivision,
both public and private). They have collated on a single CD-ROM
every single piece of information on the Intellivision that copyrights
could allow. This includes video clips of classic TV advertising,
behind-the-scenes clips from the designers themselves in those
days, screen shots of every Mattel Electronics Game ever released
for the system, and, in some cases, even playable versions of
the games! That's right; play over 50 of your fave classic Intellivison
games, right on your own high-end PC or iMac! I've tried out
many of them for this review, and the re-creations are fantastic;
identical to the original unit's gameplay in every way. What
incredible fun to the 1980's gameplayer!
There isn't enough that can be said about this CD's listings
of classic games. While there are sections detailing the employees,
hardware, and other information, the software listing is particularly
impressive. Every game is indexed, along with behind-the-scenes
info, trivia, tricks & bugs, and even the game's complete,
original manual instructions. This last inclusion is truly spectacular
to the classic game fan who buys Intellivision items on eBay
(or the equivalent), since instruction manuals for over 50 games
are included here, and classic game sellers often only sell the
game cartridges; getting original manuals intact is extremely
rare. The CD even includes a pic of each game's original
gamepad overlay; a piece of thin plastic which slipped over the
numeric pad, showing which buttons were important for that game.
Game screen pictures are also included, as well as box cover
art, which is shown in perfect condition. In the early '80s,
I remember buying game boxes which were less preserved than the
box art photos on this CD...which is released over a decade and
a half later!
It's intriguing how the designers of this CD dodge various
copyright red tape, to give you a bigger selection of all the
games they possibly could. While Advanced Dungeons & Dragons
games cannot be shown with the same TSR-trademarked title, they
are available as playable programs under different titles. D&D's
Treasures of Tarmin, as a result, is suddenly "Minotaur."
However, they couldn't bend the rules for every title; Burgertime
could not be included, as well as the Tron games (whose
rights are still owned by Disney) and He-Man, among a
few others. On the plus side, you are still allowed to see the
instruction manuals, screens, and box art for these games as
well (and even see the original TV commercial for Burgertime!);
only playing a simulation of the game is not allowed.
The numerous games you can play, though --all in their
original form-- are more than worth the meager $29.95 price of
the disc.
Gripes for this CD is mere nitpicking, that is no fault of
Intellivision Productions. For one, there is no mention of third-party
games, which I myself owned a lot of. Nothing is mentioned of
Activision's Dreadnaught Factor, or a single title
from Imagic; Beauty & the Beast, Microsurgeon,
Demon Attack (the best version of this game was
on Intellivision, IMO), Swords & Serpents,
Dragonfire, Dracula, Safecracker,
and so on. If they were able to bend the rules a bit, and show
at least game screens and box covers of these games, that
would've been cool. Maybe this will be offered in a seperate
CD someday...? One can only hope.
Conclusion
: A spectacular CD in every way. A nice gift to the friend
who owned an Intellivision, or even one who didn't! As dated
as the game simulations are, many are still amazing fun. It also
has no visable glitches that I encountered, and how often can
that be said for so-called "superior" modern games?
| All text, Title
graphics, and pix not of reviewed product, are created by TECHtite,
copyright 2000; all rights reserved. Pix from program reviewed
are discrete thumbnails, used only for the purpose of review,
and by no means represent any affiliation with TECHtite and the
distributors of that product. For further "legalese"
& disclaimers, click here... |
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