Intellivision Lives for the "Nostalgia Free"?

[bargora]

It is one of my many shames as a gamer that I have never even been in the same room with an Intellivision. So today the GameCrazy dude, knowing my fondness for the obsolescent, suggested the Inty Lives collection for the PS2. At first I waved him off, since I have zero Intellivision nostalgia, having never played the thing. But then I got curious and had him hand me the box so I could examine the screenshots on the back and see what I'd be getting. Well, over 60 games, I guess, at the very least.

The question is, am I likely to get a kick out of it if I pick it up, seeing as it will be my first exposure to Intellivision games? Or on the other hand, is it my solemn duty as a retro-gamer to own a copy of the disc, in the nature of a permanent archival record of obsolete video-game entertainments? Or to put it in a third (and maybe fairest) perspective, how do the games compare to what's on the Activision Anthology?

[omnedon]

In my opinion, emulated IntelliVision does one of two things for people:

1) Re kindles the love for the old games, and makes one wish they had a real one, as it is impossible to properly emulate those keypad controllers.

2) Frustrates the hell out of the uninitiated as these games are impossible to play (without the real controllers).

Some of the very best games seem IMPOSSIBLE to play emulated. IMPOSSIBLE I say!!

Utopia--- good luck
TRON Deadly Discs- pffft yeah right
Major league baseball - nuh huh.

Emulated Inty will make you either wonder what it's like to actually be able to play those games, or convince you that IntelliVision games must be unplayable.

They are playable. Very Playable. I need to play some Deadly Discs tonight...

[AB Positive]

I've been curious about this myself, I've had an INTV but damn if that controller wouldn't frustrate the hell out of me.

Is Burgertime or it's INTV only sequel on the disc? that could be a deal breaker right there.

-AG

[Lady Jaye]

If it's like the PC game, there isn't any licensed games on the Intellivision Lives compilation. Which means no Tron, no BurgerTime or Diner, no D&D.

[IntvGene]

Yea, I agree with what Omnedon said... and found that this collection tends to frustrate those who haven't played the real thing before.

It's tough to compare to Activision Anthology... mainly because our issues do not involve the reproduction of the graphics, but actually the reproduction of the hyper-advanced 16-way controller at the time. Instead, an onscreen image of the joypad appears, allowing you to press the keypad buttons that are not available on the modern jostick. So, imagine trying to play H.E.R.O and having to use an onscreen menu to drop some dynamite, and you should get an idea what we are talking about.

But, The Intellivision Experience INCLUDES the controller, that's part of the magic! So, my advice would be the opposite. Try an Intellivision... a REAL one. If you don't enjoy at least some of the classics, then don't bother. But, this disc is nice for getting some of the rarer games, and gives you the convenience of playing them on the PS2/XBox.

@AdamG: Like Lady Jaye said, I think that neither Diner or Burgertime is on the disc, as far as I can recall (licensing issues). That is possibly the second complaint of the Intellivision Lives collection: the selection of games omits many great classics.

[ubersaurus]

There aren't any licensed games on the disc.

I suggest waiting to see how hte Xbox one turns out before you make the purchase. The INTV one has some control issues, as for some reason, they didn't emulate the 16 directions, just 8 of em. That makes games like vectron impossible.

Anyhow, my exposure to the intellivision happened late, but I can tell they've got some really nicely made titles on that platform. Imagic's games, Burgertime, Diner, Thin Ice, Astrosmash, and the sweet version of Beamrider are definitely worth noting.

[Flack]

Imagine your favorite arcade game that used a unique controller -- 720, Paperboy, Star Wars, whatever. Now think of how frustrating it is to play that game on an emulator with either a joystick or a keyboard.

That's how playing any Intellivision game on something besides an Intellivision feels to me.

[bargora]

Imagine your favorite arcade game that used a unique controller -- 720, Paperboy, Star Wars, whatever. Now think of how frustrating it is to play that game on an emulator with either a joystick or a keyboard.

That's how playing any Intellivision game on something besides an Intellivision feels to me.

Ah, the "Spy Hunter Syndrome". I can see the difficulty.

[Darth Sensei]

I never had any contact with the Intellivision as a kid. I played the PS2 compliation and had about 10 minutes of fun playing the games, but that was about it. I'd rent it, but not buy it.

D

[Retsudo]

I bought my real Intellivision back in 1981, played it up too 1983, and never played it since. I dont think I would get any enjoyment out of playing it now. The 2 games I have for it are Venture and Donkey Kong. I remember Dk on the Intellivision was horrible(IMHO) Plus I dont think I could play with that number pad controller after using a D-Pad after all these years. So no Intellivion Lives for me.

[Nature Boy]

I picked up INTV Lives because I enjoyed AA so much. But, like you, I wasn't really an INTV kid back in the day.

My thoughts on INTV Lives: For the price it was okay, but it didn't get played *nearly* as much. And mostly because of the control issues. I don't regret the purchase though.

[digitalpress]

I bought my real Intellivision back in 1981, played it up too 1983, and never played it since. I dont think I would get any enjoyment out of playing it now. The 2 games I have for it are Venture and Donkey Kong. I remember Dk on the Intellivision was horrible(IMHO) Plus I dont think I could play with that number pad controller after using a D-Pad after all these years. So no Intellivion Lives for me.

Venture. And... D-D-Donkey Kong?!!!

I'm not sure how you ended up with the two worst games ever produced on the Intellivision but you managed it! OK you don't have Empire Strikes Back for the Trifecta, there's your next project!

I didn't hate the Intellivision Lives compilation as much as I hated the PSX version. SOME of the issues have since been addressed and at least the graphics are very close to the original, MOST of the sounds are as well. They also attempted (somewhat successfully) to replicate the numeric keyboard on the right thumbstick. The directions are screwy though, you can tell that you're not getting the fully emulated Intellivision controller.

The games range from pretty bad to damn near perfect. Night Stalker is a blast, as was Space Hawk, Star Strike, Astrosmash... most of the games you'd think due to their simple controller set-up *should* play well. They're good. Other titles, like Football, Sub Hunt... the ones where the keypad is very important, not so good.

For the price it's a nice set. They cheat a little with the "60 games" claim because a number of them are split from their original cart. Why split Math Fun, Word Fun, Triple Action up into individual games is beyond me. There are also a few protos in there, in case you haven't done the emulation thing this may seem pretty interesting.

Extras, not many. There are some commercials to be unlocked, though we never quite figured out which tasks unlock which commercials. I don't recall exactly but for example meeting the scoring requirement in Astrosmash opened up a commercial in one of the other sections, like the sports area.

If you grew up with Intellivision as I did, you'll also pick out a few issues, particularly with certain sound effects. Some of them are just not done right, and you never forget those sounds and you'll know right away which ones are wrong. There aren't too many of them but they are there.

For $20, I'd recommend it.

[Retsudo]

I bought my real Intellivision back in 1981, played it up too 1983, and never played it since. I dont think I would get any enjoyment out of playing it now. The 2 games I have for it are Venture and Donkey Kong. I remember Dk on the Intellivision was horrible(IMHO) Plus I dont think I could play with that number pad controller after using a D-Pad after all these years. So no Intellivion Lives for me.

Venture. And... D-D-Donkey Kong?!!!

I'm not sure how you ended up with the two worst games ever produced on the Intellivision but you managed it!

I think the reason I chose DK back then because it was popular in the arcades back then. As for Venture, I dont know I did have a Zaxxon and Poker and Blackjack to, but I dont know what happen too them Poker and Blackjack wasnt bad, but Zaxxon didnt look nothing like the arcade version. I did play Zaxxon the most anyway

[Lady Jaye]

I own Intellivision Lives! and Intellivision Rocks! for Mac/PC. Since there simply isn't any controller that replicates keypad controllers of that era (be it the INTV's or the coleco's controller), I suppose that a computer keyboard is the next best thing, even though the numbers are reversed compared to the original keypad (a factor that the Blue Sky Rangers took into consideration when making the PC compilations, fortunately). What more, it's possible to print out the overlays and put them over the keypad.

My only qualm with that compilation: there should have been a separate section for the advertisement campaign, allowing us to access easily to the George Plimpton print and TV ads, for instance.

A couple of months ago, I got myself an Intellivision II with several carts, so I can play all these licensed games missing from the PC compilations. I now have carts of Burgertime, Diner, Astrosmash, Tron Deadly Discs, and the two released D&D games.

[Captain Wrong]

Here's the perspective from someone who didn't own an INTV until 2000...

The biggest problem is, the INTV just hasn't aged as well as the 2600. INTV's big selling point was all those sports games and, unless you had them the first time around, are you really going to want to play 20+ year old sports games? Not to mention try finding someone else to play with you, as most of them require two players.

As has been mentioned, none of the licensed games are on this comp, so you're missing out on most of the best non-sports games (Tron, BurgerTime, Lock n Chase, etc.) Of what's left, I can think of three that are actually playable and worth playing, Snafu, Night Stalker, and Astrosmash. Even then, the controll is very sluggish.

The emulation is better than the PSX rev, but that's like saying not getting punched in the face is better than getting punched in the face. The audio and video is close enough. It's just the controls are sluggish for all games. They did a better job of mapping the keypad, but the directioins aren't right (as has been noted).

Really, I'd say pass. If you're really curious about the INTV, take your $20 and put it towards the real deal with some of the better games. Even then, I'd say you could skip that and still live a full life. (Not that the INTV sucks, it's just a "excellent for it's time" console that just doesn't hold up today, IMHO.)

[davidbrit2]

This collection is almost worth it just to hear the freaking awesome music in Snafu. But the 8 direction control issue is unforgivable. Vectron is actually impossible to play, because you can't hit certain areas, and the cursor just gets stuck because of this.

[omnedon]

I think the Intellivision holds up just as well as the 2600 does, Thank You very much! It lacks the insanely large library, but when a system has the very first real time strategy game ever on it (Utopia), I take exception to saying it doesn't stand up to the VCS in logevity.

Show me an RTS on the 2600?

[AB Positive]

Now here's a question, is there ANY way to modify/change controllers on the INTV? I actually do like some of the games on there, but damn if the disk-o-doom doesn't kill any chance of enjoying the damn thing.


I'm a early nineties arcade kid. 16-way discs don't do it for me

-AG