Top 25 Intellivision Games

[LarryBrown]

>console at a flea market with 16 games, and found them all to be terrible.
>I picked up Tron Deadly Discs today for $1
>Astrosmash is definatly on my top 25 games in my collection.
You should give several Intellivision games a fair chance. They can be fun especially if you're like me and have not been able to get interested in any newer consoles. I don't share your enthusiasm for Astrosmash, I always thought it was junk, but I'm glad you like it.

I wouldn't call Tron Deadly Discs "excellent" by any standard, but it was fun back in the day. It's a slow moving game and that frustrated people even back in 1983. It's also shallow, no depth. In order to have fun, you'll need to appreciate all the (few) features it offers (using your disc as a shield, recalling your disc early, blocking open the doors, teleporting, and hitting the recognizer). If you don't have/read the book you may be ignoring features and thus not giving the game a fair shot. You'll need to get good enough to start battling the purple guys and they don't come until many levels in...like other games, it becomes more fun only after you get pretty good at it. Try to block every attacker's disc before you deprogram (kill) him, that gives you double points.

You've read all these posts, but here are some Intellivision games that are good if you give them a chance, in approximate order of newbie fun. Unfortunately, just like back in 1983, you'll usually need an interested/talented playmate to enjoy. Intellivision games are not that easy to master, that's what makes this system better.

Burgertime
Triple-action Biplanes (ignore the cars and tanks, they're junk).
Sea Battle
Dungeons and Dragons (so called "Cloudy Mountain," not "Treasure of Tarmin")
Snafu
Loco-motion (more rare title)
Lock-n-chase (if you have any decent version of Pac-man then Lock-n-Chase has little to offer)


Don't bother with these:
Armor Battle
Auto Racing
Most any non-Mattel title


Post here the list of the 16 titles that you have and I'll give you my opinions.

[nebula]

Wow, it's so rare that I want to register for a forum to respond to a 10-year old thread. But, well ... here I am!

As a youngster I must say that I was an intellivision junkie. My mom bought Intellivision for my brother and me for Christmas in 1981, with the included Poker&Blackjack, plus Armor Battle and Astrosmash. Many people posting their lists here regrettably omit the simultaneous two-player games, which is a real shame because that's where Intellivision really shined.

As much as I enjoyed the arcade-style single player games, but there was nothing quite like the vicious competitions that inevitably happened against real opponents.

In 2004 my brother and I, along with our fanatical Intellivision-playing younger cousins, decided to pull out the old console for a chapionship over the course of a day and a few cases of beer. We played a lot of two-player games, tournament style, and there were several standouts that had stood the over-twenty-year test of time. Here, in order of my preference, are the 11 best two-player games in this millennium:

11. TRIPLE ACTION TANKS. The fun with this one is when you play with the long, bouncing bullets. Throw your notion of realism out the window and enjoy this guilty pleasure. Get cornered in a barrage of bouncing bullets and watch your blood pressure rise!

10. SNAFU. Yes, the music is great. I wish the background wasn't grey. The tail-biting game variant is crazy.

9. ARMOR BATTLE. The tanks are so sluggish, and the obstacle courses are so tricky, that this would be little more than finger-tiring frustration if it wasn't for the mines. When you can lure the other player to run over that unexpected mine that you stragegically placed, all is somehow right with the world! Better still, run over your own mine and face eternal shame.

8. AUTO RACING. Many will disagree with me about this one. It is a really awful game until you throw away the idea that it has any similarity to actual auto racing. Mastering the oddball controls is the real challenge here, then you can mentally replace the cars with ice skaters. It's vicious and competitive.

7. TENNIS. I can't believe nobody's mentioned this one yet! Great, responsive game play, nice 3D graphics and player animation.

6. MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL. I've never played World Series Baseball, but this one is still lots of fun. It's not terribly fast-paced, but there is perfection to be sought in the zen that is fielding.

5. MIND STRIKE (ECS). To this day I am amazed that Intellviision's developers created a classic boardgame that could only be realized as a video game. I spent so much time tweaking the AI settings, trying to make it challenging against the computer, but I always won. This game truly shines when you can play against a real human with real strategies.

4. NFL FOOBALL. There are so many play variations in this game that you can always surprise your opponent. Running towards the end-zone becomes a one-on-one battle of agility.

3. UTOPIA. It takes a long time to fortify before you can take on the other player's fleet with your PT boats. Planting rebels in the wake of a tornado is also pure evil. This may be the best way to lose friends. Throw in truly bizarre sound effects and a mysterious scoring algorithm for good measure.

2. SEA BATTLE. Simply an incredible combination of great graphics, nail-biting action and intense strategy. I was never very good at this game, but I'll play against anyone and lose, and still have a great time.

1. TRIPLE ACTION BIPLANES. Gotta choose the short-range bullets. Big ups to the Blue Sky Rangers for getting the physics just perfect in this oddball 2D flying game which combines just the right blend of aerial stalls, hiding in clouds, crashing into the tower, and lucky balloon shooting.

[jammajup]

Some of the arcade coversions are quite good like Ladybug,Burger Time,Frogger and Venture but i think River Raid,Shark!Shark! and Buzz Bomber are up there somewhere too.

[miaandjohnrule]

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Thanks for sharing. Those bring back many memories. I need to recruit someone to play INTV with me, you are right that it was great with 2 players.